Just Breathe: Kiesha Yokers and the Importance of Breathwork

Photos by Lindywell. Originally published in AphroChic magazine Issue 13, Fall 2023.

It's our first thought when we're stressed and overwhelmed, the first step we're taught to take when a moment is in danger of spinning out of control. Just breathe, and it will all come back into focus. But what about the rest of the time? Do we need to focus on our breathing even when things aren't terrible? And what if the anxiety lasts for more than a moment? What if it's rooted somewhere deep in our pasts or — just as likely — the present strain of making worldwide sickness and economic uncertainty, together with political, social, and environmental upheaval all seem like business as usual? Can just breathing help for more than a moment? Can it work to regulate our bodies as well as our minds to create the kind of wellness we need to survive the world we find ourselves in? According to wellness guru and breathwork specialist Kiesha Yokers, the answer to all of these questions is yes. We sat down with the Seattle-based Breathwork Facilitator & Somatic Life Coach to talk about her own journey to breathwork, the power of daily practice, and the potential she believes it holds for us all.

AC: You’ve mentioned in your bio that you were nervous as a child and grew into an “anxious, over-pleasing adult.” What do you feel was the source of your anxieties? How did you learn to move past over pleasing behavior?

KY: Trauma, for sure. Trauma in my childhood had me very anxious inside. On the outside, you would have seen a high-functioning, high-performing, over-achieving people-pleaser who was sunny and bright. Inside I was worried about everything and everyone. I now understand this to be hyper-vigilance.

Because life felt unpredictable, I carried with me the desire to ensure everything was okay everywhere I went. This started at seven years old. By the time I hit my 30s, I was severely burnt out.

Folks think that trauma has to be massive. That is the biggest wake-up call of all. There is "big T trauma" and "little t trauma, " which all matter. It affects our developing nervous system. Trauma isn’t necessarily what happened to you but how it gets integrated into your life afterward. When I learned that, it really hit me hard. That was the catalyst for a change.

When my “self-care” wasn’t self-caring, I knew I needed help. I am all for a bubble bath and a good book, but performative self-care did nothing for my nervous system. I found a great therapist and somatic teacher to help me move past pleasing people (it took time), reparent myself in many ways, connect with that inner child who had to grow up before her time and set real boundaries that gave me my power back.

AC: 2020 was a turning point for the world in a number of ways. For you, it was the beginning of your journey into breathwork. What prompted your transition from conventional therapy into breathwork and how did it lead to your transition into a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator?

KY: I had a long career in education. But 2020 changed the field so much. I was home with my children, a military spouse in a new duty station, and a Black woman in a community that was hostile toward me. 2020 felt unsafe in so many ways. But the straw was watching George Floyd take his last breath. It hit me hard that the Black breath is short. By December of that year, I realized I was struggling with my mental health. I Googled how to breathe and discovered breathwork. Within 10 minutes, something in me had broken in the most beautiful way. The simple act of slowing my body down, inviting rest, and breathing felt like the most radical act I’d ever taken.

My breathwork journey started there, and I knew that breathing was the key to unlocking something that needed to be freed inside of me. It allowed me to take the next step in my mental health journey.

I am a big believer in therapy. I worked with a therapist who used somatics (a body-centered approach that emphasizes internal physical perception. It teaches you to pay attention to sensation and helps you release stored emotions that weigh you down). I continued breathwork and was so transformed by this work that I decided to start my somatic training to teach others this work. Somatic work has made such an impact, and I wanted to make this work accessible for everyone to learn from.

AC: What are breathwork, somatics and embodiment? How do they work individually and collectively and to what respective ends? Are there other methods that you advocate?

KY: Breathwork is a conscious manipulation of the breath to achieve a specific outcome (i.e. energy, relaxation, elimination of mind chatter, and pain). When people ask me where to start, I advise them to begin with breath awareness. Awareness of how you are breathing right now or at any given point gives you insight into how you breathe. Studies show that most of the population is not breathing correctly, but you must start paying attention to how you breathe and notice how it feels.

Do you take short, shallow breaths? Do you breathe through your nose or mouth? Is there tension anywhere in your body? Breath awareness is an ongoing practice that will allow you to move on to trying different forms of breathing.

