Yoga: A Liberatory PRaxis
Through my lens as an Indigenous queer person I have had to un/learn the colonial systems that exploits and appropriates yoga and return to the root of liberation that the Indigenous Peoples of India had hoped for.
The People's Book of Human Sexuality Expanding the Sexology Archive
I invite you to read my chapter, Yoga: a Liberatory Praxis. The chapter is about my path of understanding my role as a yoga instructor as a mixed race Indigenous queer person and my un/learning of yoga in the United States. My story focuses on the colonial connections of yoga practice in the United States, bias of fat and disabled people, cultural appropriation, and how I created a yoga training experience that offers a counter narrative and path toward liberation.
My Journey Toward Liberation
Yoga describes a living, breathing practice rooted in a system of liberation that contains two, main, lateral rhizomes: power and spiritual connection. The rhizomes of power and spirituality intersect with harmful, complex systems of imperial and European-settler colonization that originated in India and then transplanted (appropriated) to the United States. Through a decolonial and feminist lens, the rhizomes can be traced back to examine how these systems have morphed from a spiritual and philosophical practice to a health focus, a science-based practice, and a lifestyle.
My scholarship at Prescott College led me to examine the lifestyle of yoga that I felt and experienced in yoga spaces. Particularly, how mainstream media'a portrayal of a "practice" for slender, able-bodied, financially privileged, white women; a space where I could participate in, but a community in which I did not belong.
To learn more about my research on yoga and colonization, please click below for a pdf.
Yoga Teacher Training (YTT)
Through my own experience of attending a YTT and teaching in yoga spaces, I created a YTT with a social justice framework (see video below). If you are interested in learning more, please email me at serina@payanmedicine.com
Yoga Video
Yoga Trailer
YTT Trailer
Chair Yoga Trailer
Yoga Tailer
Downloads
Yoga and Colonization Research Paper (pdf)
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