This week, Sarah talks with Melanie Klein about Yoga and Body Image. Melanie C. Klein, M.A., is a sought-after empowerment coach, thought leader and influencer in the areas of body confidence, authentic empowerment, and visibility. With over 20 years experience and notable credits including advising the Santa Monica College Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, working closely with Global Girl Media and running the LA chapter of Women, Action and the Media; she has dedicated her passion, knowledge and coaching skillset to the empowerment of innumerable women through increasing confidence, self-esteem and worth.

She is also a successful and highly acclaimed writer, speaker, and professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies. Her areas of interest and specialty include media literacy education, body image, and the intersectional analysis of systems of power and privilege.
She is the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery + Loving Your Body (Llewellyn, 2014) with Anna Guest-Jelley, a contributor in 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics and Practice (Horton & Harvey, 2012), is featured in Conversations with Modern Yogis (Shroff, 2014), a featured writer in Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Mindful Living (Llewellyn, 2016), co-editor of Yoga, the Body and Embodied Social Change: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis with Dr. Beth Berila and Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body (Llewellyn, 2018) and the co-editor of the new forthcoming anthology, Embodied Resilience through Yoga (Llwelleyn, 2020). She co-founded the Yoga and Body Image Coalition in 2014 and lives in Santa Monica, CA.

Connect with her:
Melanie: http://www.melaniecklein.com/ or @melmelklein
Yoga and Body Image Coalition:http://ybicoalition.com/ or @ybicoalition

Find her books:
http://www.yogaandbodyimage.org/
http://www.yogarisingbook.com/

You can connect with Sarah at:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

This week, Sarah talks with Ganja Yoga founder, Dee Dussault, about the integration of marijuana and yoga. In this episode, Sarah and Dee discuss how ganja yoga came to be and what the benefits (and potential pitfalls) exist in marrying cannabis and yoga.

Dee Dussault
Dee Dussault is the yoga first teacher to offer public cannabis yoga classes. Over the past decade, she’s brought her classes, which she calls Ganja Yoga, to thousands of students in over a dozen US cities.

A seasoned yoga practitioner of twenty-three years, Dee is also an international speaker and the author of the Harpercollins book by the same name. Ganja Yoga has been featured in publications like The New York Times, Business Insider, Newsweek, and LA Yoga, as well as major International media from India to France.

A lover of bliss, Dee also works as a sex coach who specializes in tantra yoga and cannabis-enhanced intimacy. She works with singles and couples in Los Angeles and San Francisco, helping them tap into their radiant embodied selves. Her training was in the Tantric tradition of Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

You can connect with Dee on Instagram or at https://www.deedussault.com/

You can connect with Sarah at:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

Join Sarah as she discusses valuing yoga teachers in the studio environment with Marcela Xavier, Founder & Program Director of Bread and Yoga.

You can connect with Marcela at www.breadandyoga.com or on Instagram.

ABOUT MARCELA XAVIER
Marcela Xavier is an introvert with big dreams. Originally from Brazil, Marcela was born into a big family with some really strong women that deeply influenced her path. From her grandmother (who was always cooking) to her mother and aunts (always full of wisdom and opinions), each had a very specific impact on guiding who Marcela is. She moved to the US at the age of 18 and has been forging her own path ever since. Marcela founded Bread and Yoga, a small community studio in the Inwood neighborhood in Upper Manhattan in 2009. She is  an experienced yoga teacher and holistic health counselor, a labor support doula and childbirth educator. She is committed to being a community catalyst, creating programming that informs, challenges and inspires her community. Bread and Yoga was/is very much a dream anchored in making an impact by building an inclusive healing and gathering space for the community.

When not at the studio Marcela is hanging out with her husband and two teenagers, cooking and eating, occasionally sewing, and always dreaming.

Share your own yoga stories today! Reach out to Sarah via any of the following links:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]

This week, Sarah talks with Bend and Bloom founder, Amy Quinn Suplina. In light of the unionization movement, these two women explore what it means to run an ethical yoga studio and how studios in New York City might be impacted by the move to unionize.

Amy Quinn Suplina
Amy has been teaching yoga since 2002 and founded Bend + Bloom in 2008.  She teaches a breath-based, contemplative Vinyasa that challenges us to find space in our bodies so that we can find room in our lives to live well and more fully.  She completed her first yoga teacher training with Kimberly Wilson, Simon Park, and Darren Main at Tranquil Space in Washington, DC in 2002 and with Cyndi Lee of Om Yoga in 2005.

Her early days of teaching were balanced by her career in social justice and human rights organizing.  Amy believes contemplative practices, like yoga and meditation, are essential components to transform our habits so we can build and embody new skills to manifest what we care about in our lives and the world.

Amy is trained in teaching Trauma Sensitive Yoga by the Trauma Center of Boston and completed the two-year Embodied Anatomy and Physiology course at the Breathing Project with Amy Matthews. She is also a certified Physioyoga Global practitioner. Amy integrates explorations of anatomy and physiology into her class by designing purposeful sequences that weave asana, pranayama, bandha work, and focused inquiry.  She is a mentor with the amazing Africa Yoga Project based in Nairobi.

You can connect with Amy on Instagram or find Bend and Bloom on Instagram and at https://www.bendandbloom.com/.

