Accessible Yoga Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this final episode of the Accessible Yoga Podcast, Anjali and Jivana discuss: 

• What does it mean to make yoga accessible?

• The danger of oversimplifying a yoga practice

• The importance of reflecting on who we see as “experts” in yoga

• How caste still influences yoga today 

•  The nuances of saying “I’m not the teacher for everyone”

• Accessible Yoga Association’s newest podcast - For the Love of Yoga with Anjali Rao

Saira (NOT Sara) Rao grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Indian immigrants. For forty years, she wasted her precious time aspiring to be white and accepted by dominant white society, a futile task for anyone not born with white skin. Several years ago, Saira began the painful process of dismantling her own internalized oppression. Saira is a lawyer-by-training, a former congressional candidate, a published novelist and an entrepreneur. Saira is the co-founder of Race2Dinner, the New York Bestselling Co-Author of White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How To Do Better and the subject and Executive Producer of the documentary Deconstructing Karen.

In this episode, Anjali and Saira discuss:

• The role of radical honesty in challenging white supremacy
• How performative activism upholds the status quo
• How yoga practitioners can actively disrupt racism in yoga spaces
• The impact of speaking truth to power

Connect with Saira on Twitter or on Instagram @race2dinner @sairasameerarao 

Purchase Saira's book: White Women Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better

Watch Saira's documentary: Deconstructing Karen

In this episode, Amber and Jivana discuss:

• How Accessible Yoga is often misused to make us fit in rather than to celebrate our differences and individuality
• How ableism prevents folks from being seen in our classes
• What’s missing in our contemporary yoga practice
• How to make yoga classes more equitable
• Ways to share power with your students
• How to encourage students to find individuality in community
• The importance of inner experience vs outer appearance
• The intention behind trauma-informed teaching
• Your difference is your superpower
• Community as a proving ground for getting to know yourself
• How to find a supportive community as a student
• Details about the Accessible Yoga Community Celebration May 31st

Cindu Thomas-George is the Founder and Principal Trainer of Shakti Diversity and Equity Training. As a DEI practitioner, she designs and facilitates professional development experiences that promote equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and intercultural competence. As a nationally recognized speaker, Cindu’s speaking engagements are focused on encouraging cross-racial allyship, disrupting anti-Asian hate, moving beyond color-blindness to color consciousness, disrupting anti-Blackness in communities of color, and creating inclusion for women of color in the workplace. Cindu is also an award winning tenured professor of Communication Studies at the College of Lake County specializing in Intercultural Communication and Public Speaking. In her seventeen years of working as a diversity educator, she has developed a mastery of creating and facilitating impactful learning experiences that equip individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to be advocates of diversity and agents of change who are empowered to work towards cultivating an inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist society. Her passion and commitment for this work extends beyond her professional life- Cindu actively volunteers and is a co-founder and Board member of Malayalees for Social Justice, co-founder of South Asian Solidarity. Movement, and sits on the advisory board of Orion3. Previously, she was a board member of YWCA Lake County where she helped direct the organization’s racial justice initiatives and programming.

In this episode, Anjali and Cindu discuss:

• Diversity and heterogeneity in Asian communities
• Solidarity with Black folks as people of color
• White adjacency and how to disrupt the model minority myth
• Relevance and recommendations to start grassroot level social change in the communities of influence.

Connect with Cindu on her website or on Instagram @shaktidiversityandequity

Content warning: disordered eating, sexual trauma

Nityda Gessel (she/her), LCSW, E-RYT, is a mother, licensed somatic psychotherapist, trauma specialist, yoga educator, speaker, author, and heart-centered activist, residing on the unceded land of the Chesepian people, commonly known as Virginia Beach, VA. Nityda has devoted her life to uplifting others, working at the intersection of Eastern spirituality, holistic mental health, and embodied activism. She is the founder of the Trauma-Conscious Yoga Institute, creator of The Trauma-Conscious Yoga Method®, and author of forthcoming Norton book on trauma healing and embodied spirituality.

