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.Learn more about McMindfulness by Ronald Purser. Learn more about Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 and Yoga for Human Kind.Follow Mei Lai and Yoga for Human Kind on Instagram. Learn more about Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 (now The Love of Yoga Podcast hosted by Anjali Rao), 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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool

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 Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman. Order your copy of Yoga Revolution at Shambala, or wherever books are sold.  Also by Jivana Heyman:Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (2019, Shambala)The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024)Connect with Jivana:www.jivanaheyman.com@jivanaheymanfacebook.com/jivanaheymanwww.accessibleyogaschool.com@accessibleyogaschoolfacebook.com/accessibleyogaschool