The Love of Yoga

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

“Yoga is not something that we do. Yoga is a state of consciousness, and yoga is either present or not. And, for us to be able to perceive the difference and to have the tools to be able to welcome this state of consciousness into space where it is not present. Because that unity consciousness is exactly what we need to heal the world.”

Tracee Stanley is the author of the bestselling book Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity and the forthcoming The Luminous Self: Sacred Yogic Practices & Rituals to Remember Who You Are (Oct 2023 by Shambhala Publications). Tracee is the founder of Empowered Life Circle, a sacred community and portal of practices, rituals, and Tantric teachings inspired by more than 25 years of studentship in Sri Vidya Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan Masters. As a post-lineage teacher, Tracee is devoted to sharing the wisdom of yoga nidra, rest, meditation, self-inquiry, nature as a teacher, and ancestor reverence. 

In this episode, Anjali and Tracee discuss:

• Tracee’s path into the work and pivotal moments that perhaps on reflection and hind sight, feel like watershed moments
• Inspiration to write The Luminous Self
• "Ritual is the fascia that holds the center when it seems like everything is falling apart." How can we cultivate rituals that are authentic and sustainable, especially given the scale of heartbreak that we are witnessing in the world? 
• The importance of studentship in our paths and how can we maintain that as householders
• Healing in a world that is hurting so deeply
• The benefits of Yoga Nidra in the modern world
• If you were to change one thing about the world of yoga, what would it be and why?

Connect with Tracee on her website and on Instagram @tracee_stanley

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.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher and practitioner, racial equity consultant and trainer, and intuitive healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing we are, can, and must heal individually and collectively. Michelle teaches workshops and immersions and leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide. As a dismantling racism educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle was a Tedx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019 and has been interviewed on several podcasts in which she explores the premise and foundation of Skill in Action, along with embodied approaches to racial equity work, creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal. Michelle published the first edition of Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017; and the 2nd edition of Skill in Action in November 2021, published by Shambhala Publications. Her second book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, was published by Shambhala Publications in 2021. Her third book, We Heal Together: Rituals and Practice for Building Community and Connection, published by Shambhala Publications, explores the deep knowing and truth that we are interconnected; we belong to one another. We Heal Together offers rituals and practices meant to dream us into a new way of being to benefit the highest and fullest good. Her latest book, A Space For Us: A Guide For Leading Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Affinity Groups, was published by Beacon Press in August 2023. 

Michelle leads courageously from the heart with compassion and a commitment to address the heartbreak dominant culture causes for many because of the harm it creates. She inspires change that allows people to stand in their humanity and wholeness in a world that fragments most of us. 

In this conversation, Michelle and Anjali discuss:

• Kleshas as an inquiry: Michelle’s new book on kleshas
• What does healing mean when the world is ablaze?
• Our collective nervous systems
• Michelle’s writing as a practice of reclamation and re-connection
• Her go to rituals during the writing process
• Role of community care and collective
• How does she practice care as a space holder?

Connect with Michelle on her website or on Instagram @skillinaction

You can receive 30% off if you pre-order Illuminating Our True Nature from Shambhala Publications. Use TRUENATURE30 at checkout.

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.

“It should be enough to listen to Palestinian voices and Arabs voices, and we need to ask that question of why do we need a Western source to stand with us in order to be heard?”

Leila Hegazy is an Egyptian-Italian-American singer-songwriter, social media creator, teacher, and activist in New York City. Using music to advocate for Palestine is one of her passions, and her adaptations of popular songs aim to help those in the pro-Palestine movement feel seen, as they battle the absurdity of the occupation and Western propaganda. Leila is currently working on a protest album for Palestine and plans to donate the proceeds to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. She is also in the process of recording her next project with her twin sister duo, HEGAZY.

In this episode, Anjali and Leila discuss:

• Leila’s musical path and background as an Arab-Italian-American living in New York City
• Music as a practice of connection to social change
• Accessible and authentic activism
• Culture, appropriation and power
• Social media as an important source of information
• Palestine allyship and sources and actions for folks 

Buy Leila’s single on Bandcamp based on the poem by beloved Palestinian Professor and writer, Dr. Refaat Alareer. All proceeds will be donated to Dr. Alareer’s surviving family in Gaza to help them rebuild.

Connect with Leila on Instagram @leilajhegazy.

Are there women and non binary practitioners and teachers in yoga history? And if they are a part of yoga history, why dont we know of them? And if they are not a part of history, why not?

In this episode celebrating Women’s History Month, Anjali shares the complex history of women, femme and gender expansive folks in yoga history. This is a vast topic, so she delves into the following:

1. Four big reasons why there is a paucity of information on ancient femme and women in yoga
2. The necessity of understanding the expansiveness of yoga and the fluidity of gender
3. Highlights of yoga history as it relates to specific yoga traditions and gender
4. Her own story of why she got interested in the topic

Want to learn more? Join Anjali, Tristan Katz, and other special guests for YOGA + GENDER: Solidarity as a Practice for Collective Transformation each Thursday May 9th - 30th from 10AM-12PM PST.

This 4 week comprehensive series delves into the dynamics of gender in yoga, through history to the present moment. We will explore yoga history as it relates to ancient women, femme, and gender expansive folks through various mediums such as literature, art, and poetry. This inquiry will inform an exploration of the modern yoga context and best practices to cultivate liberation-oriented spaces. We will look at ways in which we practice cross sectional solidarity, and build authentic relationships across differences for collective transformation.

