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I begrudgingly attended my first hot yoga class 17 years ago after an extended night of catching up with my old college roommate. She’d been begging me to go to yoga along with her for months, and that next morning, I finally gave in.

But as I entered the scorching hot room, I immediately understood that I used to be completely unprepared. The blast of fiery air that burned my nostrils felt prefer it was going to melt me from the within out. My friend had mentioned it will be hot. I didn’t know it was going to be THAT hot.

As class began and the teacher began talking and never stopped, I felt like my life was slipping into some sort of purgatorial chamber. Sweat was pouring out of me. My clothes quickly became drenched and heavy. My respiration became audible in what I can only imagine is how a baby dragon might sound. My vision continually shifted between black tunnel vision and blinding whiteout. The struggle was real.

Pondering death was near, I darted my eyes over at my friend and angrily whispered “How long is that this freaking class?” With a smile, she responded, “90 minutes.” I wearily whispered back, “I hate you.”

To my surprise, I didn’t die, I still love that friend, and at the top of sophistication, I felt like I’d hung out with my Creator and visited with the ancestors. I used to be not expecting yoga to bring me the very same feeling that I experienced within the kiva.

In my Pueblo culture, a kiva is a structure at the middle of our village where we gather together seasonally. Within the kiva we pray, we sing, we dance, and we SWEAT. Quite a bit. We come near the Spirit world in order that we will emerge from the kiva as a recent creation.

That’s exactly how I felt after my first hot yoga class. My body seemed superhuman and my spirit felt as if it was sparkling. My senses were signaling as if I had just left a standard ceremony. My skin was like recent, my vision was sharper, and my breath was pure peace. In my heart and mind, I had left this world and hung out in a sacred space with the purest version of myself.

At that moment, there was not a force that might take my peace away. Through this recent, sweaty practice, I could experience a robust reference to Creator, and I didn’t even should be on my reservation or in a kiva. I may very well be in ceremony day by day on my mat.

And that’s exactly what I did. I discovered a spot in my town that offered hot yoga and I went to class almost day by day.

(Photo: Kate Herrera Jenkins)

How I Share Ceremony

A few years after I attended that first yoga class, I trained to change into a teacher. I desired to share the experience of ceremony with all people. All of us come from ancient movement rituals, ways of connecting to something larger than us. My prayer during each class was for yoga to assist students remember their very own ways and reemerge as recent versions of themselves.

I didn’t deviate from the best way that I used to be trained to show. I taught simply, offering a set sequence and allowing space between my words for people to experience their very own ceremony, regardless of what background or belief system they carry.

The blessing for me got here in the shape of scholars sharing their experiences before and after class. They explained how yoga healed an injury, helped them slowly come off medication, lifted their depression, and allowed them to maneuver through their grief. As yoga teachers, we WANT to consider yoga goes to be a part of our students’ cures. Yet to witness the medication working, we’re reminded that we truly ARE on the best path.

I ultimately opened my very own hot yoga studio in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. I named it Kiva Hot Yoga. I actually have at all times been careful to maintain my Pueblo ceremonies private and sacred and I don’t share the ways we engage in ceremonies through class. Yet having the ability to hold a quiet space for others in order that they will hear their very own answer can also be sacred.

After 10 years of owning my yoga studio, I sold it. I felt called to bring yoga to communities that had no access to the practice. The nudge eventually became a push to steer a movement designed to bring yoga to each Native community within the US and Canada and help revolutionize the health of many Native American and First Nations people. In 2014, I created the nonprofit Native Strength Revolution, which serves greater than 6,000 Native brothers and sisters throughout the U.S. and Canada through yoga classes, workshops, conferences, leadership training and yoga teacher training.

I desired to create an area where all people could have access to in-person, Indigenous-led classes and where, eventually, each tribe or Nation or Native community would have its own yoga teacher. Many Native communities experience widespread challenges, including diabetes, heart disease, addiction, suicide, domestic violence, and generational trauma.

Our yoga teacher training is particular to those working with Native communities and their challenges. To this point, greater than 60 people have attended our yoga teacher training with the intention of bringing the unique and sacred nuances of their culture into their classes.

We ask every person who applies for the training, “Why do you need to do that training? What do you need to offer your community?” More times than not, their answers equate yoga with ceremony. Of their varied words, they each say, “Right away, and possibly for time everlasting, we’d like more ceremony.”

How Our Ceremony Honors the Tradition of Yoga

Native Strength Revolution continues to grow through the shared vision of our team of yoga teachers. My vision to show yoga to assist Native communities heal has been multiplied by 60 people who find themselves now doing this heart work. Carla Drumbeater created a yoga program for Native kids within the Little Earth Housing Community in Minneapolis, MN. Rose Whitehair began multigeneration yoga classes for Native families in Albuquerque, NM. Waylon Pahona and Johanna Herrera are keynote speakers at Native conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada and share how movement heals our people.

After most classes, students will share that yoga is essentially the most meaningful medium for his or her healing journey. Lives are being modified as our teachers show others the way to experience a culturally meaningful experience on their mat. Through a trusted and known teacher relationship, our students begin to trust the technique of yoga. They change into open to the opportunity of connecting with recent patterns. They do not forget that also they are connecting with patterns older than them, patterns just like how our ancestors connected to something greater than themselves.

I actually have at all times done my best to honor the roots of yoga. I honor the scriptures and ancient texts by teaching their importance. There are similarities between yoga philosophy and Native teachings. Asanas and our physical state are temporary but our words and actions affect ourselves, our communities, and our world for generations. Yet I still honor yoga teachings as they’ve been communicated through the traditional texts. Natives know when something is borrowed and watered down or disrespectfully presented. We would like to see the great thing about its origin.

Through Native Strength Revolution’s trainings and ongoing gatherings, our team members proceed to heal as individuals and grow as leaders. They wish to be the positive example for his or her community, not by have the most effective asana practice, but by leading a life that honors the traditional teachings of yoga and the teachings of our ancestors. After they step on their mat, they step into ceremony.

About Our Contributor

Kate Herrera Jenkins (Shu-wa-mitz [Turquoise]) is a member of the Pueblo of Cochiti in Latest Mexico. She accomplished her first yoga teacher training in 2009 and later attended trainings with Bernie Clark, Jimmy Barkan and Ryan Leier.  She is the founding father of Native Strength Revolution. Kate also enjoys movement through dancing in traditional Pueblo dances, Nia, strength-training and long-distance running. She believes every moment is a ministry moment and works to assist others find their very own relationship to Source.