Who am I? Where am I? Why am I a Yoga youth educator? What does it mean? and Why do I do it?

Hi, I’m Ash! I have been a “kid who practices Yoga” for 22 years now.

Ash, Age 7, practicing yoga in a neighbor’s barn.

Yoga has taught me to ask myself lots and lots of questions.

As a whyte person sharing Yoga on stolen land (here in Lenapehoking), I recognize my privilege and positionality and the complexity that comes with being fortunate enough to study Yoga at all - and furthermore, to share Yoga with youth + grown ups in studio settings - but also in schools, parks, jails, recovery centers, behavioral health centers. 

I do it because I recognize that “your liberation is bound up with mine” (see: Lilla Watson). I do it to support and expand the “Beloved Community “ I have found solace in (see: Larry Ward + Thich Nhat Hanh). I do it because Yoga resources us in finding the strength and space within ourselves to reckon with “difficult knowledge”: the truth that harm happens - and a lot of times, it happens very much on purpose.

As someone who benefits from indigenous wisdom everyday, I take sharing these teachings very seriously - and making them fun, meaningful, and accessible to friends of all ages and abilities. I also see being a good “troublemaker” (see: John Lewis) as being a part of my duty and navigating being in *right relationship* as part of my daily practice + responsibility. 

Yoga has taught me: If I have to be a grown up, I want to be the most competent one I can be. This means sharing Yoga with youth isn’t just about cute poses. 

My many teachers have taught me that it means that my full-time job is: showing up as fully, honestly, and presently as I can and bringing all parts of myself. My job is to “practice community care” by speaking up even/especially when it’s going to piss people off. My job is to “leverage my privilege” which means putting myself on the line. Being a Yoga youth educator also means sacrificing my comfort, preferences, security, needs and sometimes even safety for those that I serve because I am the grown up and this is the path I have chosen.

My goal is to be an “accompanier”  - a Jesuit concept I learned more about from Mariame Kaba at the @atn_1863 summer conference.

Want to learn more about what all of this means? 

I am thrilled to walk alongside you and share with you what I’ve learned about myself, this practice, and our responsibility to each other - and our youngest and most vulnerable populations - while sharing Yoga with youth in tomorrow’s foundational conversation.

Tomorrow, I will speak from my experience of being ‘a kid who studies Yoga’ and the delight, discomfort, deep commitment to self-agency + integrity + leaning into confusion and reckoning it has awarded me since I became mesmerized by it in 1999.

Studying and practicing Yoga - in all of its richness and complexity -  has equipped me with skills and context for understanding my self, my gifts, and our world that my formal schooling in large part failed to.

Yoga reveals to us the interconnectedness of ourselves, each other + our world.

If you want to share Yoga in a deep, meaningful, engaging and age-appropriate way with youth - without stripping it of true complexity + history - tomorrow’s foundational conversation will provide you with the simple but empowering perspective to do so. 

Let’s practice Yoga in a way that calls us to more care and more action - for our full selves, each other, and our planet.

It’s not too late to sign up for virtual or in-person tomorrow (12:30-5:30pm at Three Queens Yoga). If you have questions or want to set up a time to talk today, email me!

I am also looking to mentor/guide folks who are dedicated to teaching Yoga for racial  + climate justice as well as for self + community care. I will be passing along paid job opportunities to folks who are interested. A dense resource list of South Asian + BIPOC educators to continue learning with and orgs to pay reparations to as non-BIPOC / whyte educators will be provided.

Check back here at my blog, IG stories + highlights for ways to be in reciprocity with indigenous communities today and every day.

xo