Yoga Revolution

Jivana wraps Season 1 of the Yoga Revolution Podcast by reflecting on the writing, publishing, and promotional process he's experienced over the past couple years. He shares about his history and experiences with both activism and yoga, including his first introduction to the practice (his grandmother), and how his connection to the practice has grown and changed throughout life. He also hints at some exciting offerings and happenings coming soon, including upcoming book clubs and forthcoming books, as well as where you can follow along with his work. Find the links below. Finally, Jivana reads a few sections from Yoga Revolution and offers suggestions for how to live our yoga practice authentically and connect our spiritual nature with our varied human experiences.Follow Jivana on Instagram.Listen to the Accessible Yoga Podcast.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambhala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

As this season of the Yoga Revolution Podcast comes to a close, Jivana chats with Beth Frankl, the editor of his two books, Accessible Yoga andYoga Revolution, the book that inspired this podcast. Beth is an Executive Editor at Shambhala Publications, where she has worked for more than 23 years. She and Jivana discuss the book writing and publishing process, including where and how to begin, and how to compare publishing models (e.g. self-publishing v. working with a traditional publishing company). Beth also shares about some of the inspiring teachers, thought leaders, and authors she has worked with over the years and how the book writing process can be reflective, therapeutic, and, at times, quite challenging. The two reflect on the beauty of the writer-publisher relationship and how it's a form of collaboration and spiritual practice over both the short- and long-term.Learn more about Shambhala Publications.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambhala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week M Camellia joins Jivana to take a deep dive into how we can challenge the norms and “rules” of Westernized yoga culture and co-create a culture that focuses on collective, rather than just individual, liberation. Melanie “M” Camellia (they/them) is a fat, queer, non-binary, neuro-emergent yoga teacher, writer, and advocate, called to create profoundly accessible spaces for self-inquiry. They believe that the goal of yoga is collective liberation and challenge contemporary yoga practitioners to dismantle the systems and beliefs that hold us all back. M is a co-founder of the Trans Yoga Project and serves on the staff of Accessible Yoga, among other roles within the realm of yoga service. Their teaching and writing often center Queer and Trans* identity, consent and agency, fat liberation, and disability justice in relation to yoga philosophy and practice, and they serve as a mentor for other yoga teachers and practitioners desiring to deepen their understanding of accessibility, trauma, and yoga as social justice. On this episode, M offers profound and heartfelt insight into what it means to invite agency and exploration into yoga spaces, the importance of learning when and how to say “no” and “yes” on and off the mat, and consent and power dynamics in yoga. They also provide specific examples of how to do this as yoga teachers and practitioners. Learn more about M and their offerings.Follow M on Instagram.Follow the Trans Yoga Project on Instagram.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

