Safety: A Privilege, a Practice, a Responsibility

Last weekend in Tokyo, I visited a university student exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The theme was “safety.”

It stopped me in my tracks.

I was fortunate enough not to be born in a land ravaged by war.

I’ve never had to run, hide, or fear for my life in the ways many children around the world do.

And yet — safety remains one of our deepest human needs.

When safety exists, our vision expands.

Hope flourishes.

Change becomes possible.

We can dream, grow, create.

Seeing the artwork of a younger generation was eye-opening.

Their honesty, their fears, their questions about the future…

It made me realise how much the world has shifted, and how deeply young people are carrying that weight.

And as a foreigner living in Japan, I’ll admit:

I don’t always feel safe either.

Not unsafe in a physical sense — but in the subtle ways polite judgment can question my right to belong.

A quiet kind of exclusion that is hard to name, but easy to feel.

So it made me reflect:

How does yoga therapy understand safety?

In yoga therapy, safety is not a luxury.

It is the foundation of healing.

Without safety — physical, emotional, relational, cultural —

the nervous system cannot settle,

the breath cannot deepen,

the mind cannot soften,

and the heart cannot trust.

Safety is what allows us to:

• feel our emotions without fear

• explore sensations without panic

• express ourselves without shrinking

• rest without looking over our shoulder

Only from safety can transformation truly begin.

So what can I do? How do I support our children — and the world?

Maybe I can’t fix everything.

But there are things I can offer:

Presence.

To listen without dismissing.

To hold space for their fears and hopes.

Permission.

To feel what they feel.

To question, to disagree, to dream differently.

Protection.

Not by over-controlling, but by creating environments where their dignity is respected.

Modeling.

Showing through my actions how to speak truth with compassion,

how to live with humility,

how to treat others with kindness even when I am afraid.

Belonging.

To let them know:

You matter. Your voice matters. The world needs you.

Yoga therapy reminds us that safety is not passive.

It is something we create, nurture, and practice —

in our homes, our conversations, our classrooms, our communities.

And maybe this is my work now:

to build pockets of safety wherever I can,

so that our children — and one another —

can grow with more courage, more clarity, and more hope.