Yoga is a mental, spiritual, and physical practice that originated from ancient India, and is now popular worldwide due to the health and relaxation benefits associated with regular participation. Those of us from the Northern Rivers are no strangers to the idea of yoga, with its benefits having been readily adopted by many members of this rainbow community. Luckily for us, there are a wide variety of yoga programs within our reach, with a practice for everyone.
An innovative Indigenous yoga resource has been distributed at the Murwillumbah Community Centre (MCC) since 2020 – the Bunyarabugalma (to make well – make healthy) DVD. Created by Aboriginal Elders and cultural facilitators of the Guyahyn Aboriginal Playgroup and the Kids Caring For Country after school program at the MCC, the Bunyarabugalma program incorporates traditional yogic philosophies with Bundjalung culture.
Regular yoga practice has many benefits, especially for younger children. However, as yoga originates from India, the poses and stories often include animals that are not native to Australia, for example, tigers.
Bunyarabugalma involves therapeutic breathing incorporated with traditional dance postures, and the Bundjalung words for that animal or landform.
Lara Lei, the local Indigenous programs coordinator, wanted to utilise the positive impacts of yoga, whilst teaching local children and their families how to stay connected to Country.
All of the movements have modified versions that allow older or disabled participants to take part in an Aboriginal-led program that prioritises the wellbeing and culture of First Nations people.
The most commonly practised yoga styles in the West are Hatha and Vinyasa yoga, which most of us in this region will have heard of, seen, or participated in. Hatha yoga involves slowly and deliberately moving your body into different poses, whilst mindfully focusing on the breath, where Vinyasa yoga connects the breath to movement at a faster pace, in a constant flow. But there are many different styles of yoga that can also be found throughout the Northern Rivers and beyond.
For example, Raman Das, of the YATAN Holistic Ayurvedic Centre in Sydney, regularly travels to Byron Bay and Townsville to teach his own YATAN Yoga, a ‘uniquely integrated system of health care which combines traditional yogic techniques with modern scientific knowledge’.
YATAN Yoga involves more than just postures and pranayama (breathing techniques), and teaches meditation, diet, lifestyle choices and tantric philosophies.
Numerous yoga centres offer yoga alongside other exercise and health therapies; BodyMindLife’s Byron Bay studio offers yoga and pilates, with access to a sauna, and Byron’s Bodyhealz Recovery Studio takes this even further, with ‘yoga-inspired exercise-based physiotherapy’, sauna use, hydroxytherapy, massage and pilates.
Mind as well as body
Yoga can also make great progress in healing the mind, with many yoga centres in the region now offering yoga from a trauma-sensitive perspective.
Nourished Soul Now, in Mullumbimby, offers yoga sessions that work to heal and soothe the nervous system, through gentle movement, breath awareness and meditation.
The Yoga for Resilience program is specifically designed to ‘increase the wellbeing of those who are living with stress, anxiety, depression or trauma’.
Further afield, trauma-informed yoga has had success with some of the most marginalised members of the community; prisoners. The Yoga on the Inside program delivers yoga across nine Australian correctional facilities. The Townsville Women’s Correctional Centre is just one of the facilities that has access to classes that are designed to assist ‘people who are experiencing (or have experienced) significant difficulties within their lives’.
Yoga on the Inside has also delivered programs to youth centres and domestic violence victims. The benefits for the incarcerated that undertake these programs is beginning to be realised, with anecdotally calmer temperaments amongst inmates that practise yoga.
A US study (albeit undertaken by the Yoga Behind Bars project itself) indicated that only eight per cent of individuals who took four or more yoga classes reoffended, compared to the national recidivism rates of 60 per cent – this work could ultimately reduce the cost to society, as there would be less people in incarceration.
As the many programs available in the Northern Rivers and beyond prove, there is a form of yoga available for everyone.
The science-based benefits of yoga: improved flexibility; stress relief; more balanced mental health; reduced inflammation; increased strength, self-esteem, brain functioning, sleep, balance, and immunity, can be accessed by anyone in this wellbeing-centric region, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, medical conditions, past life experiences, and so forth.
Shall we unleash our inner yogi?
Adel Pheloung
