Lara Land - "Being an Ally for Diversity in Yoga"
J. Brown Yoga Talks
J. Brown
4.3 • 710 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2019
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Lara Land, founder of Land Yoga and SOULFest NYC, talks with J about opening a yoga center in Harlem and becoming an ally for diversity in yoga. They discuss family life and some early days in the NY scene, her level 2 Ashtanga authorization and where she stands on the turmoil in that tradition, what it was like to open a center in Harlem, why she formed a non-profit and started programs to reach underserved populations, and the challenges we face when attempting to address institutional injustice. This episode is sponsored by Karmasoft.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When was the last time that you sat around with a group of fellow yoga teachers and had an honest |
| 0:07.6 | conversation about what you're actually practicing at home and what you're actually teaching |
| 0:12.6 | in your classes? |
| 0:14.4 | Maybe never, because honestly, groups of yoga teachers don't always feel all that open. |
| 0:21.7 | Often, they feel very judgmental, |
| 0:24.7 | and people wouldn't feel comfortable to speak truthfully about what's really going on, |
| 0:29.6 | because you're supposed to put forward this, like, nice picture of what a yoga teacher is. |
| 0:37.1 | Well, if you listen to this show, you know that I'm very interested in debunking those |
| 0:42.9 | kind of myths and having the kind of conversations that actually help us grow. |
| 0:48.1 | And that's what we're doing every week in my teacher's class. |
| 0:52.3 | And one of the more recent conversations we were having |
| 0:55.3 | was about how if you teach a vinyasa class, |
| 0:59.4 | you get a whole bunch of people who show up, |
| 1:01.4 | but if you want to teach something more contemplative |
| 1:03.6 | and not so fitness-oriented, |
| 1:06.3 | well, then it's a struggle to get like two or three people there. |
| 1:09.5 | And what do you do? |
| 1:10.7 | Do you teach what people want? |
| 1:13.4 | Or do you teach what your heart wants to communicate? |
| 1:18.6 | And having a place where you can be supported in that inquiry, |
| 1:22.6 | where you've got fellow teachers who are going through the same stuff, |
| 1:27.6 | it's just invaluable. |
... |
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