Leadership

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu

This past week I've gotten to work with the Africa Yoga Project teachers and it has been a transformative experience. As an ambassador for AYP not only do I agree to fundraise to support the mission and vision of AYP but I also consider what gift I can share when I am here that will make a long lasting impact. Last year I offered a workshop to the teachers on what trauma is to provide a deeper understanding of what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is and to explain that trauma impacts us physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. I provided skills to the teachers that they are using in their outreaches and private classes that focus on calming the nervous system.  So much of Africa Yoga Project's model stresses empowerment and cultivating leaders. Last year I had lovely co-leaders to the women's and men's group and this year I considered how I could build on what I offered last year and I chose to co-lead a workshop on the specific trauma teachers experienced as a result of post election violence.  Co-leading the women's and men's group was eye opening. Each teacher had been personally impacted by the post election violence and they were processing their trauma in the midst of another election season. Nominations day was on Thursday and Friday and tensions were high, and the election is scheduled on March 4th and people expressed how scared they are about this election and the potential for tribalism and corrupt politics to lead to violence.  In our groups we had a mini-review of the work we did last year and then moved right into the core reasons people think violence happens. An interesting question came up. Did tribalism exist before the election or did the election cause tribalism? Some people expressed that the tribes lived in space with one another connected and that due to the last election, tribalism occurred, but others feel like tribalism has always existed and the election heightened the tension between tribes. Other teachers described the impact of the post election violence, there was land stealing, killing, oppression, lack of resources, economic distress; sound familiar?

After understanding the issue we moved into transforming the issue. A very wise student reminded us that the election is an event and that people will move through it in their own way, but it is just a moment in time. He tapped into the ability for people to survive just as they did after the last election.  I led a practice where I warmed up the students with some sun salutations and then I called out words like role, violent, warrior, guard, one, Kenya, connection, peace. I asked the students to make a shape in their body that represented that word. This activity was a good way for people to embody these words. We all have things that come to mind when we think of violence or peace, and it's good to understand that at any moment we can call these up and act from these places. This activity was to root people in the idea that we all have choice and to cultivate peace we must be peace and we must recognize when we aren't peace and change.  

At the end of the the women's and men's group we moved into prevention and resourcing. After some team building I broke teachers into small groups to discuss what they learned this week and to come up with a lesson plan focused on peace for their outreaches so they could share this information and it's impact on the 5000 students they teach a week. The groups presented back to the large group and they offered things from meditations on peace and connection, to a yoga practice infused with peace, to having people make shapes in their body representing peace, to partner yoga.  This workshop had a big impact on the teachers and I know it will spread out to the people they connect with each day.  I feel honored that they shared with me, honored to have co-led these groups with the amazing leaders of AYP and honored to do this work.  Next year I will be building on this work by training the teachers how to facilitate a conversations about trauma and resourcing in their outreaches and then going to the outreaches with the teachers coaching the them on their facilitation.  I am so inspired by the teachers and their power. They keep growing and growing and I will keep supporting them along the way. 

On another note, we haven't been able to go to Gracious School for the past two days because of Nominations here so we will be going next week one more time to see the children and continue the music program. 

Thanks for reading.