We Must Care for Each other
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Unionize Yoga Podcast. In this episode we talk to the incredibly inspiring Michelle Cassandra Johnson @skillinaction . Johnson’s website details that she is “an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner.”
You probably know Johnson from her amazing first book “Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World”, which was published in 2017. “Skill in Action” is a book that asks yoga practitioners to use the lessons, that they find on their mat, in order to make a just and liberated world (heavily inspired by the Bhagavad Gita). Often her work is asking us to change real systemic injustices that are perpetuated by dogmas of racism, classism, sexism, and so forth other forms of bigotry. Her book broke through the yoga industry and demanded (in the most compassionate but strong voice) that people need to show up for justice movement work. And now, as Johnson discusses in this interview, there are many social justice and yoga workshops and discussions, that are happening in a mainstream way. And Johnson was a critical part this new era of many people realizing that the fruits of their yoga practice should not just be for them, in fact they should absolutely be for the collective good.
Johnson has also recently come out with a her second book “Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief” . Johnson’s books are always a mixture of reading and workbooks The workbook is a critical part of Johnson’s books; since she always asks you to be a participant in these discussions rather than just an observer.
We’re so grateful to Michelle C Johnson for talking with us about her work and for being such a leading figure in calling for yoga practitioners to use what is learned in practice, to work towards a someday socially just world. Unionize Yoga’s very own, Alayna Gerald, interviews Michelle C Johnson. We hope you enjoy this special interview. And please visit her page to buy her books and send donations via her Patreon to support her ongoing critical activism.