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," due out February 2022.Learn more about Octavia.Follow Octavia's inspirational Instagram. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week Marc Settembrino joins Jivana for a powerful conversation about living in a larger body, reclaiming the word "fat," righteous anger, and the disconnect between capitalism and the yogic teachings. Marc is a fat-queer educator, researcher, and yoga facilitator based in Hammond, LA, who envisions a world that celebrates diversity and promotes dignity. In 2018 Marc created Fat Kid Yoga Club, a supportive yoga community for folks with larger bodies to explore joyful movement and celebrate what is possible in their bodies one practice at a time. Marc describes their experience living in a larger body, how fat folks are often objectified simply for existing, and how asana helped inspire their teaching philosophy: to hold space for people to move their bodies freely and experience them in a way that is not attached to shame. Jivana and Marc also take a deep dive into the harmful impact of diet culture in Western or "American" yoga and discuss the problematic nature of our modern-day yoga mat. Learn more about Marc.Follow Mark and Fat Kid Yoga Club on Instagram.Learn more about McMindfulness by Ronald Purser. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Mei Lai Swan joins Jivana to discuss what it means to experience deep interconnectedness, the ethics of yoga, systemic and cultural trauma, and trauma-informed yoga teaching. Born on the unceded indigenous lands of Australia, Mei Lai Swan is the founder of social enterprise yoga school Yoga for Humankind, offering specialized trainings in Trauma-Informed Yoga and Embodied Social Change. Dedicated to the paths of yoga, meditation, and community practice for over 20 years, Mei Lai Swan's approach to yoga is deeply embodied, inclusive, and inquiry-based. She is an experienced yoga teacher trainer and certified Embodied Flow facilitator with a professional background in music, community development, and social work. Mei Lai specializes in trauma-informed yoga and social justice, somatics, and nada yoga (sound and mantra). She and Jivana consider how power dynamics and social conditioning affect how we teach yoga, the collective responsibility to heal trauma, and, interestingly, the connection between astrophysics and yoga.Learn more about Mei Lai.Follow Mei Lai on Instagram. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week Itzel Berrio Hayward joins Jivana Heyman for a warm and dynamic conversation about our innate divinity, finding unity in diversity, and the relationship between social justice and yoga. Itzel is a compassionate and fierce advocate for love. After serving as a public policy lawyer for 13 years, Itzel left her legal career and founded Attuned Living, a mindfulness and wellness organization that helps individuals heal the sense of separation they feel from others—or even from themselves. Her unique work—based on the teachings of yoga, mindfulness, and compassionate communication—ranges from promoting social justice work within organizations and communities to guiding individuals on their search for personal and professional fulfillment. During their heartfelt chat, Jivana and Itzel consider the following: How is our spirituality connected to our humanity? How do we avoid making the yogic teachings overly dogmatic while still keeping the tradition alive? And, how can we connect those teachings to our modern-day, human experience for the benefit of all?Learn more about Itzel and Attuned Living.Follow Itzel on Instagram.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week Jivana shares a heartfelt conversation about yoga service with teacher Adrian Molina. Adrian has been teaching yoga since 2004 and has an extensive worldwide following through his platform and school of yoga, Warrior Flow. Even with his wide-ranging reach, Adrian remains humble, warm, and dedicated to using the tools and practices of yoga to benefit others. He is also a writer, meditation teacher, sound therapist, End-of-Life Doula, Mental Health First Aid facilitator, an ambassador for Accessible Yoga and Yoga for All, and soon to be a TCTSY facilitator. Adrian is recognized as a community organizer and founder of The Warrior Flow Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that brings the benefits of movement, therapeutic and accessible yoga, mindfulness, and stress reduction tools to schools, shelters, hospitals, police, first responders, and hospice care. He is also the co-founder of Warrior Flow TV, an online video platform that makes fitness and yoga accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Jivana and Adrian discuss what self care means in the context of yoga service, how teaching is also a form of self care, and why bringing yoga to unusual places, such as hospitals and police stations, combines spiritual practice and social justice and is, in many ways, the path to a true yoga revolution. Learn more about Adrian and Warrior Flow.Join Adrian's Instagram community.Join the Warrior Flow Instagram community. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

