Yoga Brings Calm and Connection to Youth at Jane Edna Hunter Center
Hope and Healing Stories
When Michael enters the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services Center, he never knows what he might encounter. Children, from infants to 17-year-olds, are dropped off at all hours of the day and night. It is a space for them to land until they are returned to their family, placed with a foster family or in a residential treatment center. They are there to rest, regroup and receive services in the interim. In this setting, it is rare for Michael to offer yoga to the same child twice.
Michael gets cleared upon entry and taken to the “yoga space”. The room may be filled with the chaotic energy or the quiet of a few youth awaiting placement.
This story is about Miguel, a 17-year-old boy who said he has “taken yoga” and liked it because it “helped him feel calm.” On this day, he is the only child in the room. After settling him in a relaxed position on his back, Michael begins to speak softly, asking him a few questions about himself…what he likes to eat, how old he is, and what he likes to study at school. Does he have brothers or sisters? As he relaxes, Michael asks him to lie down on his yoga mat. He leads him through a short guided meditation and body-sensing practice that is designed to help Miguel connect to his body and his breath.
Michael offers a Metta or LovingKindness meditation practice. He asks Miguel to picture himself both offering kindness to others and being showered with love himself. “Do you notice any parts of you that need more space, more breath? Can you breathe into your heart space,” Michael offers.
Some of the tension seems to leave Miguel’s body, and Michael asks, “If you were breathing into your heart chakra, what color might that look like? Do you know the chakras?”
Miguel pauses and responds, “No, but I think it would be green”. Indeed, the heart chakra color is often represented as green in yogic tradition.
Michael responds, “You are very intuitive, and I think are an advanced yogi.” Miguel smiles, his first of the session.
As the yoga continues and movement is introduced, a thread of connection develops between the two. Building trust, offering options, and creating a safe space to explore is something Michael offers as a trauma-informed yoga teacher. He even sprinkles in a few yogic principles: How to create mindfulness using breath and movement, and how to support the “chitta” or fluctuations of thoughts and emotions using yoga.
This beautiful session closes with a peaceful Savasana (resting pose) and a Sanskrit mantra. Michael offers, “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu”. Miguel repeats it, word for word. Michael asks, “Do you know what this means? It means, May All Beings Everywhere Be Happy and Free.” He reminds Miguel, “You can practice these things anytime you need them.”
Michael may never see Miquel again, but there is hope that Miguel will remember this session and lean into that memory in the weeks and months to come.
These are our teachers. THIS is Hope in Balance Yoga at Fostering Hope.