Page 48 - July2019 FOP Magazine

Community yoga unites 12th District
Members of the community typically associate a trip to the police station with negativity, misbehavior and probably a little bit of stress. But ever since Juan Ignacio Gonzalez brought com- munity yoga to the 12th District, all that has changed.
Residents and officers now look forward to scheduling time at the district to work on relaxation, balance and stress relief. “Most people show up to the police station when there’s some- thing wrong,” Gonzalez shared. “It’s nice to open up the police station for the community to work on bettering ourselves and also give a different perspective of officers.”
Gonzalez’s experiences with yoga began eight years ago, after an injury he suffered while working on the mounted unit led the officer to seek a restorative workout. He quickly found that yoga involved more than building muscle. It provided him a new way of coping with the stress of the job.
While practicing yoga, it became clear to Gonzalez that yoga professionals want to help law enforcement. So, in 2017, he took his instructor’s offer to teach classes at the police station. Sud- denly, the police station became a place for tranquility, as offi- cers and members of the community joined in to participate in vinyasa, power and restorative yoga classes.
Gonzalez also organized a day of body awareness for offi- cers by inviting massage therapists to the police station to help them relieve built-up tension in the body. Twelfth District offi- cers including Commander Stephen Chung took advantage of the 15-minute massage services, while learning about how the weight officers carry affects the body.
“You get used to the weight of the vest, but it’s always heavy. The weight doesn’t change,” a massage therapist shared, while
picking up one officer’s vest. “When you numb yourself to the weight, you numb yourself to other aspects of the body.”
Gonzalez and 12th District officer Nikki Papadopoulos re- cently worked together to organize a 911 Community Yoga Day at the police station, where officers and the community were invited to participate in three hour-long yoga sessions.
Gonzalez could be spotted in each class, holding poses dressed in full uniform while modeling the balance between the job and body that he hopes will continue to benefit officers as much as it does him.
“As officers, we can hesitate to ask for help,” Gonzalez ex- plained. “We need to find different coping mechanisms. For me, yoga has become a way to cope with some of the stress of the job.”
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48 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2019