Accessible Yoga Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this deeply personal and thought-provoking episode, Jivana spends time with artist and yoga teacher, Scottee, to explore identity, accessibility, and the power of yoga to support marginalized communities.

Scottee shares stories of growing up in working-class North London to finding yoga as a form of healing and expression. Together, they discuss the intersections of queerness, class, neurodivergence, and yoga, questioning how yoga spaces can be more inclusive and equitable and a source of support in the current political climate.

In the Question and Answer segment, Rebecca Sebastian leaves a heartfelt voicemail celebrating Jivana’s 30 years of teaching and Elisa Jouannet shares a transformative lesson from her yoga teacher: "Wherever you are, that's perfect."

Jivana answers a question about how he made a living while teaching yoga and discusses with cohost, Deanna Michalopoulos, the challenges of integrating business with yoga.

Topics include: 

• Speaking out against injustice, and the role of yoga in providing hope and peace
• The connection between running and yoga
• Pros and cons of studio classes
• Yoga for end of life and holding space for loss
• The beauty of the student-teacher relationship and its impact on personal growth
• The importance of financial accessibility and equity 
• Shared resource: Tristan - Stop Charging Your Worth Training

We Want to Hear from You!

What story, teaching, or practice inspires your yoga journey today? Submit your answer or any other questions you have for Jivana via Google Form: https://forms.gle/NtijeM82dSgU5jVD7 or leave a voice message here: https://www.speakpipe.com/AccessibleYoga

Selected responses may be featured in future episodes!

Connect with Scottee:

Scottee (he/they) is a self taught actor who has received critical acclaim for his work in theatre and audio, he is also the creator behind Wonkee.

Wonkee is a digital club with a focus on inclusive yoga practice, self paced learning, creativity and self care, whose practices are made with the weird, sad, mad, fat, neurodivergent, sensitive, soft natured and queer amongst us. 

wonkee.club | @scotteeisfat | @wonkee.club

Connect with Jivana:

Check out Jivana’s books, Accessible Yoga, Yoga Revolution, and The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga, and get more information about Accessible Yoga at accessibleyoga.org

www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman

Connect with Rebecca: @rebeccassebastianyoga

Connect with Elisa: @elisajouannet

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

OfferingTree

Simplify your yoga business with their all-in-one platform. Visit offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to save 50% off your first 3 months on a monthly subscription or 15% off an annual subscription.

beYogi

Comprehensive insurance for yoga instructors and wellness practitioners. Get $20 off our annual yoga teacher insurance policy at beyogi.com/jivana.

Yogamatters

Discover over 2,500 yoga and wellbeing items. Use code JIVANA15 at the checkout to apply a 15% discount to your order of yoga props (one use per customer). www.yogamatters.com

Credit: Mikus (they/them), AYP Podcast Sound Engineer

“You can only wake up someone who is asleep, not someone who is pretending to be asleep.” - Indu Arora

In this episode, host, Jivana Heyman, chats with his guest and good friend, Indu Arora, who shares her journey in yoga and the lessons she learned in her youth, which began a lifelong study of yoga.

Together, they emphasize the importance of ethics and explore profound themes like humility in teaching, the intersection of tradition and modernity, and the joy of living a balanced life through yoga.

The Question and Answer segment with Jivana and cohost, Deanna Michalopoulos, featured a question submitted about how to provide a full authentic and profound experience into a 45 to 60 minute yoga class and shared a listener voicemail about developing yoga for functional aging. 

Topics include:

• Impact of fires in Southern CA - Couch Yoga Fundraiser Class
• Ethics as a work in progress
• Reflections on queerness and spirituality
• Living yoga in daily life
• The evolving nature of the yoga teachings as we learn and grow in our practice
• Shorter vs. longer yoga classes and the importance of a regular and consistent practice
• Sharing yoga with the aging population and an introduction to the Accessible Yoga School training: Accessible Yoga for Older Adults

We Want to Hear from You!

What story, teaching, or practice inspires your yoga journey today? Submit your answer or any other questions you have for Jivana via Google Form: https://forms.gle/NtijeM82dSgU5jVD7 or leave a voice message here: https://www.speakpipe.com/AccessibleYoga

Selected responses may be featured in future episodes!

Connect with Indu:

Indu Arora (she/her), Ayurveda and Yoga Therapist considers herself a student for lifetime. Her teachings are deeply rooted in the philosophy: 'Nothing has the greatest power to heal, but Self.’ Authored:

Mudra: The Sacred Secret (2015, also translated in German and French languages)

Yoga - Ancient Heritage, Tomorrow"s Vision (2019)

SOMA - 100 Heritage Recipes for Self-Care (2020) Hardcopy + eBook

www.yogsadhna.com | @induaroraofficial | www.facebook.com/InduAroraOfficial 

Connect with Jivana:

Check out Jivana’s books, Accessible Yoga, Yoga Revolution, and The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga, and get more information about Accessible Yoga at accessibleyoga.org

www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

OfferingTree

Simplify your yoga business with their all-in-one platform. Visit offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to save 50% off your first 3 months on a monthly subscription or 15% off an annual subscription.

beYogi

Comprehensive insurance for yoga instructors and wellness practitioners. Get $20 off our annual yoga teacher insurance policy at beyogi.com/jivana.

