CTZN

Wellness Beyond Whiteness is one of our favorite conversations we've ever had at CTZNWELL - exploring how we perpetuate a culture of exclusion in wellness spaces, how to move beyond #DiversityAndInclusion, and what the cost of whiteness is on our collective wellness.

Kerri recorded this panel with Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Seane Corn, and Anasa Troutman at the 2018 Wellspring Conference hosted by Wanderlust, and we’re dropping it today to give you a taste of the deep conversations that we - along with Anasa and Nicole Cardoza - have organized starting THIS MONDAY, May 25, for our free series The Wellness of WE!

The Wellness of WE is an 8-day online practice and conversation series to advance collective wellbeing. It features incredible leaders like India Arie, Mia Birdsong, Valarie Kaur, Taj James, Sonya Renee Taylor, Reggie Hubbard, Manoj Dias, the badass women on this original panel...and more.

Sign up for free at www.thewellnessofwe.com, and starting Monday you’ll get a daily themed email with a guided practice, lots of juicy content, PLUS an invitation to join a live conversation each evening. (No worries if you can’t join live. We’ll post the recordings afterward.)

Topics include:

The WE in Wellness

Worthy & Well

From Self-Care to Community Care

Revolutionary Love

Wellness Beyond Whiteness (with these original panelists!)

Rest & Reparations

Politics & Economics of Wellbeing

Joyful Revolution

We hope you can join us. Be sure to RSVP for free at www.thewellnessofwe.com.

If this conversation resonates, we’d love for you to take a screenshot of the podcast and tag us on Instagram at @ctznwell!

And to invite your Facebook friends to The Wellness of WE, here’s the event.

Follow Rev. angel

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Follow Anasa

There’s a strange reference right now about how being in isolation is akin to being locked up. We’re seeing that narrative replicated around the country in the many white-led riots against the stay-at-home rules.

Let’s be clear: this quarantine is NOTHING like what people experience in prison. In fact, the outbreaks in prisons around the country reveal that incarcerated people are both more exposed and less able to protect themselves. 

But beyond the current circumstances, many are questioning the role and efficacy of incarceration all together. And one of those advocates is Oneika Mays, the first Mindfulness Coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where she works one-on-one with incarcerated people to help them cope with the stress and trauma of incarceration and foster resilience for re-entry and recovery. 

Oneika says that our system “is a reflection of the society that we live in, and changes in society will change the way that we police, will change the way we treat certain people in schools and in certain neighborhoods. And when those kinds of things change, when we change our perception of the way that we view groups of people, that will lead to lasting change.”

This conversation is fierce and vulnerable and exactly what we all need to hear right now. Special thanks to guest host Ryan LeMere and Oneika for putting forth the courageous conversation that we all need to be a part of right now.

Connect with Oneika:

-Follow her on Instagram at @oneikamays

-Join her Monday meditations 

-Stay tuned for Oneika’s virtual retreats at www.oneikamays.com

-Check her out in Aligned Magazine

Here’s how you can take action:

-Support incarcerated individuals impacted by COVID-19 through mutual aid

-unlockjustice.org

-Women’s Pretrial Release Initiative

-The Women’s Project

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot and tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell, @oneikamays, and @ryan_lemere.

You can also click below to tweet:

"Changes in society will change the way we police, the way we treat certain people in schools and certain neighborhoods...when we change our perception of the way that we view groups of people, that will lead to lasting change." @OneikaMays on #CTZN Podcast @ctznwell @rplemere

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLREAD and check out our other free content at ctznwell.org.

In this episode. we talk about how power works in group gatherings and how to facilitate without getting in the way of the magic.

Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters and host of the new Together Apart Podcast, says in every group there is a beautiful conversation that could actually change people, you just have to find out what that is.

She is inviting us into an inquiry about how to unleash the unique and necessary conversations that we are meant to have. She calls for good controversy - saying it helps us examine what we hold dear, our values, our priorities, and our non-negotiables.

As we navigate this moment, we’re being challenged to imagine new ways of connecting and organizing to determine how to best move forward together. The art of gathering is essential to remembering who we are, why we are here and what is possible when we come together apart.

-Check out Priya’s new podcast Together Apart

-Get her book The Art of Gathering

-Follow her @priyaparker on Instagram and Twitter

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot and tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell, @priyaparker, and @kkellyyoga, and click below to tweet:

"Every group you're in, there's a beautiful conversation that could actually change people. You just have to figure out what it is." @priyaparker on the latest #CTZN Podcast from @ctznwell with @kkellyyoga #togetherapart

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLREAD and check out our other free content at ctznwell.org.

Today we're talking about righteous anger and indignation with writer and activist Soraya Chemaly. Her book Rage Becomes Her explores how women's expressions of anger are vital to their own health, freedom, and wellbeing.

Despite the fact that we women have plenty of things to be mad about - unequal pay, unchecked sexual harassment and abuse, just to name a few - anger is still considered a taboo emotion around the world. We're called emotional, hysterical, irrational, and yet Soraya argues that anger holds information that is essential to our liberation.

This is not a self-help book for anger management, but rather an in-depth investigation into the perils and possibilities of anger and what's possible when we unleash our sacred rage on the world. Take a listen.