On Episode 12 of Yoga Revolution, despite a few connection issues along the way, Jivana and De Jur Jones share a moving conversation about teaching yoga in prisons, trauma-informed yoga, generational trauma, and yoga service. A yoga devotee since 2001, De Jur attended Loyola Marymount University's Yoga Therapy program and teaches a therapeutic style of yoga suitable for most students. Along with having taught countless mainstream classes, De Jur offers programs to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, unhoused populations, mentally challenged seniors, foster youth, those in recovery, human trafficking victims/survivors, and staff who serve all these groups. De Jur is a contributor to the Yoga Service Council's best practices book series “Best Practices for Yoga in the Criminal Justice System," an Accessible Yoga Ambassador, and a featured model in “Accessible Yoga, Poses and Practices for Every Body”, “Yoga After 50 For Dummies," and "Embodied Resilience through Yoga: 30 Mindful Essays. De Jur co-chaired at the 2019 International Association of Yoga Therapists Conference and moonlights as a flight attendant. From prison lockdowns to class cancellations to navigating endless streams of bureaucratic red tape, De Jur offers a glimpse into the various difficulties she encounters teaching in prisons, as well as how problematic the (in)justice system is, particularly for folks of color. She also offers pointers around shifting language to be more inclusive and equitable (as well as her hilarious, yet useful phrase and practice of “third eye rolling”). Learn more about De Jur and her offerings. Learn more about Jivana's book. Learn more about Jivana. Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week's guest is Rane Bowen (he/him), a long-time student of yoga and meditation. He shares his personal journey with stomach cancer, how the practices helped him cope with the emotional difficulties of a terminal (mis)diagnosis, and how he's deepening his connection to his Maori heritage. Rane has an insatiable curiosity about the yoga teachings and how they can help people in their daily lives and in overcoming adversity. Alongside his wife Jo Stewart, he teaches yoga at Garden of Yoga, a home-based yoga studio, and co-hosts the Flow Artists Podcast, which features teachers and thinkers about yoga, meditation, social justice, and more. Jivana and Rane discuss how the yoga teachings connect to death and how spirituality can help us address suffering and tap into a deeper level of compassion. The two also consider how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the way we care for others and view freedom and collective care. Take a class with Rane.Follow Rane on Instagram.Listen to the Flow Artists Podcast.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week Jivana and guest Amina Naru share an authentic and vulnerable conversation around trauma, anxiety, loss, and grief. Amina is the owner of Posh Yoga LLC in Wilmington, Delaware, co-founder of Retreat to Spirit, and an active member of the Board of Directors for the Accessible Yoga Association. A trauma-sensitive yoga teacher, wellness educator, and workshop facilitator, Amina's professional expertise is in the field of yoga service for communities, juvenile detention centers, and adult prisons. Amina is the first Black woman to implement curriculum-based yoga and mindfulness programs for juvenile detention centers in the state of Delaware. Both Jivana and Amina share personal stories about their own trauma and loss and consider how we can use those experiences to show up in service for others. Their conversation includes why trauma-sensitive training is so important for yoga teachers, how our actions on our yoga mat mirror our actions in life, and why seeing and valuing people as whole humans is key to the practice. Learn more about Amina.Follow Amina's work on Instagram.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana. Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Jivana's friend and fellow Accessible Yoga teacher/trainer Sarit Z. Rogers joins Yoga Revolution this week to chat about Somatic Experiencing (SE) and trauma-informed yoga and healing modalities. Sarit is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, accomplished photographer, writer, and trauma-informed yoga teacher. She is certified to teach Hatha/Vinyasa, Accessible Yoga, Yoga for All©, and Restorative and Yin Yoga. As the two discuss in this week's episode, Sarit brings yoga and SE tools to jails, prisons, and group homes and offers individual SE sessions and groups in rehabs. She encourages listeners (and her students) to "touch into the discomfort" and soften towards suffering and pain when comfortable and appropriate. Sarit offers a beautiful analogy for beginning this healing process: When addressing trauma, she says, confront it like a tangled up necklace. Gently untangle the trauma and take time to move through your process. Listen for more words of wisdom. Learn more about Sarit.Learn more about Sarit's photography.Follow Sarit on Instagram to learn more about SE.Follow Sarit's photography page on Instagram for visual inspiration.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana. Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week Amber Karnes join Jivana to chat about body liberation, the importance of representation, and how to use the yoga teachings in the service of all. In addition to being Jivana's good friend, collaborator, and co-host of the Accessible Yoga Podcast, Amber is founder of Body Positive Yoga and creator of the Body Positive Clubhouse. Amber trains yoga teachers and movement educators to create accessible, equitable spaces for liberation and belonging and encourages folks to make peace with their bodies and build unshakable confidence. Amber and Jivana discuss how to apply the limbs of yoga to our lives and how to move from yoga as a practice to self-soothe to a practice that can help build community and honor the breadth and depth of our humanity. Learn more about Amber and Body Positive Yoga.Follow Amber on Instagram.Read Amber's Yoga Journal cover story. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week Jacquie “Sunny” Barbee joins Jivana to chat about non-attachment, spiritual bypassing, self-study, and how the path of yoga can support us in moving through our physical, emotional, and psychological pain. Sunny is an E-RYT 200-hour yoga teacher living in the Panhandle of Florida. After yoga helped her manage chronic illness and depression, Sunny was inspired to share the practice with others and teach students how to customize their practice to fit their own body--whether it is larger, aging, or living with illness or injury. Sunny is also certified in Accessible Yoga, Yoga for All Bodies, Mind Body Solutions, and Yin Yoga. With her characteristic spirit of generosity and kindness, she shares her heartfelt journey along the path of yoga and why simply "checking in" on people and "being real" are central to her yoga practice. Learn more about Sunny.Follow her on Instagram for a regular dose of sunshine.Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana. Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week's guest is Anjali Rao, a yoga teacher, social justice activist, community organizer, multi-cultural training specialist, and cancer survivor. Anjali is an Indian American from Bangalore, India. Her work explores yoga philosophy and history, integrating marginalized voices using storytelling, imagery, and poetry. Jivana and Anjali discuss the intersection of yoga and social justice in the context of the modern world, capitalism, and the yogic texts (the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras). Anjali also offers her wisdom about how to use our yoga practice to "bridge divides" within our many communities.Learn more about Anjali.Follow Anjali for inspiration on Instagram. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

