This breathing expert helps us breathe easier in a world that puts undue burdens on Black women – Essence

When Jasmine Marie was fresh out of business school and dealing in global brand marketing, she realized she was stressed. As Marie told ESSENCE, “Nobody ever said it outright, but the basic message was that if you want to succeed, you’re going to have to push yourself to the limits.”

But it got to the purpose where Marie literally experienced a physical response to the stress she was experiencing. So she tried to seek out a solution to reduce stress. At the time, she was volunteering at her church they usually were opening a community center offering free breathing classes.

After the primary session she was hooked.

“I just kept going and eventually got certified,” she said. However, during her training, she “noticed that there were very few practitioners of color, especially black ones.”

“Knowing how much [as Black people] keeping trauma in our bodies and the specific challenges we face in society” – Marie’s attitude immediately modified to how she could communicate this to our community. And so begins the story of Marie’s company, Black Girls Breathing.

What exactly is breathing?

Marie says it’s “an active form of meditation that helps the nervous system reprogram its response to triggers, trauma, stress and anxiety.” She added that “our bodies are naturally wired to know easy methods to take care of stress, but if you take very specific circumstances into consideration, whether it’s generational trauma, social trauma or individual trauma, our system is overwhelmed.”

When this happens, “we live in fight or flight mode and have high cortisol levels. Our social experiences [this] more than any other demographic group.” “With all this, he’s like a muscle. If you don’t train it, you can kind of weaken, so we use breathing work to strengthen those muscles,” Marie explained. “It is believed to be a somatic tool that helps the body heal.”

Marie’s ultimate goal: “to provide free mental health resources to one million Black women and girls in our community [by 2025]” How can you breathe with Marie? She said it was as simple as “yes[ing] pledge on our website” at www.blackgirlsbreathing.com.

Once you enroll, “you will be able to receive a free mental health toolkit that will include breathing videos, audio meditations, journaling prompts for very specific types of trauma, as well as cultural resources that are truly relevant to what it is to be a black woman experiences on a daily basis, in addition to other mental health resources.”

Black Girls Breathing is even back in person for the primary time for the reason that pandemic. This November and December, sessions will likely be held in Washington, D.C. and Houston, Texas, with exact dates and times yet to be determined.

As for the long run of Black Girls Breathing, Marie said, “next year we will launch our breathwork facilitator program and… we have already started conversations with school systems. We want to be able to work with school counselors, especially in at-risk schools.”