The Love of Yoga Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

“Yoga is a microcosm of what's happening in every institution, including the judicial system, employment, medical care, all of that. So I'm just creating a small shift, hopefully, in people's perspectives and understandings of the prevalence of caste in Yoga history.”

Join us for the captivating season finale of our podcast as Jivana interviews Anjali and they dive into a deep, transformative conversation.

In this special episode, Anjali and Jivana discuss:

Personal and Professional Changes

The motivations and inspirations behind Anjali’s decision to pursue her Doctorate this Fall.

A sneak peek into Anjali’s first book, set to release in Fall 2025. The book tackles profound questions such as:

 Is there such a thing as non-patriarchal yoga?

 How does caste intersect with yoga?

 How is yoga used as a tool of oppression?

Pushback and rejections Anjali faced while writing this book and why this topic is crucial in today’s world.

Zionist backlash Jivana faced and the challenges of dealing with social media criticism.

The tough decision to close the non-profit and the significant transitions within Accessible Yoga

 Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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CW: Abuse

sujatha baliga’s work is characterized by an equal dedication to crime survivors and people who’ve caused harm. A former victim advocate and public defender, baliga was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship in 2008 which she used to launch a pre-charge restorative juvenile diversion program.

In her most recent position as the Director of the Restorative Justice Project, sujatha helped communities across the nation implement restorative justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero-tolerance school discipline policies. She is a guest lecturer at universities and speaker and speaks publicly and inside prisons about her own experiences as a survivor of child sexual abuse and her path to forgiveness. She is worklng on her first book, Angry Long Enough: Towards Healing and Repair for Ourselves and the World.

sujatha’s faith journey undergirds her justice work. A long-time Buddhist practitioner, she’s a lay member of the Gyuto Foundation, a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Richmond, CA, where she leads meditation on Monday nights.

In this episode, Anjali and sujatha discuss:

sujatha’s personal story that led her to a transformational meeting with the Dalai Lama.

How can we metabolize righteous anger? What do the teachings say?

 What is the practice of this alchemy?

 What role do our inner lives play in the collective? 

The significance of fractality of this transformation.

Connect with sujatha on her website or on Instagram @sujathabaliga

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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"All of the stories from the Bhagavad Gita, it's so clear to me. These are calls to action. We'll even start with ahimsa..."

In this episode, Anjali Rao and Tysir Salih discuss the impact of witnessing multiple genocides and wars in real time and how Yoga practitioners can respond to the atrocities in the world. They also speak to how we can show up in solidarity and in alignment with the yogic teachings.

Tai Salih (she/her) E-RYT® 500, YACEP®, came to Canada as a refugee in her youth. Today she is the Founder of the Red Ma'at Collective and is currently working towards her designation in Psychotherapy. Her dedicated passion to heal through her own traumas has guided her desire to do more for and within the community. Tai's approach encompasses a compassionate and intersectional lens that is geared towards uplifting and empowering BI&WoC/gender-expansive folx. Tai is an intersectional feminist, who believes in uplift and empowering women/gender-expansive folx through intersectional wellness, therapeutic yoga, and education on trauma healing to build resiliency and autonomy.

In this episode, Anjali and Tysir also discuss:

Tysir’s path in Yoga and experiences as a yoga practitioner/teacher

Our impact on situations happening around the world

Practices to support you during times of collective grief 

Practices of both Self care and Collective care

Connect with Tai's work here and be sure to  follow her on Instagram!

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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"What are some of the things that you do every day to kind of keep yourself grounded or receptive? Open?... I love this question. I'm going to give you three things that I do every day. One is my meditation practice, coming to stillness every day, coming to my breath, and turning inward."

Tina Strawn (she/they) is a joy and liberation advocate, racial and social justice activist, author of "Are We Free Yet? The Black, Queer Guide to Divorcing America." Tina is also the owner and host of the Speaking of Racism podcast and she is the co-founder of Here4TheKids and abolitionist movement to ban guns and fossil fuels. The heart of Tina's work is founding and leading Legacy Trips, immersive, 3-day antiracism weekends where participants visit historical locations such as Montgomery and Selma, AL, and utilize spiritual practices and other mindfulness based resources as tools to affect personal and collective change.

Tina has three adult children, an ex-husband, an ex-wife, and an ex-country. She has been a full-time minimalist nomad since February 2020 and currently lives in Costa Rica. Tina travels the globe speaking, writing, teaching, and exploring where on the planet she can feel safe and free in her queer, Black, woman-identifying body.

In this conversation Tina and Anjali discuss:

Tina’s path in Yoga and experiences as a Yoga practitioner/teacher

The story of  Legacy Trips and the excavations from these journeys

Her book Are we Free Yet, The Black Queer Guide to Divorcing America? 