- Get Rage Becomes Her

- Follow Soraya on Instagram and Twitter

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot and tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell, @sorayachemaly, and @kkellyyoga, and click below to tweet:

"What people are saying when they're angry is that they have a need and they're asking their society - whether that's family or their workplace or their spouse - to pay attention to that need." #RageBecomesHer author @schemaly on #CTZN Podcast: ctznwell.org @ctznwell @kkellyyoga

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLREAD and check out our other free content at ctznwell.org.

This virus is exposing our inequities, leaving some people more physically and economically vulnerable than others. In the absence of systems that protect people in times like these, it’s up to us to respond.

In this special CTZN Podcast in a time of Coronavirus, we’re checking in with two of our favorite people about what we can do to show up right now.

Nicole Cardoza is a wellness leader and founder of Reclamation Ventures, a venture fund dedicated to closing the wellness gap, and has quickly pivoted her focus to providing real-time financial relief to our most vulnerable community members.

Ryan LeMere is an artist, designer, thinker, and founder of Aligned Magazine, which explores the intersection of culture, wellbeing, and social responsibility.

This podcast is raw and unplanned and a window into how we’re coping during this crisis, and what's possible when we have each other’s backs and build systems and politics of community care. Check it out.

- Download the Coronavirus Community Care Resource Guide

- Sign up to lead or join a community care “pod”

- Support Reclamation Ventures and follow their work on Instagram

-Follow Nicole and Ryan on Instagram

If this episode resonates for you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot add tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell, @reclamationventures, @nicoleacardoza, and @ryan_lemere, and click below to tweet:

"In the absence of systems that protect people in times like these, it’s up to us to respond." Check out this special #CTZN Podcast on building systems and a politics of collective care with @kkellyyoga @nicolecardoza + @rplemere. @ctznwell #communitycare #covid19 #coronavirus

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLREAD and check out our other free action guides at ctznwell.org.

This week, we're talking to Justin Michael Williams, a pop star, meditation teacher, and author of the new book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us.

In our conversation, he talks about how we need a different kind of meditation for these times, one that doesn't pretend the struggle doesn't exist. Instead, he's challenging us to stay woke. “Staying woke,” he says, “isn't just about knowledge, it is a call to action, and it matters most when you feel like giving up.” But Justin isn't just challenging us to wake up, he's challenging us to dream bigger.

Check it out.

-Get Justin’s book, Stay Woke: Meditation for the Rest of Us

-Follow Justin on Instagram

If this episode resonates for you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot add tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell and @wejustwill, and click below to tweet:

"What matters is who you become in the pursuit of the dream." #StayWoke author @wejustwill joins @kkellyyoga on the latest CTZN Podcast. Check it out: ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast/justin-michael-williams @ctznwell #CTZN

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLREAD and check out our free action guides at ctznwell.org.

Today, we're talking to Layla Saad, author, speaker and teacher on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation and social change, and the author of Me and White Supremacy.

-Get Layla’s Book, Me and White Supremacy

-Follow Layla on Instagram

-Join Layla’s Patreon community

If this episode resonates for you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot add tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell and @laylafsaad, and click below to tweet:

“The humility is that you, an individual person, aren't going to change the world in a day or even a lifetime. This is so much bigger than you. & at the same time each person needs to show up.” #MeAndWhiteSupremacy author Layla Saad on #CTZN @ctznwell ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast

More about this episode:

A big theme in this podcast is reckoning, and you can literally hear me doing that throughout the conversation where I am learning in real time, because I know this work is constant. Layla calls it a practice, an everyday commitment to interrogate the ways in which we are implicated in white supremacy and a choice to do something different. She says that if you are doing this work and you are still comfortable then not much has changed, while intellectually you may understand what's going on.

If your life hasn't had to change in any significant way, it's not really making a difference. I say this as someone who is examining my own life, how I do this work, even how I manage this podcast and the question I think all white folks should be asking themselves is what am I willing to risk? What am I willing to give up to put on the line so that we can disrupt the violence that is white supremacy and be an active part of transforming our culture and community?

This podcast is calling white folks like myself up to a whole new level of practice and action. One that exists beyond our comfort zone, beyond business-as-usual, beyond our attachments to power and position. It asks us to trust in something bigger than our individual selves to believe so strongly in something that we will fight for it no matter what. And if we do that, perhaps we can become the good ancestors we were meant to be. Check it out.

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLread and check out our free action guides at ctznwell.org.

We’re talking with writer, producer, and entrepreneur Anasa Troutman, who besides being a well-known cultural disruptor and love activist, is challenging us to go beyond justice and towards sustainable joy for all.

-Tune in to The BIG We Podcast

-Follow Anasa on Instagram

-Check out Anasa’s other offerings

If this episode resonates for you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot add tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell and @anasatroutman, and click below to tweet:

"You can't transform something you don't love." @anasatroutman drops so. much. wisdom. on the latest #CTZN Podcast with @kkellyyoga. Check it out! ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast @ctznwell #loveactivist #joy #justice #radicallove

More about this episode:

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this one thing Anasa said in our conversation: “You can’t transform something that you don’t love.”

