Sa Ta Na Ma

Led by Kyla Pearce

Teaching meditation and yoga to TBI survivors has given me the truly special opportunity to support them to experience their mind as calm and focused and their body as creative and capable. This notion of just being is really important in the TBI healing process, where there is so much doing and trying and, sometimes, a feeling of needing to catch up. Meditation provides space to allow the body and mind to just be. The meditation I am sharing with you incorporates a mantra, sa ta na ma, that we will chant together. Mantras give the mind something to focus on to help it settle into the present and sound helps quiet the chatter of thoughts.

Kyla (she/her) serves as the Senior Director of Programs and Research, overseeing the design, implementation, and evaluation of LoveYourBrain programs on a large scale. By turning inward through mindfulness, Kyla believes we learn to be with our whole selves with greater compassion, which is fundamental to wellbeing and inspiring positive social change. Kyla has blended her expertise as a yoga and mindfulness teacher and practitioner, researcher, and advocate to develop evidence-based, TBI-centered yoga and meditation curricula, which she trains yoga teachers and clinicians to deliver in clinical, community, and online settings. She recently completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Dartmouth College investigating the impact of yoga and meditation for people with neurological conditions, and has published broadly on this topic. She has been part of the Pearce family for years, and, following Kevin's accident, played an integral role in the launch of LoveYourBrain.