218 • PART III: YOGA FOR EDUCATING FOR SELF-REGULATION AND ENGAGEMENT
assure students that they are 100% physically safe, Olson (2014) reinforces that we can, and
should, create a school culture within which students and staff feel safe enough for learning
to occur.
Teaching from a trauma-informed, yoga-based perspective, school personnel can help
students learn how to expand competencies and feel safe within their growth zones. Yoga
provides tools that allow students to connect through mindful embodiment (see Chapter 3,
principles 1–4, mindful embodiment). Next, with awareness and presence, students practice
tools such as inquiry, choice, self-determination, and sustainability (see Chapter 3, prin-
ciples 6–9, embodied self-regulation). Last, in their growth zones, students work toward
developing new competences and tolerances for distress as they practice compassion, kind-
ness, and possibility (see Chapter 3, principles 10–12, mindful development). The tools for
mindfulness and yoga-based teaching are effective for working with students who have
experienced trauma because they help students develop mindful grit and the tools for
mindful growing (see Chapter 3). Further, I encourage you to have a school-wide trauma
training program and to attend trainings through conferences teaching mindfulness and
yoga to youth in a trauma-sensitive manner.
In yoga practice, students notice that all things (e.g., thoughts, memories, triggers, sense
impressions, situations, impulses, and cravings) arise in intensity, eventually decrease in
intensity, and then pass away (Cook-Cottone, 2015). You also learn that you have a choice
to either notice, attach, or avoid these things. B. K. S. Iyengar (1966) is often quoted as say-
ing, “The pose begins the moment that you want to leave it.” What is so powerful about
yoga practice is that individuals can live the moments of triggers, intense emotional states,
and urges and be in a practice of experiencing and breathing into them. Nakazawaw (2015)
puts it this way, “Mending the body [by] moving the body” (p. 177). Emphasizing choice,
self-determination, and sustainability (i.e., balancing effort and rest), students can practice
moving in and out of their growth zones (see Chapter 3). Growth is found in learning how
to try new things (e.g., yoga poses, math problems, or speaking in front of the class) and
practicing the mindfulness and yoga skills that you have to navigate feelings and anxieties.
There are some additional tips that you may also find helpful when working to be trauma
sensitive:
- Provide a safe, stable, and predicable environment (Childress & Harper, 2015; Emerson &
Hopper, 2011).
Outside of the Safety
Zone
Growth Zone
(Still Safe-
Not Comfortable)Comfort
ZoneFIGURE 10.3 The growth zone.
Source: Adapted from http://www.yogisinservice.org.