Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race Based Stress and Trauma by Gail Parker, Ph.D.
Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race Based Stress and Trauma by Gail Parker, Ph.D.
Our nation is experiencing extreme unrest in terms of racial strife and injustice. Many are seeing the impacts in the behaviors of our students. This resource may prove to be valuable in educator efforts to provide a safe space for students to heal and look to solutions.
Why I chose this resource: The majority of students in my school district live in poverty. Many have experienced trauma in their lives. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) was conducted in public high schools in my county, including my district, during the 2018-2019 school year and "the final sample closely reflects the gender and grade distribution of enrollment in public high schools" in the city of my residence. The demographic makeup is 44% Black, 35% Latino, 8% White, and 13% all other races. This survey revealed that ~10% of these students attempted suicide in the past year, and 33% felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities, in the past year. This year, I gave my own informal survey, asking about what positive changes or growth students wanted to experience this year and the overwhelming majority of them cited overcoming their short tempers and a desire to become more patient and productive individuals. Yoga has long been utilized as a means to access these parts of our human nature.
With racial tensions boiling over nationally, and the discovery (~ a month before the start of school) of a possible coverup involving the death of a Black man in our city at the hands of the police, I felt compelled to acknowledge that racial injustice and strife negatively impacts everyone- from perpetrators to recipients. Reading this book helped me to realize that a holistic approach to healing would be an appropriate way of engaging students this year. Conditions felt right for teaching breathwork, and some basic yogic philosophies to facilitate an exploration of coping mechanisms that would allow students to reach these goals, while easing them back into physical activities that were neglected over the summer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I teach a series of courses in Modern & Contemporary Dance including dance genres from throughout the world and African diaspora. Horton, Fagan, and Dunham techniques are my primary focus.
While my courses focus on dance, I have some leeway when it comes to teaching contemporary movement, and my classes have studied all types of movement and exercises including martial arts, Pilates and aerobics.
This year we began instruction fully online for the first time ever. Due a number of factors including spatial constraints, student requests and students' high stress levels, I opted to begin the year with a unit in Hatha, Vinyasa and Restorative Yoga. Yoga has been requested every year, but this summer was the first time I underwent Yoga teacher training. My father has instructed Iyengar, Hatha and Pranayama Yoga for years, but prior to this summer I had not received any official training in these practices. My instructional focus was on meditation and intention, breathwork and asana practice.
My students are comprised of middle and high schoolers who have a range of majors at our city's performing arts school. I serve general and special education students.
For each session, I set an intention that aligned with student challenges. At times they were physical, mental or emotional. I read selected texts from this resource, and sought student feedback and reflections. The book was a starting point for conversations, and for creation of lessons.
At the end of the unit, each student created a personalized yoga flow. They were provided a simple outline. Set an intention, practice breathwork (i.e.: Ujjayi, Sama Vritti, Nadi Shodhana), and select a minimum of five asanas to flow through. In class we always ended in a final resting pose, often but not always Savasana- corpse pose. Students were instructed to end in a posture that brought them a sense of release and peace.
If students were having a particularly challenging day- as determined by an informal poll at the start of class, I scrapped my plans for a Hatha or Vinyasa class and focused primarily or solely on restorative postures as outlined in the book and several other restorative yoga books I used.
The use of props was very helpful in allowing students to access or lay in certain postures. Students were pleasantly surprised at how everyday items could be incorporated into their practice- rolled up sweatpants became bolsters, and belts and head scarves became yoga straps.
Beginning each session with an intention and eventually inviting students to supply their own, was a nourishing process. It grounded us in our efforts, giving us an anchor to return to if at any point we felt overwhelmed. Students recorded their personalized flow in Flipgrid and I provided feedback on alignment, suggestions for enhancing their breathwork and overall encouragement. Many reported using the intention and breathwork to relieve stress and cultivate calm.
This was a large part of the purpose behind this unit and use of this resource- the ability to utilize what was acquired beyond my class- in their everyday lives.
Prior to the final 'assessment' students submitted two other Flipgrid videos in which they demonstrated Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar) A and B. This was done primarily to ensure that students had a proficient understanding of and ability to execute several well known yoga postures. Operating in ZOOM it is very challenging to guide and correct misalignment or sequencing. The Flipgrid submissions allowed me to give each student personalized attention that would not otherwise be possible.
For those interested in using this resource, I recommend that you research the Yamas and Niyamas (Chapter Six in the book), and in addition to reading this text, you may consider supplementing your research by reading additional texts, and preparing some guiding questions for dialogue that may arise. As pointed out in the text, "If you are not living the experience of racial wounding, the events I have described may be hard to believe and may seem unusual and unlikely, but that does not mean they are nonexistent."
Even if you are living this reality, these books help to frame the experiences in such a way that we can move forward appropriately acknowledging the pain of our students, while providing opportunities for healing and growth.
Yoga is a personal journey despite the fact that it has cultivated a global following. The journey is a discovery of Self. I do not recommend introducing this material as a religious or even a spiritual practice. Yoga is available and accessible to people of all backgrounds and faiths. People will cultivate their own practice using their own lens in life. However, I do recommend that you provide some simple guidelines to get them started. After students have developed some degree of comfort in a routine within your sessions together, begin to encourage them to contribute to the process and ultimately create their own.
Other texts that may support you in your preparation:
Skill in Action - Radicalizing your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World by Michelle Cassndra Johnson;
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander; and The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
Some challenges that I experienced were feeling pressure to have more active classes rather than restorative, and students desire to execute more challenging postures when they had not mastered more foundational postures. The majority of the classes in the unit were 'active' yoga rather than restorative postures. It was useful to remind students at the start of restorative sessions that sleep was not the goal, and that they were relaxing their bodies in part to open their hearts and minds.
Having a set flow with transitions through restorative postures is very beneficial to ensure a smooth class, and -especially if you are online- setting up props early on in the unit will make the process less disruptive when you'd like students to utilize them.
For the author of this incredible book, Gail Parker, Ph.D. I am grateful to have your wisdom in the form of this book as a resource; hopefully I will benefit from you more directly in the future. My only offering or suggestion pertains to the intersection of sexual trauma and racial trauma. Many black and brown youth are over-sexualized in both perception and treatment. 13% of females and 5% of males in the aforementioned YRBS study reported being forced to do something sexual. I would love to have had more guidance on broaching this topic. Clear descriptions of getting into and out of postures is provided in Chapter 8, and I would welcome your recommended verbiage on how to guide students into and out of what might be perceived as more 'compromising' postures with care and sensitivity to their experiences.
YRBS Survey Report- https://www.monroecounty.gov/files/health/DataReports/RCSD%20YRBS%202019%2010.19.pdf