Black History Month may be gone, but that doesn’t mean we should stop having conversations about being Black and the realities of being Black in America, especially when it comes to mental health.
Statistics are tricky. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 21% of Black people report having a mental illness, and it is the third leading cause of death for Black Americans ages 10-24 and Black men ages 25-34. It’s suicide. Critical issues in the black community.
This seems like an impossible problem to solve and requires multiple methods and changes to improve. But it’s not impossible and there are steps forward. Yoga is one of them.
“Yoga was like a big leap of faith for me,” Kumay Sams, a yoga instructor at Glo, a digital yoga and wellness platform, told Blavity in a recent interview. “Initially, I had little knowledge about yoga philosophy or traditions. Then one day, participating in a little social experiment, I decided I wanted to dig deeper. And I took a chance. , I thought to myself, “I’m going to sign up for teacher training and go head-first into practice to get everything I can get out of this training.” From there I took his 200 hours of training and realized it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. ”
Yoga completely changed Sams’ life. It’s not just professionally.
“I have ADHD, but I also suffer from anxiety.” [and] depression. I was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder type II. So learning how to do that, I’m not saying it silences the noise, but it’s just learning how to get over the fact that you have to, that there’s always something going on in your head. , it’s about creating some kind of space and being able to step away from it for a while. It’s a moment where I realize that not everything I do or feel has to be a blessing,” Sams said.
He says that practicing yoga allows him to be present in the moment and “assimilate himself into a lot of life going on around him without his own mental and internal systems going so crazy.” He explained that he was given the tools to
While many people may think yoga is exclusive to black people, Sams is passionate about proving the opposite. During his first month of teaching, he “created a series of classes aimed at a number of black leaders,” hoping to help them achieve what the practice could offer him. He said that was his intention.
“I don’t think this tradition was just about one person or group,” he said. “But I’ve been in spaces where a lot of my fellow countrymen and family friends have been very harsh about what they see from the outside. And I’ve been like, “Okay, I like this. I think some people really need to get inside and make their own internal connections in order to say, “This was fun, or this might apply to me, too.”
If a yoga class still seems difficult, that’s okay. Sams said you don’t need to go to a yoga studio to try a yoga practice.
“I’m very passionate about pranayama, or you can think of it as a breathing exercise. What I do is take just a few breaths every morning if I can. Close your breath and match the length of your inhale and exhale. Take a moment to consciously feel your breathing. This will help you avoid non-conversational sounds, such as dog conversation. You can focus your mind on things. Thoughts are similar to emotions, but when you focus on your breathing, you take them out of your head.”
Meditation is another practice that Sams co-signs.
“I think it’s more like meditation, or just mindful sitting. I think a lot of us, when we sit and meditate, we think it must be some kind of way. I don’t think you should be thinking about it. I think that’s the opposite of what meditation is asking you to do. Ultimately, it’s about being yourself without feeling like you have to engage or get attached to every thought. We should be able to observe the mind and understand its behavior,” he said.
Pranayama and meditation are great places to start because they both only require a short amount of time to feel the effects. Sams says practitioners can do both in he five to 10 minutes.
“I feel like that’s another thing that keeps people away from yoga. We have to create this completely different thing or spend all the time in the world to make a difference.” Or you feel like you have to go to a specific yoga studio. That’s not true. You can start right where you are, and you can do this practice whenever you have the space.”
Glo offers classes for all levels, including yoga, Pilates, meditation, HIIT, and more in 29 different styles, with both on-demand and daily live instruction.
