Survivors

Sexual Violence is a social justice issue not fodder for the gossip columns. Every 68 seconds there is an act of sexual violence happening in America. That’s a crisis by definition. This is a public health crisis that we cannot allow our leadership to play political football with at the expense of the safety, health and wholeness of our communities. THAT is why #metoo is a movement.

- Tarana Burke

Survivors, if your life was forever changed by sexual violence, you are not alone and it is not your fault. You deserve support. Family, friends, colleagues, and community often do not know how to support you and this can compound your trauma and intensify your suffering. There are other survivors and organizations who can be more helpful at this time! See below for a list of resourceful organizations.

Family, friends, colleagues, and community of survivors, if someone you love has been affected by sexual violence, you can also get support for supporting them. Educating oneself is a compassionate step. See below for a list of resourceful organizations.

trauma informed Restorative Yoga and Journaling for Survivors

with Sandi Higgins and SPARCC Survivor Support Group

4pm-5pm EST

Thursday, October 17th in Sarasota

Join Aquamarine Yoga founder Sandi Higgins and the SPARCC Survivor Support Group for this trauma-informed restorative yoga and journaling session, reserved for survivors of sexual violence. In a safe and compassionate environment, experience gentle, restorative yoga poses that encourage relaxation and body awareness, helping to sense and release obstructing mind-body tension. Coupled with mindful and creative journaling, this practice offers a peaceful way to observe and process complex thoughts and feelings, supporting long-term healing and self-discovery. Join a supportive community that honors your journey, allowing you to cultivate resilience and reclaim your power. No prior yoga or journaling experience is necessary—just an openness to healing and connection.

Call SPARCC’s helpline at (941) 365-1976 for further information on joining the Support Group and for details on meeting for this trauma informed Restorative Yoga and Journaling session. Meeting location provided only to SPARCC Support Group.

About SPARCC:

“Founded in 1979, SPARCC, the Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center, is a beacon of hope, healing and empowerment. As a non-profit agency, we play a pivotal role in Sarasota and DeSoto counties as the exclusive state-certified center providing essential services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, all of which are offered free of charge and kept strictly confidential.

What sets us apart is our unwavering commitment not only to healing survivors but also to preventing future violence. Through robust community awareness and education initiatives, we strive to create a safer environment for all. With our downtown Sarasota outreach center and satellite offices in Venice, North Port and Arcadia, our year-round shelters offer sanctuary 365 days a year, and our 24-hour crisis helpline ensures immediate assistance.”

www.sparcc.net/about

Resourceful organizations for Survivor SUPPORT

Aquamarine Yoga founder Sandi Higgins is a survivor of sexual violence. Having experienced the benefits of yoga in her own healing journey, she became a yoga teacher and strives to support other survivors through education in the holistic practices of yoga, meditation, and contemplative creativity. Journeying this path and its many challenges, she creates a safe and relatable environment where individuals can listen to their bodies and minds and reconnect with their hearts, voices, and dreams. Mindful movement and breathing help to cultivate inner strength, peace, and resilience. Meditation fosters self-compassion. Chanting invites emotional transformation. Additionally, contemplative creativity offers an expressive outlet for survivors to reflect and process experiences and restore self-worth. By integrating these tools, Aquamarine Yoga aims to empower survivors to reclaim peace, creativity, and pleasure, while rebuilding their lives with renewed confidence and purpose.

As yoga practitioners and especially as teachers, it is a necessity of our times to talk about healing sexual violence.

Our microcosmic spiritual communities and our macrocosmic societies are being repeatedly shaken by reckonings of sexual violence, as manifested in the #metoo movement - from Yoga to Buddhism to Catholicism, Hollywood to Mollywood to Nollywood, etc. - and the myriad sufferings of this public health crisis all over the world.

Rape “culture” is more like a cultural coma from which we are all awakening.

Fortunately, yoga practice can be a powerful tool for healing in this process. Unfortunately, it can also be a tool for harm.

Many of us became yoga teachers because we found personal healing from trauma, including the trauma of sexual violence, through our yoga practice. From this vantage point, it seems paradoxical that similar trauma has been perpetuated in the practice of yoga. However, it is also yoga practice to acknowledge both sides of the spectrum.

While deeply respecting the potent yogic traditions that have helped to shape our own healing trajectories, we must also confront the harm that has existed within our yoga lineages (ie. Bikram Yoga and its derivatives in Hot Yoga styles, Kundalini Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and its derivatives in Flow, Vinyasa, Jivamukti, and Power Yoga styles, Iyengar Yoga, etc).

This integration is vital for contributing to social transformation, to the collective creation of a culture of consent where survivors feel seen, heard, and integrated, and where further sexual violence can be prevented and sexual health can be restored.

Further Reading: Karen Rain & Jubilee Cooke, Yoga International: “How To Respond To Sexual Abuse Within A Yoga or Spiritual Community”

Integration is an ongoing process.

By cultivating compassionate environments that recognize the shadows of our aspirations, we can create safer spaces for open dialogue about the complexities of each other’s experiences. Compassion is the conscious effort to end suffering; it is not necessarily a shared position. Shadow work may look different for everyone, and we must hold space without spite for various approaches to integration.

By listening to what is difficult to hear, by recognizing our attachments and aversions, we can realize a greater perspective. This requires moving beyond the “I’m right, you’re wrong” mentality and allowing for differences in how we address this public health crisis - a crisis that is still very uncomfortable for many people to discuss. As yogis, we can help transform the discomfort of this conversation, like a complex asana, through the cultivation of steadiness and ease in our thinking and communicating. Therefore, we need to practice thinking and communicating about sexual violence and sexual non-violence; we need to be educating ourselves and each other.

Fostering a culture of togetherness, rather than a culture of division and isolation, is essential for meaningful progress. Without denying or demonizing the controversial behavior of yoga gurus, teachers, and students, we need to honor the potential of both help and harm that can coexist within all systems and communities.

Further Reading: Alison Shaw (2021) “‘A tool to help me through the darkness’: suffering and healing among teacher-practitioners of Ashtanga yoga”, Anthropology & Medicine, 28:3, 320-340

Together we can embrace the full spectrum of yoga’s potential to contribute to healing a global pandemic of sexual violence and awakening from this nightmarish coma of rape “culture” by prioritizing inclusive conversations, meaningful actions, and ongoing education.

- Sandi H.

Founder, Aquamarine Yoga

Further Reading: American Sexual Health Association “What Is Sexual Health?”