Illuminating Our True Nature: Yogic Practices for Personal and Collective Healing

Michelle’s fifth book explores yoga philosophy, specifically the five root causes of suffering, known as the five kleshas. In this wise, practical guide, Michelle Cassandra Johnson offers a path toward developing a deeper understanding of these patterns and practices for personal and collective healing and transformation. 

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Finding Refuge Sadhana
Aug 1
Finding Refuge Sadhana

A Sadhana is a dedicated practice. Many are structured as 40-day sadhana because 40 days is said to be long enough for us to break samskaras—patterns, and create new practices and behaviors. A sadhana can be a consistent practice of meditation, mantra, movement, self-study or pranayama, or a mixture of these practices. The Finding Refuge Sadhana provides a combination of mantra, pranayama, movement, meditation and self-study through journaling prompts and reflection. 

The Finding Refuge Sadhana is designed to guide you through becoming present and exploring heartbreak, grief, resilience, connection with ancestors, and the medicine you can bring forth at this time. This Sadhana is a tool meant to support you in healing and deepening your spiritual practice and it is a resource that beckons you to present with the heart-brokenheartedness and open heartedness. 

Everything Belongs: Loving Our Grief with Tema Okun and Michelle C. Johnson 
Jan 11
Everything Belongs: Loving Our Grief with Tema Okun and Michelle C. Johnson 

This is a time of great grieving and finding our way to love and joy. Some of us are carrying personal grief that needs expression and healing in community. Our ability to grieve is a testament to our capacity to love both individually and as a community. We want to come together in community and ceremony to honor how we can most authentically learn to love our grief. We want to create space to grieve and heal together.

Illuminating Our True Nature Course: The Five Afflictions
Jan 22
Illuminating Our True Nature Course: The Five Afflictions

We all get stuck in hurtful patterns that continue to create more suffering in our lives and the collective. In yoga philosophy, these patterns are known as the five kleshas. Each klesha leads us to create tendencies and karma that move us away from realizing and remembering our true nature and seeing ourselves as separate from one another and the planet. In yogic terms, this perpetuates a constant cycle of pain for us all.

Join Michelle C. Johnson for a six-week series based on her latest book, Illuminating Our True Nature: Yogic Practices for Personal and Collective Healing, to explore patterns of suffering in your life and create pathways toward liberation individually and collectively.

Illuminating Our True Nature at Asheville Yoga Center
Jan 25
Illuminating Our True Nature at Asheville Yoga Center

Join author, yoga and spiritual teacher, and activist Michelle Cassandra Johnson for a workshop and book reading, discussion, and signing focused on her newest book, Illuminating Our True Nature. During the workshop, Michelle will discuss and share about the five kleshas, root causes of our suffering, and infuse practices to decrease suffering, including asana, meditation, pranayama, mudras, and mantras.

 

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A divination deck to respond to grief & loss

 

Transverse Deck

Transverse Travel Deck

Press

 
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Collective Trauma and Recovery

Episode 11 of M3CS’s Contemplative Science Podcast saw Michelle Cassandra Johnson come on to the podcast to talk about trauma, spirituality and the whitewashing of yoga.

For the full podcast, check out the episode here.

In this episode, we cover... 

  1. The differences and complexities of individual trauma and collective trauma.

  2. Practical tips for introducing mindfulness to alleviate trauma.

  3. The issues with Western Yoga: appropriated, whitewashed and capitalistic.

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Being of Service, Grief, and Our Spiritual Callings. A Conversation with Michelle Cassandra Johnson

Our first podcast of the year is with the delightful Michelle Cassandra Johnson, and I was lucky enough to get to ask her so many questions. We had a nuanced conversation regarding being of service to the world, how we hold space for grief, and the tension between the spiritual call to be quiet and the noise we experience in our lives.

Take a listen to all her wisdom.

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Illuminating Our True Nature with Michelle Cassandra Johnson

In this conversation, Michelle and Anjali discuss:

  • Kleshas as an inquiry: Michelle’s new book on kleshas

  • What does healing mean when the world is ablaze?

  • Our collective nervous systems

  • Michelle’s writing as a practice of reclamation and re-connection

  • Her go to rituals during the writing process

  • Role of community care and collective

  • How does she practice care as a space holder?

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Overcome the Obstacles to Personal Healing and Contribute to the Healing of the World

Ever notice the ways we can create suffering for ourselves and others? Author Michelle Cassandra Johnson shares tools to navigate the obstacles that create suffering.  We can facilitate positive change not only within ourselves but also within our communities and the broader world.

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Suffering and our True Nature

Michelle Cassandra Johnson explores the kleshas—the five afflictions that cause suffering—within the framework of modern challenges ranging from racial injustice to climate change. Through personal stories, insights on yoga philosophy, and practical advice, Michelle offers a roadmap for understanding and addressing the root causes of suffering both individually and collectively. This conversation will inspire yoga practitioners and activists alike to engage deeply with their practice and strive for personal and social transformation.

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Illuminating Our True Nature with Michelle Cassandra Johnson

What are the lessons you’re tired of learning? In yoga philosophy, the kleshas are patterns that create suffering, and exploring them can help us find peace and ease in our personal lives and within the collective. In this conversation, Tracee Stanley is joined by author, activist, spiritual teacher and practitioner, racial equity consultant and trainer, and intuitive healer Michelle Cassandra Johnson, whose new book, Illuminating Our True Nature: Yogic Practices for Personal & Collective Healing is a guide for turning towards—instead of away from—our suffering, not only to better understand why we suffer but also to also open up pathways to freedom. 

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