Yoga and Loss

Abstract

The author explores her experience of yoga as a therapeutic tool in recovering from the impact of losing a close friend to suicide. The benefits of yoga include improved emotional self-regulation, a more positive relationship with self, and the emergence of a new personal physical reality. An autoethnographical approach permits a necessarily ambiguous and messy in-depth exploration of yoga as a resource for well-being. Nevertheless, it is hoped that it will serve as a means of promoting further study into the role of cultural resources, particularly body-based practices, as means of coming to terms with traumatic loss.