Mindwalk Yoga
Introducing Mindwalk Yoga, the UK’s first yoga studio to be founded and exclusively run by black women with a mission to rebalance representation and power in the wellness sector.
It’s always great to see new yoga initiatives being born, and here’s one of them.
Introducing Mindwalk Yoga, a UK-based virtual wellbeing studio and social enterprise open to everyone specialising in yoga, sound healing and yoga therapy for mental wellness.
It’s formed by a multi-skilled team of black female practitioners, focusing on supporting black women’s wellness with a much-needed rebalancing of representation in the wellness sector.
Mindwalk Yoga’s founder, Zakiya Bishton, is a qualified yoga teacher with over 10 years’ teaching experience and specific yoga therapy for anxiety and PTSD training.
She’s joined by a sound therapist, Cherelle Sappleton, and other talented and experienced yoga teachers including Karen James and Yvonne Henrietta.
The goal is to bring better health and mental wellbeing to the Mindwalk Yoga community.
“Black women’s wellbeing matters,” Bishton tells OM. “My aim with Mindwalk Yoga is to empower everyone who practices to get to know their mental health better, and specifically, black women.”
Important mission
Mindwalk Yoga also works in partnership with Fierce Calm, a not-for-profit yoga organisation that aims to make yoga accessible to all while supporting the most vulnerable in society, within a diverse, welcoming environment of safety, inclusivity, dignity and empowerment.
“In the UK, black women are disproportionately experiencing anxiety and depression,” says Bishton. “We are less likely to access intervention treatment and more likely to access mental health care when we become critical. We need to be aware of this. We need to talk about our mental health more, and we need more access to preventative therapies like yoga.”
From March, Mindwalk Yoga extended the virtual wellbeing studio to run seven classes a week that includes yoga therapy for anxiety, Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Hatha Yoga and healing sound baths.
Classes are accessible and affordable to reach people from all circumstances and backgrounds, adds Bishton.
In parallel to the open-to-everyone wellbeing studio, Mindwalk Yoga has also created an exclusive Black Women’s Wellness Collective and hosts monthly affordable retreats for black women and black non-binary people.
“The company’s mission is that wellbeing is not exclusive, or expensive, but forms part of a much-needed routine to promote mental wellness.”
Sign up for five days for a fiver at: MindwalkYoga.org or follow the movement on Instagram @MindwalkYoga
Om Magazine
First published in November 2009, OM Yoga magazine has become the most popular yoga title in the UK. Available from all major supermarkets, independents and newsstands across the UK. Also available on all digital platforms.
