Lama Rod Owens is an author, activist, and authorized Lama (Buddhist Teacher) in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Rod is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice and study community. Lama Rod is visiting teacher with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme), a visiting teacher with Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Brooklyn Zen Center. Lama Rod has been a faculty member for the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s professional education program in mindfulness for educators and has served as a guest faculty member for the school’s course Mindfulness for Educators.

He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School where he focused on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. He is a co-author of Radical Dharma, Talking Race, Love, and Liberation, which explores race in the context of American Buddhist communities. Lama Rod is a founding teacher for the Awaken meditation app that offers meditations and contemplations focused on social change. He has been published and featured in several publications including Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Spirit Magazine. 

He has offered talks, retreats, and workshops in over 7 countries for many organizations including Gaia House Retreat Center, Goldsmiths University, London Insight, and Tibet House Barcelona. 

He has offered talks at several major universities including Yale University, Harvard University, Brown University, Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, New York University, Tufts University, University of Vermont, and Boston College. He has presented at several important conferences including the American Academy of Religion, Summitt, the Harvard Divinity School Black Religions Conference, the Harvard Divinity School Buddhism and Race Conference, and Netroots. Lama Rod facilitates undoing patriarchy workshops for male-identified practitioners in Brooklyn and Boston. Lama Rod’s book, Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Anger, was released in 2020, and he is currently working on his next book.

In this powerful episode we discussed:

Boundaries
Self-Care
Martyrdom
Becoming an Elder
Change
God is Change
Love
Anger as Revolutionary
Rage
Movement Building
How we Cannot Drag People Toward Freedom 
Agency and Freedom
How we are Always Held 
Ancestors
The Afterlife

Connect with Lama Rod Owens on his website or on Instagram @lamarodofficial

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Anjuli is a Pakistani American licensed marriage and family therapist, specializing in trauma, recovery, resilience, building and cultivating joy. She has 15 years of practice working with immigrant south Asian, middle Eastern Muslim, and LGBTQ plus populations. Sherin received her B.A. in sociology and anthropology from Mary Washington University and her M.A. from CIIS. She has trained and mentored with leading figures in trauma recovery and energy psychology, including Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Staci Haines and Vianna Stibal. In addition to awards for academic excellence and community service, Sharon received the 2007 emerging leader award from the E-Women network and has been featured in O magazine as a finalist for the magazine white house leadership project. Her new book is Joyous Resilience, A Path to Individual Healing and Collective Thriving in an Inequitable World.

In this special episode we discussed:

How our Identities inform how we are Experiencing These Uncertain Times
Individual and Collective Healing
How we Process Trauma
Grief
Resilience
Reconnecting to Joy
Inner Child Healing Work
Remembering
Tonglen Meditation
Suffering
Liberation
How Meeting our Grief Allows us to Find our Resilience 
Spiritual Practice

Connect with Anjuli on her website or on Instagram @anjulisherinmft

Anjuli would love to share nine free meditations with you. You can find them here: https://www.anjulisherinmft.com/meditations.html

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Adriana Adelé, she/they, is a yoga facilitator and an advocate for collective well-being who studies and shares yoga as a practice of liberation. Through yoga, Adriana holds space for intentional movement, deep rest, Black holistic well-being, disruption of toxic dominant narratives, discernment in action, learning/unlearning, embodiment and affirmation of our eternal divine wholeness as individuals & in service of collective liberation. Her work helps adults and kids effectively integrate the practices and benefits of yoga including movement, meditation, deep rest, and breath techniques to their busy, messy, very real daily lives. Adriana is a RYT-500, E-RYT-200, a yoga teacher trainer, holds a bachelor’s of neuroscience from Oberlin College, and is the yoga + mindfulness teacher and strategic collaborator for Get Fresh Daily well-being programs.

In this amazing interview we discuss:

Devotion
Astrology
The tenacity of Capricorns
The watery nature of Pisces
Ancestors
Being held
Deep rest 
Yoga
Consistent Practice
Releasing dominant frameworks
Contradictions
Past, Present, and Future
Reconfiguring how we practice
Tarot
How to be in community with others

Connect with Adriana on her website, or find her on Instagram @adrianaadele

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Ashley Williams, MS, C-IAYT  is a Yoga Therapist and Mindfulness Educator with 12 years experience in the fields of education, behavioral and mental health and community programming in Richmond, VA.  As a builder and weaver, she bridges mindfulness, diversity, wellness and inclusion on micro and macro-levels to achieve equitable, socially stable and conscious spaces for individual and collective care.

She is the Founder of BareSOUL Yoga & Wellness,  a community-based organization initially created to offer accessible yoga offerings, and Mindful on Life, a curriculum-based program dedicated to transforming community through the practice of mindfulness education.  As an advocate for diverse representation, accessible self care and overall well-being, she has strategically built community-centered yoga and mindfulness programs in schools, health systems, government agencies, faith-based organizations and businesses.  Ashley continues to create spaces that offer mindful-based living practices to encourage self exploration, awareness, authenticity and build community for the collective good. The next venture is the Well Collective, A community space for conscious well-being that centers intergenerational healing modalities, wellness workshops, yoga and local, black-sourced apothecary.

