Yoga and Mindfulness Benefits for Marginalized Communities

“As history and current times have revealed to us, the BIPOC community has had extreme levels of exposure to traumatic events, whether this be an ancestral, communal, or personal lived experience. The effects of these issues often lead to overly activating the nervous system. Therefore, the idea of relaxation often must be a learned concept.”-- Dr. Lakeisha Gatling

Being BIPOC, queer, financially unstable, etc. are all stressful forms of existence in our current society. 

As stated in the quote included in this post from trauma-sensitive psychotherapist Dr. Lakeisha Gatling, that kind of stress leads to negatively stimulating the nervous system which can have all kinds of health effects, let alone impact the quality of daily life.

This is where yoga and mindfulness come in, and part of why MCW was founded in the first place. Specifically, restorative and trauma-informed yoga are beneficial practices for people belonging to marginalized communities because the marginalized existence is a traumatizing one. These approaches can help to counteract the symptoms of trauma that the body and mind experience, and are approaches that we prioritize at MCW when guiding marginalized people into establishing their unique practice. 

If you would like to read more about this, the quote above is from the following article:

https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-for-marginalized-populations/