The Perfectly Imperfect Journey

Oneika Mays has always been a seeker, even as a young child. She grew up in a stable family structure, went to good schools, and even landed in a fulfilling career she loved. But there was always something nagging at her, just below the surface: she wanted to trust herself, but couldn’t quite get there. Then, one day in yoga class, her instructor said “You can change or be comfortable, but not both.” As tears streamed down her face she realized she needed a change, and was ready to embrace the discomfort. Fast forward to today and Oneika is still a seeker, learning and transforming as she teaches yoga and meditation to individuals and groups both inside prison and on the outside. She has an amazing story - please join us to hear Oneika’s perfectly imperfect journey.

About Oneika Mays:

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/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 setting. Sessions are a combination of modalities and are infused with

compassion. These sessions help people foster resilience and agency. 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, speaking to

audiences or teaching meditation. In addition to teaching meditation and yoga Oneika facilitates

workshops and trainings centered around resilience, liberation and compassion. She believes

that meditation, movement and mindfulness practices can forge a path to freedom.

Currently Oneika is working on a scripted project she created, Blur, a story about two atypical

teenagers navigating their identity in the 1980s. Her co-writer is Steven Mclaine. Oneika is

bringing meditation and yoga to Arizona as a featured presenter at the Sedona Yoga Festival.

She is also the co-host of the soon to be released podcast, But You Don’t Sound Black with

Rasheed J. Daniel. She can currently be seen on TBS’ Lost Resort.

Instagram: https://Instagram.com/oneikamays
Website: www.oneikamays.com

Featured presenter at Embodied Philosophy’s conference, “Radical Teaching.” Oneika’s talk is “Disrupting with Love.”
https://www.embodiedphilosophy.com/event/radical-teaching-roundup/

Board Member: One Love Prison Meditation Project: https://onelovepmp.org/

Projects in development:

Creator/Writer - BLUR

Production Company - TeamSheed

Producer- Rasheed J. Daniel

Consultant/Co-host - FREE SPIRIT

Producer- Ben Dwork

Creator- Becca Elrich

Contributor

Co-host Spiritual Citizenship Conference 2021- In Conversation with Cornel West

Faculty- Interdependence Project - Meditation Teacher Training

Featured

NY1

Yoga Journal

CNBC

Aligned Magazine

Tarka Journal

One part yoga teacher, one part revolutionary and ALL Heart, Seane Corn joins the podcast this week to discuss her extraordinary life, share her wisdom and inspire us all to action. Seane did not grow up in a religious family. Nor was yoga or meditation part of her life growing up. But when she found yoga and meditation - and it found her - her life profoundly changed. Listen in to hear Seane’s perfectly imperfect journey and how yoga helped her deal with childhood trauma, OCD, and unhealthy behaviors, set her on the path to social activism, as well as the importance of balancing activism and rest.

Bio

Seane Corn (she/her) is an internationally-acclaimed yoga teacher, author, and public speaker who has been at the forefront of yoga, activism, and community service for 28 years. Known for her social activism and impassioned teaching style, Seane is raw, honest, articulate, and spiritually inspired in her self-expression. Her leadership and commitment to justice for all beings, along with 30+ years of yoga practice, have galvanized thousands to practice, pray, find more purpose, and activate change from the inside out. A longtime student, Seane models authenticity in her yoga journey and is considered an artist in her craft.

Seane has chosen to use her platform to bring awareness to global issues, including social justice, sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS awareness, and animal rights. In 2005, she was named “National Yoga Ambassador” for YouthAIDS, and in 2013 received both the Global Green International Environmental Leadership Award and the Humanitarian Award from the Smithsonian Institute. She co-founded the organization Off the Mat, Into the World®, which trained leaders in community activism. Seane also co-founded the Global Seva Challenge, which raised over $3.5 million by activating yoga and wellness communities in fund and awareness-raising efforts. Her first book Revolution of the Soul, was published in Fall 2019. Her online program, Align With Source, has a global reach of thousands and has been a touchstone of community support during the pandemic.

