A Time For Pause

A Time For Pause

We are writing to share with you that after 15 years of offering trainings, community building, mentoring and support, in the upcoming new year we are going to take a pause in order to regroup, slow down and see what our next evolution needs to be.

In the short term, we plan on using our website and social media to uplift the work of our faculty and community and share resources for trainings and events.

Thank you for all the years of love, trust, and support. We are grateful for your commitment to this important work, and we are thrilled to see the shifts of awareness in the mainstream yoga culture. We are proud to have been able to serve the community in the ways we have.

An #ActuallyAutistic Response to Autism Awareness Month

An #ActuallyAutistic Response to Autism Awareness Month

I’ve tried so many times to start writing about Autism Awareness Month – no big deal, just a straightforward, concise list of the things about it that #ActuallyAutistic people (especially those of us who are social justice activists) detest, with suggestions for what messages to absorb instead. Easy, right? But I’m ashamed and scared, because I’ve been told my entire life that how I am – how I show up in interaction with other people – is deficient, burdensome, just not quite right. I’m scared that I’ll say it wrong – be too bombastic, ardent or frantic, or too placating, euphemistic, “positive” – and I’ll either fail to speak clearly or I’ll alienate my entire audience. Yup, internalized anti-autistic bias is hard at work in my beleaguered brain. The antidote is to speak anyway. So I’ll try.

Why Some Commonly Used Language Hurts People with Atypical Neurology

Why Some Commonly Used Language Hurts People with Atypical Neurology

I am, by cultural standards, perceived to be highly intelligent and reasonably sane. In spite of that, these words hurt me. They hurt me because I know what's underneath my "intelligent" and "sane" surface, and what it costs me energetically to maintain appearances such that I am (marginally) acceptable to society. I am multiply neurodivergent, and most of the words I referenced – in addition to many others – have been used against me at one time or another; not as general insults, but as criticism of self-expression on my part that was deemed confusing or bothersome in some way by someone else.

Trauma and Social Justice: Why we can’t talk about one without including the other

Trauma and Social Justice: Why we can’t talk about one without including the other

For the past 15 years I have been training yoga teachers, clinicians and other direct service providers to be “trauma informed.” This starts with educating people on the impact of unresolved trauma on individuals and communities.  This lens can help us understand why our students might be shut down, or why a client is anxious and mistrustful. This lens asks us to assume that everyone is doing the best they can in the moment, and that most of our behavior is an attempt to regulate ourselves and feel safe and good.

Mindful Activism Is Yoga

Mindful Activism Is Yoga

Ever wonder how yoga can affect real change in our society? In this powerful article, Michelle Cassandra Johnson shares that “Yoga means taking mindful action in activist spaces and creating activism in spiritual spaces in order to respond to the discomfort and paradoxes systems of power, oppression, and privilege create." She also shares ways we can use yoga to spark real change in our society by learning to be with the discomfort and the paradox of oppression and take action.

Have you had a political wake up call? Here's what to do next.

Have you had a political wake up call? Here's what to do next.

“While the wellness industry soars in America (up 1000% in the last 20 years), so does inequality and injustice. Awakened by the events of 9/11, Kerri Kelly takes a hard look at who we are and what it means to be well. She challenges us to reimagine citizenship - not as one of exclusion and rules but as one of belonging and solidarity. Because our collective wellbeing depends on it.“ - TEDx Talks

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