Soma is the Greek word for the living body. Our soma is our first-person experience and intelligence of our body. It's what we experience from within, from sensations to emotions. Your soma holds your thoughts, emotions, and expression.

Somatics is the study and practice of soma through a growing internal awareness. It is a mind-body practice encompassing bodywork, movement, and mindful strategies that call you into experiencing what it's like to be in your body. Somatics is used in dance, movement, body rehabilitation, therapy, and more. Somatics is also awareness. One crucial key to somatics is awareness of the internal body (interoception) and awareness of how the body moves in space (proprioception).

Embodiment allows our bodies to take the shape of the traits we want to show up with. We all know what an angry person looks like. They embody the trait of anger. What would it look like to embody traits of rest, healing, peace, sweetness, or softness? The work I do teaches people how to use their minds and body to create this new shape they would like to take on. That is embodiment.

AC: Modern breathwork seems to have strong roots in Pranayama, one of the eight limbs of traditional yoga. How would you compare/contrast the practices?

KY: There are many different lineages in both somatics and breathwork (one somatic tool). Breathwork comes out of Southeast Asia and has roots in Africa as well as other parts of the world. Many of my teachers are working tirelessly to trace the roots of modern breathwork.

People may be familiar with Pranayama, an ancient and beautiful lineage known as one of the eight limbs of yoga. Psychiatrist Stanislov Grof developed Holotropic breathwork in the '70s as a drug-free method to change a person's state of consciousness. It seems like an old trend made new, but it demands more respect than that. Thousands of years old, breathwork is a practice that has been used therapeutically and for spiritual awakening by the ancestors.

At Lindywell, I use many lineages, including Pranayama. Wim Hof has also grown quite popular recently. If someone has tried breathwork and it “didn’t work for them,” I remind them that there are many different styles and teachers. Breathwork, first and foremost, is for everybody. Which type you use and the teacher you learn from is based on your specific needs. If one style doesn’t work for you, try another because breathwork is unlike anything you will do. It can radically free you in so many ways.

AC: Do you have experience with or incorporate any aspect of the remaining seven such as ethical and spiritual disciplines, posture, or cultivating greater levels of concentration?

KY: I love yoga. Yoga is very popular where I am from, but you won’t see many folks who look like me in the studios. Yoga has been so horribly appropriated that it makes sense why many of us don’t want anything to do with it.

It wasn’t until I read the work of Susana Barkataki and Jessamyn Stanley that I began to see myself in the work. Susana first taught me about Ahimsa (non-violence) and how I can apply that to my mind and thoughts. It is from Ahimsa that I have learned to love myself truly. Bringing yoga back to its roots has taught me to respect and honor the culture it came from. I work to do that in my breathwork and somatic classes.

AC: Tell us about Lindywell and your role as head of its breathwork center. Are there ways that you find you need to tailor your approach to breathwork for it to better fit with Pilates?

KY: Great question! I am the Head of Breathwork and Somatic Programs for Lindywell, a wellness brand offering a best-in-class Pilates and breathwork app and live somatic and breathwork classes. It is my dream job! We are a woman-owned company with a unique perspective. We take a grace-over-guilt approach to wellness that makes wellness accessible to all bodies. We are proud of our diverse Pilates instructors and are committed to ensuring that all women live life to the fullest. I’m there because Lindywell gets that breath- work is transformative. This is not a fad or a trend we are jumping on. It’s core to our approach.

Breath is one of the central components of the Pilates method. Pilates utilizes breath within exercises to support the mind-body connection, engage specific muscle groups, and facilitate healthy movement patterns. The focus on breath throughout Pilates is one of the reasons it is so good for your physical and mental health. Given that stress is a primary concern for our members and community, we wanted to provide more specific guidance and support for using breathwork not just in Pilates but as a stand-alone wellness practice.

AC: America has not typically been concerned with the wellness of Black people, and the realities of Black life in this country have usually left us with little time to emphasize it for ourselves. Yet as we consider more and more the unique pressures and stresses of being Black in America, we are finding a need for strategies that enable us to do more than continue shouldering the burden. How can breathwork fit specifically into that space?

