The woman making it her mission to bring yoga to Haiti

“Very recently in Haiti, for almost TWO weeks, no one could even go outside. We need yoga, so we don’t get stuck. Haitians need yoga“

Muriel C. PAUL is an artist, a mother, a daughter, a yoga student, and yoga instructor from Port-Au-Prince. Her organization AYITIZENYOGA  is dedicated to spreading access to yoga across the country of Haiti and to educate on the benefits of the practice and to demystify it for many that have never heard of it or feel it threatens their long held traditions of religious beliefs. Muriel’s hope is that as many Haitians as possible will practice and use that practice to support and uplift them during challenging times in their Country.

Muriel: How how did you get started?

I started practicing in 2014. I had been going to therapy. I was at an appointment and saw yoga mats and asked my doctor about them. My doctor told me that she focused on breath work with patients and then I was so focused on knowing and finding a different way to help myself, and the old methods were not working for me. I had only seen yoga in movies but my mind was really curious.

So I went to Ama Makeda’s class at her Shala in Jacquet, Haiti.  Ama Makeda studied in India twice once in kerala and again at the yoga university, Swami Vivekananda, which I was later chosen to attend as well after she had gone. She holds two certificates, one for yoga instruction and one for teaching yoga for people with diabetes. (after I went to India I got these 2 certificates, she has a yoga alliance certificate and the 2 Svyasa university certificates )

After a while of attending her classes regularly, Ama saw something in me (like her Guru in Kerala said) and reached out to me and said, “I would like you to be my student so that I can teach as well”.  She said she would teach me exactly how she was taught in India, day by day, everything she knows.So, every single day, except on Sunday, I would go to her house and she would teach me. Eventually, one day, she asked me to teach a class in her absence because she knew,

At that point, I was done with my  training. But I liked the training and the time we spent together too much, so I continued to show up, and eventually we just ended up practicing together, and doing kriya yoga, diving intro nutrition. I started exploring a vegetarian diet.

When I began studying, I didn’t know if I would be a teacher tho I knew that it was the purpose, but I loved it so much that it became something that I must do, then something must be my job. When I was going to teach, Ama mentored me, and we wrote the sequences together, so I felt very supported.

What is yoga like in Haiti?

Yoga in Haiti is perceived several ways, one is as a luxury with some very devoted students. Also it can be perceived by many as something really bad and devilish, that’s why I want to educate people so they understand it. Then there is the middle range, they know about it, but don’t really know about it. So the people that really know the class, will practice a lot.

Why is yoga important in Haiti?

Very recently in Haiti, for almost TWO weeks, no one could even go outside, we were on lock down. We desperately need yoga, so we don’t get stuck on the inside . To practice and remain peaceful in the midst of constant chaos. To equip us to be ready in a way so that our peaceful wellness is not disturbed.  Helping us to find another way in the chaos, especially when you live in Haiti and to help restore Social Order is so important.

What is AyitiZenYoga?

This is a way to introduce the country to yoga. And to have something in place that keeps it going, like workshops and retreats and go on local trips to include yoga in their exercising routine.

How are you working with You Care. We Care.

I am in the process of creating a program for the people of Petite Riviere.

Muriel, Why do you practice?

The more I can connect outside of myself, I connect to myself.

It offers me this inner sense of stability along with nature which gives me the assurance that I can explore this thing called life as close to it as it has intended it.

It's very peaceful, again all Haitian and the world should practice yoga, to feel that too. "