And as someone deeply committed to personal and collective transformation, it had me reflecting on how I love. Not, how I do more activism or be a better ally, but how do I love for real? That too is justice. Justice calls us not only to correct whatever is in the way of love, but it also invites us to live into that love.

And that inquiry starts with self-love. Because how we love ourselves IS how we love everyone else. But the truth is, we live in a culture that does not reinforce self-love. It says love yourself only when you are smarter, healthier, more productive, more perfect. We are taught that love is conditional and so it’s no wonder that we project conditional love to others and make choices that are not loving to the whole of humanity.

But when we can claim radical love for ourselves - the kind that is expressed through grace and compassion and forgiveness - then we can start to extend that kind of love outwards in relationship, in how we repair the breach and love across lines of difference and disagreement and in how we love through our choices, through our votes and especially through our money.

Anasa reminds us that love is not some idea or intention. Love is who we are and what we do. And when we embody that kind of love fully, then justice and joy will flow. This conversation is a reminder and realignment with the very thing that is most important and essential to our work: LOVE. Check it out.

-Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

-Follow CTZNWELL on Instagram

-Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLread and check out our free action guides at ctznwell.org.

Perhaps the most frequent question I get asked is, “How do I show up in this moment?” To help us answer that is the amazing Katie Loncke of Buddhist Peace Fellowship, one of the most throw-down, committed activists I know. But what makes her unique is that she’s as committed to who she’s being as to what she’s doing. Katie helped create “Build Block Be,” a holistic framework for how we respond that acknowledges and celebrates all of our unique roles, strategies, and medicine as necessary and essential for how we bring forth collective liberation.

Buddhist Peace Fellowship

What’s My Role in the Revolution? - Buddhist Peace Fellowship Course

Katie on Instagram

If this episode resonates for you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot and tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell and @katieloncke, and click below to tweet:

"You're perfect just as you are, and you could use a little improvement." @buddhistpeace's @kloncke quotes Suzuki Roshi on #CTZN Podcast with @kkellyyoga @ctznwell ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast

"I won't take sides, but I'll resist injustice." @buddhistpeace's @katieloncke on how she shows up in her activism - and the nuances of peaceful activism that centers justice and liberation. Hear her convo with @kkellyoga on #CTZN Podcast from @ctznwell ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast

More about this episode:

Katie invites us to consider the quieter instruments of our activism. She imagines a different kind of politics: one that is irrepressible rather than forceful, steady and sustained with the patience of the ocean that erodes the cliff side. While we at times chant “no justice no peace” in outrage at a system that refuses to listen, Katie asks us to not underestimate peace, and to lean into the listening that it brings so that we can Be more effective in how we Block and Build together.

Block is how we confront systemic harm, Build is how we create connection and collaborative tools, and Be is how we cultivate a capacity and resilience to show up for what’s needed.

This conversation gave me hope, not just for what is possible, but for how it can feel and who we can Be together.

Join Katie and me, along with our friend Carinne Luck, on Monday 11/25/19 at 8ET/5PT for a free online meet-up about Build Block Be and how to use it at the family holiday table to keep your peace without shrinking in silence. And if you’re tuning in after the date’s past, find the recording at patreon.com/ctznwell.

Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

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Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLread and check out our free action guides at ctznwell.org.

This is the first podcast we’ve ever recorded on a school bus, which felt appropriate given it was a conversation with the Nicole Cardoza, the founder of Yoga Foster, which is focused on making yoga in schools elementary. Nicole is a disruptor, a creator, and a connector who is constantly moving the line forward of what’s possible in wellness. She recently launched Reclamation Ventures, an impact fund dedicated to investing in underestimated entrepreneurs closing the wellness gap, and is innovating towards a more accessible wellness for everyone.

Follow Nicole

Check out Yoga Foster

Support Reclamation Ventures

If this episode resonates for you, we’d love for you to take a screenshot add tag us on Instagram stories @ctznwell and @nicoleacardoza, and click below to tweet:

"Some of the big work is redefining your relationship with yourself. What are you willing to take, what are you willing to let go of, what boundaries are you willing to give yourself?" @nicolecardoza on #CTZN Podcast @ctznwell @kellyyoga ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast

More about this episode:

Nicole Cardoza is shaking things up in the wellness world. And we dig deep in the latest episode of CTZN Podcast. We tackle the wellness gap that separates who gets to be well and who doesn’t, we acknowledge how white supremacy is playing out in wellness, we confront the harm of corporations and institutions that continue to put profits over people. And we reckon with our own complicity and responsibility in participating in a system and culture that upholds inequity and exclusion and what we need to do about it.

We’re in a really messy moment in the world—navigating big entrenched systems that are set up to keep some people well and some people out. But as Nicole reminds us, even as things fall apart, new ideas and innovations are emerging that are redefining wellness and what’s possible when we expose the myth of a wellness that is rooted in capitalism and white supremacy and invest in people and programs that take care of everyone.

Join CTZNWELL on Patreon

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Sign up for CTZNWELL’s weekly email WELLread and check out our free action guides at ctznwell.org.