In this episode, Jivana and Nityda discuss:

• Her background as a ballet dancer
• Trauma from being in the dance world
• How she experienced sexual trauma and started yoga to heal
• How she integrates yoga as a therapist
• What she teaches yoga teachers about trauma and their scope of practice
• People pleasing
• Yoga as a pathway to liberation
• Abuse in yoga, and we often are taught to teach in an authoritative way
• Benefits of trauma conscious yoga
• Yoga as a spiritual practice - but we lose connection. Trauma healing is also about remembering our truth
• Systemic trauma intersecting with acute trauma
• Neuro-biological trauma healing through yoga
• How do we teach in a trauma conscious way
• Doing your own work first
• Not being performative. What do the people in front of you need right now?
   

Connect with Nityda on her website and on Instagram @trauma_conscious_yoga_method

Accessible Yoga School’s Trauma & Yoga Series

In episode 56, Jivana and Amber discuss practical ways we can embody the yoga teachings’ concepts in the way that we teach. They explore three themes from the yoga teachings (atman, non-attachment, and brahmacharya) and discuss how we can shift our teaching methodology to model these concepts for our students, making them more relevant to their real lives.

In this episode...

• Amber & Jivana discuss the concept of atman and how we can do more to recognize each students inherent wholeness
• We are not here to fix or change our students
• How to create agency in students and encourage them to listen to themselves
• Using interoception and self-sensing tools to encourage students’ internal guidance
• How the concept of non-attachment can help us be of service in a more clear way
• Checking our ego around students doing something different than what we cue
• Not being attached to students’ health outcomes or practice improvements
• Recognizing individual students own their practice
• Shifts in language that help students choose what is best for themselves
• How to apply brahmacharya to our teaching practice
• Setting appropriate boundaries with students
• Scope of practice and ethics in teaching
• Staying in right relationship with our students
• Creating a personal code of ethics and scope of practice

In episode 55, Amber interviews Laura Sharkey, an autistic meditation teacher and social justice activist. They speak about their experience of ableism and other forms of oppression that are present in many yoga communities, as well as practical tools that non-disabled folks can use to confront bias. We discuss the importance of seeing our disabled community members as whole, capable human beings with agency and choice, and how we can support them in non-ableist ways. We talk about the difficult emotions that arise when we confront unconscious bias and how yoga can support us in building more resilience for difficult conversations or work. Finally, Laura shares some tips on how yoga teachers can make “quiet and still” practices more accessible to neurodiverse students. 

• Laura introduces themself and talks about how yoga helped them feel at home in their body for the first time in their 40s
• We discuss ableism, anti-fat bias, and other forms of oppression present in yoga communities, and how Laura brings a yogic framework to their social justice activism
• Laura counters the dangerous assumption that someone’s spiritual awareness or dedication to practice can be gauged by how they look or how “healthy” they are, or that yoga can “heal” or “fix” anyone
• They discuss “cure culture” and the medical model vs social model of disability
• Laura shares tips on how we can approach and support disabled students in equitable, non-ableist ways
• We discuss building resilience for the uncomfortable work of confronting bias and how we can better learn to be in relationship to disabled people
• Laura shares tips for teachers to make quiet and still” practices more accessible to Neurodiverse people, and talks about why “fidgeting” isn’t necessarily a bad thing
• Finally, they share ways that yoga teachers can help students to experience downregulation even if it doesn’t look “typical”

• Connect with Laura on Instagram @lcsharkey
• Off The Mat Into The World
• An #ACTUALLYAUTISTIC Response to Autism Awareness Month
• 10 Ways to Rise Above Ableism (even if you didn't realize you needed to)
• Why Some Commonly Used Language Hurts people with Atypical Neurology
• Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure by Eli Clare
• Ableism/Language written by Lydia X. Z. Brown
• Autistic Self Advocacy Network
• Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network

NISCHALA JOY DEVI is a masterful teacher and healer. For many years she has been highly respected as an international advocate for her innovative way of expressing Yoga and its subtle uses for spiritual growth and complete healing. Her dynamic delivery and deep inner conviction empower each individual, allowing the teachings to expand beyond boundaries and limitations of any one tradition enabling her to touch people’s hearts. 

She was graced to spend over 25 years as a monastic disciple with the world-renowned Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidanandaji, receiving his direct guidance and teachings. She also was blessed with teachings from great Yoga masters in US, India and worldwide.

