Teaching as a Practice with Michelle Cassandra Johnson
03/12/24 • 29 min
In yoga culture, teachers are often placed up on pedestals, creating an unequal power dynamic. So, what happens when teachers get down from the pedestal and learn alongside the student? When teaching is approached as a practice, a collaborative and intuitive relationship with the student can be formed and opportunities for growth discovered.
Join Jivana Heyman and this episode’s guest, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, as they unravel the intricate layers of teaching yoga as a practice. Together they reflect on the role of wonder and curiosity in teaching, self-trust, and the value of sharing the sacred practice in community.
Topics include:
- Countering dominant culture’s power hierarchies
- Cultivating humility and learning from mistakes
- Intuition in teaching
- Advice to new teachers
- Trust, faith, and spiritual practice
- Communing and building community
- Incorporating humor
Check out Jivana’s new book, The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga, and get more information about the book on his website.
Connect with Jivana:
www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman
Michelle Cassandra Johnson (she/her) is an author, activist, spiritual teacher and practitioner, racial equity consultant and trainer, and intuitive healer. Michelle teaches workshops and immersions and leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide the focus on exploring embodied approaches to racial equity work, creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal. Michelle is the author of Skill in Action, Finding Refuge, We Heal Together, published by Shambhala Publications, and A Space For Us, published by Beacon Press.
Connect with Michelle:
In yoga culture, teachers are often placed up on pedestals, creating an unequal power dynamic. So, what happens when teachers get down from the pedestal and learn alongside the student? When teaching is approached as a practice, a collaborative and intuitive relationship with the student can be formed and opportunities for growth discovered.
Join Jivana Heyman and this episode’s guest, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, as they unravel the intricate layers of teaching yoga as a practice. Together they reflect on the role of wonder and curiosity in teaching, self-trust, and the value of sharing the sacred practice in community.
Topics include:
- Countering dominant culture’s power hierarchies
- Cultivating humility and learning from mistakes
- Intuition in teaching
- Advice to new teachers
- Trust, faith, and spiritual practice
- Communing and building community
- Incorporating humor
Check out Jivana’s new book, The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga, and get more information about the book on his website.
Connect with Jivana:
www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman
Michelle Cassandra Johnson (she/her) is an author, activist, spiritual teacher and practitioner, racial equity consultant and trainer, and intuitive healer. Michelle teaches workshops and immersions and leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide the focus on exploring embodied approaches to racial equity work, creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal. Michelle is the author of Skill in Action, Finding Refuge, We Heal Together, published by Shambhala Publications, and A Space For Us, published by Beacon Press.
Connect with Michelle:
Previous Episode
Beyond the Eight Limbs of Yoga with Shanna Small
“Yoga is a destruction process. It's taking away all that stuff that we've picked up, and we thought is us and that we've just hung on to, and it's dismantling that.” – Shanna Small
Society teaches us to seek external validation to feel complete. Yoga teaches us that we are already whole, full and complete. Through yoga, we can dismantle false beliefs and recognize the connection between suffering and the stories we create in our minds.
Join Jivana and podcast guest, Shanna Small, as they reflect on overcoming societal conditioning and trusting one's innate wholeness through yoga philosophy, beyond the eight limbs of yoga.
Topics include:
- The concept of wholeness
- The distinction between pain and suffering.
- Destruction of ignorance and mental modifications
- Being our own guru
- How yoga can help us address systemic problems
- Spiritual bypassing and service
- The teachings of Karma Yoga
- The transformative power of understanding the Gita
Check out Jivana’s new book, The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga, and get more information about the book on his website.
Connect with Jivana:
www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman
Shanna Small (she/her) is a writer and yoga teacher who speaks to the intersectionality of yoga and social justice. She has practiced Ashtanga yoga and studied the Yoga Sutras since 2001. Shanna finds joy in making yoga accessible for all. She is a contributor for Yoga International, OmStars, OmPractice and Embodied Philosophy. You can also find her online at Shanna Small Yoga. Shanna teaches trainings and workshops on diversity and inclusivity, the Yoga Sutras, and accessibility. She is a founding member of Yoga For Recovery Foundation, a non-profit that helps those recovering from addiction, trauma, and systemic oppression.
Connect with Shanna:
Next Episode
Power & Consent with M Camellia
What is the difference between giving commands and inviting exploration in a yoga class? How can yoga teachers allow students to be their own authority over their bodies and practice? These questions relate to power and consent, and sharing power and promoting a culture of consent is fundamental to making yoga accessible and equitable.
In this podcast episode, Jivana Heyman and guest, M Camellia highlight the importance of recognizing power dynamics in the teacher-student relationship within yoga spaces and leveraging power to create more access for students, respond to students’ individual needs, and hold space for them to uncover their own innate power on their path toward liberation.
Topics include:
- Power dynamics in yoga spaces
- Resources as power
- Power and the yoga teachings
- Yoga as a discipline
- Improvisation in the classroom
- Abuse and trauma in yoga lineages
- The power of embracing uncertainty and possibility
Check out Jivana’s new book, The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga, and get more information about the book on his website.
Connect with Jivana:
www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman
M Camellia (they/them) is a yoga practitioner and facilitator, writer, consent educator, and advocate called to create profoundly accessible spaces for self-inquiry. M is a co-founder of the Trans Futures Collective (previously known as the Trans Yoga Project) and, among other roles within the realm of yoga service, serves on the staff of the Accessible Yoga School. Their teaching and writing center Queer and Trans identity, consent and agency, body liberation, and disability justice in relation to yoga philosophy and practice. They serve as a mentor for other yoga teachers and practitioners who desire to deepen their understanding of accessibility, power dynamics, trauma, and yoga as social justice.
Connect with M:
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Featured in these lists
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/the-teachers-guide-to-accessible-yoga-327829/teaching-as-a-practice-with-michelle-cassandra-johnson-47826205"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to teaching as a practice with michelle cassandra johnson on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy