Hunger Is Not a Disease

Tara Sanders Teaches Trauma Sensitive Yoga

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Many people coming to a pantry or soup kitchen  have given up on their stories.  They’ve lost their voices.  With trauma-sensitive yoga classes, they have an opportunity to change the stories themselves.  They can add new chapters.

Tara Sanders, a Woodstock based yoga instructor, is the program director in the nonprofit Exhale to Inhale.

Exhale to Inhale yoga works to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to heal through yoga.  Exhale to Inhale yoga guides women through postures, breathing, and meditation.  Taught in trauma-sensitive style, practitioners are enabled to ground themselves in

their bodies

their strength

their stillness.

As this happens, they connect to themselves and work toward empowerment and worthiness.  This practice can be transformational for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence when they shed the cloak of victimhood.

This is extremely important for people working and shopping in pantries because many survivors of domestic and sexual violence are found in these communities. The influence of this trauma is great.  Add to this trauma another layer of

hunger,

unemployment,

underemployment,

homelessness,

serious illnesses to include mental illness

and you have a person who is finally voiceless.

Finally, the classes are free.  Many attending these classes have absolutely no money at all.

Healers and body workers have long known that when the body is traumatized, the event is stored in the muscles.

Tara teaches the classes without music.  She does not touch the students to correct a posture.  Lights remain on throughout the class.  These sessions offer survivors an opportunity to reclaim their lives through the healing and grounding of yoga.

Tara uses the yoga classes to help her students feel safe, strong, and in the present moment.  As she teaches, she is a conduit for healing, and healthful programs in our community.

Exhale to Inhale is a New York-based nonprofit offering free weekly yoga classes to survivors of domestic and sexual assault.  As an introduction to our area, Tara will teach free public yoga classes on Saturdays from 11 am to noon at the Center for Creative Education, 15 Railroad Ave, in Kingston.

After June 20, Exhale to Inhale yoga will be offered free of charge to women in area shelters.

http://www.exhaletoinhale.org

http://www.traumacenter.org

http://www.cce4me.org

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Thurman Greco