Yoga has become increasingly popular during the 25+ years I have been practicing. Parents, friends, teachers, and doctors often recommend it.
What it is about yoga that is so life-changing is often hard for those of us “in it” to give voice to. Yet, finding words to explain the benefits of this mind-quieting practice is important.
Greg Nardi found yoga in 1996 and was immediately drawn to it as an ongoing practice. Yoga helped him feel healthy after years of childhood illness, anxiety and depression and more importantly gave him a sense of meaning and purpose. He dedicated himself to a yogic lifestyle as part of his healing journey and has been practicing ever since. Greg took four separate teacher trainings in the United States and Europe between 1997 and 2003. He took a dozen extended trips to Mysore, India between 1999-2016
to learn yoga with a focus in asana, yoga history and philosophy, pranayama, meditation, and chanting.
Though always called to the social, transformational, and revolutionary aspects of yoga, it is in more recent years that Greg has been able to make this calling the central theme of his professional life in yoga. As the Program Director for Yoga 4 Change, Greg supports this trauma informed yoga services non-profit organization in its mission to foster holistic wellbeing, resilience, and transformation for individuals and communities though evidence-based trauma-informed curriculum. Yoga 4 Change serves youth, veterans, ustice-impacted and folks with mental health struggles in Florida to increase their self-esteem, calm their nervous system, and gain emotional awareness and regulation.
Greg also sits on the Board of Directors for Chainless Change, a community of recovery offering second chances to those negatively impacted by the criminal legal system. Through advocacy they fight for lasting change that prioritizes care over cages, housing and healthcare over handcuffs, books over bars, and jobs over jails.
Most recently Greg completed his Yoga Therapy certification from Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy. In our conversation together on the latest episode of Beyond Trauma, Greg discusses what it means to be a yoga therapist, how it overlaps with trauma-informed practices and how his dedication to trauma-sensitive approaches has increased throughout his years practicing and teaching this ancient art.
Take a listen and let us know what you think!
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