J. Miles joins Jivana this week to discuss what it means "to go through the fire of life" as yoga practitioners and the importance of maintaining our practice as yoga teachers. Creator of Maha Vira Yoga, J has been dancing to the rhythm of life since childhood. A yoga practitioner, martial artist, bodyworker, retired breakdancer, community activist, and the son of a Baptist minister, J has been learning and studying Eastern arts and philosophy for nearly two decades. Over the years, he has crafted a style tempered by real life experience, humor, yogic philosophy, and the importance of breath as a guide and source of strength. He opens up about what it means to teach yoga and live as a Black man and how to maintain a feeling of joy and abundance despite various challenges in his life and community. Jivana and J describe the theme of this episode as "spiritual practice as compost" and explain why cultivating good soil helps to cultivate a good life.Learn more about J.Follow J's journey on Instagram.Contact J about trainings, private sessions, and more. Learn more about Jivana's book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson joins Jivana to help answer the question: How do we realize a world in which we can all be free? An author, yoga teacher, social justice activist, intuitive healer, and Dismantling Racism trainer, Michelle approaches her life and work from a place of empowerment, embodiment, and integration. Whether in an anti-oppression training, yoga space, intuitive healing session, or this podcast, the heart, healing, and wholeness are at the center of how Michelle approaches her work in the world. She and Jivana consider how our individual choices affect our community's wellbeing and what it means to be in service to each other. Michelle reminds us of the importance of maintaining our own spiritual practice when showing up for the collective good and teaches us how to connect to the wisdom of our ancestors.Learn more about Michelle and her trainings.Purchase Michelle's new book Finding Refuge.Purchase Michelle's renowned book Skill in Action.Learn more about the book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

This week on Yoga Revolution, Jivana speaks with Susanna Barkataki, an Indian yoga practitioner in the Shankaracharya tradition who supports practitioners in leading with equity, diversity, and yogic values. Susanna is founder of Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute and runs 200/500 Yoga Teacher Training programs. She is an E-RYT 500, Certified Yoga Therapist with International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT). She and Jivana discuss how to find unity in diversity, creativity as an alternative to cultural appropriation, and the harm caused by spiritual bypassing and separation. Learn more about Susanna.Learn more about the book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

The first Yoga Revolution guest is Kelley Palmer, a creative, space holder, and advocate whose work centers around organizing, re-imagining, and leaning into wholeness together. An E-RYT and Accessible Yoga teacher and trainer, Kelley graciously wrote the foreword for Yoga Revolution and shares how yoga offered tools for "transmuting anger into action" and a path to activism. She and Jivana discuss the connection between our inner lived experiences and the way we act in the world, the importance of dismantling systems of oppression, moving beyond the physical practice of yoga, and more. Learn more about Kelley.Learn more about the book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Welcome to the Yoga Revolution Podcast! In this introductory episode, Jivana offers an overview of his new book Yoga Revolution and shares the inspiration behind the book's primary question: "How do we live yoga now?" He discusses how the spiritual teachings can guide both inner and outer revolutions and why so many yoga practitioners and spiritual leaders--many of whom are interviewed on this show and in the book--connect yoga with social and racial justice. Listen for a short reading and to find out what's coming this season on Yoga Revolution.Learn more about the book.Learn more about Jivana.Pre-order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, Amazon, or wherever books are sold.