The Yoga Of Empowerment

It was not long ago that human beings were in touch with methods of how to educate and heal themselves and their communities. Today we have externalized such wisdom, and this fact, coupled with the hectic speed of life that has taken hold with technological advancement, contributes to a pervasive insecurity and alienation that some consider to be at the root of social and medical disease.

By Adam Skolnick

Photo by: www.imagekandi.com

Thankfully the science of yoga has never been more available. From this practice, we can dive into the internal silence that is the foundation of inner peace and wellness and emerge into our daily routines with our innate wisdom reaffirmed. In Southern California today, yoga students aged five to eighty living in areas as diverse as South Central and Westlake Village are learning to take control of their own futures through the practice of yoga.

Better Living Through Brain Chemistry Among six similar homes in a brand new, luxurious Malibu subdivision off Pacific Coast Highway, lies Passages residential treatment center. The sub-division lacks even the most basic vegetation that lends a neighborhood its permanence, but Passages is not a typical residence. It is a way-station, a welcome shelter in the middle of a raging storm, for those who have lost control of their lives due to addiction or eating disorders.

This shelter costs over $40,000 a month and is appointed with the details of luxury including marble floors, a well-stocked library, tennis courts, high definition televisions and a personal chef. The lifestyle is designed to complement one of the best medical treatment programs for addiction in the country, and part of the treatment process is a twice-weekly yoga class. Julie Carmen's class is in a guest room overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Indian music plays softly in the background as her students enter. The class is a diverse group: two young men in their early twenties, an oddly matched middle-aged couple that resemble a Cher-Sonny Bono pairing, a former ballplayer with thick glasses who jokes nervously and rubs his face compulsively and a silent, overweight woman in her late forties. Some are overcoming heroin and cocaine addiction, others have abused prescription drugs.

One student wasn't able to sleep the night before - a side effect from withdrawal. Another finishes a smoke before he calmly takes his place by the wall. Most of Carmen's students suffer from multiple disorders. In addition to drug addiction or eating disorders, many are bi-polar or suffer from severe anxiety due to sexual and domestic abuse. "forty percent of addicts have social phobia. They don't have a sense of self," says Carmen. "Yoga is a an opportunity to practice being with yourself, to calm the nervous system."

Carmen leads a gentle flow class to stimulate circulation of oxygen, blood, and the lymph system and aid the detox process. Standing poses are utilized to strengthen atrophied muscles, warrior poses develop a capacity to tolerate tension. She also guides them through stretches against the wall. This decreases any inhibitions they may carry about their own stiffness. "They can get comfortable and focus on themselves rather than compete," she says.

"Addiction is a result of an underlying illness marked by electrical patterns in the brain," says Dr. Hamlin Emory, Passages' Medical Director. "Yoga involves increasing a whole host of neuro-chemical reactions, because it increases blood flow," he says. "Increased blood flow to the brain increases voltage and certain frequencies during the practice and for a while afterward. A consistent regiment of exercise, like Julie's yoga class, can facilitate the portion of the work that I do. It is a complementary medical tool."

 

The Fight of a Lifetime

Yoga has become a valuable tool in the treatment of numerous diseases. No longer relying simply on chemotherapy and radiation, cancer patients are searching for ways to complement these harsh
regiments. JJ Green, a LA based cancer researcher since 1995, teaches yoga voluntarily at the Wellness Community in Westlake Village. Hers is an 8-week course developed by Jnani Chapman, a registered nurse, massage therapist and yoga instructor who teaches at UCSF medical school.

The class, based on the Integral Yoga teachings of Swami Satchidananda, meets once a week, is free of charge and is geared toward cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones. Her students range in age from 33 to 78. "Surgery, side effects from treatment and the disease itself disconnects most patients from their bodies," says Green. "My class provides an environment where they can unite their mind, body and emotions to re create a sense of balance in their lives." The entire class takes place in chairs or on the floor. "It is not an asana based course," she says.

"We teach the students to honor themselves. It's not about working hard, it's all about sukha, or ease." The students, who suffer from cancer of the breast, lung or bladder, sit in a circle, which lends a communal feel. Class begins with a body scan. Students are instructed to scan the physical, emotional and subtle energetic layers of the body. They focus on the location of tumors and surgical incisions, and connect to the emotional aspect of the healing process.

Pranayama and gentle movement is next. Simple twists, shoulder rolls and leg lifts are enough to produce release. Deep relaxation, imagery, meditation and mantra complete this holistic hatha yoga practice. A support circle is conducted at every class, where students share their experiences. One middle aged student says, "I had lung surgery [to remove cancer] and I came to yoga because I thought it would be beneficial for my breathing, and it has been."

A woman in her late 30s recovering from breast cancer enjoys the progressive relaxation technique that Green shares. "I feel my body relax immediately, it really calms me down." Green considers this sangha component of the class to be one its most powerful. Often cancer patients feel alone in the battle of a lifetime. "The opportunity to share is remarkably cleansing," she says.

 

Opening Doors

Yoga on the Inside Foundation, an LA-based non-profit, offers yoga as a self-healing tool in a variety of non-traditional settings across the country, including impoverished public schools, drug and alcohol treatment facilities, women's and children's centers, and juvenile and adult incarceration facilities. "Yoga on the Inside is about Karma Yoga," says founder Mark Stephens who also owns LA Yoga Center in Westwood. "All of our teachers are volunteers."

