We recently connected with Nancy Watson and have shared our conversation below.

Nancy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

My current endeavors as a yoga teacher make up a very satisfying part-time, post-retirement career. I completed the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT-200) before I retired from my position as Digital Learning Consultant in a large educational organization. When I began YTT, people kept telling me to be open to new things, because yoga would open up doors that I didn’t yet know existed, and that has certainly been the case. I wasn’t sure at the time where the yoga journey would take me. My “defining moment” was probably the moment I decided to walk away from a job I no longer loved to discover what I might learn from immersing myself more deeply in the field of yoga. Although I was worried at the time that it wasn’t the most sound financial decision I’d ever made, I could never have predicted the level of job satisfaction I currently have.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The area of yoga that has become my special niche is Yoga for Grief. I’ve been a yoga practitioner for over 25 years. When I experienced a traumatic loss in 2019, I continued to come to my yoga mat. Yoga was the only thing in those dark days of early grief that made me feel – not better, exactly, but slightly less awful. When I went through Yoga Teacher Training, I began to connect some dots about why that was the case. After reading a couple of books about Yoga for Grief, I completed an additional 60-hour training in Compassionate Bereavement Care Yoga, and I am currently the only person in the north Texas area who leads yoga classes specifically for grieving individuals. I designed my Yoga for Grief sessions as six weekly 90-minute classes, each of which centers on one particular way that yoga and yoga philosophy can help in times of grief. Topics include how we experience grief in our bodies, using mindfulness to tame our often unkind and unhelpful thoughts, and celebrating our courage as we face a future that might look very different from what we once imagined.

We live in a pretty grief-illiterate world, and I want my participants to feel seen and validated for whatever their experience is. Most of my attendees have experienced a loss due to the death of a loved one, but grief comes in many forms. Participants in my classes have struggled with the loss of a relationship due to a breakup, the sadness of watching a loved one’s decline into dementia, or the loss of a pet. I hold space for my participants and encourage them to fully feel whatever it is they feel. I don’t offer empty platitudes or toxic positivity, and I encourage class members to participate at whatever level they are comfortable with. I view myself as a compassionate witness to grief, and it’s my tragic privilege to serve in that capacity.

I’ve also finished the first draft of The Yoga for Grief Workbook. I wanted an opportunity to explain a little more about yoga than what I typically have time for in a 90-minute class, so each chapter begins with a short vignette about my personal journey in grief, and then expands on the class themes I’ve developed. The book also includes images of different yoga poses, links to guided meditations and short asana practices, and lots of reflection prompts. I’m continuing to refine the writing and look forward to its publication sometime later this year.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My father died when I was six years old, and we pretty much just never talked about him again. So I learned from that early age to be a grief stuffer. I had no role models for facing grief and dealing with it openly, but when my adult child died suddenly in 2019, the “stuffing” model no longer worked for me. I needed some kind of outlet to explore my grief, and I wanted to attend yoga classes that were especially designed for grievers. None existed in my area at the time, so I decided to design those classes myself.

Creating the space for OTHERS to deal with their grief has unexpectedly allowed me repeated opportunities to acknowledge and verbalize my own grief experiences. And that has profoundly impacted my personal grief journey.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Compassion and empathy are key. Coming alongside others in their grief, rather than trying to fix them, is what I try to do. Kindness and a non-judgmental space for discussing feelings and experiences seem to be what many people are looking for in their grief, and I hope they find those things when they attend my classes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yogaforgriefdallas.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/yogaforgriefdallas
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/yoga.for.grief.dallas