Hooky Talks w/ Adria Moses
A Detroit-based yoga practitioner’s best practices for maintaining your practice from home
Interview & article by: Lyndsay Green
When it first became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic was expected to reach the U.S., trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practitioner Adria Moses went into protection mode. As someone living with Crohn's Disease, Moses couldn't afford to put herself or her students at risk by maintaining a normal class schedule. Instead, she adapted to a virtual format, offering weekly classes via Zoom and Instagram Live. Through her practice, she's found that we're all experiencing heightened levels of anxiety due to a fear of the unknown. Here, she imparts wisdom on keeping grounded throughout these traumatic times.
Hooky Wellness: How is yoga sustaining you through such a trying time?
Adria Moses: Yoga is something that I can't live without. During my most traumatic time, the innate, intuitive thing for me to do was to go to my mat. The beautiful thing about teaching digitally for me, is that I actually get to do the practice. Whereas in the studio, I'm focusing on what students are doing, now, students have to be able to see what I’m doing. I'm in practice two or three times a day now and it’s completely sustaining my mindfulness practice. It's keeping me present, it’s keeping me grounded, it’s keeping me healthy. It’s allowing me to deal with the triggers that come up during this crisis. So, it's really a gift.
HW: What is one pose everyone should try at their most stressful moments?
AM: There’s a posture called Child’s Pose that I highly recommend if you're someone who is experiencing high anxiety and can't seem to ground. Come onto your hands and knees, bring your big toes close together, and spread your knees nice and wide. Sit your hips back towards your heels, walk your palms forward and let your third eye rest onto the mat. That connection between your forehead and the mat is automatically tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system. Once you've done that, start breathing slowly and deeply—it’s not about controlling the breath, it's about knowing the breath. It's the consciousness of breathing that brings your mind and your body back together. Forward Folds—standing or sitting—are always useful, too.
HW: Any breathwork tips?
AM: You don't have to do anything special to the breath. I don’t even think there’s breathwork that is necessary right now. Most people are holding their breaths. They're waiting to exhale because they’re scared. If we can just be aware that we’re inhaling and exhaling, that automatically brings the mind and body into alignment.
HW: What is one piece of wisdom we should bring with us into this upcoming week?
AM: The one thing that I encourage you to do is to take time out of your day to consciously breathe. Whether that be for 5 minutes or 30 minutes, it doesn't matter because it’s going to help us get through this. You’re living your deepest, richest life when you're conscious that you’re breathing.
Visit adriamoses.com or follow @AdriaMoses on Instag