You can connect with Sarah today at:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

We've spent so much time getting to know our guests... but what about the host herself?? This week, get to know Sarah Dittmore! In this Tea Time Talk, Sarah discusses her journey with yoga and how she found herself hosting a yoga podcast. 

You can connect with Sarah today at: 
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]

This week, Sarah talks with Luvena Rangel about why it's important to center Indian voices in conversations about yoga.

With an academic background in medicine, Holistic Health and teaching credentials in Ayurvedic Lifestyle & Meditation from Deepak Chopra's Center for Wellbeing, Luvena is one of India's leading Yoga Anatomy teachers based in Bangalore today. She is certified in Hatha Yoga from the Bihar School of Yoga lineage (trained under Pradeep Sattwamaya), Prenatal Yoga and is registered as E-RYT200 & RPYT with Yoga Alliance as well as Yoga for All. Luvena is a registered Continuing Education Provider (YACEP) as well. She also incorporates Deepak Chopra's Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga as taught to her in her meditation & Perfect Health Trainings.

Luvena is your contemporary yogi who makes the timeless teachings of yoga more accessible and practical. She brings her vast knowledge of anatomy, philosophy, scripture, intuitive observation as well as modern community dynamics into her classroom and allows her students to absorb it as their own. Luvena’s multicultural, multiethnic upbringing in the Middle East is the cornerstone of her core values of Diversity & Inclusion. She believes that yoga is for everyone regardless of physical shape, size, faith, gender, sexual orientation or even physical limitations. Luvena has served as an expert advisor to the Yoga Alliance Standards Review Project on the Inclusion Workgroup.

As part of her efforts, Luvena is constantly connecting with community voices and programs around the world. She is a Community Partner with Yoga and Body Image Coalition and an ambassador for Accessible Yoga in India. Luvena's aspiration is to inspire transformation for people on the mat and help build an inclusive community off the mat! She believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to take charge of their well-being. She spoke on her thoughts of Diversity & Inclusion and received the Exceptional Woman of Excellence award at the Women Economic Forum in April 2018.

You can connect with Luvena at http://www.thecurvyyogi.com or on Instagram or Facebook.

Want to connect with Sarah? Reach out to her on Instagram, Facebook, or directly via email at [email protected].

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

Join Sarah as she discusses sustainability and yoga retreats with Ely Bakouche... plus a small (large) tangent about air travel, social responsibility, and all things environment. 

You can connect with Ely at https://ebsnotebook.com/ or on Instagram.

ABOUT ELY BAKOUCHE
I’m Ely, pronounced Ellie or /eli/ if you speak phonetics. Just before I turned 18, I left my “home” of France to go study translation in the wonderful city of Brussels, Belgium. Since then, I’ve lived in 4 other countries—sunny Spain, breathtaking New Zealand, hygge Denmark, and the questionable United States— each lending me their cultures, languages, habits, and jokes to fill my mind and heart with vibrant colors and astounding writing prompts.

When I’m not trying to make sense of all the article ideas that pop up in my head, writing or editing for others, riding my bike, playing the ukulele, or taking a break legs up the wall, I’m editing articles and planning content for Shut Up & Yoga magazine. I recently moved to Shanghai with my dear P, whom I speak Spanish with most of the time, and who has yet to teach me Argentinian gestures so my attitude gets paired with the accent that’s stuck with me.

Share your own yoga stories today! Reach out to Sarah via any of the following links:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]

This week, Sarah discusses "Yoga And" culture with Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh. In this episode, the women explore what yoga and is and why it is problematic. Tejal and Jesal share their three-pronged approach to assessing a new type of yoga. 1. Is it safe? 2. Is it mindful? 3. Is it appropriating another culture?

Tejal and Jesal are hosts of the popular podcast, Yoga is Dead, a revolutionary podcast that explores power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds. You can connect with them on Instagram or Facebook or email them directly at [email protected]. You can support Tejal and Jesal by joining their Patreon community or supporting them on Venmo at @yogaisdeadpodcast.

Want to connect with Sarah? Reach out to her on Instagram, Facebook, or directly via email at [email protected].

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

Hey All!

Just a quick (but important) update regarding The Beginner's Mind...
We're moving back to every-other-week! 

Sorry if that's a disappointment for anyone, but please give this episode a listen and you'll understand why. 

Thanks and talk to you next week! 

Until then... Stay Curious! 

Join Sarah as she discussed privilege, "manifestation", and the god-complex that permeates the yoga community with Emily Taggart. 

You can connect with Emily at https://www.bewellyogini.com/ or on Instagram. 

ABOUT EMILY TAGGART
Yoga Teacher, Peacemaker, Mama, Wife, Friend, Student, Introvert, Traveler, Lover of Language….My name is Emily and I am here to hold a safe space for your yoga practice. Each experience you have with yoga should be one that helps you on your path to living well as a responsible citizen of this earth.

I have been teaching yoga in the Sacramento area since 2010. Weaving together practices from traditional yoga and functional movement, each yoga experience with me is held together by a thread of intention and spirit. You will experience an invitation to move and rest at the pace of breath with modifications and props offered throughout instruction.

Specializing in prenatal yoga and postnatal yoga, I offer classes and workshops to support mamas of all birthing and parenting philosophies.

Share your own yoga stories today! Reach out to Sarah via any of the following links:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
[email protected]