The human body stores a powerful organic and subconscious pharmacy.

Yoga activates it.

“We already know that the living body is the best pharmacy ever devised. It produces diuretics, painkillers, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, antibiotics, and indeed everything manufactured by the drug companies, but it makes them much, much better…”

~ Deepak Chopra, MD Quantum Healing

Let’s face it: We are all in recovery from something, whether we admit that to ourselves and others, or not.

If you are looking for an experience of freedom, strength, peace, self-acceptance, and growth— give Vinyasa a try.

Vinyasa Yoga (VY) is a series of physical movements with an emphasis on connecting breath and movement.

Stress is part of being alive. But some of us also experience chronic stress that accompanies trauma wounding, where the past diffuses or invades the present moment. Life stressors and trauma weaken our bodies and neurology presenting an impediment to a lighter, freer, and unburdened sense of self. VY clears the slate by going deep enough into the tissues to release stress and unconscious trauma-related tension that the body has been hanging on to all because it is trying to keep itself safe. When there has been trauma, the body needs help bringing the autonomic nervous nervous system (ANS) back into balance. As Nikki Myers (Yoga of 12 Step Recovery ) says: “The issues are in the tissues.” VY simply ignites the flow to help the release tension.

All forms of yoga and meditation increase second attention awareness. Second attention awareness is the awareness linked to presence, energy, and phenomena without any assignment of meaning, labels or thinking. Yoga develops second attention awareness because the movement of the body with the breath turns on the parasympathetic response and the ability to observe the present moment rather than get absorbed by it, as happens in a state of fear or chronic “fight-flight” patterns that accompany complex developmental trauma and single incident traumatic experiences.

The evidence base for the effectiveness of various styles of yoga in addressing trauma is extensive. Here are some resources for further reading: The Body Keeps The Score: Memory and Psychobiology of Post Traumatic Stress by Bessel van der Kolk, MD; Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hopper; The Trauma Toolkit: Healing PTSD From The Inside Out by Susan Pease Banitt; and Intelligence in The Flesh by Guy Claxton.

Of course, none of this is new. Modern Western medicine has simply devised methods to empirically validate what the science of ancient yoga knew all along. Assuming that the instructor is well-versed in and practices yoga’s eight-limb path, by its very nature and purpose, all yoga is trauma sensitive. Even so, many certified yoga instructors have had additional training in trauma sensitive yoga.

Free trauma sensitive yoga classes are offered locally both in-person and virtually through YOGA IN ACTION, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to therapeutic yoga for at-risk and vulnerable populations in the Seacoast community.

Globally, thousands of licensed mental health professionals (many of whom take health insurance), coaches and yoga instructors facilitate an empirically validated, clinical intervention for complex trauma or chronic, treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) developed at the Center for Trauma and Embodiment at the Justice Resource Institute. For a Trauma Center for Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) facilitator near you, go to Find a Facilitator .

If you haven’t already, why not give VY a try in 2023? It will lift you up — and who knows— you may even make some new friends. 💜

Check out the $10 Community Classes during the month of January at Exeter Power Yoga. The trainees teaching classes throughout the month are truly dedicated to the practice, and more importantly, “leading with love.” I will be teaching as a trainee, too, on Sunday, January 29, 2023 at noon. Sign up through the MindBody App (or bring $10 to class). Clear the slate. Come and get on your mat with us! 💜

Also: Hot Yoga for the Alleviation of Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, Yoga Nidra for Recovery (And Everything Else)