Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Practice of Yoga to Create a Just World | created by Michelle Johnson

Friday – Sunday, March 4-6, 2022 | held online via Zoom | Hosted by Lauren Roberts and Charlie Redd

As yoga teachers or students studying to hold space for others and teach the sacred practice of yoga, we have a responsibility to understand how to bring the larger cultural context into our teaching and practice. Many are wondering how to respond to the collective trauma caused by Covid-19, white supremacy and racism and all forms of superiority and oppression. Many are wondering how to make space for their grief and liberation amid social isolation and distancing. Dominant culture wants us to continue to disassociate from ourselves and others, divide and conquer, maintain the status quo and turn away from heartbreak we may be feeling at this time. While we have questions about how to respond and be in this moment, I believe that we must respond with steadfastness and courageous hearts to the urgent concerns of this time. Spiritual practice invites us to lean into discomfort and truth, move through and with our emotions and grief, better understand the nature and causes of suffering and transform in service of the collective good. Spiritual practice including meditation and yoga, allow us to work with sensation, toxic thought patterns, grief, cultural conditioning, overwhelm, and anxiety through mindfulness and thoughtful care.
 
Skill in Action is a workshop designed to explore systems of power and oppression, the intersection of social justice and yoga, external and internalized patterns of oppression, power and privilege, and how we can respond to the current cultural and political challenges through practices of self-study, movement, pranayama, contemplation and collective action. Through these teachings you will learn more about both how to create more inclusive spaces for healing and teaching as well as how to infuse your teachings with content centered on social justice. Throughout our time together we will practice asana (postures), meditation, mindfulness, pranayama (breathing), holding space together and mantra work to sharpen our goals and visions for our work to change the world.
 

What we will explore includes:

• Meditation
  
• Embodied practice and asana
  
• Creating culture: Agreements and assumptions
  
• Social location
  
• Privilege, Power and Oppression
  
• Racism, Internalizations and intersectionality
  
• Spiritual Bypassing and Cultural Appropriation
  
• Dharma and Duty to intervene, disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression

The most effective tool of White Supremacy is Divide and Conquer. This system of oppression causes us to distance from ourselves and others, leaving us split apart both individually and collectively. Dismantling White Supremacy and systems of oppression requires turning towards, and facing one another.
 
Through the practice of yoga, we can experience personal transformation that allows us to approach one another with honesty, skill and awareness. Through sharing and conversation we will explore the ways White Supremacy and oppression become internalized, and how we, in turn, embody and perpetuate oppression individually and collectively.
 
We will practice asana (postures), meditation, mindfulness, pranayama (breathing), chanting and mantra work to sharpen our goals and visions for our work to change the world. We will create concrete plans to put our goals into action.

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Dates/Times/Location/Cost & Other Details

• Location: Held online via Zoom
• Dates: Fri-Sun, March 4-6, 2022
• Times: Friday, 6-8pm / Saturday + Sunday 12:30-2:30pm + 3:30pm-5:30pm, all times in EST
• Community Rate: $175 (discounted)
• Sustainer Rate: $200 (pays for you)
• Supporter Rate: $225 (supports otherwise as well as yourself)
• Custom payment plans available. To pay with a payment plan, select that pricing option at checkout and we will email you to followup with your custom payment plan.
• VSAC non-degree grants accepted
• ​Eligible for CEU credits

About Charlie Redd - Charlie is an entrepreneur, mentor, community organizer, and healer. At the core of everything that she does is a passion for social justice and a mission to create spaces where people from marginalized groups can show up as their whole selves. Back in 2018, Charlie opened Haven Yoga Studio in Indianapolis, Indiana after years of practicing, working in studios, teaching, and experiencing the reality that, as a black person, she was unable to do her deep work in the spaces that were available to her. Charlie founded Haven to provide an accessible and affirming space where people can practice in community and safely deepen their wellness practice amongst others who care about their wellbeing. Charlie is a mentor for folx who are interested in digging deeper into their own practice and learning how to advocate for themselves in the wellness space, as well as a teacher for wellness leaders who are ready to learn how to be more supportive of different communities. She also works with organizations to offer coaching and facilitation around social justice, anti-racism, and healing justice with the use of wellness tools.

About Lauren Roberts - Lauren Roberts (she/her) is a coach, facilitator, writer, and podcaster connecting high-integrity people with their power to create a just world. She fuels social change by coaching progressive politicians and community leaders; facilitating groups on change-making leadership; writing conscious content for paradigm-shifting individuals and organizations; and speaking on a range of topics, including her experience with trauma recovery and the messy work of being a white, cisgender co-conspirator for social justice. Lauren spent several years working in public policy, communications, and fundraising for Democrats on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail before pivoting to social change work in 2016. In 2013, she trained as a trauma-informed yoga teacher with Yoga District and has been mentored by Michelle Cassandra Johnson as a Skill in Action facilitator since 2020. Lauren is currently based in Denver, Colorado on Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Ute land

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Learn more about Michelle's work:
– Skill in Action Book
– There is No Neutral Tedx Talk
– Liberating Yoga Spaces Article on Yoga International
– What is Skill in Action? Article
– Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook

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