Join the interest list.

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.

“Are we doing the things that we need to do to co-regulate and to self- regulate so that we can be as strategic as possible and so that we can also not take each other out in the process of getting free?”

Erica Woodland (he/him) is a facilitator, consultant, psychotherapist and healing justice practitioner with more than 20 years of experience working at the intersections of movements for racial, gender, economic, trans & queer justice. Erica is a co-editor of the anthology ‘Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care and Safety’ (North Atlantic Books, 2023) & Founder/Executive Director of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN.com).

In this special episode, Anjali and Erica discuss:

• Erica’s journey and path into the work, a calling from the ancestors
• Collective memory regarding the legacy of resistance, roots and lessons for building movements and healing. 
• Foundational premises of healing justice and the abolitionist approach to justice
• The meaning of healing
• Learning from the mistakes of our movement ancestors
• Misconceptions that people have about healing justice work
• The integrality of dissent
• How we can prevent the values of dominant culture, for example, capitalism or hyper individualism from seeping into movement work
• Practices of care

Connect with Erica on his website or on Instagram @ebmore1 @nqttcn @hjlineages

You can order the Healing Justice Lineages Book HERE!

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.

Content Warning: Abuse

“If we were able to just hold the multi- dimensional state of all things, I think we would just be more evolved. Because we are such binary thinkers that everything's this or that, and it's actually limiting. It's limiting us. It's limiting others. It's limiting society.”

Fariha Róisín is a multidisciplinary artist, a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, who is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, and queer identities and has appeared in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, Village Voice, and others. 

She is currently the deputy editor of Violet Book, sits on the advisory board of Slow Factory, and frequently writes essays on her Substack from everything about comparing yourself to others, schadenfreude, and the deeply profound film, Saint-Omer.

Róisín has published a book of poetry entitled How To Cure A Ghost (Abrams), a journal called Being In Your Body (Abrams), and a novel named Like A Bird (Unnamed Press) which was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR, Globe and Mail, Harper’s Bazaar, a must-read by Buzzfeed News and received a starred review by the Library Journal. Upon the book’s release, she was also profiled in The New York Times. Her first work of non-fiction Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who it Leaves Behind (HarperWave) was released in 2022, and her second book of poetry is Survival Takes A Wild Imagination is out Fall of 2023.

In this episode, Anjali and Fariha discuss:

• Fariha’s path into this work as a multi disciplinary artist/ writer/ radical femme Muslim
• Moving excavations from Fariha’s lived experiences, her healing from abuse and trauma, and how these inform and hold her work in the world now.
• Navigation of imposter syndrome as an immigrant
• Gaza and Palestine: what does showing up as a dedicated ally look like for those of us who are geographically far away from the lands?
• What is anti colonial wellness? How can we manifest and co create spaces of care?
• What role does art have in activism? 
• Who is Wellness for? The inspiration and the process of writing.
• Liminality is critical in collective transformation. How can we build capacity and portals of expansion into liminality?
• Fariha’s practices of care during tumultuous times.

“We are at a crossroads as individuals and collectives in this moment to figure out how we're going to approach what is happening around us.”

Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, strategist, and lawyer. Her work is rooted in Asian American, South Asian, Muslim, and Arab communities where she spent fifteen years in policy advocacy and coalition building in the wake of the September 11th attacks and ensuing backlash. Currently, Deepa leads projects on solidarity and social movements at the Building Movement Project, a national nonprofit. She has written two books, We Too Sing America and Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection. Her first children’s picture book, We Are The Builders, will be released in the fall of 2024.

Many people are moved to do something and often feel overwhelmed by the scope and the vastness of all that is going on in the world. Can you share more about some of the roles in the social change model, and how can one go about finding their place, their role?

In this special episode, Anjali and Deepa discuss:

• The biggest misconceptions around justice work
• Radical visioning for the world we live in
• Liberation
• Practices of care in times of adversity

Connect with Deepa on her website and Instagram @deepaviyer.

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.

"Asking questions is renouncing a bloated sense of one’s ego, is an exercise in humility, not as an end in itself but as a springboard for authentic and skillful responses."

In the last episode of 2023, Anjali shares about 5 lessons from the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita: 

• The power and the essentiality of an intentional pause
• Talk to a friend/Listen to a friend: Connection and relationships are important for collective liberation
• Asking questions is important for skillful action
• Finding the Center doesn't mean neutrality
• Staying engaged in the seeking of your role. The seeking is the practice

She also shares a brief background of Mahabharata and the Gita, the relevance of the first chapter during these times, and an invitation for reflection from five lessons from the First chapter. 

"To ask questions is to be hopeful, honest and true.

What can be more vulnerable than saying I don’t know?
What can be more trusting than saying, can you help me?
What can be more loving than offering a listening ear?
What can be more courageous than saying, why am I doing this?
What can be more important than saying why am I not doing this?

This is the last episode of The Love of Yoga podcast for 2023 in which I share some teachings from my favorite chapter, perhaps the most moving one, the first chapter of the Gita, Vishada Yoga." –– Anjali

Interested in learning from Anjali Rao? Connect with her on Instagram and be sure to checkout her Upcoming Course: Lighting Up the Path: A Critical Insight into Yoga, Religion, Caste & Race

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.

"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.