Accessible Yoga Podcast

In this episode, Amber Karnes talks with Cory Sterling of Conscious Counsel. Cory is a yoga teacher, practitioner, author, and an attorney, and he’s here to answer all our legal questions! (Or most of them, probably.) As Cory will tell us in the podcast, law in 2021 means communicating your expectations openly and honestly with heart-leading documents written in plain language. In this episode, we...

Episode 28: Power In Balance In Episode 28 Jivana Heyman sits down with Susanna Barkataki. Susanna supports yoga practitioners to lead with equity, diversity and yogic values while growing thriving practices and businesses with confidence. She is founder of Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute and runs 200/500 Yoga Teacher Training programs. Jivana and Susanna have an in-depth conversation about the...

In Episode 27, Amber Karnes and Jivana Heyman sit down a few days after the attack on the US Capitol to dig into a personal conversation about race and the role they play in upholding white supremacy. They both share how the current events and political climate has impacted them and allowed them to do self study and tune into necessary self care. Amber and Jivana each talk about the importance of...

In Episode 26, Jivana Heyman sits down with Justin Micheal Williams, an author, transformational speaker, and top-20 recording artist who has become a pioneering voice for diversity and inclusion in wellness. Justin Michael immediately opens up and shares about navigating a tough upbringing, self doubt and following his dreams. Justin Michael also talks about meditation as a practice that frees us...

In Episode 25, Jivana Heyman sits down with four Accessible Yoga teachers to talk about the Accessible Yoga Training, how the training impacted their teaching, and how they are carrying the mission of Accessible Yoga into their work. Natasha Williams-Chaoua, Sarah Nuttridge, Marc Settembrino and Jacquie “Sunny" Barbee each share where they are located, about the work they do, the communities they...

In Episode 24, Amber Karnes and Jivana Heyman sit down to answer questions submitted by our listeners and community. First, Jivana and Amber talk about the ways that we can offer accessible classes in the new virtual landscape while taking into consideration the impact of the pandemic on teaching yoga. Jivana shares a list of his favorite texts for studying yoga philosophy, and finally, Amber and...

In Episode 23 Amber Karnes sits down with Karin Carlson, yoga teacher, community advocate, and founder of Return Yoga. Through Return Yoga’s teacher training program and community outreach, Karin and other local teachers work in domestic violence shelters, jails, youth crisis centers, mental health contexts, and substance abuse treatment centers. Karin and Amber jump into a conversation about the...

The Trans Yoga Project is a collaborative effort supporting Trans* people's spiritual wellness through community (re)education, advocacy within the yoga and wellIn Episode 22 Jivana Heyman welcomes M Camellia and Puja Singh Titchkosky to learn more about the mission of the Trans Yoga Project.ness industries, community building, and creating guided practices by and for Trans* and non-binary peopl e...

In Episode 21 Amber Karnes welcomes Francesca Cervero, private yoga teacher and teacher’s mentor. Francesca gives insight into how she built her career and offerings as a teacher and mentor. Amber and Francesca discuss the ways we build trust, depth and understanding for ourselves and our students on the journey of self discovery using the tools of this practice. This conversation holds space for...

In Episode 20 Amber Karnes and Jivana Heyman sit to talk about chair yoga and how it can be used as a tool to democratize asana practice. We begin with a conversation about how lineage and “guru culture” are shifting as abuse is being revealed. Jivana and Amber also talk about the way dominant culture conflates health and wellness as a basis for a human being’s worth and value. They each share abo...

In Episode 19 Amber Karnes sits down with Pamela Stokes-Eggleston. Pamela is a published author, stress management consultant, wellness resilience expert, national speaker, and sleep wellness coach. She founded Yoga2Sleep due to her challenges with insomnia and secondary post-traumatic stress. Pamela goes into deep detail about how her own life experiences led her to focus on the connections betwe...

In Episode 18 Amber Karnes sits down to chat with Kimberly Dark, a writer, professor and teacher who works to reveal the hidden architecture of everyday life so that we can reclaim our power as social creators. Amber and Kimberly talk about the bias present in us all and how to begin unpacking the biases we hold that do harm, especially in regards to bodies and their variations.  Kimberly sha...

