The Love of Yoga

In Episode 2, Amber Karnes interviews Kelley Palmer, writer, yoga teacher, wellness advocate, and community organizer. In this episode:

• Kelley introduces herself, talks about how she came to yoga, and explains why social justice has been part of her practice from the beginning
• How Kelley began teaching yoga and how that was informed by the way anti-blackness shows up in wellness
• How yoga spaces often mirror the harm that exists in society for folks with marginalized identities
• The responsibility of studio owners when it comes to social justice and dismantling white supremacy, fatphobia, ableism, homophobia, etc.
• How we miss the barriers that prevent marginalized folks feeling welcome in a space (especially when that yoga space feels like a “safe space” to some of us)
• How the conditioning of whiteness keeps us stuck from taking action toward justice
• Practical ways that folks can redistribute resources or power within our yoga spaces
• Taking the transactional nature out of our relationships
• Ways to notice (and dismantle) gatekeeping practices in your yoga spaces
• Shifting our mindset from a lens of individualism and fear to a focus on the collective and community care
• Kelley’s upcoming course: Race & Equity in Yoga: Disruption As a Practice will be a space for self-inquiry and unpacking our responsibilities toward race equity, yoga, social justice, and more

Today’s inquiry

Each week we’ll leave you with a powerful question. We encourage you to sit in inquiry with this question, write about it, discuss it with another community member on this path. Today, Kelley poses a 2-part question:

When you think about working toward equity, justice, and liberation, what are you willing to release? What are the obstacles you perceive to releasing those things?

Get show notes, downloads, and transcripts at accessibleyogatraining.com/podcast.

In Episode 2, Amber Karnes interviews Kelley Palmer, writer, yoga teacher, wellness advocate, and community organizer. In this episode:

• Kelley introduces herself, talks about how she came to yoga, and explains why social justice has been part of her practice from the beginning
• How Kelley began teaching yoga and how that was informed by the way anti-blackness shows up in wellness
• How yoga spaces often mirror the harm that exists in society for folks with marginalized identities
• The responsibility of studio owners when it comes to social justice and dismantling white supremacy, fatphobia, ableism, homophobia, etc.
• How we miss the barriers that prevent marginalized folks feeling welcome in a space (especially when that yoga space feels like a “safe space” to some of us)
• How the conditioning of whiteness keeps us stuck from taking action toward justice
• Practical ways that folks can redistribute resources or power within our yoga spaces
• Taking the transactional nature out of our relationships
• Ways to notice (and dismantle) gatekeeping practices in your yoga spaces
• Shifting our mindset from a lens of individualism and fear to a focus on the collective and community care
• Kelley’s upcoming course: Race & Equity in Yoga: Disruption As a Practice will be a space for self-inquiry and unpacking our responsibilities toward race equity, yoga, social justice, and more

Today’s inquiry

Each week we’ll leave you with a powerful question. We encourage you to sit in inquiry with this question, write about it, discuss it with another community member on this path. Today, Kelley poses a 2-part question:

When you think about working toward equity, justice, and liberation, what are you willing to release? What are the obstacles you perceive to releasing those things?

Connect with kelley:

• kelley nicole palmer: Website | Instagram

In episode 1: 

• Amber talks about her work: community-building around yoga, social justice, and body image
• Jivana shares his background with yoga and social justice including how he got started with yoga, how Accessible Yoga came to be, and how his participation in AIDS activism laid the groundwork for his work today
• How a community of practice (like the global Accessible Yoga community) supports marginalized practitioners and teachers to be of service and stay connected to one another
• Yoga is not just about a personal practice to make us feel better, our opportunity is to use our practice to create more well-being for all
• “Yoga is supposed to be peaceful, why are y’all so angry and negative all the time?” We discuss spiritual bypass and why the yoga teachings are not just about “love and light.”
• The harm that is done when spiritual teachings are used to ignore or downplay the harm that happens in our own lives, our yoga communities, or the world
• Yoga gives us the tools to sit with discomfort, but only using yoga to end our own suffering means we miss an opportunity to use our practice to be of service and lessen suffering for others
• Jivana shares about his experience working in AIDS hospice and how that shifted his understanding around healing, death, and yoga
• Service is the expression of an expanded mind and an ability to stay open to others’ humanity
• Figuring out “your lane” in social justice by honoring your body, knowing yourself, getting beyond shame, fear, and confusion, and managing your mind
• We’ll also share with you our plans for this podcast going forward

Today’s inquiry

Each week we’ll leave you with a powerful question. We encourage you to sit in inquiry with this question, write about it, discuss it with another community member on this path. 

This week’s question comes from Rachelle Knowles (she offered this during her workshop on the Bhagavad Gita during the St. Louis Accessible Yoga Conference last year). 

“If the battle is inevitable, what kind of warrior do you want to be?” 

Get show notes, downloads, and transcripts at accessibleyogatraining.com/podcast.

In episode 1: 

• Amber talks about her work: community-building around yoga, social justice, and body image
• Jivana shares his background with yoga and social justice including how he got started with yoga, how Accessible Yoga came to be, and how his participation in AIDS activism laid the groundwork for his work today
• How a community of practice (like the global Accessible Yoga community) supports marginalized practitioners and teachers to be of service and stay connected to one another
• Yoga is not just about a personal practice to make us feel better, our opportunity is to use our practice to create more well-being for all
• “Yoga is supposed to be peaceful, why are y’all so angry and negative all the time?” We discuss spiritual bypass and why the yoga teachings are not just about “love and light.”
• The harm that is done when spiritual teachings are used to ignore or downplay the harm that happens in our own lives, our yoga communities, or the world
• Yoga gives us the tools to sit with discomfort, but only using yoga to end our own suffering means we miss an opportunity to use our practice to be of service and lessen suffering for others
• Jivana shares about his experience working in AIDS hospice and how that shifted his understanding around healing, death, and yoga
• Service is the expression of an expanded mind and an ability to stay open to others’ humanity
• Figuring out “your lane” in social justice by honoring your body, knowing yourself, getting beyond shame, fear, and confusion, and managing your mind
• We’ll also share with you our plans for this podcast going forward

Today’s inquiry

Each week we’ll leave you with a powerful question. We encourage you to sit in inquiry with this question, write about it, discuss it with another community member on this path. 

This week’s question comes from Rachelle Knowles (she offered this during her workshop on the Bhagavad Gita during the St. Louis Accessible Yoga Conference last year). 

“If the battle is inevitable, what kind of warrior do you want to be?” 

Get show notes, downloads, and transcripts at accessibleyogatraining.com/podcast.