Originally trained in Western medicine, she began to blend western medicine with Yoga, offered her expertise in developing the yoga portion of The Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, and co-founded the award-winning Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Her book “The Healing Path of Yoga,” and her Abundant WellBeing Audio Series expresses these teachings. 

With her knowledge of yoga and her experience in assisting those with life-threatening diseases (particularly people with heart disease and cancer), she created Yoga of the Heart®, a training and certification program for Yoga teachers and health professionals designed to adapt Yoga practices to the special needs of that population.

She is now dedicated to bringing the Feminine back into spirituality and the scriptures, in her book, The Secret Power of Yoga, a woman’s guide to the heart and spirit of the Yoga Sutras and Secret Power of Yoga Audiobook Nautilus Book Silver Award Winner! Understanding the need for more love and compassion in today’s world, The Namaste Effect: Expressing Universal Love through the Chakras, her most recent book, explores a heart-centered way of living through the mystical chakras.

In this episode:

• Jivana talks about Nischala being one of his first teachers
• Nischala created the yoga portion of the Dean Ornish Heart Disease Reversal Program, which was the first to integrate yoga in the west. 
• Nischala’s four books:
• The Healing Path of Yoga
• The Namaste Effect
• Meditation in the Yoga Tradition
• The Secret Power of Yoga - Revised Edition comes out May 2022
• Nischala discussed founding the IAYT - International Association of Yoga Therapists
• Her revised edition of The Secret Power of Yoga - a translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
• She recently translated the 3rd and 4th Pada (chapters) which are usually not studied because they’re very esoteric
• She discussed Pada 3, which focused on siddhis (powers)
• The fourth chapter is the Kaivalya Pada, which is the chapter on Isolation
• She discusses her work in yoga therapy for people with heart disease and cancer

This episode is a replay of a conversation between Jivana Heyman and Octavia Raheem on Jivana's podcast, Yoga Revolution.

This week’s guest, Octavia Raheem, teaches us to slow down, prioritize rest, and honor our varied human experiences. Octavia is a mother, author of "Gather," yoga teacher, and founder of Starshine & Clay Online Yoga and Meditation Studio for Black Women and Women of Color. A deep listener and truth teller, Octavia is a gatherer and space holder for rest and awakening. As a teacher and leader she has the skill of hearing beneath the surface for what isn’t being said, yet needs to. Octavia has more than 15 years of experience and nearly 10,000 hours of leading classes, immersions, and trainings. She guides us toward resonance and connection even when the truths we witness, hear, and encounter vary from our own. Her conversation with Jivana touches on how these truths arise in today’s world, as well as what it means to practice activism as a form of yoga, the importance of mindful space holding and compassionate language, and how simply being is perhaps the most important practice of all.  

Order Octavia's new book "Pause, Rest, Be"

Learn more about Octavia.

Follow Octavia's inspirational Instagram. 

In episode 52, Amber interviews Maya Breuer, yoga teacher, community activist, and Yoga Alliance’s Vice President of Cross-Cultural Advancement. She shares about the work Yoga Alliance is doing for teachers working in marginalized communities as well as her important projects like the Yoga Retreat For Women of Color, Black Yoga Teachers Alliance, and more. Maya talks about the importance of self-care for Black women and how the yoga practice has kept her grounded during challenging times.

In this episode...

• Maya introduces herself and talks about the work she does with Yoga Alliance as Vice President of Cross-Cultural Advancement
• Maya shares about Yoga Alliance Foundation’s Teaching for Equity program which offers stipends for yoga teachers working in marginalized communities
• She talks about the origins of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color, which has been held since 1999 at Kripalu, as well as what you can expect if you come to the retreat
• Maya tells her yoga origin story from the 1970s and how rediscovering yoga in the 1980s helped her heal herself and find peace
• Maya talks about her teachers and how she came to study to become a yoga teacher, followed by how the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance came to be
• Maya discusses the importance of self-care for Black women as well as how the pandemic has been for her and her practice
• Maya shares her go-to breathing practice for grounding herself as well as some things that are lighting her up these days

Resources:

• Teaching for Equity program
• Yoga Retreat for Women of Color
• Kripalu
• Amrit Desai 
• Beryl Binder Berch
• Tom Gilette
• Judith Lasater
• Stephen Cope
• Lakulish school in India
• Black Yoga Teachers Alliance