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Hello All,
There are spaces left for anyone wishing to join us for this essential and engaging Yoga CPD in Cardiff.
Decolonising our yoga essentially involves examining outdated pedagogies and practices that unwittingly reinforce oppressive dynamics and obstruct people’s sense of agency, liberation and embodiment.
I hope you can join me, feel free to pass on .
Warm wishes
Sophia
SOPHIA ANSARI, MA. BWY dip, UKCP accredited.
Yoga therapy & somatic psychotherapeutic counselling.
Diversity & resilience training for mental health & caring professionals
www.beingwithdifference.co.uk
Decolonising Yoga
2 day CPD. An ethical exploration of power dynamics, self-agency and embodiment in yoga
The Crescent Centre, Cardiff, CF10 5DY
13th & 14th of October 2018
India and Britain share a colonial history, something that is not taught in schools or in Yoga teacher trainings. Yet it should not be over looked that yoga arrived in the UK at a time when India was experiencing violence and revolt. Ayurveda was suppressed and Yoga became re invented as strong, masculine and postural to regenerate India's moral and physical mettle.
As Yoga becomes increasingly popular and more widespread, it has been re named, re shaped and sold off in products and styles in addition to being propagated at ‘exotic’ retreats and gentrified yoga studios.
How does the colonial legacy and psyche influence these happenings? Who is harvesting the benefits and profits of yoga? Why has yoga been stripped of its psychological and spiritual value? Why are marginalised groups and communities of colour so absent in UK yoga spaces.
How can yoga teachers address collusion/contention with a commodifying agenda and step into a deeper accountability and action together?
This CPD will provide a space for dialogue, bravery and reflection. It is an invitation to disgruntled and satisfied yoga teachers who see the value in decolonising their yoga teaching and practice as a way to generate meaningful change.
Decolonising our yoga essentially involves examining outdated pedagogies and practices that unwittingly reinforce oppressive dynamics and obstruct people’s sense of agency and embodiment
Over the 2 days, we will draw upon embodied social justice thinking, liberation theory and decolonial narratives to amplify yoga as both a liberatory and Ayurvedic practice that fosters social- self awareness, care of prakritti and radical seva.
We will pay particular attention to the workings of power and consider the ethical complexities intrinsic in the process of teaching, in the recognition that making changes at an embodied, relational level can affect positive change at the macro level.
Some important themes that the group can explore:
How does spiritual by passing reinforce social oppression?
How might the rescuer -saviour complex impact boundaries between teachers and students?
How do monological teaching methods inanimate and objectify ; disconnecting self from body.
How can we teach with resonance, attunement and curiosity rather than rigidity of technique to support viveka (discernment).
How can we teach from conscious subjectivity and positionality? embodiment is not neutral or objective. How does it help to understand one’s own context and social cultural reference point.
How can dialogue and relationship contribute to a living ethic and social responsibility in which otherness and differences can be articulated and nurtured.
How can teachers use their authority (embodied power) to hold and create liminal space (free and protected) without interfering, intruding or controlling.
How can we support agency, slowing down and choice as well as states of vulnerability and not knowing.
I will be sharing and teaching from my own professional experience of teaching yoga for 16 years. I will also be utilising my skills as a therapist to facilitate creatively; guided by the needs of the group and animating in such a way to support power -within and power- with so that participants can generate their own questions and insights. There will be a balance between yoga practice, group dialogue and seminar presentation.
Price £95. Spaces limited to 8
Venue: The crescent centre, Meanwhile House, Curran embankment, Cardiff.
Timings: 10.00 am-4 p.m
For more info see http://www.beingwithdifference.co.uk/Diversity-and-inclusion-in-yoga.php. To book a space contact Sophia by e mail: [log in to unmask]