Building Bridges: Pilot program for creating a partnership model with HCP and community .
Intention was to share the teachings of MTY with a small group of young immigrant Persian women in their late 30s who had no prior experience of yoga.
Eight week series was co-created with one of my peers, Dr. Naz, who is a Neuro Psychologist and Persian.She has been integrating drumming, vocal toning and laughter in her clinical practice which involves patients with traumatic brain injury.
Each class included centering, setting an intention, guided visualization for addressing breath awareness, simple asana practice to facilitate safety within and in poses, rituals for nourishment of the soul through integration of various elements of nature, music and marma massage.

Name of the series was suggested by Dr. Naz as Grate-Ful yoga. We planned the classes by meeting in person. As teachers we set intention for each class by integrating each letter in the sequence of spelling of this word and then planned the sequence based on that.
1. G Grounding
2. R Releasing
3. A Acknowledging
4. T Trusting
5. E Expressing
6. F Fulfilling
7. U Unifying
8 . L Liberating

There were five Persian women who participated. They were curious about yoga and reported some anxiety issues. SF-8 was used as an outcome measure for pre and post-test. Even though they were not limited in their daily life participation, emotional wellbeing had affected their social engagement, which is important for their culture. Self doubt, anxiety, stress of dealing with illness in the family were some of the prevalent concerns. During the pretest, most of them reported that their overall health was good.
During the first class, they were informed that this was trauma informed yoga and they could decide to leave at any time during the eight weeks .
They participated with enthusiasm and trusted Dr. Naz and me.
To be grounded was needed and challenging for them.

How each class unfolded
Group check in at the beginning and end of each class was suggested and facilitated by Dr. Naz. She gave each participant a journal for self reflection.
I shared practice for breath awareness, stability in simple poses, marma massage , and mudras based on Medical Therapeutic teachings .
Y Dr. Naz and I took turns, to offer meditation with guided visualization, vocal toning, drumming, playful partner poses, integration of elements from nature over the eight weeks.

Residue of Grate-Ful Yoga practice
Participants sang songs during the eighth class in their language to celebrate the onset of spring. What a blessing it was to see this side of fellow US citizens from Iran who do not feel safe to say they are Iranians and have to call themselves
Persians .

Post test results reflected improvement in their emotional wellbeing.

Building bridges as Dharma and Karma practice

Co-creating this class was liberating for me, since it included a partnership for creating a sustainable model for health care delivery while including movement, music ,meditation for the wellbeing of the community.
Dr. Naz shared that staying on her path of dharma, which is of being in service to community, is liberating for her soul.

Thanks to Dr. Ginger for cheering me on along, during the entire process and all the teachings of MTY.

Thanks to Dr. Naz for sharing her love for playfulness, tapping into the group's wisdom, integrating music and offering opportunities for self reflection through journaling.

Thanks to Sara and Fargol for expressing curiosity about yoga and assimilating a group of beautiful souls, for this project.

Hope this service project offers opportunities, to share this pilot program of Grate-ful yoga with many health care practitioners and the community

CCC project/GRATEFUL Yoga insights shared by Dr. Naz.pdf
CCC project/Grateful yoga insights and personal learning.rtf