In episode 11,  Jivana Heyman and Amber Karnes sit down to discuss their individual journeys with anxiety. They both share the ways yoga has been helpful and discuss what has not served them. This conversation holds the space to normalize the fact that we are all navigating anxiety and that some of us are navigating anxiety disorders. Jivana, who is writing a new book, felt it was important to have this conversation, giving a space for him to share authentically about his journey through grief and anxiety. In this episode Jivana shares deeply about reshaping his practice diving deeply into self exploration as a way to learn to accept the role anxiety plays in his life. Amber also talks in depth about how yoga gave her new tools to navigate her thoughts, patterns and negative self-talk. 

 

• The importance of stepping away from technology for our wellness 
• How we can create space for our wellness practices to honor the lives we are living
• How we can drop the stigma of discussing mental illness
• How the death of Jivana’s mother triggered an emergency anxiety attack
• How being a yogi doesn’t not exclude us from navigating anxiety
• How navigating anxiety has reshaped Jivana’s personal practice and his new book
• How teaching brought Jivana back to his personal practice
• The importance of allowing others to teach and lead us as teachers
• How the practice holds space for us to feel our feelings 
• How we can lean into creativity and avoid cultural appropriation 
• How wellness communities lean into ableism in the face of mental health conversations
• How to navigate negative self talk within our practice

Today’s inquiry

Each week we’ll leave you with a powerful question. We encourage you to sit in inquiry with this question, write about it, discuss it with another community member on this path. Today, we invite you to reflect on this question:

 

How do you remain respectful of the traditions of yoga and make it accessible?

Get a transcript, links to resources, and show notes at accessibleyogatraining.com/podcast.