70: Jessamyn Stanley on Breaking Yoga Stereotypes, Self-Acceptance and Body Positivity

The Light Watkins Show

Light Watkins

Self-improvement, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Education

4.9 • 960 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2021

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s guest, Jessamyn Stanley, is an award-winning yoga instructor, intersectional activist, and author who empowers her audience of over half a million to break down barriers: both those that society has set and the ones that they have created for themselves. Jessamyn would not have been able to achieve any of this if she didn’t break down those barriers for herself and, as is always the case on At The End of The Tunnel, her story involves numerous leaps of faith and moments when she had t...

Transcript

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0:00.0	In those first few classes it really looked feeling like I'm the only black person in here, I'm the only fat person in here. I'm the only fat person in here. I don't have the same clothes as everybody else.
0:12.8	It seems like everybody else is like practice this together ahead of time
0:16.3	and like I have no idea what I'm doing and the teacher is going to see that
0:20.4	and the other people are going to know that why am I even here I was feeling
0:24.0	everything that I think anyone who has ever been to a yoga class and thought that
0:27.7	they shouldn't be there feeling all those different things and then I was like, you could just try. Like even if you feel this
0:35.8	like you could still just try. Maybe you're gonna face plant and the teacher is
0:40.6	gonna see and everyone else in the class is going to see and you're going to be so embarrassed and you could still just try.
0:47.0	And I didn't realize how much of my life I was not giving myself the opportunity to just try. I just decided like when I wasn't
0:55.5	going to be good at something I decided that it wasn't worth it to even attempt it
1:00.8	because like I'm not going to be the best or I might not be able to do it.
1:06.0	To see it in that space in a place where it was genuinely okay to fall down and to fall and to have a tantrum and to be able to practice it in that space.
1:17.8	Even to this day gives me what I need in order to be able to practice doing that in the other parts of my life as well. Hey folks, it's your host Light Watkins. I am back with another story from the end of the tunnel.
1:40.0	If you are new to this podcast, what I do is I interview individuals who have gone above and beyond
1:46.2	to be the change that they want to see in the world.
1:49.9	They share their story behind the story that everybody knows and what becomes clear is that
1:56.7	nine times out of ten they've always been on their path whether they realize it or not.
2:02.1	And I think it's important to share these types of stories as often as possible
2:06.0	because it reminds us that we're also on our path
2:11.0	whether we realize it or not.
2:13.4	And just knowing that makes life a little easier to navigate.
2:17.3	It allows us to live with a little more intention.
	...

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