On Monday, managers from YSN partner agencies gathered at Scharr’s Bluff in Hastings to spend time together, to breathe, and to learn from our friends at the Irreducible Grace Foundation how to take a breath when things feel stressful.

IGF operates the Black Youth Healing Arts Center, a space where Black youth learn to process their un/under processed historical trauma. These youth then share the healing practices that they have learned out in the community with organizations like ours.

The training was centered on one of their core mantras: “Freedom is finding the pause between a trigger and a response and making a choice.” The breathing and body practices were all about slowing down automatic responses to give us power to choose instead of react. Powerful for both every day life and for working in high-stress environments!

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