Book Review: The Power of Trauma Informed Yoga
Recently, I realized I needed to start reading again—there’s something about writing truths I haven’t fully embodied in a while that pushes me to do better. I’ve also been neglecting several books I’ve collected over the years, all relevant to this blog. 😅 I decided to begin with The Power of Trauma-Informed Yoga by Sue Berman. Friends, this is *the* book I wish had existed when I began my healing journey. It’s so well-crafted that it inspired me to start reviewing books on this here blog. I truly believe anyone on a self-help or healing journey can benefit from the wisdom Berman expertly weaves through her anecdotes and insights as both a trauma-informed yoga instructor and someone who has personally benefited from the practice.
Berman begins by ensuring readers have a solid framework for discussing trauma, emphasizing the importance of a shared vocabulary for this sensitive and multifaceted topic. I anticipated these early chapters would be dry, as I’m not a patient reader and don’t love revisiting familiar concepts. However, Berman presents the material in a clear, concise way that makes it easy to follow, even if you're already familiar with the subject. I appreciate the thorough explanation of trauma, including the various ways it manifests, along with insightful tips on managing triggers. I also appreciate the stories she weaves into the book to underscore the humanness of trauma.
Once we’re all sharing the same language, Berman shares her personal journey with trauma, healing, and the power of trauma-informed yoga before explaining what trauma-informed yoga is. I don’t want to spoil her powerful story, not even a little for the sake of explanation, but I will say that I believe the trauma she describes is less common than what we usually see discussed in these spaces. Once again, she lays out the information clearly and concisely. Berman even provides a helpful chart differentiating between “traditional yoga” and trauma-informed yoga. I put "traditional yoga" in quotes because when we say traditional yoga in the West, we’re often referring to a type of yoga that is actually the most modern form and I’m not *actually* sure which she means, but I digress. She goes on to further explain how specific aspects of yoga help alleviate different aspects of trauma. There is even an entire chapter dedicated to breath!
Sue Berman spends the rest of the book offering tips on setting up safe spaces to practice, highlighting the importance of being mindful and compassionate to ourselves and others. Additionally, Berman offers several asanas (or postures) and how to cue them, making this book a helpful resource for both individuals interested in practicing on their own and those already working in the field who may want to offer trauma-informed yoga themselves. Overall, I think Berman has done an excellent job of providing a solid starting point for anyone who has experienced trauma and is interested in yoga but doesn’t know where to begin. This book truly illustrates, as its title suggests, The Power of Trauma-Informed Yoga.
10/10 - Do recommend
Read this book, and love yourself better,
Mia Marie
Walking in Alignment: My Journey of Authentic Living
I'm someone who walks in alignment. I allow myself to follow compassion, love, truth, and intuition. Moving this way certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. The framework that currently feels most comfortable to further illustrate what I mean by alignment is the concept of the higher self. You can call it God, Spirit, Allah, Source, Creator, Universe, Gaia, Shiva, the Divine, etc. What I’ve come to understand is all of these are different ways humans have come up with to explain things that are known and felt but not yet understood. I also believe that someday quantum physics will be the most commonly accepted framework to explain these felt energies that people seek to put labels on. We are so attached to our labels. One should consider the choice to follow compassion, love, truth, and intuition as a practice, things that come easier the more we exercise them. Be gentle with yourself if you choose to embark on this path of alignment. You will make mistakes; you will be called into spaces you have never navigated to test your commitment to your path.
The Practice of Alignment
Living my life in alignment has me moving through life in ways that make me chronically misunderstood and underestimated—at best—and chronically hated at worst. My life doesn’t make sense to the average person and is terrifying to live at times. By living my life in alignment, I find myself in uncomfortable spaces, doing uncomfortable things, and making people uncomfortable. I’ve made a habit of embracing uncomfortable things like change, surrender, rejection, failure, and burning the occasional bridge—if it leads nowhere good. Unhealed versions of me would stay in relationships (super broad definition) much longer than necessary because I didn’t understand what I was bringing to the table. I was easily manipulated. I still have a tendency to allow myself to be manipulated—at least for a time, while it’s mutually beneficial. That is not to say that I see that manipulation and allow it consciously, mind you. I’m what’s called clairsentient in the spiritual community. In the field of psychology, it might be chalked up to C-PTSD pattern recognition. I know things I have no business knowing, but only when the time is right.
