yoga for all

NEW YEAR NEW SEASON!
Welcome to Season 2 of How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast!

To kick off 2024, Mia and Adrienne took a roadtrip to Houston and met up with Alicia Dugar Stephenson (aka @AfroYogaQueen on IG.

Alicia dives deep into her yoga journey, including  how she utilizes Yoga to help manage her Lupus. Her passion and love to share yoga within her community is inspiring!

Show Notes:

Click Here to purchase Alicia's Book, Yoga Best Life: 5 Keys to Unlock Abundant Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Click Here to sign up for Alicia's upcoming training

Click Here for more info on Yoga Sutra 2.1 from Yoga International

Click Here to register for Adrienne's upcoming Advanced 300 RYT Training in SATX

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://instagram.com/yogachanged?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

For more, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other original yoga-inspired compositions by visiting bio.site/mcrworks. For the latest updates on upcoming events featuring his live music for yoga and meditation, be sure to follow @maryogamusic on Instagram.

Wanna be on the show? Click here to fill out our guest info form or drop us a email at yogachanged@gmail.com

This month on Yoga Magic we're talking about CHASING YOUR DREAMS!

I sit down with art therapist, healer, Yoga teacher and real life dream chaser Cassie Sawyer. Cassie knew that she wanted to help people through Art Therapy, so she created her own major in college and hasn't looked back. Today she's the owner and founder of Root to Crown Healing and Wellness, an inclusive and holistic therapy practice that incorporates healing modalities such as Reiki, Yoga, Astrology, energy work and crystals in addition to traditional Art Therapy. Cassie's speciality in race-based trauma is helping heal the Minneapolis community on so many levels. In this conversation we talk about Cassie's journey into starting her own practice, how trauma may hold us back from manifesting our goals and dreams, and how healing in these creative healing ways may help. 

If you'd like to contribute to Cassie's work supporting the BIPOC community, check out her Abundance Therapy Fund. If you do make a gift, please email me at info@ashleysondergaard.com. Yoga Magic will be matching the total contributions made up to $500. 

"Self-care is community care, and every human deserves access to healing and wellness."

Also in this episode:

• Exciting updates to Yoga Magic and the introduction of Community Tuesdays starting in 2021
• What Soma Yoga Is
• Drawing inspiration from intuition and life experiences
• Differentiating between intuitive hits and emotional triggers
• Utilizing the mindfulness tool RAIN (recognize, allow, investigate and nurture)

Learn more:

• Follow Root to Crown on Instagram: @roottocrownhealing
• Learn more about Root to Crown Healing and Wellness: www.roottocrownhealing.com
• Follow along on Instagram: @yogamagicpodcast and @ashleysondergaard.yoga
• Learn more about Ashley and Yoga Magic at www.ashleysondergaard.com

Sponsors:

• Simpson & Vail Teas | Use code YOGAMAGIC for 15% off your first order at www.svtea.com.

This month on Yoga Magic we're learning all about FREEDOM. Freedom in our bodies, freedom to experience joy, freedom from diet culture. This week's guest, Amber Karnes, trains yoga teachers around the world to create accessible, equitable spaces for liberation and belonging. We discuss how yoga teachers can do better to ensure everyone feels free to experience the benefits of Yoga. 

Amber Karnes is a yoga teacher trainer, the founder of Body Positive Yoga, co-founder of The Accessible Yoga Training School, co-host of the Accessible Yoga Podcast, and a lifelong student of her body. She also creates community for folks who want to build unshakable confidence and learn to live without shame or apology in the bodies they have today.

In this episode, we talk about Amber's journey and awakenings in Yoga, tangible upgrades yoga teachers and students can make to be more inclusive to those practicing yoga with us, and why moving from the exterior focus of our physical bodies to the interior study of our inner being may be more "Yoga" than a handstand. 

We also talk about:

• Freedom and non-attachment (Aparigraha)
• Shifting the perspective on why we practice movement
• Creating a judgement free & welcoming environment in online yoga classes
• Moving beyond Asana
• The next Accessible Teacher Training starting on January 20. Get on the waitlist at www.accessibleyogatraining.com.

Learn more:

• Follow Amber on Instagram: @amberkarnesofficial
• Learn more about Amber: www.bodypositiveyoga.com
• Check out her podcast Accessible Yoga Podcast with co-host Jivana Heyman
• Follow along on Instagram: @yogamagicpodcast and @ashleysondergaard.yoga
• Learn more about Ashley and Yoga Magic at www.ashleysondergaard.com

Upcoming Yoga Magic Events:

• Mondays @ 5:00 PM CT & Saturdays @ 9:00 AM CT | Community Yoga Classes on Zoom
• October 31 | 7:30 PM  CST| Full Moon Flow @ Forgotten Star Brewing
• November 5 | 7:00 PM CST | The Magic of Your Gifts with Jina Seavall

I know I always say this, but I am so excited to bring you this week's episode. I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Jivana Heyman, author of Accessible Yoga; Poses & Practices For Every Body, Founder and Director of  The Accessible Yoga Organization - an international not-for-profit dedicated to bringing the teachings of yoga to communities that are under-represented in traditional yoga spaces.

Jivana also runs the Accessible Yoga Conference, and holds multiple accessible yoga teacher trainings around the world each year. A lot of Jivana’s work has focused around making asana accessible, but as he’s mentioned before, one of his deepest passions is actually making the essence of yoga, or yoga philosophy accessible. I was so excited to speak with Jivana about this.

PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS

• Yoga as service & Jivana’s recent leadership in the yoga community during covid-19
• How western celebrity culture has infiltrated the yoga world
• The way the general public perceives yoga due to how it’s been marketed vs. what yoga actually is
• How bringing critical thinking into our yoga studies and communities is essential
• How truth is often found in paradox
• How simply being honest with how we portray yoga could be a key to shifting what people think yoga is
• Jivana’s advice about studying the Yoga Sutras & Bhagavad Gita
• Jivana’s recommendations for translations of the Yoga Sutras 
• The story of two times when Jivana has failed in his work

FIND JIVANA

• Jivana’s Personal Instagram
• Accessible Yoga Instagram
• Jivana’s Personal Website
• Accessible Yoga Website

FIND CORA

• Cora’s Instagram
• Cora’s Newsletter
• The Teachers Club

For links & resources mentioned in this episode go to www.corageroux.com/podcastepisodes/episode25

Shanie Gill runs a non-profit "Yoga for All Movement", bridging the gap between the people that can afford to have access to yoga and those that don't have access. She's bringing the medicine to the people. She's bringing mindfulness, bringing movement, to everyone! 

She talks to us today about her journey but also about her one day virtual summit called "Move for Change" on 2nd May 2020, which brings about 30 yoga classes to you for less than $20.  I know I am going to support the movement and if this resonates with you, I hope you do too!

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Move for Change | https://www.yogaforallmovement.org/move-for-change-tickets register here
• Schedule for the Summit | https://www.yogaforallmovement.org/move-for-change-schedule
• Yoga for All | https://www.yogaforallmovement.org/get-involved get involved!
• RZA (Wutang) Guided Explorations Album | https://open.spotify.com/album/2XZkvTFqEDLC7CEM69gR47
• Real Men Do Yoga Book | https://www.amazon.com/Real-Men-Yoga-Flexibility-Performance/dp/0757301126
• Spiritual Blogs & More | https://www.soulseekrz.com/blog/ 
• Start Your Dream Business | https://www.cloneyourselfuniversity.com/clarity
• Freeup |  https://freeup.net/partners/swagsam/ Go here if you need to hire reliable VA’s. (you’ll also get a $25 coupon PS. It’s free to sign up!)

LET’S BE SOCIAL

Join the journey — come hangout on social media

• Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/soul_seekr_/ 
• Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/groups/362927121051350/ 
• Twitter | https://twitter.com/soul_seekr_ 
• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kabert/  
• YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCramNwICpTb-z62twEcdFBg?view_as=subscriber 

ASK SwagSam ANYTHING: Email is Sam@CloneYourselfU.com and you can book a FREE business strategy call with me by going to Calendly.com/CLONE.

THANK YOU!

To Gettin Goin,

Sam AKA SwagSam

Nicole is one of those people that I definitely felt was way too cool to talk to me, especially since we scheduled the interview, Nicole is now the face of Nike's Spring 2020 Yoga campaign. Not to mention her plentiful accolades, multiple not-for-profit businesses and the fact that she is an all around changemaker in wellness - I felt truly lucky to have the opportunity to speak with her. I first learned of Nicoles work, sadly, due to the mess that Yoga Journal made after her cover shoot last June. 

Since that time, I’ve been watching Nicole spread her message of reclaiming wellness, closing the wellness gap and making wellness accessible to all.  She’s taken what could have been a career defining controversy, and parleid it into a launch pad for equity and justice. #impressed

ABOUT NICOLE

Nicole is a serial entrepreneur passionate about the reclamation of wellness. As the founder and Executive Director of Yoga Foster, a national nonprofit that empowers educators with yoga and mindfulness resources for the classroom, she’s re-invested over $2.5M in resources from the wellness community to increase the health equity of schools across the country.

After controversy with Yoga Journal over her cover feature for their August / September 2019 issue, Nicole’s work and mission went viral. From that experience, she launched Reclamation Ventures, a fund that invests in high-potential, underestimated entrepreneurs making wellness more accessible in their communities.

In today's show, Nicole and I discuss:

• What the Wellness Gap is
• Why inclusivity is deeper than who you put on your marketing materials
• How to make your business truly inclusive, and bring wellness to all
• Why true inclusivity starts with the people behind the business 
• A concrete way to start unpacking our own blind spots, and do the work to create inclusivity from the inside
• Intention vs. Impact
• A definition of Intention
• A definition of Impact
• The best analogy of intention vs. impact I’ve ever heard
• Spiritual bypassing in the yoga community to avoid accountability
• Community Care & Healing Justice
• Building community into every part of your practice
• How the wellness industry operates within capitalism 
• Unpacking what community really means
• Starting a social impact organization
• Deciding on a not-for-profit or for profit business structure
• Understanding not-for-profits
• Mission creep - what it is, and how to prevent it

FIND NICOLE

• Nicole’s Website
• Nicole’s Instagram
• Yoga Foster Website
• Reclamation Ventures Website

FIND CORA

• Cora's website
• Cora's Instagram
• The Teaching Yoga Podcast - LIVE in Melbourne
• The Teacher's Club Waitlist

Find the full show notes, and links to everything we discuss on my website