Health Insights from Yoga and Nature Therapy

By Amy Harris

Health experts say that being outside in nature, physical activity, and social connections all help people thrive, and this is perhaps even more true during troubling or stressful times such as those immigrants are living in now in Maine and all across the U.S.  

Nuna Gleason, Executive Director of Wounded Healers International and the founder of Maine Afro Yoga Project, came to the U.S. in 2020, seeking asylum from persecution in Kenya for her advocacy on behalf of survivors of sexual violence. She said that her own struggles with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) eventually led her to yoga, which she credits for contributing to her healing. Now she has made it her life’s mission to help other people heal from emotional and physical trauma.

Gleason was a yoga skeptic when her therapist first suggested she try it. At the time, she remembers, “I didn’t want to say no, but I didn’t want to try this Indian religion thing. Yoga has a very bad name in some African cultures.”

Eventually, Gleason started regularly attending yoga classes and practicing relaxation breathing outside the studio. Her panic attacks and nightmares stopped and her depression lifted. Gleason decided to become a yoga teacher and applied for a teaching scholarship from Maine Yoga Project, which she received.

As a yoga instructor, Gleason’s aim is to teach others about the healing potential of movement. However, she faced resistance from her immigrant community.

“They were calling me names, saying, ‘You Nuna, you just came the other day to America. Now you’re practicing yoga. You are lost, my friend.’ ”

Realizing that the name “yoga” was off-putting to many, she decided to add stretching and breathing activities into the support groups she had begun to offer for immigrants in Maine. And today, Maine Afro Yoga Project offers seven to 10 classes a week in its South Portland studio, has three teachers, and also provides live-streaming classes on Saturdays so that people can participate from the safety of their homes. The project holds classes outdoors, as well, to help new Mainers discover for themselves that spending time in nature can help them feel better. Maine Afro Yoga Project’s classes are taught by Black or brown teachers, but Gleason said she is committed to making her classes inclusive and welcoming to everybody.

Veeva Banga was born in South Sudan, but fled with her family first to Egypt, and then Maine. Banga believes that dance can help with healing and maintaining one’s health, and noted the importance of keeping and sharing cultural traditions with all Mainers. This includes second-generation immigrants, who may not have access to their cultural heritage for a number of reasons, including barriers of language with their elders. Banga is a choreographer, dance performer, and instructor, and offers online group Afrobeats dance classes. “Art serves as a vital form of expression and healing,” she notes on her online site.

Batimbo United Burundi Drummers is a group of artists and musicians whose members find healing and comfort through celebrating their culture and by keeping this traditional form of art and movement alive with members of the Burundian community in Maine, including children. In a 2020 article, Amjambo noted that drums are a huge part of Burundian heritage, culture, and identity. They are considered sacred objects and represent regeneration and fertility, and were the symbol of power of the mwami (Burundian sovereigns) during the monarchy. 

At the time, Yves Ndayishimiye, Communications Director for Batimbo Family Foundation, told Amjambo that in the world (of 2020), “which is afflicted by division, hostility, and isolation, the messages of unity and peace that the Burundian culture offers resonate more than ever, and the drumming tradition has the power to bring people together from all walks of life. Whether one is performing or observing, the synchronized drums, dance, and song act as a special form of therapy, reminding us that as long as we’re all together, we have nothing to fear.”

John Bliss, who volunteers with In Her Presence as an English teacher for older men, noted the barrier of gender when it comes to some activities that can help people thrive: “It is generally true that certain physical pastimes are perhaps less acceptable for men, but men have physical outlets as well, and in a man’s old age walking is common. And we are throwing bocce balls and having a good time with that!”

Bliss said his students find camaraderie in playing and learning games together. “We have learned classic games like dominoes and backgammon, and shared some versions of mancala, known as Bao in parts of Central East Africa. Our favorite has become bocce or boules, known as pétanque in parts of France.”

According to Bliss, playing games “is a more culturally acceptable and inclusive way for elderly male members of the new Mainer community to remain mentally and physically active.” According to the Industrial Psychiatry Journal, published in India, such community and social connections help prevent the isolation and loneliness common in many elderly immigrants.

Movement helps children as well, and can result in a lifetime of lower rates of anxiety, stress, depression, obesity, cancer, and diabetes. Children engaged in sports have increased creativity, long-term educational and career success, and report an overall higher quality of life. The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Science Board emphasizes the importance of play and movement from a very young age has been shown to have lifetime benefits.

Emily Loder, Youth Program Director at the Intercultural Community Center (ICC) in Westbrook, said ICC’s program works in several blocks of active play daily within the afterschool and summer programs. Soccer and gaga ball are the kids’ current favorite ways to relax after long school days or stressful times at home, she said.

Outings and activities include pickleball, trips to city parks, and mindfulness and breathing exercises. The ICC serves many families living in the City of Portland’s Homeless Services Centers. Because many adults do not have cars, many outdoor options for movement are out of reach, however walking in the center’s immediate area provides some activity. Loder said that when asked what they want to see or do, many people, both young and old, say they “just want to get out of that space and go to explore and see something new.”

“I am 92 years old, and I’ve seen fascism before, in my childhood in Japan. And I can tell you – what we are seeing now in this country is fascism.”

“I remember the Japanese internment camps in this country. What is happening now is worse.”