From the Military to Mental Health Yoga with Cindy Beers
In this episode, I talk with Cindy Beers, a veteran of the US Armed Forces, educator, and expert on yoga for mental health. You'll be inspired by her passion for self-applied healing modalities like yoga and meditation, rooted in her own journey of trauma recovery.
**Towards the beginning of the interview Cindy briefly shares about two trauma incidents she experienced during her 18 years in the military. We did not talk about these experiences in great detail here, but it's worth giving a heads up for any listeners that might be sensitive to this kind of story. You might want to skip ahead to about the 12-minute mark of the podcast, where you'll be well past that part of Cindy's story and able to hear more about her incredible work and new yoga for mental health program.**
Cindy talks about how she turned to yoga for help with fibromyalgia and physical pain, and found it also gave her a space to let go of painful thoughts and emotions. She describes what it was like to be a practitioner with a trauma history, attending group classes long before "trauma-informed" training was part of our yoga culture.
You'll hear how she handles it when a student exhibits strong emotions during class, and what she suggests every yoga teacher should do to support mental health, regardless of the type or style of class they teach.
She explains how discovering certain meditation techniques, particularly Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Transcendental Meditation (TM) helped her with anxiety and an over-active mind (or what she called "the hamsters in the brain"). Cindy shares a whole host of modalities that are part of her wellness toolbox, including Havening, Self-EMDR, affirmations, and Yoga Nidra, and how they've supported her alongside Western medicine.
I think you'll come away with a great deal of appreciation for Cindy's pioneering work advocating for mental health and wellness, utilizing the tools of yoga and meditation.
To connect with Cindy, you can visit her website at https://cindybeers.com/
or follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mentalhealthyogaandwellness/
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thecindybeers
and TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@mentalhealthtoolbox
To connect further with me (Addie), check out my main website movedtomeditate.yoga
info on the upcoming YIN YOGA TEACHER TRAINING at movedtomeditate.yoga/trainings
or the Moved To Meditate Class Library at movedtomeditate.com
Lastly, I’m on Instagram at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, yoga, and pictures of PNW nature and my adorable kitten, Mustache).
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