Mad Yoga Network

There Are Others: Normalizing Mental Health Challenges - Click here for a personal note from Brooke, creator of The Mad Yoga Network 💙

Between 2002 and 2011, the peak of popular yoga in the U.S., I was practicing and teaching yoga in the town where I had been hospitalized and medicated without my consent in 1995. I felt alone. Forever grieving the suicide of my older sister D'Arcy in 1999, I wondered why Yoga was helping me manage my moods and gently drawing me from the lighter psychoses that I struggled to manage on my own. 

During the early days of the internet, using the computer my sister had left behind, I knew, I could feel that there were others "out there" who were benefiting from yoga in the same ways that I was. I needed to talk. The internet was not allowing the accessibility that it does today.

Mental health was still an uncommon topic in yoga circles; rarely were people talking openly about bipolar disorder, which was my diagnosis ( I am also diagnosed with PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder. I wonder if I am also AuDHD). I was uncomfortable talking about it (and still am, but less so). My internalized ableism, shame, medical trauma, and a general misunderstanding about bipolar disorder that I experienced from others crippled me socially.

I wanted - and still want - to meet other people practicing yoga with bipolar disorder. I want to talk with yoga teachers living with mental health challenges. In creating The MAD YOGA Network, I hoped to share experiences and resources and support one another. 

Mad Yoga is Peer Support By and For Yoga Teachers

The mental health crisis is extreme. 

The shortage of mental health practitioners is epidemic. 

Yoga teachers with training and experience in peer support could take pressure off of the mental health services industry, first by supporting one another and then perhaps their micro-communities. Join us in a free upcoming group!

"Everything impacts mental health, and mental health impacts everything." - Robyn Priest, peer support trainer


What is Peer Support?

Peer support is not therapy. Participants attending peer support groups and yoga report improvements in their mental health. Peer support complements professional therapy, counseling or treatment. We share experiences and resources. 



Mad Yoga Peer Support Groups for Yoga Teachers

Introductions and meditation, comfort agreements, lead-in, timed sharing, final meditation. 90 minutes. Free.


NEW DATES! 

🦚 Saturdays at 11am PST 

🦚 October 19, November 2, November 16

Saturday, August 10 ✅

11amPST/2pmEST/7pmUK/8pmEU/9pmPalestine


Monday, August 26 ✅

5:30pm PST/10:30am Sydney/Melbourne


Saturday, September 14 ✅

10:30am PST/ 10:30pm Bangalore


https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7058438571?pwd=MHFDTmhpZmp3NHN0citDL3Y3TmJiZz09&omn=85654213448

💙 Closed Group Dates (for folks who attended the groups in August/September - we loved it and each other so much, we wanted to hang out and go deeper as a crew 💙 - this is the point of peer support: connection!💙)

💙 Thursdays 5pm PST 

October 10, October 17, October 24




Subscribe for updates BrookeWestYoga.Substack.com

Links for free and donation based events on IG @BrookeWestYoga

Please follow @MadYogaNetwork


OTHER UPCOMING MAD YOGA EVENTS


The Cluster B’s  ✅

Surviving Borderline, Narcissism, Anti-Social Behavior and Histrionics with Yoga Therapy. Trauma-informed care and peer support for the experiencer and their loved ones.


Saturday, September 7

11am PST

By Donation. All are welcome.


https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7058438571?pwd=MHFDTmhpZmp3NHN0citDL3Y3TmJiZz09&omn=81176372393


∞∞∞∞∞


Spiritual Awakening, Psychosis and Kundalini Naturally with Yoga Therapy

Care for your own emergence/emergency process and learn ways to support others in crisis.

Most mental health crises occur in fall and spring.. Protect yourself from SAD, mania and more!


Saturday, September 28 

11amPST/7pm UK

By Donation. All are welcome.


https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7058438571?pwd=MHFDTmhpZmp3NHN0citDL3Y3TmJiZz09&omn=84461183473


∞∞∞∞∞




Yoga Therapy and Peer Support for Bipolar Disorder

Learn ways to care for yourself and others naturally. Includes a memoir exercise and deep relaxation practice.