KY: Amen to that! Our hustle-and-grind culture has left us bone-weary, and the beautiful but misunderstood concept of Black excellence has our spirits depleted from the constant pursuit of absolute, always-on excellence.

What time do we have to care for our hearts and get a workout in? But the time is now. We must reclaim our peace through peaceful practices addressing the root cause (our disregulated nervous systems and dissociated bodies). We have escaped our bodies for far too long, and it's time to come home to ourselves. Many of us have never felt safe in our bodies, which is why this work is even more impactful in Black and Brown spaces and why I created a live BIPOC breath- work class. There is no other way to heal than to nourish our souls. There is so much power and healing in reclaiming our breath. I remind my classes that we are worthy of countless breaths. Take every one of them in as your divine right and exhale into your peace and freedom.

AC: You have mentioned that the wellness industry as a whole is not welcoming to people of color. What has been your experience as a Black woman carving out a space in this industry? What advice or strategies would you offer to anyone looking to increase the number of Black and brown instructors and industry leaders?

KY: What I know is that the wellness industry needs to talk to us (but isn’t). They need to include us in the conversation because our health is at stake. For instance, Black women purchase more personal care products than any other group. Yet, we have a higher amount of toxins in our products that are specifically marketed to us. Black maternal health outcomes are criminal. Toxic stress is killing us, yet access to mental health services is abysmal.

Breathwork comes from Brown and Black bodies but is not mainstream in our culture and is often inaccessible. Even if it was, many wellness studios talk about this being a safe space, but we know that is false. My body can feel unsafe when I am the only Black-bodied person in the room. A vigilance is present in the back of my mind when I hear those words. “This is a safe space” is not a trauma-informed statement. For example, trauma-informed teachers know that asking people to close their eyes may create anxiety in the body, so the invitation to soften their gaze or keep their eyes open needs to be made. Students deserve to be reminded that they have agency over their bodies.

There are some incredible thought leaders in the somatic space (Sonya Renne Taylor, Prentiss Hemphill, and Resmaa Menakem), but there are not enough. I believe that this work has the power to change minds and bodies, our homes, and our entire communities to heal from trauma. I want to see more black and brown instructors in somatic work, whether it is breathwork or any other form. My advice is to reach out to those you admire doing the work. Connect and ask questions.

There is enough room for us all to thrive, and we need us to be leaders in this space so that it is truly accessible to all. Hire black women for leadership roles. When black women are at the helm, there is a different perspective at the table.

AC: As wellness becomes more of a watchword for our community, do you feel there is a need for approaches to the work that are specifically rooted in or focused on our cultural perspectives/realities? What would that entail and what might some of the benefits be?

KY: Without a doubt! Wellness is not created equal. Wellness looks different depending on your vantage point, access, and opportunities. This is why I love somatic work. Breathing is free, and the breath is a clear roadmap to the nervous system. How we breathe tells us how we are doing — short, shallow breathing may indicate stress or anxiety, a sympathetic fight or flight state. Whereas long, slow breaths move us into our parasympathetic nervous system. A few breaths that are low in the belly and slow can get us back to a regulated state quickly.

We all know what it feels like to walk into spaces made for us, by us, and by folks who un- derstand our unique perspectives and realities. Finding and creating more Black and Brown trauma-trained instructors is essential. We deserve to have spaces where we can truly breathe. This is one of the reasons I created a BIPOC breathwork class at Lindywell. Addi- tionally, we have financial assistance so that many people can attend the class and begin their somatic healing journey using breathwork.

AC: What is your personal breathwork practice like? What are some of the ways you incorporate it into daily life?

KY: Because breathwork is so simple, I wake up and do energizing breathwork for a few minutes before I get out of bed, which gives me a jolt of energy. I check in with my breath throughout the day because I have made this a habit. I use various techniques throughout the day when I feel stressed, particularly when my kids come home from school.

Breathing is huge in our house. My partner and I practice breathing with and in front of our children so they see us calming down when we get overwhelmed. By showing up as emotionally regulated parents, we can co-regulate our children and soften their outbursts so we can connect before we ever launch into correcting. Our goal as parents is to raise emotionally intelligent children who are aware of their nervous system and become adults skilled at regulating their emotions. Can you imagine if we started learning this young? I’m on a mission to do that for us! I invite you to join me!