Jan. 24—As part of their Hygge month programming, the Madison County Library will be hosting Mindfulness Yoga on Saturday, Jan. 28 from 3 p. m. to 4 p. m. at the Berea location.Attendees can enjoy refreshments while they learn how to incorporate mindful yoga into their everyday lives. A chance to win door prizes is also available.This program will be held in partnership with Kentucky River Foothills’s Madison Opioid Response & Empowerment (MORE) program in order to support community wellness.The MORE program began in Madison County in 2019 with a planning grant, but the work really got started in 2020 when they received an implementation grant.Karen Atkins, who served as the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) director with Kentucky River Foothills, said their involvement with the MORE program goes beyond the main staff. There is also a community consortium involved with combating opioid addiction in Madison County.”We meet often as a group. That group drives what we do. Some of them [consortium members] include the Madison County Health Department, White House Clinics, the Madison County EMS, and Richmond Chamber of Commerce. There are several others. We have a few individuals on the consortium as well,” she said.The MORE program and its affiliates have implemented numerous community initiatives geared toward lessening opioid disorders in Madison County.”Our three focus areas are prevention, treatment, and recovery. So, the overall goal of MORE is to sustain the fight against opioid use disorder and substance use disorder in Madison County,” Atkins explained.Some of these initiatives have included partnering with local high schools to launch life skills classes geared towards drug prevention as well as creating programming for local colleges geared towards being a “recovery ally.”These community education initiatives encourage young people to be educated about the issue while facilitating practical solutions for them to create a safer environment for themselves and their community.Story continuesThey also support recovery efforts by assisting those struggling with addiction with obstacles like transportation and accessibility by funding transportation vouchers and taking on community projects.”We got to help fund a recovery room at White House Clinics. It’s a place where, after you receive your MOUD [Medications for Opioid Use Disorder], you can relax in a safe, quiet space,” Atkins explained.She also said t the mindfulness yoga workshop at the library is an opportunity for anyone and everyone to stop and take a breath.Laura Click, LCSW, RYT 200, will be leading the workshop.Her education and training have allowed her to develop a trauma-informed approach that helps her instruct various audiences. She advised that mindfulness and yoga are effective against health issues, like addiction and anxiety, due to their deliberate introspective properties.”Mindfulness is all about being able to choose your attention, like choosing what you focus your attention on, and just focusing on the present moment. Often, addiction pulls you into things that have happened in the past. People can also struggle with addiction because of anxiety, depression, and things that are not related to right now,” Click explained.She added, “So, mindfulness is a core recovery skill that we try to teach. A lot of times, the idea of sitting and being still in meditation is too difficult when you are in recovery. Yoga is a form of mindfulness that connects movements and breathing with calming the mind. It makes being able to focus on the present moment more accessible for people who just have a lot of things that are going on in their mind.”The workshop will be gentle, so beginners are welcome. Click said the workshop would benefit anyone who would like to attend.”We live in a society that’s kind of always either looking backward or forward. There are a lot of things to be stressed about in the world these days, and it’s very easy to get sucked into being stressed and worried about them. Mindfulness is one of the ways that you can draw your attention to what you can do right now. and similarly, a lot of people have difficulty practicing or trying mindfulness because they feel like it’s just too hard to slow their mind down, so the movement piece of yoga helps to make it more available to them,” Click said.Adult Programs Coordinator Katlyn Ramsey said the Hygge partnership was a natural fit due to the nature of yoga, as it is used as a self-care tool.”Self-care and taking time to connect with yourself helps people heal and helps them rejuvenate from things that have happened in their past or to have a better standing, moving forward. They can make positive decisions for themselves and their body. Yoga seemed like a good thing to provide for the community, in general, because it’s beneficial physically, emotionally and mentally,” she explained.MORE supports all paths to treatment and recovery. Those who wish to discuss assistance options through Kentucky River Foothills can call their Richmond office at (859) 623-6514 Monday through Friday 8 a. m. to 4 p.m.
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