Co-led with ML Maitreyi. Discussion of Bipolar 1 and Bipolar 2.


Saturday, October 12

11am PST

90 minutes

by Donation


https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7058438571?pwd=MHFDTmhpZmp3NHN0citDL3Y3TmJiZz09&omn=87009985444


∞∞∞∞∞




Restorative Yoga Asana Training: Deconstructing Stress

Trauma-informed, accessible, classic restorative yoga mini-practices, including modifications, meditations for each form and nidra practice led by a master teacher. For teachers and serious students.


Dates TBA

Saturdays 11amPST

120 minutes



$50 each / $250 series

Please contact Brooke for equity rates and registration


BrookeWestYoga.Substack.com

Links to Free and By Donation events will also be in Instagram bio

@BrookeWestYoga



MORE MAD YOGA INSPIRATION

"The world needs different minds in leadership. ADHD, autistic and dyslexic patterns come with depression, anxiety and high suicide rates. Making mindfulness accessible to neurodiverse populations, a neurodiversity-informed approach, will reach some of the most vulnerable and marginalized people in our community. Accessibility differences and barriers exist when working with people with invisible "illness" - looking at themselves requires a different approach and advisory..." 

-Sue Hutton MSW/RSW "Neurodiversity and Mindfulness: Making mindfulness accessible to everyone" presentation with Michael Apollo of the Mindful Society Global Institute, February 6, 2024. MindfulnessInstitute.org : Neurodiversity-Informed Mindfulness Course



Colonization of the mind and social norms abruptly change once the practice of Yoga begins.


What Is the “Mad” in Mad Yoga Referring To?

"Mad" Movement: 

An umbrella term for the movement that encompasses the international mad pride movement, psychiatric survivor, psychiatric abolition/anti-psychiatry, hearing voices, service user, consumer/survivor/ex-patient (ex-inmate), mental health recovery, mental disability social justice movements. 

- from MadnessNetworkNews.com


"Mad Pride" is a mass movement of current and former users of mental health services, as well as those who have never used mental health services but are aligned with the Mad Pride framework. The movement advocates that

individuals with mental illness should be proud of their 'mad' identity.

Mad Pride was formed in 1993 in response to local community prejudices towards people with a psychiatric history

living in boarding homes in the Parkdale area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; since then, an event has been held in Toronto every year (except for 1996).

A similar movement began around the same time in the United Kingdom, and by the late 1990s, Mad Pride events

were organized around the globe, including in Australia, Brazil, France, Ireland, Portugal, Madagascar, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States. Events draw thousands of participants, according to MindFreedom International,

a United States mental health advocacy organization that promotes and tracks events spawned by the movement.

-Wikipedia


The Emergent MAD YOGA NETWORK aims include:

∞ Creating safer spaces fro yoga teachers with lived experience of neurodivergence and mental health to open up and dialogue transparently about our mental health journeys;

∞ Designing and delivering therapeutic yoga programs and experiences by people living with mental health issues;

∞ Service;

∞ Recognition that Yoga teachers and meditation teachers are on the front lines of public support and need support;

∞ Bringing the yoga industry and our communites to a higher octave with peer support experience and training.

Working on these: 

Mission: to create a peer-support network of spiritually conscious yoga teachers who have lived experience of madness, mental health and neurodivergence. 

Vision: Transforming mental health through a network of yoga teachers and practitioners informed by life-altering mental health challenges, trained in general peer support, in service to the yoga industry, including yoga students. Develop non-hierarchical relationships and open, honest conversations about neurodivergence, mental health and mental health challenges within the Yoga industry. 

Values: As set forth by the Yamas and Niyamas, Sutra 1.33, empathy, compassion, honesty, willingness, acceptance...


Join us!

To participate: