If you’re a yoga teacher, now is the right time to look more closely at accessibility, inclusion and who’s not in the room and why. You do not have to be everybody’s teacher, you do not have to teach or know everything about specialized yoga, and yet you can make yoga and fitness spaces a more inviting and equitable place to be. Consider the list of articles below written by experts in their field. Let it light up new insights for you. I hope you unlearn something!

1. How to make your yoga classroom more inclusive.

2. How to build and sustain more diverse yoga spaces.

3. Yoga Race and Culture.

If you click nothing else, make it this one: for our current times: The Audre Lorde Questionnaire to Oneself.

1. The Yoga is Dead podcast came out last year in 2019. It is six episodes of absolute truth bombs that explores power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds. Join Indian-American hosts Tejal + Jesal as they expose all the monsters lurking under the yoga mat.

2. How We Can Work Together to Avoid Cultural Appropriation in Yoga, by Arundhati Baitmangalkar.

3. You may say talking about race cause separation, but here’s what you may not know. By Susanna Barkataki. “Yes, you do see race, no matter how hard you try not to. And it’s ok. Seeing race does not make you racist or a bad person, rather, you are a person that lives and functions in a racialized society. I want you to see me.”

4. And in case you’re a skeptical fitness pro or yogi, YES, Speaking out against anti-blackness is our lane. Let’s lean in and have these conversations. Even if they’re uncomfortable. And they probably are. Keep going.

5. An Instyle Magazine article, by Anusha Wijeyakumar. We associate the practice with themes like "peace," "compassion," and "acceptance." But look around the room - love and light seem reserved for the white, thin, and increasingly conservative image of "wellness." We need to talk about the rise of white supremacy in yoga

6. How to be a co-conspirator for collective liberation, by Harpinder Mann & Irene Lo. Yoga is Social Justice.

7. Here’s the article that led me to the decision to stop saying Namaste at the end of my yoga classes. There are lots of other options. NAMASTE.

8. What’s the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation?

9. This Podcast episode, Who’s Not in the Room: Critical Questions for Disrupting Wellness with Dee de Lara

Updated: 2/07/2023

Know of other articles/resources that should be added to this list? Let me know!