ABOUT
MANDELA YOGA PROJECT
The Problem
Mandela Yoga Project, (MYP Inc.) was created to center people of color as healers of the stressors that result in chronic diseases like diabetes & hypertension and that disproportionately affect Blacks (16.4% vs Whites 11.9%) and prematurely claim the lives of Blacks at twice the rate of Whites (37.8% vs 18.8%). As early as 2013, a growing body of research revealed that
racism is a determinant of health. A 2015 meta-analysis of epidemiological data from 293 studies reported in 333 articles published between 1983 and 2013 found that racism was associated with poorer mental health, including depression, anxiety, psychological stress and various other negative outcomes.
Yet in 2020, African Americans continue to have lower life expectancies and higher rates of infant mortality. According to the American Public Health Association, by June, 2020 more than twenty-six states had officially declared racism a public health issue. Yoga has been proven to heal trauma and to improve health outcomes. A growing body of research has also revealed yoga’s effectiveness at addressing stress-induced illnesses. Still, access to the ancient Indian practice of yoga -
a proven therapeutic modality - is rarely available in communities of color.
The target communities for future hosts of Mandela Yoga include areas with chronic disease prevalence and poverty. Included are geographic concentration of public housing, homeless shelters, medical clinics, senior center, houses of worship, and also the absence of services such as banking, healthy food sources, well-maintained public parks, and yoga.
"Using geo-mapping software, we superimposed the distribution of yoga studios on a map of Boston showing income levels by zip code. With few exceptions, yoga studios were predominantly located in neighborhoods where mean resident income was greater [dark green] then the city average and absent in [light green] areas where income was lower than the median." With few exceptions, yoga studioes were predominant located in neighborhoods where mean resident income was greater than the city average and absent in areas where income was lower than the median."
- Robert Saper, MD, Mph Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities, January 1, 2016.
Our Solution
We envision a world where those affected by the American Public Health Crisis of racism are empowered to heal their own communities with the proven integrative health benefits and emotional wellbeing of yoga that is offered - without regard to income - where they live, work, worship, and play.
MYP is an early-stage systems design approach centering the lived experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, We are gathering practitioners and healers of color along with researchers, public health experts, and medical professionals to design a new, evidence-based system of yoga -
Mandela Yoga - and a new teacher training program for residents of public health crisis communities. To deliver Mandela Yoga, we will build a national network of independent, affiliated, free yoga classes in healthcare settings that will be taught by a cadre of well-trained, well compensated, and well-supported teachers of color.
The Mandela Yoga solution was presented in 2024 to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's S4A National Coordinating Center.
Our Systems Partners
Click to magnify each of the graphics below to see the Mandela Yoga public health solution's settings, populations, and institutions.
Survey Says
What some participants say about the Mandela Yoga intervention.
Background
Created for people like the founder's late sister - a curvy Black woman who died of complications from diabetes - and named for Nelson Mandela
(who transcended his circumstances), Mandela Yoga project was launched in 2018 by Jeffrey Thomas after he found yoga helped him achieve a
50-pound weight loss and control of his own diabetes and hypertension.
Born in 1960s Mississippi to Civil Rights activists (a preacher and a teacher) he recalls the way his community, grounded in the church, gathered resources and cared for each other through difficult times. This model of neighbors finding solutions for neighbors inspired the MYP model - one that centers Black, Indigenous, and people of color a healers of the stressors of poverty, racialized trauma and racism that result in disproportionate burdens of
chronic disease and mortality.
What is a Mandala?
A Mandala is a spiritual symbol of self reconciliation, through self exploration and forgiveness we can return back to our center, our whole self.
What is a Mandela Mandala?
A Mandela Mandala — named for Nelson Mandela — represents unity, a collective of leaders committed to providing brave spaces for people of color and others of courage to heal through mindful movement. It is through the practice of coming back to wholeness that we become empowered to transcend all circumstances — including racism and white supremacy.