Unfolding of grief and healing on multiple levels and holding the complexities of power and privilege

Here4TheKids is an abolitionist movement to ban guns, and the roadblocks that we face in this country from a cultural perspective 

Tina’s practices of care during turbulent times to remain open and receptive

Checkout Tina's work on their Website or follow her on Instagram!

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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"One thing that I like about teaching Yoga is that it's something that I give and receive at the same time, teaching Yoga supports me, it makes me feel connected to a deep sense of purpose." 

–Rodrigo Souza 

Rodrigo Souza (he/him) is an Adaptive & Accessible Yoga teacher with experience in teaching yoga to folks who have gone through Trauma & Disability. He sustained a spinal cord injury after a fall accident. Through direct personal experience with traumatic injury and chronic pain he took charge of his recovery and decided to optimize his long-term well-being by deepening his yoga practice. 

He also teaches for several Non-profits, community centers and newly injured folks in an Active Rehabilitation Center in Sweden. He is focused on creating a supportive community for those who have experienced trauma, loss & and disability through Adaptive & Accessible Yoga. Eventually, he decided to become a Yoga teacher and teach from his own experience, creating Allihopa Accessible & Adaptive Virtual Yoga Studio, where he teaches folks with a diverse range of abilities from all over the world. 

In this conversation Anjali and Rodrigo discuss:

Rodrigo’s journey being paraplegic and reconnecting to the body

Finding purpose through teaching adaptive yoga

Rodrigo’s inspirations as a yoga teacher

His unforgettable moments as a teacher 

Learning through teaching

Ways in which people with disabilities can be supported in Yoga spaces

Practices of nurturing and self care

Check out Rodrigo's work on his website and be sure to follow him on Instagram!

For those new to Anjali, you can learn more about her work via her website and you’ll find her on Instagram as well.

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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One of the objectives of this podcast is to shine a light on the work of compelling scholars, offer a multi-disciplinary approach to Yoga, and connect it to everyday Yoga practitioners. 

Yoga history is vast and multi-dimensional, and can be intimidating for many. As a subject of study, it's barely given any space or thought outside of the academic realm. And yet there is an overwhelming need for many to know more and to contextualize the teachings of Yoga. 

In this week's episode with Dr. Padma Kaimal, someone who has researched and published about a very specific subject in history, the stories behind the 10th century Tantra Yogini sculptures of South India.

Dr. Padma Kaimal’s book, Scattered Goddesses, traces the journeys of 10th century Tantra Kanchi Yoginis, their birth homes in ancient South India, through colonization to their present homes in twelve separate museums in North America, Western Europe, and South India.

In this conversation, we discuss:

Unpacking a non-binary approach to history. 

How “seeing connections and interdependencies rather than polarities and oppositions” help shed light on the various conflicts in our world now. 

How we can hold the tension of appropriation and misrepresentation of colonized cultures along with fostering narratives of inter-dependency.

Unearthing non-patriarchal narratives in Yoga. 

Whether museums are the problem, the solution, or both, to fights over cultural property.

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. They also offer FREE resources and webinars for yoga teachers — check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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Dr. Tria Blu Wakpa is a scholar and practitioner of Indigenous contemporary dance, North American Hand Talk (Indigenous sign language), martial arts, and yoga. Professor Blu Wakpa has taught a wide range of interdisciplinary and community-engaged courses at public, private, tribal, and carceral institutions. 

In 2020, she was the first Assistant Professor at UCLA to receive a Chancellor’s Award for Community-Engaged Scholars. Professor Blu Wakpa is a co-founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Race and Yoga, the first peer-reviewed journal in the emerging field of Critical Yoga studies. It examines issues surrounding the history, racialization, sex(ualization), and inclusivity (or lack thereof) of the yoga community. The journal features research-based articles, editorials, and reviews of books, films, and art exhibits.

In this episode, Anjali and Dr. Tria Blu Wakpa discuss:

Dr. Tria Blu Wakpa's current work as a scholar and practitioner of Indigenous contemporary dance and North American Hand Talk

The genesis of Race and Yoga, and how the project has expanded (Follow their Instagram: @raceandyoga)

Dr. Wakpa’s thoughts on the state of Yoga today

How can we tap into the transformative potential of Yoga and the tension between carceral systems and this liberatory practice

Core tenets of Indigenous sign language

In the Race and Yoga journal article, Transforming Space: Spatial Implications of Yoga in Prisons and Other Carceral Sites, the author examines the possibilities and limitations of practicing Yoga in prisons. How can we hold the discourse and the movement for abolition along with the practice of Yoga in prisons?