The foundation opened its doors in 1998 when Stephens began teaching at a probation camp for incarcerated teens in LA county. His young students connected to the hatha yoga practice as a way to control their anger and frustration. Stephens, a former employee of the LA County Department of Probation and himself once incarcerated as a teen, was inspired to further spread the seeds of yoga. He drafted a letter to yoga studios throughout the city to recruit teachers, and began scheduling yoga programs at continuation schools and juvenile detention facilities around Southern California.

Today Yoga on the Inside Foundation supports 869 teachers in over 196 alternative settings across the country, providing free teacher training workshops, all yoga props and necessary liability insurance. In addition to numerous facilities in the Los Angeles area, sponsored locations include Reikers Island Federal Prison in NYC and two women's shelters in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"I got into it for the women who are suffering," says Carol Haefner, Yoga on the Inside's Cincinnati-based teacher. She teaches at two facilities geared toward women who are coping with domestic abuse and sexual assault. Heafner knows the psychology of her students because she has been there herself. In her twenties she was in an abusive nrelationship and was raped in her thirties while in the midst of a second violent relationship. Haefner, 47, is only now feeling whole again.

Yoga was the tool that helped her re-cover herself. "I was living my life in extreme separation. I was isolated and alienated from other people," says Haefner. "The yoga tradition teaches that all disease and illness is a symptom of separation. It helps us remember and recognize our union with the divine which is always present."

Her classes focuses on standing poses because they have a grounding influence that help the women become centered. Backbends and forward bends are avoided because they put the practitioner in vulnerable positions, and often spark fear and anxiety. Haefner, trained in Integrative Yoga Therapy, believes her classes allow students, "to experience something that's their own and foster personal worth and self-esteem."

It is precisely this ability to empower people in need that has lead to a similar program at MacLaren's Children's Shelter in El Monte, made famous by the novel and film, White Oleander, and has motivated Yoga on the Inside to increase yoga's visibility in impoverished public schools. More than a dozen Southern California schools boast yoga programs thanks to Yoga on the Inside.

Yoga Ed The Yoga Education Network, another LA based non-profit, also recognizes the power inherent in teaching yoga to children, and they are working to bring yoga to all LAUSD students through a proposed mandatory yoga education program. With only one program to-date, they have a long way to go.

Tara Guber, the founder, envisions Yoga Ed as a way for students to realize their own inner-power. "Nobody can teach these kids self worth and self-esteem, they have to do that for themselves, and a regular yoga practice can help them get there". 18 months ago she hired Leah Kailish, the Yoga Education Network's Program Director. Together they have created a curriculum and won concessions from the LAUSD and the Aspen, Colorado school board to pilot a program they hope will be replicated in school systems throughout the nation. "Yoga offers tools to balance, integrate and manage yourself," says Kailish, "and for kids it makes so much sense because it's experiential."

Implementation of the 36-week comprehensive curriculum is currently underway at the Accelerated School, a K-8 charter school in South Central Los Angeles. The program is designed to demonstrate the link between mind, body and community. There are three units: Mind, Body, and Self. The lessons are geared toward specific age groups. In K-2 the classes are aimed to help the kids gain a physical awareness. Grades 3-5 are guided to develop a mental awareness and learn how the mind and body influence one another. Grades 6-8 are taught to examine the self in relation to the community. In each case the classes incorporate posture, games, partner poses, breath work, visualization, affirmations and relaxation. Marlene Canter, the School Board member representing District 4, sees yoga as integral to the future of education because it involves the development of what educators term 'habits of mind' "Yoga practice involves concentration, commitment, and perseverance," says Canter. "Students who are unable to access these 'habits of mind' won't be successful."

The Accelerated School has created their own yoga room equipped with a sound system, yoga mats and props, where students come twice weekly to take yoga from a full-time instructor and teaching assistant employed by the school. The curriculum, considered physical education, incorporates language, science and social studies lessons. For instance, first graders are told to yell out their vowels as they flow through a sun salutation vinyasa. Postures can be linked to animals that they study or even astronomy lessons. With 20 first graders giggling as they move into navasana, Georgina their teacher asks, "What do you need to use to keep your balance?"

"Our belly buttons!" yells one 6 year-old boy. "That's right your center," says Georgina as she points to her own abdomen. The fourth graders who take Georgina's class are effusive when discussing why they like to come to yoga. "In class we're always working, and in yoga we get to relax and so I feel kinda better," says Henry.

Chaniay echoes his words, "Yoga helps me let all my stuff go so I can just relax and focus."

As the speed of modern life continues to intensify, it is the vulnerable populations, the sick and the young, that may suffer the most. Yoga is a tool of empowerment. And thanks to the thousands of yoga professionals who dedicate their lives to spreading these valuable ancient tools "the prevalence of yoga is building to a tipping point," says Kailish, "and soon it will be everywhere." Imagine a society where the majority of us connect to the concept that the quality of breath affects thoughts and actions, and ultimately, the future.

Adam Skolnick is a freelance journalist and screenwriter based in LA.