In this interview we discuss:
Synchronicity
Healing Holistically
Resisting our Call
Becoming a Clear Vessel
Falling in Love with Oneself 
Spirit
Ancestry
Awareness of our Shared History
The Well Collective 
Faith
The Power of Embracing our Unique Magic
Numerology
Owning our Lives 
Black Community Care

Connect with Ashley at BareSOUL Yoga, through her website, or on Instagram @ashleyj_williams

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Shakira practices a natural dance called Rhythmic Bloom to recreate what it means to flow through her life’s journey. During her undergraduate studies, she awakened to the systemic rules of wellness, boosting her interest in alternative healing methods that support the whole person. The catalyst to her embodiment of wellness sparked during her training to become a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist in 2011. Her bodywork practice focuses on moving through the deep, underwater currents of growth to extend the practice of music for musicians and artists. 

Shakira continues the rhythmic journey of interweaving social justice and wellness practices as she explores her presence in mixed-race wellness spaces. She and other passionate change-makers are building a Worker Cooperative that supports shared values of whole-body healing, uplifting the voices of their community, and to recreate the meaning of wellness through an anti-oppression and anti-racism lens. 

An evolving, passion project of hers invites singles to welcome a spirit-partnered relationship and live on purpose, which is counter to stigmatizing, dominant culture. Her e-guide, written under the pen name Coko Bonique, "You Know You're Dope, Right? Foundational Practices to Living Single," liberates individuals to tap into their natural rhythm and authentic essence to deepen the relationship to self and live with confidence and intention.

In her free time, she loves the magic of fireside chats, spending time with loved ones, uplifting dance music and aerial dance as they all bring liberation and freedom to the mundane. Shakira earned her B.A. in psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill and trained with the Skill in Action program, completing her 500HR Yoga Teacher Training. Her yoga classes are deeply rooted to support inner well-being and create communities that value trust and compassion to work together to create a new system that rebels dominant culture. 

In this interview we discuss:
Being a Yoga Messenger
Abundance
Shakira’s Journal - You Know You’re Dope, Right?
Conscious Singledom 
Caretaking 
Changing Thought Patterns
Embodiment
Healing Ourselves
Social Justice
Death
Sharing our Grief with Others
Grief and Loss
Embracing our Uniqueness
Self-Care/Collective Care 

Purchase Shakira’s workbook You Know You’re Dope, Right?

Connect with Shakira via her website or on Instagram @uplyftyoursoul

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Jivana Heyman, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, is the founder and director of the Accessible Yoga Association, an international non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings. He’s the author of the book, Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body (Shambhala Publications 2019), as well as the forthcoming book, Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion (Shambhala Publications, Nov. 2021). 

Jivana has specialized in teaching yoga to people with disabilities with an emphasis on community building and social engagement. Out of this work, the nonprofit Accessible Yoga Association was created to support education, training, and advocacy with the mission of shifting the public perception of yoga. In addition to offering Conferences and Community Conversations, Accessible Yoga offers a popular Ambassador program. 

Jivana coined the phrase, “Accessible Yoga,” over ten years ago, and it has now become the standard appellation for a large cross section of the immense yoga world. He brought the Accessible Yoga community together for the first time in 2015 for the Accessible Yoga Conference, which has gone on to become a focal point for this movement. 

Jivana is also the creator of the Accessible Yoga Training and the co-founder of the online Accessible Yoga Training School with Amber Karnes, which is a platform for continued education for yoga teachers in the field of equity and accessibility. They also created the Accessible Yoga Podcast in 2020. 

Over the past 25 years, Jivana has led countless yoga teacher training programs around the world, and dedicates his time to supporting yoga teachers who are working to serve communities that are under-represented in traditional yoga spaces.

For more information head to Jivana’s website or follow him on Instagram @jivanaheyman

In this very special interview we discuss:
Activism and Yoga
Spiritual Practice
Love
Death
The Mind’s Capacity to Comprehend Love and Death
AIDS activism
Covid-19 
Being of Service
Yoga as a Revolutionary Practice 
Ancestors
The Bhagavad Gita
Grief 
The Ego
Social Location 
The Process of Writing a Book

Enjoy this episode!

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Named one of the “35 Under 35 in Wellness to Watch” by Wanderlust, Shannon Algeo is a celebrated speaker, writer, life coach, Yoga Nidra and meditation teacher. His popular podcast SoulFeed features interviews with iconic cultural and spiritual leaders like Deepak Chopra, Caroline Myss, Marianne Williamson, Danielle LaPorte, and many more. In his coaching practice, Algeo works with clients to heal old patterns of trauma so they can show up in the world with power, presence, and purpose.

Shannon is known around the world for his gift of processing his own life experience into words that can be heard or read in service of greater learning, deeper resonance, and profound healing.  

