Wellness Wednesday: Yoga and Cultural Connection with Malina Dawn
April 10, 2024by Carissa Harrison in Customer Stories
Malina Dawn shares how her yoga practice has helped her connect back to culture.
"Yoga found me when I was about 17 years old. It was the first Indigenous medicine that crossed my path, that has a very profound impact on my healing. I felt it very very quickly although I didn't understand how it worked back then. I just knew I wanted to keep practicing."
"I didn't grow up with my culture, like so many of us, I have a family that ended up in residential schools. So our teachings were cut off. So I wasn't raised in the cultural way, but I always had a feeling that there was something missing in my life. I felt it from the time I was a child, all through my teen years."
" As I was learning both of these paths, yoga and my culture. I started to realize after many years that there is a weaving of teachings that were very complimentary between these two ways of being. And the reason I say yoga is Indigenous is because the teachings come from people that were in a very deep connection to the land just like those of who are Indigenous to Turtle Island"
Malina shared these teachings in the Squamish and Sq'ewlets nations community apps. In these programs she led yoga and grounding practices to help nation members ground and find guidance during difficult times.
These teaching's resonated deeply with the nation members and so we felt called to share them with you this Wellness Wednesday!
