As conversations around mental health in the Caribbean become more frequent, many individuals are looking for changes in their lifestyle to help them combat some of these challenges. Yoga is becoming the popular alternative of choice because of its benefit to ease stress and promote relaxation. Our bodies produce stress hormones classified as cortisol and yoga can decrease the release of this hormone in our system. One of the individuals who must be credited for the growth in popularity of yoga in the Caribbean, especially in Trinidad & Tobago, is Paris James.
On April 13, 1992, Trinidad & Tobago gifted the universe with a vivacious and mindful leader who is wholeheartedly committed to edifying her fellow Caribbean woman. Upon completing her secondary education, James was awarded an open scholarship from the government of Trinidad and Tobago granting her the capacity to study anywhere in the world. Her fascination with the chemistry of the body and the inner workings of the mind-body connection led her to pursue a double major in Biochemistry and Neuroscience. She later graduated from the University of Toronto with Honors.
Although she is a self-proclaimed “science nerd”, James is deeply passionate about empowering women to live a “mindfully fit life” hence why she now practices and teaches yoga in Trinidad & Tobago. Our first question to James was a bit philosophical. We asked her what it truly means to live a mindfully fit life and she boldly stated, “I’ve always seen the value in trying to be rounded as a person. Growing up I was a nerd LOL. I was always engaged in a variety of activities – involved in the badminton team, the scrabble team, the debating team, and the chess club. So, I always believe in having not just academics but everything else as well. In terms of fitness, I don’t just do yoga for superficial reasons to say I want to look a certain way or to say I wanna have a specific body type. I believe in being fit holistically, not just your body. So a lot of people like physical fitness and they take care of their bodies but there is also mental wellness.”
James’s mental health and wellness were put to the test when she left Trinidad & Tobago to study in Toronto. Many persons underestimate the huge adjustment that comes with uprooting from the comfort of the islands, to live in another country. It takes a fair bit of mental fortitude and when we asked James what the biggest adjustment was for her at that time, she did not hesitate to say, “the first thing that shocked me was the weather, honestly. I’m a very sunshine oriented person! I love the sun so that was a big shocker. I developed a case of Seasonal Affective Disorder when there was absolutely no sign of the sun. I would wander through the streets of Canada in search of the sun and that was just really hard to adjust to. The weather has a big influence on you especially when you grow up in the sunny islands of the Caribbean.”
James was allowed to study on a full scholarship so she may not have had the financial strains that many college students have, but she further expounded on some of the challenges adjusting, “not having any family around was also really difficult for me. I was pretty much alone! I was living on campus and I didn’t really have any family in Canada so it was hard. In literally my third month of college I got a call from my mom that my stepfather had been murdered back home in Trinidad. During my semester, I had to fly back home to Trinidad for the funeral. I remember feeling really distraught because I missed two weeks of school but I still ended up getting a 4.0 GPA that semester. At that point I realized, it doesn’t matter what you go through in life- you always have a choice and I chose to fight through it and I was able to grow from that situation.”
Outside of the health advantages of yoga, there is an undeniable aspect of sensuality that yoga exudes. In closing, we engaged with James on how yoga helped her to embrace her sensuality as a woman. She stated unequivocally, “I believe that I’m empowering people to be confident in themselves. Yoga is oriented around the movement of the body which is a form of art, similar to how dance is a form of art. I believe that at our core we are sensual beings…that’s how we are. We just have to appreciate that and stop thinking that a woman being sensual is taboo. I always think about the fact that I’m going to be old and grey. We won’t be able to move our bodies in the same way so I wanna look back on my life and know I did what I wanted to do. I exuded this sensual part of myself and I wasn’t afraid or ashamed to feel sexy. Being sexy doesn’t have to mean there is a lack of spirituality…I don’t relate to that kind of thinking! We are in 2020 (almost 2021) ..just let people be !”
