We believe the practices of yoga are for any living breathing body. The only requirement for yoga practice is to breathe. You don’t have to look, dress, or be any way but yourself. This is your practice, your choice, your consent. You are invited to come as you are, allow for pause, and be open to change. The practices of yoga have the ability to move our lives in a positive way, deepening awareness and mindfulness, and it is important that all are welcome and have access. This is what we mean when we say we offer, “yoga for people who breathe.”
We are a modern yoga studio inspired by ancient wisdom and practices. We allow for evolution and growth, not perpetuating systems of violence and exclusion or old paradigms, traditions, ideologies, lineages, and philosophies rooted in oppression. We allow for fluidity, nuance, and being part of emerging conversations to create a kinder culture and more peaceful world.
The last several months in our Mindful Book Circle we have read the following books:
How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self by Dr. Nicole LePera
Vagus Nerve: Access Your Body’s Natural Healing Power!: Self Help Techniques and Exercises to Activate Your Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Overcoming Anxiety, Trauma, Chronic Illness, Depression and More by Stephen W. Rosen
We are currently reading/discussing My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem.
Also on our mind, which goes hand in hand with the work mentioned above is Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s book, The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition.
If yoga is to be inclusive (accessible to all), who is being kept out? The practices of yoga originating in South Asia have been historically exclusive and only available to those with caste advantage (Brahmins). More on this and ways we may make the yoga practice more accessible on the following blog and podcast:
Reflecting on Trauma and Caste Blog
The Trauma of Caste on Accessible Yoga Podcast
At World Peace Yoga we believe in liberation and freedom for all. We practice inclusive compassion and we invite everyone to the table. We do not subscribe to the social construct of race or caste where the white body is considered the superior standard of humanity or where society is divided into descending classes, a social order that is “justified” in Vedic scripture to oppress others. We believe that all forms of oppression and exploitation are connected and therefore extend compassion to fellow animals–not consuming them for food, clothing, or any other purpose as a practice of non-violence.
This is a practice. We are imperfect humans. We do our best to continue to learn (and perhaps more importantly unlearn), grow, and evolve and it is an ongoing practice.
You are invited to be part of these conversations and practices to take your yoga practice deeper – to truly embody yoga and to live an embodied life. Look on our schedule for a variety of offerings.
Anna Ferguson is the author of World Peace Yoga: Yoga for People Who Breathe, a book on yoga that inspires peace in action, developing intuition, deepening empathy, and expanding compassion. Connect with Anna via Instagram @annafergusonpeace or via Facebook or join her for a class online at worldpeaceyogaonline.com.
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