Understanding Manipulation and Clairsentience
Sometimes clairsentience looks like peeping such things as: this person is abusive, this person has childhood trauma preventing them from acting like an adult, this person gets off on hurting people, that person cheats on their wife, this person tries to do the right thing but is stuck in normalized cycles of toxicity, etc. The most relatable way I can explain it is in the context of workplace toxicity. We’ve all experienced it. If you have worked in corporate structures, you’ve seen it. It can look like incompetent leaders, malicious leaders, and those that are good at faking empathy because they understand that you catch more flies with honey. The latter is often found at the top, pulling the strings of the incompetent and malicious. Incompetent leaders are a danger, and I personally will not submit to someone who lacks emotional or traditional intelligence. I’ll dig deeper into the intricacies of leadership styles and ways leaders abuse their power another time, though. Today’s focus is on moving in these environments when you prioritize personal alignment.
Navigating Workplace Toxicity
Moving in alignment when you have to work to eat is difficult. This difficulty is a feature, not a bug. Just as access to healthy food and healthcare are gatekept, so is our access to life-changing knowledge that is slandered as “woo-woo.” That is not to say that all “woo-woo” is good—there are abuses of power within the spiritual spaces, too. Anytime someone tells us, “Look at me—I have all the answers,” or creates an environment where questioning “authority” is met with indifference at best or punishment at worst, we should be aware that there is high potential for abuse. Unfortunately, our society has normalized such spaces, making it hard for those of us that go against the grain, no matter how hard we try to blend in, to exist. See, because I live in alignment, I find abuses of power to be a personal offense. This is, of course, a me problem, or so I’ve been told by folks in positions of power that could change the paradigm but instead choose to uphold anti-human values.
The Cost and Reward of Alignment
I understand that there are different leadership styles; I personally can survive under a variety of them, and I am good at a few of them myself. What I can’t do is submit to people who use their position to bolster their ego. Your little middle management job doesn’t impress me when I know you beat your girlfriend, cheat on your wife, emotionally abuse your children, abuse drugs to mask unresolved trauma, or otherwise abuse people who look to you for leadership—try again. Your little title that means so much to you means absolutely nothing to someone who walks in alignment when you are abusing your power.
As such, I have found myself in professionally damaging situations over and over again. I don’t make my moves in the “correct” way, but things always work out for me. I think I might be considered somewhat of a rebel and whistleblower. I refuse to back down when a leader lacks basic skills, whether that is something like basic respect for ALL people or something more practical like at least as much knowledge about the task or project at hand as myself. I fall right in line for leaders that treat me like a person. I used to give 100% at work, but then a situation showed me that my 100% is not the same as other people's 100%. The combination of ADHD and C-PTSD made me super exploitable, and I always found myself working circles around my peers. That paradigm shifted for me when I walked out on a decent enough job over an incompetent manager that poorly abused his employees. I decided that from here on out—I give 70% at a job. This cost me a promotion recently, but it preserved my peace. Operating in an autocratic corporate structure with a bureaucratic leader that failed to see the value in a servant leadership style is, as I am writing this, my current struggle.
My next move is going to look insane to the co-workers I will leave behind soon. They will view me as weak and stupid, short-sighted. They will also experience a much higher turnover rate this year than they needed to. My GM thinks that scapegoating my previous manager as a reason I was passed over for a promotion I didn’t even really want is something he’s getting away with. My current manager, although I have no specific plans to continue a war with him, will eventually receive what he deserves, if his little coke habit doesn’t kill him first. I’m cursed with never being wrong about anybody I am not intimately involved with or people I grew up with. Sometimes I know it’s time to move on, and I’m just waiting on the next thing. Sometimes I get impatient and bulldoze my way through an obstacle, but I am always just fine.
Support your Journey
Living in alignment is a journey that, in my experience, requires support and guidance. As a wellness coach, I help individuals navigate the challenges of staying true to their values in a world that often demands conformity. Together, we develop strategies to thrive both personally and professionally. If you're feeling overwhelmed or unsure of your path, consider scheduling a wellness coaching session to start your journey towards a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Understanding the deeper energies at play in our lives can provide invaluable insights. Through self-improvement centered Tarot readings, I offer guidance to help uncover hidden truths and navigate your journey with greater clarity and confidence. These readings support personal growth and help align with your highest potential.
Book a free 30-minute coaching consultation or a Tarot reading here.
