Lil Thoughts: Session 5 - Accessible Yoga Training

These thoughts are not endorsed by Accessible Yoga. I am sharing my personal thoughts that have arisen during classes. Any direct quotes from teachers in class will be clearly credited! Assume otherwise, that anything written here is my own interpretation.

Class 5: What Is Yoga?

Word count: 249

Reading Time: ~1min

• My role is to create an environment in which any person who does experience activation or a trauma trigger understands (and genuinely believes) that:

  • they will be offered anti-carceral care, compassion and support within the abilities & scope-of-practice of the teacher

  • their agency, autonomy & consent will prioritized

• My role is to expand the capacity of the practice space to move ever-closer to anti-carceral care, and to design the space in ways that activate compassion and support

• or otherwise my role is to:

  • make people aware of the absence of these conditions and encourage them to disengage from any activities or processes that may activate them too

  • provide clear ways to opt-in and opt-out of directions

  • actively create space for activated students so that, whenever possible, they can remain safely in the practice space while disengaged or while engaged in an alternative

• For many people who are traumatized (myself included), it is more transformative to experience compassionate care and welcoming support in response to a trigger—which may be an unfamiliar, yet welcome experience—than it is to never be triggered in the first place.

• Preventing triggers is beyond our capacity as teachers, but we should make caring for triggered people a part of our teaching skillset.

• I as the teacher am not in control of whether or not a student is triggered. Trauma operates in a way that one thing may be experienced as completely innocuous to one person and as dangerous to another.

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