Like a tale as old as time, some degree of trauma and pain is an inevitable fact of life. However, no matter if mental or physical, trauma affects the body.
“The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” (2015), authored by Boston-based psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., offers eye-opening insight on understanding traumatic stress and its impacts on the body.
The author dissects the impact of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders on physical well being.
Similar to van der Kolk’s work, Bold Yoga, LLC is utilizing the ancient practice of yoga to help rid much of the physical tension and upheaval that traumatic stress has caused in women and community members.
Charnal Chaney, a trauma informed yoga instructor and founder of Bold Yoga, LLC, and partners India Johnson and Amani Mamodesene (AM), emphasized the healing abilities of yoga and why the practice is so instrumental to restoring health.
“Us as women, we not only hold trauma in the body, but we hold it in our wombs. There are scientific studies that show that we hold trauma in our wombs up to 14 generations. So, the release of doing hip stretches, the somatic practices, dance, anything that requires you to move the hips where we [often] store our trauma definitely helps you release [it],” says Chaney.
“That’s why somatic yoga is really helpful for us in our community. When you look at our PTSD, our anxiety, it’s also the nervous system that is affected [by it].
“Anytime something traumatic happens, like a fight, a shooting, or anything of that nature, our nervous system is disrupted. And if that’s happening [chronically], that’s where PTSD comes from. Releasing those emotions is so helpful in general, to our mental health and well-being.”
Johnso calls yoga a way to reconnect with your body after it has gone through so many changes throughout [a pregnancy].
“It’s a way for you to come back to gratitude, and awareness for the new space you are in now, while also bringing you around other people,” she said.
“When you become a new mom, you’re going to be in the house most of the time. So, being able to come out and have that sense of community and some type of wellness activity is beneficial. I’ve seen it help mothers, and it was what helped me as well, helping me reconnect and be more of a present mother, myself.”
While the earliest mentions and practices of yoga appear in ancient India, some researchers and practitioners explore the possibility of Kemetic yoga, or ancient Egyptian yoga, as a precursor to modern yoga practices with roots in East Africa.
“People tie it so much to Hinduism because it’s practiced so heavily in India. But, if you actually trace that, even the roots of yoga, its earlier roots are in Africa, [specifically] East Africa.,” according to Amani Mamodesene.
With yoga, it’s so fascinating because some of these poses that have been passed down from generations, now store information in the specific posture that you’re in. [Similar to] African dance, sometimes your body just knows how to dance, because we have African dance, indigenous tribal dances, that are already stored in the information of your body from generations before,” she said.
“This new information that your body is restoring into the body is information of joy, information of love, information of peace that’s been passed on from generations before. So, allowing your body to move into that helps to override the fear, and the trauma that is stuck inside.”
She added that ““Yoga is for everybody. And nowadays, a lot of athletes are doing yoga because it helps ensure that they are stretching and preventing injury in their body.”
“Sometimes there is the stigma that yoga is a more feminine [practice], in our communities [seeing mostly] women [practice it]. But really, all my yoga teachers, everyone that I’ve learned from so far in yoga have been men.”
Chaney concurs, saying “It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. If you’ve never done it, you will be starting from square one. So, the more you do it, the more flexible you will become.”
Lindiwe Vilakazi is a health reporter and columnist for the Washington Informer