Yoga for Homeless Youth
Every Sunday afternoon, for over two years now, a dozen or so homeless youth in Portland, come together at Outside In to practice Street Yoga. Young men and women, from all walks of life, sit and breathe and move together.
Our homeless youth yoga classes started out upstairs, in the corner of a very busy common room. Initially, the shouts of "Yoga Sucks!" stabbed at the teachers' promptings towards breath awareness. But we persist, because in a small way, we believe that our presence means something to these young people. Simply by showing up week after week, we honor their struggles and their individuality.
The young people who come to our Outside In classes range in age from 14 to 22. We've had pregnant women, babies, couples in love, kids just coming down from a very long high.
We have been told many times that aside from the physical relief yoga can bring, there is "something else" --a special place in Savasana at the end of class that is unmatched the rest of the week. They often come up after class and in an ashtonished voice, tell us "I was somewhere else, not asleep, not dreaming, but not awake like normal. It was so restful!" And every now and then, we'll even get a smile and a parting "Yoga Rocks!"