Dr. Blu Wakpa’s practices, especially during moments of activation

 We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. They also offer FREE resources and webinars for yoga teachers — check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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What does it mean to be in right relationship to the practices and teachings of yoga as a white-bodied yoga practitioner? What does it mean to teach and offer these practices when we ourselves have no direct ties to this ancient spiritual lineage?

This is some of what Tristan and guest Emily Dalsfoist discuss in this winding conversation about privilege, yoga, solidarity, parenting, and so much more.

Emily (she/her) is a mother, trauma sensitive yoga teacher, and musician based on the land of the Cowlitz & Clackamas Peoples. Emily has sought to integrate her connection to nature with her teachings and she brings the teachings of Yoga into her role as a parent.

In this conversation, Emily and Tristan discuss:

How Emily came to yoga, and what compelled her to pursue teacher training

Emily’s process of uncovering the richness beyond asana in a capitalist white-washed western yoga world

The ways in which Emily has sought to integrate her connection to nature with her teachings

How she brings the teachings of yoga into her role as a parent

…and more

Check out Emily’s offerings on her website and be sure to follow her on Instagram!

This is Tristan’s final guest episode! Thank you, Tristan, for hosting on Anjali’s behalf this summer. Be sure to stay connected with Tristan! You can learn more about them on their website and you’ll find them on Instagram as well.

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. They also offer FREE resources and webinars for yoga teachers — check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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Marketing doesn’t have to be spooky, and visibility as a yoga teacher or entrepreneur doesn’t require “perfection.”

– Riss Giammalva

Riss is a storyteller, communications and marketing specialist, joyful movement enthusiast, and future skeleton living on land stolen from Peoria, Anishinabewaki, and Waawiyatanong peoples, now known as Detroit-ish, Michigan. In the digital management realm, Riss works to support folks in confidently communicating their ideas and aspirations on a grand scale, visually, verbally, and creatively through inclusive and diverse content creation and marketing management strategies. In the movement and wellness space, Riss assists those who do not typically ‘fit the mold’ find joy in moving their bodies, by reminding them that movement does not have to be spooky. With specific interest and focus on supporting larger-bodied, queer, trans, neurodivergent, and disabled populations, Riss believes in people over power and patriarchy, in building relationships rather than transactions, in inclusion, accessibility, mental health and collective liberation, and they believe, whole-heartedly, in authenticity, amplifying marginalized voices, and creating kick-ass supportive communities. 

In this conversation, Riss and Tristan discuss:

How Riss came to yoga, what their initial foray into a social media presence looked like, and how both yoga and social media were key parts of their healing journey

The fact that showing up and putting yourself “out there” on the internet doesn’t get any less spooky over time

The role of storytelling in marketing and visibility and how narratives related to internalized oppression might impact one’s relationship to being visibile

The value of authenticity over perfection and relationships over transactions

…and more

Check out Riss’s work on their website and be sure to follow them on Instagram!

For those new to Tristan, you can learn more about them on their website and you’ll find them on Instagram as well.

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. They also offer FREE resources and webinars for yoga teachers — check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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"When I talk about pleasure and embodiment, I'm talking about your unique individual moment that feels true for you in your body. Not what you're being sold. And so I think that, you know, when we're talking about oppression and social justice, and I say something like, I believe pleasure is the antidote, I actually mean it.” 

—Terra Anderson

In so many yoga spaces and in the wellness world in general, we talk a lot about embodiment. But what does it actually mean to “be embodied”? 

Terra Lyn Anderson has devoted their life to being a conduit for the healing connection between body and mind for both individuals and the collective. While pursuing their graduate degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology at Naropa University, Terra began to envision what the healing potential of embodiment would look like on a large societal scale, with people aware and empowered by both thought and feeling, attuned to one another, in love with and trusting of their own bodies, and able to consciously and intentionally regulate their nervous systems. Inspired by the vision of an embodied, empowered and connected society, Terra directed their focus to studying the physical impact and healing of oppression trauma. They pursued supplemental trainings in social power differentials, racial justice, intersectionality, embodied sexuality, gender diversity, and organizational transformation. Terra believes that social justice is inherently tied to the body, as is oppression and trauma. Their unique approach to healing, education and activism is characterized by a commitment to empowering the relationship between body and mind.

In this conversation, Terra and Tristan discuss:

The definition of embodiment and the role of privilege in this conversation

How embodiment connects with our consent practices, and our abilities and ways in to hearing a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’

The role of embodiment, and pleasure, in trauma healing and in dismantling systems and challenging oppression

…and more

Check out Terra’s work on their website and Instagram and learn more about their co-facilitated offerings with Weeze Doran on Weeze’s website.

For those new to Tristan, you can learn more about them on their website and you’ll find them on Instagram as well.

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. They also offer FREE resources and webinars for yoga teachers — check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

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