Yuja Soul: Yoga for Black Women
For all Black Women. For all practice levels.
Yuja Soul’s first class was held on August 3, 2019 as the start of the Flow into Restore Series and was intended as a one-time series. It came up during a time when Tonie needed to replenish her cup as a teacher, and as a Black Woman. Read more about the story of Yuja Soul from Tonie’s perspective below.
Teaching full-time in mainly white spaces is filled with microaggressions. I signed up to help folks heal and discover yoga, and found others’ healing was happening at my expense. All of my offerings come from the experience of living and studying information as a Black Woman. When I teach, there is the reality that majority white spaces are receiving those teachings, formed from my experiences as a Black Woman, without having to face those struggles. There is an expense to showing up to teach authentically as a Black Woman: I end up sharing parts of me that still require healing, and those wounds remain freshly open as I keep teaching from them. Those wounds also become deeper and require more labor to nourish as I face additional microaggressions as a Black teacher. I felt the sudden need to be in a studio, in relationship with Black Women. And so came Yuja Soul.
Whenever I see another Black Woman or Girl, I see myself reflected. I wonder how their day is going. Is Sis really showing up fully, or how many times did she have to shrink just for this day? Is this Black Women being valued at work, by colleagues, family, friends, folks who are not Black, folks who are? Are there traumas, and patterns that need to be reconciled? Are those patterns the same as mine? Do they come from the same places? Probably. And if there is victory out of those patterns, then what’s the secret that needs to be shared?
I believe that there is an unseen bond that Black Women share. So much of that bond is based on past harms, generational patterns and cycles, and the daily defense that has to go up to navigate life while being a Black Woman. I wonder what it would look and feel like to instead see any Black Woman, and share a bond that is made fully and only of celebration, liberation, self-love and complete ownership of our birthright to abundance and joy.
Yuja Soul is here to examine the past through the lens of various themes, and transform the past from bondage to teacher. Yuja Soul exists to support Black Women on the journey of putting themselves in front of, and in control of past patterns and cycles, leaving space for experiencing joy without guilt or shame. I’m not an expert on the way to that liberation, but I believe in the power of yoga as a bridge. All the best teachers, mothers, friends, aunts, sisters, mentors I’ve been fortunate to have are Black Women. Yuja Soul is here, as an extension of my practice to pay forward all the support that’s been given to me.
Classes are carefully and intentionally sequenced and curated specifically to Black Women’s bodies in all their layers and systems. Special attention is given to the anatomy of the hips, and pelvic floor, meridian lines, chakras, and the major lines of fascia of the body. Classes also include exploration of mudras, various energies of the goddesses and gods of Yoga, bandhas pranayama, and meditation.
