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DEEP-HEALING YOGA W


Release Trauma, Build Resilience by Sarah Todd


hen a woman separated from her husband last fall, she tried hard to shut down her emo-


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tions. A 30-year-old working mother of two young boys, she felt she couldn’t af- ford to be sad or angry, even as she con- templated divorce. But something shifted when she began taking yoga classes in her town in northern Michigan. “It was my one place to relax and let go,” says Emily, who asked that her real name stay private. “I used to go to class, get into a deep stretch and cry. It was like my muscles were connected with my heart. My instructor would warn us that certain poses would provide emotional releases, and sure enough, the tears would fall.” People suffering disruptive changes —from losing a loved one to coping with unemployment or striving for sobriety— often find yoga to be a healing force. Lola Remy, of yogaHOPE, a Boston and Se- attle nonprofit that helps women navigate challenging transitions, attests that yoga makes them feel safe enough in their bodies to process difficult emotions. “The goal isn’t to make stressors


go away, it’s to learn resilience,” Remy explains. “Irreparable harm isn’t neces- sarily the only result of experiencing stress. Even if I’m in a challenging posi- tion—like wobbling in the tree pose—I can see that I’m still okay.” The object


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is to teach women that their bodies are strong and capable, giving them more confidence in their ability to weather obstacles off the mat.


Supporting Science Research suggests that yoga can also be an effective therapy for people affected by some forms of severe traumatic stress. A study in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences that scanned the brains of trauma survivors after a reminder of the traumatic event revealed decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that helps make sense of raw emotions and bodily experiences. While shutting down the connec- tion between body and mind can help in coping with dangerous experiences, it also makes recovery difficult. “You need to have a high-functioning pre- frontal cortex to organize the thoughts that come up and know that you’re safe in the present moment,” advises David Emerson, director of yoga services at the Trauma Center, in Brookline, Mas- sachusetts. “Otherwise, you’re assaulted by memory sensory information.” Yoga appears to rewire the brains


of trauma survivors to stop reliving past distress. “You can’t talk your prefrontal cortex into functioning well again,” Em-


healingways


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