What is cultural appropriation? What are some of the pitfalls of white people teaching or practicing yoga and meditation? How is appropation different from respect or admiration?
In this series on healthcare and social disparities, Dr. Jill Wener, a board-certified Internal Medicine specialist, meditation expert, and tapping practitioner, interviews experts in multiple fields relating to social justice and anti-racism. In this video, Jill interviews Priya Verma, a yoga therapist, physician’s assistant, and expert in cultural appropriation. Priya explains how cultural appropriation harms everyone, because it whitewashes powerful practices such as yoga and meditation of their culture and true philosophy, thus stripping away many of the benefits and purpose of these practices. Cultural appropriation causes further harm because it enables someone else to portray themselves as the expert in another culture’s lived experience and wisdom, thus marginalizing the culture and people of origin (and often making them strangers in their own culture as it is portrayed in the west). To avoid the pitfalls of cultural appropriation, Priya encourages all yoga and meditation teachers and practitioners to avoid toxic positivity, hold themselves accountable for deep-rooted prejudices, and call out misuse of sacred texts or symbols.
Priya Verma is a yoga therapist and physician’s assistant with a South Asian cultural and spiritual background. She is the owner of Sandalwood Yoga, a dedicated yoga therapy practice in 2017 where she offers complementary non-pharmacologic solutions to pain management and surgery, meditation classes and trauma-informed management of chronic conditions.
Visit Priya at https://sandalwoodyoga.com
Text “YogaRx” to 21000 to download her digital business card
Follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandalwoodyogatherapy/
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You can learn more about Dr. Wener and her online meditation and tapping courses at www.jillwener.com, and you can learn more about her online social justice course, Conscious Anti Racism: Tools for Self-Discovery, Accountability, and Meaningful Change at https://theresttechnique.com/courses/conscious-anti-racism.
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