In episode 17, Jivana Heyman welcomes Lakshmi Nair. Lakshmi Nair is the founder of Satya Yoga Co-op, a BIPOC owned and operated yoga cooperative in Denver, Colorado. Satya Yoga Co-op grew out of a yoga immersion and teacher training for Black & Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) that Lakshmi has been offering in Denver since 2014. In this interview we learn more about Lakshmi’s journ...

Episode 16 is the second in a series about making yoga asana accessible for all bodies. In this episode, Amber and Jivana talk about the language we use as yoga teachers. Jivana shares what the yoga Sutras say about the role of asana in our practice and we talk in-depth about investigating and shifting the language we use to communicate in our teaching spaces. Amber talks briefly about her recent...

In episode 15, Jivana Heyman welcomes Hala Khouri, yoga teacher and co-founder of Off The Mat Into The World. Hala shares openly about how her own life and experiences led her to the work she does as an activist. She also gives insight into the beginnings of Off The Mat and how the organization came to be. In this conversation Jivana and Hala talk openly about how they are each navigating the poli...

In Episode 14, Jivana Heyman sits down with De Jur Jones, a yoga teacher, flight attendant, community advocate, and model. De Jur has worked as a model for Accessible Yoga and is the main model used in Jivana’s recent book, Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body. De Jur shares about the populations she serves, including incarcerated communities, folks who were formerly sex trafficked,...

In Episode 13, Jivana Heyman interviews Amber Karnes about her upcoming course, Making Peace With Your Body. Amber shares openly about why she chose to do this work and how this work is intertwined in her own experience as a fat person. This conversation talks about the toxic nature of diet culture, the harm inflicted on folks in larger bodies within the medical industrial complex, and the ways do...

Episode 12 is the first in a series about making asana accessible for all bodies. In part 1, Amber and Jivana dig into the ways physical practice is centered in western yoga culture. Jivana and Amber talk in detail about the other parts of the practice that often are ignored in most yoga and wellness spaces. We also talk about a simple mindset shift that prepares you for adapting almost any asana....

In episode 11,  Jivana Heyman and Amber Karnes sit down to discuss their individual journeys with anxiety. They both share the ways yoga has been helpful and discuss what has not served them. This conversation holds the space to normalize the fact that we are all navigating anxiety and that some of us are navigating anxiety disorders. Jivana, who is writing a new book, felt it was important t...

In episode 10,  Jivana welcomes Dianne Bondy to talk about how she has created her platform, grew her career, and built a global yoga community. Dianne talks about how she leaned into the virtual space early on and gives advice for folks looking for tips on how to build their own platforms. This time with Dianne gives great insight into best practices, tools and things to remember as we teach...

Episode 9 Show Notes In episode 9, Amber and Jivana talk about a recent article Jivana has featured with Yoga Journal talking about yoga’s response to disabilities and illness. Together they explore the belief that folks with disabilities or illness need to be fixed or cured, especially within yoga spaces. Jivana talks in depth about the connection between ableism and white supremacy, making it pe...

Episode 8 Show Notes  In episode 8 of the Accessible Yoga Podcast , Shyam Ranganathan and Jivana Heyman have a discussion about Yoga philosophy through a South Asian perspective. They explore the various ways that Western imperialism shows up in the way we interpret and practice yoga, what the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita both say about our responsibility when it comes to other people (s...

“I’m not going into my practice to look for a way out of life, but a way in ...to experience the fullness of my life.” -Jivana Heyman In episode 7 of the Accessible Yoga Podcast , Amber Karnes and Jivana Heyman talk about duality—the up and down, light and dark, "both/and" nature of life. We talk about how attachment to outcomes and the stories we tell ourselves keep us in a place of sufferin...

In episode 6 of the Accessible Yoga Podcast , Amber and Jivana talk about lessons learned from the Accessible Yoga Training. Jivana digs deep into the yoga philosophy behind this training that informs both of our work and the way we teach. We talk about shifting the power dynamic between teacher and student and what happens when we give students the tools to work with their practice, rather than i...

Episode 5 Show Notes In episode 5 of the  Accessible Yoga Podcast , Amber Karnes and Justine Mastin  discuss: Justine’s yoga story: how she got started, what brought her back to the practice, and how she finally found her community at a comic book convention Why the geek community saw barriers to accessing wellness and how Justine came up with the idea for YogaQuest What to expect from a...