https://seanecorn.com/

https://seane-corn.myshopify.com/collections/books

Josh Izenberg started his college career with many interests and no solid idea of what he wanted to do after graduation. Along the way he fell in love with filmmaking and headed to LA to make his dreams of being a wildly successful filmmaker come true. Unfortunately, that did not turn out as planned, so Josh ditched his expectations of what “being a success” looks like and made a small film with some friends in Eastern Tennessee. And there he had a revelation: with no expectations comes total freedom. Josh has had several twists and turns on his way to winning multiple awards for his documentary films and his latest release, Eco-Hack!. Please listen in to hear Josh’s perfectly imperfect journey.

Bio

Josh Izenberg is a documentary filmmaker based in the California Bay Area. His film, SLOMO (2013), won over a dozen awards, including best short documentary at SXSW, premiered as a New York Times Op-Doc, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. His subsequent film, the Netflix Original, Resurface, won the Jury Prize at Tribeca and was nominated for an Emmy. He’s since co-directed the short documentaries Game Hawker (2022) for Patagonia Films and Eco-Hack!, which won an audience award at Hot Docs and premieres with The New Yorker today, July 19, 2023

Website: http://joshizenberg.com/
Films: http://joshizenberg.com/films

It is an unfortunate fact of life: none of us will escape unscathed and all of us will encounter some difficulties throughout our life. It is part of the premise of The Perfectly Imperfect Journey - we will all have hardships, and tragedy and just plain ol’ crappy days when nothing seems to go our way. In this episode, we talk about our own experience of difficulties in our lives and what we have learned. Listen in to hear some suggestions for when things get hard.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ~ Maya Angelou

What do Jeff Spicoli, Willy Wonka and The Price is Right have in common? They are all inspirations for our guest this week, Forrest Wright. Forrest grew up on the East Coast, and then found himself at UCLA in the late 80’s where he believed a simple move across the country could unlock his “true self” that he had been partially hiding. What he learned was it would take a few more twists and turns in life, from working in the film industry, to getting his MBA and eventually launching his own branding company to learn that the more he shows up as his true self, the better his work, and the greater his success and fulfillment. He is now the author of 2 books, and an upcoming eLearning course, but most importantly he is fabulously, flamboyantly, and authentically himself. Jeff Spicoli would be proud.

Bio:

In 2009 I founded creative agency Page 90 to build compelling and authentic brand stories for organizations and individuals. Though the traditional paradigm is “mission leads the work,” I’ve realized that the opportunities that have come my way since then are responsible for evolving my mission. Now I am driven to raise the collective imagination of the corporate world so they can go about solving the challenges of the rest of the world. The way I do this is by facilitating Big Work: leading high functioning teams in solving their toughest challenges in the shortest amount of time for the largest impact. And, to have fun while doing it. Over the years I’ve gotten to tackle interesting strategic initiatives with non-traditional approaches like:

• reimagining an STD testing campaign as a sexy lifestyle brand
• helping a team craft a personality for a new machine learning platform using film and literary archetypes as our departure point
• creating an animated series to influence biotech engineers to adopt a design thinking approach to their work
• redesigning the car buying process by letting go of everything that’s currently done in the auto industry

At the core of projects like these is a commitment to helping people find the best possible approach to their work in a way that feels true, relevant and inspiring.

I am a reformed film producer with a B.A. from UCLA and an MBA from UC San Diego. I co-authored the book Being Different Matters on personal career branding with one of my professors at UC San Diego. And, my second publication, The Hello Book just came out. It’s a fill-in-your-own-story book for adults who want to share who they really are with the children in their lives. My Big Work classes should be up on the Thinkific site by the end of the year. And I’m building out an Idea Ranch in southwest Colorado where I hope to bring creatives, business leaders and change makers together to solve their toughest challenges in an inspired setting.

Links:

Page 90: https://www.page-90.com/

Being Different Matters: https://www.amazon.com/Being-Different-Matters-Jobseekers-Economy/dp/0999637509/

The Hello Book:

https://www.amazon.com/Hello-Book-book-about-real/dp/0999637533/