Mindfulness with Project Peaceful Warriors

We are almost a month into a city-mandated shelter in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and it's not easy. It's been disruptive to our daily routines and ways of life, in particular, if you have children, are an essential worker, or are transitioning to working from home. Our partners with Project Peaceful Warrior are helping us find more mindfulness in our days and how we set up routines, so we can ensure mental health remains a priority as well as our physical health.

This event is free for YLC Members and $10 for Friends of YLC.

Chelsea Bio:

Chelsea Hylton is a New Orleans-based educator and Founder of Project Peaceful Warriors, a non-profit organization developed to bring the tools of Trauma-Informed Yoga and Mindfulness to students and educators. Originally from Alexandria Virginia, Chelsea has been serving students and schools through Yoga and Mindfulness since 2009 starting in Charleston, SC where she received her B.S. in Physical Education at the College of Charleston. Upon moving to New Orleans in 2014, Chelsea began working with charter schools within the Recovery School District where she served as both a K-6 enrichment and middle school English teacher. As a teacher, she gained invaluable communication skills and learned pedagogical practices that continue to influence the way she trains and approaches her work with youth today.

As Founding Director of Project Peaceful Warriors, she has taught over 6,000 hours of yoga in the classroom, trained over 500 teachers, and taught over 3,000 students in the City of New Orleans. Her work with Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was published in March of 2018 in the Journal of Psychology Research and Behavior Management. Chelsea has is a 500 hour ERYT, RCYT, and YACEP.

Chelsea aims to create community-minded and user-centered programming that creates safe and healthy learning environments in schools and all students have equitable access to the tools that they need for success. Her vision is to see a shift in the focus of education beyond academic success to address the social-emotional needs and success of young people.

About Project Peaceful Warriors:

Project Peaceful Warriors grows healing centered learning spaces in New Orleans through equitable access to the tools of trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness. Our vision is to counter the dominant narrative of trauma attached to the student population, imagining futures where the suffering of marginalized populations is no longer considered a norm. We are a team of educators, mental health professionals, social justice advocates, and community voices that propel our mission forward.

Project Peaceful Warriors provides small group yoga and mindfulness classes that support students in navigating challenging emotions, cultivating resilience, and enhancing self-confidence. Students learn lifelong tools and strategies that extend far beyond the classroom. We hold professional development workshops for educators that emphasize Social Emotional Learning, Trauma-Informed Teaching, & Healing Centered Engagement. We also provide staff yoga classes for all educators to support their emotional and physical well-being.

We believe our approach encompasses, supports, and equips the whole community with valuable tools and experiences that they can use to address trauma and both reduce and prevent its negative impact. Yoga creates an opportunity for young people to show up in a practice that can support them. It creates a reprieve from the heaviness of the outside world and cultivates a safe space to reconnect with themselves. It is a space for students to self- actualize and accept all parts of who they are: loss, achievement, disappointment, joy. It is an opportunity to experience the range of human emotions that young people are so often told it's not ok to express. It gives permission to observe and honor feelings, which leads to honoring self-value and the value they inherently bring to their community. Yoga affirms their space to process, to be present, and to grow the strengths they already possess.