I had a fantastic week on the yoga therapy for child & adolescence mental health course last week. It was intense, emotional, but hugely rewarding. Learning more about this area of yoga therapy and its applications lead to a deeper understanding of not only the material we were learning about which included child development, neuroscience, trauma, nervous system regulation, yogic philosophy to name some, but it also gave me a deeper understanding of myself as a yoga therapist and this path that I am on. Each person on the course had such wisdom and knowledge to share and Michelle Fury, who was running it, held the space with such reverence and kindness, she was able to let us truly explore and discover this. We were encouraged to tap into what we already knew, our inner wisdom, in yoga this sometimes referred to as our vijnanamaya kosha. This gave us all the space to share and support each other and learn more beyond what was in the course material. She was an incredible teacher.
This is what Yoga Therapy can do, it truly has the potential to be transformational. Our bodies are a vessel of knowledge, emotion and feeling but often we become completely disconnected and get stuck in our minds. This is often a survival mechanism, especially if the feelings are too strong for us to cope with or too painful and as children we are primed for big emotions, but if we don’t learn how to regulate, understand and cope with them they can take over which can cause confusion, shame and suffering. As humans we have an innate ability to heal, understand and connect to a place of equanimity and peacefulness, we just need to be shown how sometimes.
We often talk about the simplicity of childhood and seeing through a child’s eyes. They are undoubtably more connected to their wisdom and truth than we are as adults. The burdens of daily life, distressing events, circumstances beyond our control can and do cloud our ability to connect to this, yet most of the time we are the ones calling the shots! So not just for our own sakes but for our children and the children we are come into contact with, having more awareness of our body, mind, emotions and knowing how to regulate and connect with our own innate sense of self, wellness and wisdom can have a huge impact on how we feel and how we connect with others.
“We know that a dysregulated adult cannot regulate a dysregulated child. An exhausted, frustrated, dys-regulated adult can’t regulate anybody.” Dr Bruce Perry