381: Making Yoga More Inclusive with Billie Smith

The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast

381: Making Yoga More Inclusive with Billie Smith

 

Description:

How can we make yoga more inclusive? How do we make movement more accessible by adopting a different approach to yoga poses instead of a one-size-fits-all approach? What does it mean to teach in an anti-diet, queer-affirming way? Billie Smith shares their insights.

 

Billie is a queer yoga/movement teacher, trauma/abuse/ED survivor who is disrupting the norm and going against the grain. They are dedicated to eliminating diet-culture, spiritual-bypassing and other excluding narratives from the yoga spaces they create, and helping their students learn to check in with how they feel instead of how they look. Through group classes, one-on-one sessions, and workshops, Billie leads with an open heart and strives to hold safe, inclusive space for folks seeking to move their bodies for emotional health, increase mobility and strength, and feel good in their body for longer.

 

In this episode, Billie shares how they ended up doing work to combat diet culture messages and how they help people start checking in and listening to their bodies. They also share deep insights about letting go of control as teachers and how we can better empower our students to make the decisions that are best for them and their bodies in the moment. Billie also shares some tips on how we can create more inclusive yoga spaces and reflects on how social justice ties in with yoga. 

 

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