In this week’s episode we are joined by Jessica Young, an artist and movement facilitator located in the Toronto area. The energy Jess brings to this episode will encourage you to ask yourself some tough questions and simultaneously wrap you in self-compassion.
To start, we recognize the beautiful friendship of Jess and Hien, sparked by a shared passion for advocacy and creating human-centered spaces. Plus, we learn about Jessica’s relationship to movement and how she began teaching. She also gets into the specifics of what it looks like to create a “container of care” for students.
Much of this episode centers around the various levels of privileges and barriers facilitators face in yoga (and movement) spaces. Jess brings up issues around labor and compensation in studios. From prep time to volunteer hours, we also get into the studio model that capitalizes on seva, or, “karma yoga.” Hien points out how mainstream studio culture commodifies teachers, especially BIPOC or marginalized folks.
We share our experiences of teaching during a pandemic and how normalizing online classes is changing life for teachers and studios. Jess highlights the realities faced by many marginalized folks and shares the difficult conversations she had with herself about recognizing her value. She also walked us through an exercise ALL movement teachers should do. (And we don’t use the word “should” lightly here at TWR).
We divulge some of our own experiences with studio culture, and Jess makes some brilliant points about how we’re taught to view our fellow teachers. Jessica champions the idea of community over competition and shares her ideas of how we can support fellow teachers. We end with insightful honesty from Jessica about owning your mistakes and acknowledging your privileges so you can use them as resources to learn, listen, and use your voice to ask difficult questions and advocate for others.
Jessica's favourite saying is that she's 'finding her way back home'. As a movement teacher who is trained in yoga and dance, she uses trauma-informed practices to help people connect and find agency for their own bodies. She hosts public and private movement classes and is the creator of Meaningful Movement, a training workshop focusing on accessibility and community within 'wellness'. Jessica creates programming and classes centralizing BIPOC communities and bigger bodies. She believes that exclusive spaces are necessary for healing and creating a greater sense of safety. Jessica also advocates for BIPOC teachers within the wellness industry.
Jessica's website:
Jessica's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessbe__/
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To access the transcript, go here.
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Theme song: Katy Pearson
Twitter: @ThoughtfulWRPod
Instagram: @ThoughtfulWellnessRevolution