Conclusion
Living this way means that as much as I shake things up, I am always provided for. The universe puts people, opportunities, inspiration, and finances in my path when I live my authentic little life. I am always thankful for the lessons I learn in these seemingly negative paradigms; they are opportunities to grow and heal. I am also thankful for the paradigms that are put on my path as seemingly positive influences. The people that have the means and desire to help me out because who they are sees who I am. The places that healed parts of me that were broken. I’m also thankful for the validation I receive when I shake up negative paradigms and blow the whistle because I spent so much time not living my authenticity and instead trying to fit in. I would genuinely rather die than put myself into situations that thrive on manipulation and abuse.
With Love and Compassion,
Mia Marie
Beyond the Plate: Nourishing Your Inner Circle for Holistic Well-Being
Have you ever considered that the concept of "diet" extends beyond what we consume on our plates? Indeed, the idea that "you are what you eat" applies not only to food but also to: the music we listen to, the media we consume and the people we surround ourselves with. Just as we carefully choose the nutrients that fuel our bodies, we should be mindful of the influences that shape our minds and spirits. The first of these concepts that I personally focused on was the people I surround myself with.
Growing up, my mother often reminded me that we become like the five people we spend the most time with. While initially, this notion seemed unrelated to nutrition, it eventually became clear that our inner circle plays a significant role in our overall well-being. This is a concept that is spoken about as fact in psychology. Eventually I came to learn for myself that this is true: our inner circle helps shape us.
Think about it: the folks closest to us impact not only our actions but also our mindset and emotional state. If we are fed love, we learn to accept love. If we are fed fear, stress, anxiety, dysregulation and dysfunction we learn to accept fear, stress, anxiety, dysregulation and dysfunction. Just as a balanced diet nourishes our bodies (and our mental health), surrounding ourselves with positive, supportive, and uplifting people nourishes our souls. Some of us are lucky enough to have been born surrounded by people we want to be like, the rest of us have to carefully craft our circle - sometimes over decades. I was lucky enough to find at least one person that I resonated with everywhere we moved as I was growing up.
I vividly recall a friendship from my middle school years that taught me valuable lessons about emotional nourishment. This friend was unafraid to communicate her feelings and expectations, fostering a relationship built on honesty and accountability. In contrast to the toxic dynamics I witnessed at home, her friendship provided a nourishing environment where emotions were acknowledged and respected. While I very much loved and appreciated her in my life, we were torn apart by the experiences of the adults around us. I remain thankful that she was one of my five at an age where I was learning how to be a human. (And I am excited that we recently reconnected!) However, I found the most benefit in making sure one of them was me.
Nourishing our inner circle goes beyond choosing the right people, however —it also involves nurturing our relationship with ourselves. Just as we should pay attention to the quality of the food we consume, we must prioritize self-reflection and self-care. By including ourselves as one of the five people we spend the most time with, we recognize the importance of cultivating a healthy relationship with ourselves. Cultivating a healthy relationship with ourselves isn’t always easy or intuitive. If you have been diagnosed with CPTSD for instance, your brain likely makes this harder: sorting through the internal monologue that was never yours, unpacking the trauma (which, let’s be so fucking real - feels like reliving it), secretly - or not so secretly - hating yourself. All of which can manifest as poor diet, over-thinking, social anxiety, self-harm, poor self-talk, feeling lost, broken and like you can’t trust yourself.
This self-awareness serves as the foundation for setting boundaries and discerning which influences to invite into our lives. I found that meeting myself where I was - consistently - and wading through the decay of my soul helped me fertilize the things within myself that I wanted to grow. Just as we strive to consume wholesome foods that nourish our bodies, we should surround ourselves with relationships and experiences that nurture our growth and well-being. If our relationship with ourselves is unhealthy we can’t expect to choose relationships that are healthy. Not just our relationships with people but: food, music, TV shows, celebrity influences, nature ect.
In essence, nourishing our inner circle is about recognizing that diet isn't just what we eat—it's also about the company we keep and the influences we allow into our lives. By choosing relationships that uplift, support, and inspire us, we empower ourselves to lead fulfilling and enriching lives. Word to the wise: you can start crafting a social media experience that does this for you.
So, the next time you consider your diet, remember that it encompasses more than just food. Take a closer look at the people you surround yourself with—are they nourishing your mind, body, and soul? Just as you carefully select the ingredients for a nutritious meal, choose your inner circle with intention and mindfulness. After all, true nourishment begins from within.
With Love and Compassion,
Mia Marie
