Chris Byrne: Teacher Spotlight January 2022
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by Nicole Chaison, SCY Board Member
Chris has been an active and vital part of Sea Change Yoga’s work for about four years now. He’s been bringing yoga and meditation to incarcerated people and folks in recovery—teaching at Maine Correctional Center and Androscoggin County Jail as well as Long Creek Youth Development Center, Portland Recovery Center, and Milestone in Old Orchard—and he serves on Sea Change’s Belief and Values Committee.
Chris currently teaches at My Place Teen Center in Saco. Chris and Melora Gregory have been building the program, based off the Westbrook My Place Teen Center’s success, for a few months. Chris describes practicing with the teens at My Place: “As a new program, it's a lot of fun because we explore, talk, we hear about their experiences, and about what they’re going through. We explore breath work, meditation, and mindfulness, and see how they can use them throughout their day.”
Chris thinks the Universe was conspiring to bring him to Sea Change back in 2017, when he was finishing up his 200-hour teacher training. One of his teachers, Katie Beane, and Jen Hatch, a former board member and a classmate in his training, reached out and encouraged Chris to teach for Sea Change. “Ultimately, community service has always been part of my life. It was great to blend this new-found skill through my teacher training and give back to the community,” he reflects.
Chris is committed to making yoga accessible to all, which is at the root of Sea Change’s mission. In addition to his 500-hour teaching certification, he also has trauma training and has participated in programs through Accessible Yoga, an international organization that believes that “all people—regardless of ability or background—deserve equal access to yoga.” Chris explains, “Accessible Yoga focuses on bringing inclusivity in, and moving yoga past the western mindset of centering yoga as a physical work out experience for able-bodied people. We instead think of how to adapt the physical postures of the yoga practice to be inclusive of all types of experiences and backgrounds including different cognitive and physical abilities. We practice yoga asana using a chair, in a wheelchair, or even a bed!“
At My Place Teen Center, Chris makes yoga accessible by embracing an unstructured approach aimed at meeting the teens—who he sees as co-facilitator—where they’re at. He describes the flavor of the class: “Everything is an invitation. Everything is a choice. We lean into where we are in the moment. How do we want to move? Do we even want to move? Do breath work? Whatever we’re feeling right now is what it is. And we explore how that extends to what we want to do on our mats.”
At My Place, Chris also likes to explore the ideas of acceptance without judgment, non-attachment, and the importance of creating space for ourselves—both emotional and physical—and what a powerful resource our breath can be to help facilitate that. He likes to encourage the teens he works with to see, “how incredible and radically expansive the greatness that exists within them is. We are all rooted in compassion and love and empathy and kindness, all of it—it’s so immense—and the mat offers a place for us to explore those ideas. So when we walk off the mat, we are more able to skillfully meet whatever comes our way.”
When not teaching for Sea Change, Chris works full-time, and runs a virtual yoga studio called Mettā Movement that offers classes online and in-person through a partnership with Scarborough Yoga Studio. He lives in Biddeford with his wife and partner of almost 18 years, Noreen, and two cats, Sammy and Lemmy. He and Noreen lead a “full and quiet” life, travelling, walking, bouncing around the beaches and mountains, and doing what they can to get some fresh air.