In this interview we discuss:
Trusting One’s Intuition
Blocks to Listening to One’s Intuition
Thermodynamics
Energy Transfer
What we are Willing to Let Go
Allowing for the Unkown to Unfold
Death as a Doorway
The Chakra System
The Preciousness of Life
Working with White-Bodied Individuals 
Embodiment
True North
Self-Care/Collective Care 

You can purchase Shannon’s book, Trust Your Truth, and connect with him on his website or on Instagram @shannon.algeo

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Oneika Mays (LMT, E-RYT) transitioned to yoga and meditation from a 20 year career in corporate retail leadership over 10 years ago. Oneika used that experience to support social justice non-profits and teach meditation and yoga inside jails. Today, she is the first Mindfulness Coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility.  At Rikers she works one-on-one with community members in a therapeutic/medical setting. She believes that our justice system needs to focus on transformation and restoration rather than punishment. This idea of liberation and compassion is woven into her work whether it’s in a jail or teaching meditation in a corporate environment. She believes that meditation, movement and mindfulness practices can forge a path to freedom. Power for the people. 

In this very special interview we discuss:
Comfort vs. Change
Non-attachment
Tenderness
The beauty of aging
Liberation 
Authenticity
Grief
Spiritual Practice
The Benefits of the Practice
Showing up to do the Work 
Teaching Mindfulness and Yoga to Folks who are Incarcerated 
The Experience of Incarceration
The Gray Zone-Multiple Truths
The Gift of Intuition 

Connect with Oneika on her website or on Instagram @oneikamays

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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What an amazing first season of Finding Refuge!!

Thank you to all who listened, reached out, shared episodes, and went into their hearts to create a pathway for healing. 

This episode is quite late. I wasn’t quite sure how to end Season 1. My friend and comrade, Tristan Katz, agreed to have a conversation with me about what’s been on my mind lately. This is a juicy conversation, and I hope you gain something from listening to it. I hope it stirs something in your heart and soul. I hope it resonates deeply with you. 

We talk about all the things but mainly about:

- Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, my new book! My new offerings! 

- Tune in for more information about how you can share space with me and practice being a point of refuge for yourself and others. 

- Collective Grief

- Collective Healing

- The aftermath of Covid-19, when we are still in Covid-19

- Avoidance of the truth at the expense of what needs to heal

- Abolitionism 

- My love of medical dramas and how they always, always make me tear up and ugly cry

- What I see in the future. Cassandra knows some things. 

- My beautiful chickens

- My most magical bees

See you soon for Season 2. I’ll be back in August with some amazing guests! In the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other. I hope to see you over zoom as we heal and one day in-person again! 

The upcoming offerings I mention in the episode include:

Wild Lotus
June 9th, 6:00-8:00pm CDT
Finding Refuge Workshop: Heart Work To Heal Collective Grief

8 Limbs Yoga 
June 4th, 1:00-4:00pm PST
Skill in Action: Responding to Unsettling and Uncertain Times

June 5th, 9:00-11:30am & 1:00-4:00pm PST
Finding Refuge: Teachings from the Bhagavad Gita

June 6th, 1:00-4:00pm PST
Finding Refuge: Heart Work to Heal Collective Grief 

To pre-order Finding Refuge and gain access to preorder bonuses which include a 40-day self-paced sadhana and three meditation and asana practices, visit finding-refuge.com

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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Kiesha, a full-time yoga teacher and trainer, has a respected and well-deserved reputation in the national yoga community. She is Co-Director of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color™ and a member of the board of directors for Amplify and Activate, a nonprofit community that focuses on yoga as a form of self-care and social justice. 

In addition to teaching through her own I Am Yoga organization, Kiesha has been Yoga Director at Charlotte Family Yoga Center and has taught for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. She is a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher trainer, and has conducted numerous impactful workshops.  She has been featured in the book Yes Yoga Has Curves and other publications. 

With a graduate degree in Asian studies, Kiesha brings knowledge of Asian philosophy, religion, and language, as well as Eastern philosophy including Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. In addition to being a teacher, she is a wife and mother.  When Kiesha does sit down, she is reading, meditating and breathing. 

The yoga experience with Kiesha: Kiesha teaches with a confidence that comes from strong training and rich experience. Her instruction is careful and crystal clear; she gives options and variations that make her classes accessible for students at any level. Kiesha specializes in Yin Yoga, which allows for deep stretches and in-depth exploration of each pose. She also has training in prenatal yoga, Curvy Yoga, restorative, and Grounded Kids as well as Chinese medicine. 

Current mood:  Waiting for things to be revealed. 

Favorite movie: Under the Cherry Moon (1986) Musical/Romance

In this episode Kiesha offers teachings about:

The meaning of the practice of yoga
Yoga philosophy 
Death as a teacher
Balance
The need to keep moving
The need to grieve
The practice of grieving
The practice of remembering
How to bring playfulness in during a time of great loss
The importance of community
How to live your yoga
The Bhagavad Gita 
There are many different paths
Teachers/Ancestors
Black Yoga Teachers Alliance
Renewal 

Connect with Kiesha on her website and on Instagram @iamyogaclt

Podcast music by Charles Kurtz

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