The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast
273: Yoga is a Revolution with Jivana Heyman
Description:
What is the ultimate goal with your yoga practice? How does yoga tie in with social justice and activism? How is yoga a revolution? Jivana Heyman is back on the podcast to answer these questions and to share more about his new book, Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion.
Jivana Heyman, is the founder and director of the Accessible Yoga Association, an international non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings. Through his work with Accessible Yoga, Jivana offers conferences, community forums, a podcast, and a popular ambassador program. He is also the co-founder of the Accessible Yoga Training School, and the author of Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body.
In this episode, Jivana explains his perspective on how yoga relates to social justice, and how our personal practice of yoga helps us show up and serve. Jivana and Shannon also discuss the power dynamic in teacher-student relationships, why we struggle with failure and how we can normalize it, what to do when the world feels overwhelming, and more.
Tune in to also find out how to win one of two copies of Jivana’s book as well!
Key Takeaways:
[4:28] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode - Jivana Heyman
[8:35] What was it like for Jivana to write his second book?
[10:51] What does yoga have to do with social justice and activism?
[14:29] Shannon and Jivana invite you to consider what is the goal of your own practice.
[17:19] What are Jivana's thoughts on how some people view speaking out as unbecoming or not aligned with being a yoga teacher or the teachings of yoga?
[22:05] A live listener, Jessica, shares that for them, the ultimate goal of yoga is connection.
[24:06] Another listener shares about how yoga has helped them with patience and building community.
[27:07] Shannon and Jivana discuss a personal experience he shared in the book about how he dealt with his yoga teacher being accused of abuse.
[33:45] Shannon pops in with a message about a new update from OfferingTree.
[35:51] Jivana explains what he means by 'my liberation is tied to yours'.
[42:04] If we're all connected, we need to work on our connections to people we disagree with as well.
[47:51] Jivana talks about failure as a practice, and the impact of our internal self-talk on ourselves.
[51:40] Shannon shares some comments from listeners.
[54:09] Going back to the theme of failure, Jivana reflects on how we should approach failure.
[55:58] What is the rainbow mind?
[59:11] How does building your personal practice tie in with being able to deal with the world when it feels overwhelming?
[63:29] How can you support someone in your life right now?
[66:37] Jivana's new book is available for purchase and Shannon is also giving away two copies to listeners!
Links:
Gratitude to our Sponsor, OfferingTree.
Quotes from this episode:
“I’ve always always really found those connections between yoga and social justice and I wanted to share them.” - Jivana
“To me, social justice is wanting justice for others, actually just having compassion for others and caring about other people other than myself. To me that's directly aligned with the yoga teachings.” - Jivana
“What do you think the ultimate goal for you is with your own practice?” - Shannon Crow
"We are all intimately connected, and that's the point of yoga actually is to find those connections." - Jivana