In a chaotic world, yoga class offers a place free from stress
By Megan Sperry
msdollface@gmail.com
The smell of incense filled the headquarters of Mothers on the Move on Intervale Avenue, as four women chanted “lokah samasthah sukhing bhavantu.” The words are Sanskrit. They mean: “May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering.”
What do Hunts Point moms sitting on coral- and turquoise-colored mats know about suffering? Everything, they say. They see it daily. “The air is not good and the pollution is bad,” says 18-year old Bronx native Crystal Guerra.
And what does the free yoga class that has brought them together have to do with their experience?
“Mothers need to know how to adequately deal with stress if they want to get ahead,” says Tanya Fields, who, along with Taleigh Smith, helped develop the idea to bring yoga to Hunts Point moms.
“Women need the ability to reflect and meditate to feel better mentally, emotionally and physically,” continued Fields, a neighborhood activist and mother of three.
With a goal of cementing sisterhood and creating a feeling of safety, the class has already forged connections. Fields wrote the grant that makes the class possible. Mothers on the Move donated its storefront for the classes. Another local organization, Sistas on the Rise, helps by hosting childcare and yoga classes for kids, which are taught while the mothers’ classes take place.
“I know what yoga does for me, and I wanted to be able to give that to brown and black women,” said Camellia Carter, who teaches the kids yoga classes. “It’s amazing to have access. They don’t need a lot of tools and it is something that they can take home with them.”
On a recent afternoon, as sun warmed their bodies through the windows that look out at the chaotic bustle on Intervale Ave., the adult participants worked through their movements. There were no kids running around, no phones ringing and no distractions.
The relaxing sounds of meditative music filled the room as instructor Laura Martinez made her rounds, correcting poses and postures while she encouraged the women to breathe deeply. Their faces glowed in the afternoon sun. Guerra says that at the end of every class she “feels energized, calmer with hope.”
After practicing yoga for two and a half years, Martinez decided to get certified as an instructor and received her certification from Sankalpah Yoga in Manhattan. Smith, a member of Mothers on the Move who is also active in the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, met Martinez through a friend of a friend and told her about plans for a yoga class.
“I always wanted to volunteer with a women’s organization or group and this seemed right,” Martinez said. “It seems like the women really are benefiting from the practice and love the safe environment,” she added.
Leslie Grant and her mother Delmonica are also among those who have attended the classes, which began in early February. The younger Grant, who has a five year old, enjoys making friends at each session, as well as “the healing potential, the meditating and the strengthening,” she says.
Guerra, who practices pre-natal yoga at the classes, agrees. She is in her third trimester, and says that the yoga is good for her back and her joints. “The class is uplifting,” she says. Seeing Martinez’s face as she helps each woman “makes me want to smile.”
As the class ended, the women sat on their mats once again. They chanted a meditation in one voice: “Let me be free of enemies, let me be safe in body, let me be peaceful in mind, let my life be full of love and kindness.”