“When relationships are integrative, the brain becomes integrated. This may sound too simple, but every bit of evidence suggests that it’s true. In other words, healthy relationships stimulate the growth of integrative fibers.” according to Dr. Daniel Siegel.

Our yoga programs also keep into account the fight-flight-freeze-collapse response in people suffering from P.T.S.D.

I rap with Anneke Lucas  about:

• What trauma-conscious Yoga is and how it helps sufferers of painful, damaging events
• The role of inner power dynamics
• Why teaching Yoga doesn’t have to involve verbal commands

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• See how trauma-conscious Yoga helps people navigate the issues of incarceration, and how anger, frustration, and depression are natural parts of the healing process
• Understand the ways in which intense trauma can transform into intense healing

Links:

• Languaging
• Liberation Prison Yoga
• Anneke’s TEDx Talk
• Visit Anneke on Facebook
• LPY Twitter
• LPY Instagram
• Have a Conversation

Show Highlights:

• 5:50 — Many survivors of trauma have spent much of their lives in fight or flight mode. This isn’t a true indicator of who they are, just how their brains have been forced to work.
• 8:45 — Trauma is all too infrequently addressed in Yoga teacher training, and trauma-conscious Yoga often requires complete retraining. There are no commands used at all in the language of these Yoga sessions. Students start in a circle and have a conversation to connect from their hearts before doing poses.
• 15:00 — We’re living in an inherently traumatic world where the people at the bottom — prisoners, those living in poverty — are carrying the biggest burden of pain for everyone else. But the more trauma a person has, the more inclined they are to not feel those painful feelings.
• 21:05 — Liberation Prison Yoga doesn’t focus on accountability like most programs do — it’s the last thing LPY looks at. Instead, the focus is on helping people get in touch with their pure, light, true nature. Guided meditation plays a huge role in this by helping people move beyond their physical experiences.
• 31:30 — Working through trauma requires going back to the origin and feeling the feelings of shock, disbelief, anger, and disgust. It’s physically taxing. The experience lands in the heart and causes pain and grief, but that’s where wisdom comes from.

Favorite Quotes:

• “The people who look too good to be true in the beginning — the reality of them is the worst.” – Anneke Lucas
• “When I discovered Yoga, I knew that it was very important as a healing modality.” – Anneke Lucas
• “Our genuine desire to be present is felt right away.” – Anneke Lucas
• “We all have trauma. We live in a paradigm that is inherently traumatic.” – Anneke Lucas
• “We focus on the person as a whole because we all were born that way. We all were born pure.” – Anneke Lucas
• “We all have feelings that are frozen.” – Anneke Lucas
• “From pain and grief comes the prize: the wisdom.” – Anneke Lucas<

BIO:

Anneke Lucas founded Liberation Prison Yoga in 2014. As a survivor of child sex trafficking and extreme violence, she used elements of her own healing journey to develop programs based on how she would have wished to be treated in her young adult life. A close analysis of those people who were able to get through to her when she was shut down by trauma forms the cornerstone of LPY’s philosophy – for Liberation teachers to become those people; aware and unconditionally present for their students.

Anneke is an advocate for sex trafficking survivors. She started a petition for a bill to mandate trafficking awareness training for hotel and motel staff, as well for hotels to post signs with the National Trafficking Hotline in the lobby. Anneke is also a public speaker. She is writing a book about her healing journey, Seeds Beneath the Snow: Post Traumatic Growth and Purpose in Dark Times represented by Sam Hiyate at The Rights Factory.