The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast

389: Cultivating Self-Acceptance with Donna Noble

Description:

Sometimes, we can be very hard on ourselves (or others). We may feel we need to change parts of ourselves, look or behave in certain ways, or have certain things in order to be better. How can we overcome this kind of thinking? Donna Noble shares her insights.

Donna Noble is a yoga teacher and advocate for inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity in yoga. In her work, she is focused on disrupting the yoga and wellbeing space to make it more inclusive and diverse and is on a mission to create welcoming spaces for everyone—regardless of body type, background, or ability. She aims to bring people who feel unwelcome in mainstream yoga spaces to explore yoga and enjoy its benefits. Donna is also an author and wellbeing coach.

In this episode, Donna shares her inspiring journey of using yoga to overcome personal challenges, including Bell's palsy. She explains her philosophy on self-acceptance, the importance of gratitude in self-love, and the transformative power of mindfulness. Donna also offers some powerful insights about how we can go about addressing unconscious biases and fostering social justice in yoga.

Key Takeaways:

[0:20] Shannon reflects on some of the current crises we are experiencing.

[3:05] Shannon shares a personal anecdote wondering why we are all so hard on ourselves at times.

[4:49] This episode is sponsored by OfferingTree!

[5:28] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode - Donna Noble.

[6:37] What does Donna do and who does she do it for?

[7:55] What does Donna tell people who think they may be limited in some way so they can't do yoga?

[9:34] What are Donna's thoughts on the topic of self-love?

[11:19] What are some things that helped Donna in accepting her body and in her yoga practice?

[14:52] What practices does Donna suggest for a person who is comparing themselves to others and beating themselves up?

[20:29] Shannon pops in with a message about OfferingTree.

[21:47] Donna clarifies the difference between acknowledging the negative thoughts and working on changing them, and engaging in toxic positivity.

[26:54] Shannon and Donna discuss the internal work that we need to do of looking at our biases and also why it's important not to invalidate other people's experiences even if they are not the same as yours.

[31:59] Donna talks a little about her yoga journey and how and why she become body positive.

[35:33] How did Donna move towards body positivity and self-acceptance?

[38:49] Shannon pops in to share a note about the harm caused by Bikram (the person, not the yoga style).

[40:09] Donna shares how yoga has impacted her life.

[43:02] Shannon and Donna discuss how social justice is a part of yoga.

[45:50] Shannon and Donna reflect on the relationship between self-love and ahimsa.

[47:41] Check out Donna's book and her website to learn more about body positive yoga.

[50:02] Shannon shares her biggest takeaways from this conversation with Donna.

Links:

• Donna Noble

• Donna Noble on Instagram

• Teaching Body Positive Yoga by Donna Noble

• The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast Episode 312: We Stand With Survivors with Rebecca Sebastian & Colin Hall

• Ecosia

• Anti-Oppression, Inclusion and Accessibility in Yoga - Resources by The Connected Yoga Teacher

• The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast Team

• Shannon Crow on Instagram

Gratitude to our Sponsor, OfferingTree

Quotes from this episode:

"I see that so many people want to do yoga, but because of what the mainstream is saying, they don't think it's for them. So I try to debunk it as much as possible."

"If you're doing yoga and you have a body, you have a yoga body."

"If we can appreciate our bodies for all the things that it does for us without asking. We become accepting of ourselves and see that we are fine as we are."

"A lot of us are out there fighting the good fight and creating the change, and sometimes we don't even realize the impact or the changes that we're making."