Credit: Mikus (they/them), AYP Podcast Sound Engineer

In this Season 2 finale, Amber and Jivana discuss:

• Their lives and current challenges
• How our activism and practice is showing up for us in this moment
• Amber’s bike reels on instagram
• Themes from Season 2:
• Community Care/Sharing Power/Community Collaboration
• Shift from top down teaching to community led
• Jivana’s remixes on instagram
• The current contemporary yoga world is complex, shifting to local
• Not getting caught up in a binary of “advanced” vs gentle
• How Accessible Yoga is often misused to make us fit in rather than to celebrate our differences and individuality
• Encouraging students to find individuality in community
• Marginalized folks are some of our greatest innovators
• Your difference is your superpower
• Safety and inclusion in yoga
• Be sure to visit past episodes with our amazing guests like: Matthew Sanford, Nischala Devi, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Octavia Raheem, Jacoby Ballard, Marlysa Sullivan, Reggie Hubbard

What Accessible Yoga Association is up to:

• New online Accessible Yoga Community, ambassadors get first access (join here)
• Accessible Yoga Community Studio - online studio where people can study with teacher leaders from the AY community, dedicated AY content
• Conference coming up, Moving from Me to We, October 14-16
• Pre-conference intensive on Increasing Accessibility - Matthew Sanford, Natalie Tabilo, Ryan McGraw, Donna Noble, and Jivana
• Upcoming monthly themes: August: Yoga & Environmental Justice, September: Yoga & Cancer
• Amber’s term as President of AYA’s board of directors is up, Anjali Rao stepping up as our new president

Shannon Crow is the host of The Connected Yoga Teacher podcast and a consultant for yoga teachers. She shares what she has learned (and continues to learn) as a yoga entrepreneur. She’s also the founder of Pelvic Health Professionals. 

Shannon is passionate about this work so that yoga teachers have more time and energy to share the yoga that lights them up.

She became a yoga teacher in 2006 and continues to teach weekly group and private classes in Owen Sound, Ontario, with a specialty in Yoga for Pelvic Health.

Shannon is dedicated to helping yoga teachers define their niche and thrive at marketing. She thrives in a community that is playful, diverse, and supportive. This is what inspired her to create The Connected Yoga Teacher Facebook group.

Shannon offers in person and online teacher training. She is the co-founder of the MamaNurture Prenatal Yoga School and developed the Yoga for Pelvic Health Teacher Training.

Connect with Shannon on her website, at https://pelvichealthprofessionals.com/, or on Instagram @theconnectedyogateacher.

In this episode, Jivana and Shannon discuss:

• Supporting and connecting yoga teachers
• Learning in public
• Being in the mess as a way to evolve as a practitioner and teacher
• How Pelvic Health Professionals evolved
• Cisgender men and pelvic health
• Yoga and gender 
• the Pelvic floor                          
• Trauma informed teaching and anatomical language
• Pelvic health awareness in yoga classes
• Fear-based language vs. clear contraindications
• How to teach with this information
• What does “engage the pelvic floor” “engage the core” mean?
• Weak vs relaxed pelvic floor
• What is the core?
• More subtle is more advanced
• Shannon also offers a discount code for Pelvic Health Professionals!

A community organizer, wellness activist and author of the book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, Kerri is recognized across communities for her work to bridge transformational practice with social justice. She’s been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems and mobilizing people to act. Her leadership has inspired CTZNWELL, a movement to democratize wellbeing for all and is committed to creating the conditions where everyone can thrive.

In this interview, Jivana and Kerri discuss:

• the process of writing a book and finding your voice
• Kerri’s personal transformation which started with the death of her step father in the 9/11 attacks.
• the myth of wellness and its intersection with ableism, healthism, and the dangers of the concept of “cure.”
• Kerri's upbringing and how she struggled with perfectionism and the ways perfectionism steals us of possibility and true healing.
• Kerri describes the ways that we can’t be well when others are suffering and the work she has done politically to address this disparity
• the challenges for the yoga community in making wellness equitable
• white supremacy and the ways it has informed wellness

Kerri’s new book, American Detox: The Myth of Wellness & How We Can Truly Heal

Matthew Sanford is an expert in the process of transformation through the healing power of yoga. Paralyzed from the chest down at age thirteen and beginning yoga at age twenty-five, Matthew knows firsthand the transformative effect that yoga can have on the mind-body relationship. He’s the author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence, and the founder of the nonprofit organization, Mind Body Solutions. 

• Book, Waking:A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence
• Organization: Mind Body Solutions
• Online Classes: The Hub
• Jivana explains how connecting with Matthew launched the first Accessible Yoga Conference
• The role of the student and the role of the teacher - sit shoulder to shoulder
• Finding agency
• “Yoga is infinite. You can’t put your arms around the whole ocean.”
• “Let the emptiness be full.”
• “Poses don’t end at the terminus of your body”
• Set conditions for the mind to receive from places it can't control
• Breath being the link
• Wheelchair users grounding with their base, reconnecting to the earth
• Boundaries and reference in asana
• Humanity & humility

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