Yin is a modern discipline that draws upon multiple Indigenous lineages, including the pantheon of yoga that emerged from South Asia and Taoism and Chinese Medicine from East Asia. While its benefits can be felt and experienced by all, it is vital that we understand and honor how these practices are forever tied to specific lands, languages, and cultures.

Learning about and working with the postural, energetic, and meditative benefits of yin will bring us deeper into relationship with these yogic and Taoist lineages. 

This training reflects the reality of our current world: many students, and teachers, of yin yoga are living with personal and structural traumas that must be held with skill and care. Still and quiet practices can be incredibly beneficial for the mind, body, and spirit, but they can also be disorienting and activating, especially for those living with trauma. Many of our experiences of trauma are linked to or directly caused by systems of oppression (including racism, sexism, gender essentialism, classism, ableism).

In particular, white supremacy culture encourages us to mask, minimize, or dissociate from our experiences and emotions. Instead of bypassing these realities, we seek to create spaces of mutual support and wholeness. From personal trauma histories and diagnoses to institutional discrimination and collective grief, our curriculum will pay special attention to those seeking refuge, healing, and wholeness.

Yoga is a liberatory pathway. It shows us how we are intricately and innately connected to all beings and all things. In practical terms, this means that the training will work to not just include, but celebrate, all bodies, all identities, and all experiences, especially those that have been excluded or harmed by colonized and corporatized yoga spaces.

Guided by our code of yogic ethics, we will have space to name and discuss, power dynamics, harmful practices, and alternatives so we can create the spaces and communities we desire and deserve. Within our training, I am working to center the wisdom and experiences of Black and Brown teachers, particularly those of South and East Asia and the diaspora. This will come in the form of curated resources and referrals to further your training and practice.  

Trainings are often magnetic and alchemical experiences, where like-minded people come together for a short time, learn a lot, and then it’s over. This experience is powerful, and for many, just the start of a learning and practice journey! By taking this this training, you’ll have the ability to stay connected to our free community of practice, who can nurture your personal practice and yin yoga path.