Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Keel.
Hi Mary, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was first introduced to the practice of yoga through a friend at an early age and enjoyed the fitness and movement aspect but it wasn’t until the sudden death of my brother in 2013 while serving a deployment in Afghanistan that I truly found yoga, specifically Ashtanga yoga as a healing and transformative practice and instrumental to finding my soul’s true purpose.
After learning about a Florida based non-profit yoga organization called Connected Warriors that provides yoga programming for Servicemembers, Veterans, First Responders and their families all over the world on Military Bases, Installations, Vet Centers and Yoga studios at no cost to the participants, I knew this was a path I was meant to explore. Never in a million years would I think that I would enroll in a teacher training program but something kept moving me in that direction like the path was so clear and open so I took a leap of faith not knowing where it would lead me and signed up for their Elevated Warrior 200HR Teacher Training Program facilitated by their founder, Judy Weaver in the summer of 2015. It was in the training that I began to feel like I belonged like I was in the right place at the right time with the right people and so after our six months journey of traveling to Boca Raton once a month for five intense three days training on the weekends we had our final week-long training session outside of Ocala in the middle of the woods on a lake surrounded by nature in the most beautiful of settings, I couldn’t of imagined anything better to be honest. It was serene and perfect. I also always like to preface when I share this experience with people is that I was the only female in an intimate group of seven amazing and courageous active duty soldiers, veterans, and an Army Psychologist which gave me a completely different perspective of teaching yoga to those that have served our country and those that may not be the typical yoga practitioner. It also inspired me to want to be a better practitioner, more compassionate on my mat and ultimately a better teacher, all of which I am extremely grateful for.
Shortly after becoming a Certified Yoga Teacher with an emphasis in Trauma-Conscious I was offered the position to become their Regional Coordinator for Miami Dade County overseeing their weekly yoga programs throughout Miami and was managing three weekly yoga classes and I myself taught a Connected Warriors class once a week at SOUTHCOM in Doral and Homestead Air Reserve Base. It was during this time that I was fortunate to really see the impact that yoga offers to those willing to receive it. Like the veteran who can’t sleep because of nightmares that is finally able to sleep through the night or the active duty father who learns that panic attacks will happen but now has the tools to breathe and move through them without reacting or making them worse or the veteran who gets out of his wheelchair during class for the first time to balance on his feet. These accomplishments and breakthroughs might seem small to the average person but to each and every one of us that suffers in silence, or with injury and physical limitations, or those living with mental health and depression conditions these small achievements can create immense improvements on the overall day to day life for those that need it the most and even sometimes can save a life.
To date, I have been teaching on military bases, vet centers and community studios throughout Miami for over seven years and recently onboarded with another non-profit, Yoga 4 Change which provides evidence-based yoga programming to Veterans, Youth, the Incarcerated and those living with Mental Health conditions. I also volunteer my time teaching yoga for sexual trauma once a month at the Roxy Bolton Rape Treatment Center, which is a hospital-based sexual assault crisis center located on the Jackson Memorial Medical Center campus. In addition to teaching yoga, I am a licensed Real Estate Sales Associate with RE/MAX Advance Realty and specialize in neighborhoods and lifestyles of Miami and work as a team with my mother Toni Keel.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yoga helped me through one of the most difficult times of my life and I feel strongly about the transformational benefits that the practice offers especially for those who have experienced trauma. The practice of yoga helped me transform my pain to strength, my fear to acceptance and my heart to gratitude. Now more than ever, we need tools available to us that can alleviate the thinking mind, the stressed body and the overworked nervous system. We need more awareness and less judgment. I’m called to share this practice with others as I know from my own experience that it really does work, not overnight but over time and in our own time.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My area of expertise is Trauma Conscious Yoga which by definition means learning to be aware of and responding to one’s surroundings. This is what separates a “typical” yoga class from a Trauma Conscious Yoga class, it ultimately means delivering a yoga class in a manner that meets the individual where they are physically and mentally in a safe, secure, and predictable environment. As a teacher it’s imperative to be cognitive that each student has experienced some sort of trauma in their life and recognize that each one of them are in different parts of their healing process and therefore meets the student or students where they are by offering variations in particular postures which empowers them to make their own choice of what they want to do with their body at that moment. Incorporating the use of bilateral stimulation, a visual, auditory, or tactile stimuli which occur in a rhythmic left-right pattern into yoga postures that cross the midline helps to reconnect both the left and right hemisphere that oftentimes gets disconnected from trauma. It’s also important to note that through the practice of yoga which literally translates to “union” or “connection,” we begin to notice our bodies, how they feel and how they move, all of which is an important part of the healing process.
Trauma can sometimes create a feeling of disconnect from ourselves and our bodies but when practicing yoga, we start to reconnect to the present moment and to our bodies through the breath which helps us to not think about the past and what could happen in the future but keeps us right in the present moment. By creating this rhythm with our breath and our bodies we learn how to self regulate our nervous system ultimately finding a place that we can learn to be comfortable with ourselves, free from judgment and tolerant of sensation which allows for growth, acceptance and self-inquiry, all key components to healing and self-acceptance. This is where the practice of trauma conscious yoga begins to help regulate the body’s response, through the breath we are able to get out of our head and into our body in a way that is empowering and safe.
With so much conversation today around trauma and mental health, I think it’s important for us as yoga teachers to help shed some light on tools and techniques on how best to meet our students where they are and not try to teach in a one size fits all approach. Most people at some point in their life have experienced trauma or hardship either directly or in-directly and the last two years have been extra challenging for so many of us especially those who have served and or are currently serving our country. It’s also important to remember that Trauma impacts each and every one of us differently. For some, it’s short-lived, for others it can last indefinitely and for some it zig zags back and forth depending on life experiences and situations. The truth of the matter is Trauma never goes away but we can learn how to navigate through it with the proper tools and techniques, a support system and an understanding and dedicated community ultimately inspiring growth and transformation for all who are ready to show up and receive it.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.connectedwarriors.org – https://www.y4c.org – www.keelhometeam.miami
- Instagram: instagram.com/305green
- Facebook: facebook.com/marykeel
Image Credits
John Miller
