We become what we practice.
Through embodied practice we can:
learn about unconscious habits and triggers we hold in our bodies.
learn to anchor and soothe ourselves during those triggers.
And ultimately move from unconscious or no-longer needed habits to practices that reflect how we want to be in the world.
if the ocean
― Nayyirah Waheed
can calm itself,
so can you. we
are both
salt water
mixed with air.
Come practice with us!
What will it feel like in our cells to un-learn supremacy? What will it feel like to be free?
Drawing from yoga, qi-gong, ayurveda and other mindfulness and somatics-based practices, we weave embodied practice into our retreats, consultancies and trainings, as well as offering practice series to the wider community. When we come home to the deep agency and power and the billions of years of evolutionary wisdom that is in our bodies, we can create more space to embody our values and purpose more clearly.
Yoga Practice with Kavitha Rao
Kavitha often leads a Spring embodied practice. Follow along in this class recording:
In September 2020, Kavitha wrote, “Climate catastrophes, anti-black violence, obscenely growing economic inequities, the election, the pandemic…there’s a lot to feed our fear and anxiety during a time when our creativity and flexibility are so needed. It’s time to recommit to practice.
Below are recordings of earlier practice sessions drawing on qi-gong, yoga, and Ayurveda. These recorded classes focus on strengthening the lungs and working with emotions like grief, anxiety, fear and rage.
On top of the pandemic, I’ve been experiencing personal losses, and my city, Louisville, is still grieving the loss of Breonna Taylor. The grief is etched in the soil – when we can’t even rest without being killed, something is terribly, terribly wrong. The weekly yoga practice with you and CWC has been healing on a somatic level, a space to work out the grief in a way that’s gentle, and challenging. It forces me to slow down and notice, and from that point, I can approach my day with alignment.
— Austen Smith,
Louisville, KY
Kavitha’s September class is dedicated in loving memory to friend and visionary leader Elandria Williams, who passed into the realm of our ancestors hours before the class. As Peoples’ Hub wrote in their beautiful tribute letter, “Their life was a testament to the collective, to claiming space and creating space for Black, Southern, disabled, queer, elders, youth and more…Elandria was the Black Radical Imagination embodied.” #ElandriaTaughtUs
I had an aversion to yoga because of my ideas about yoga culture in the West. That aversion has been completely disarmed and dismantled by how Kavitha brings and guides the practice. Now, I feel and experience yoga as radical, as revolutionary, as necessary.
– Christian Leahy
Kavitha creates a container in which it is utterly safe to be a beginner, and to be in one’s body, which can be an uncomfortable place to be for those of us who have experienced trauma. In a field of trust and respect, Kavitha reveals how relevant yoga is to being able to meet this moment in history. The breathing practices, the forms and gestures, all wove together to build my capacity to be present; to be embodied, grounded and resilient; and to engage in the beautiful work of personal and community rest and repair.
For we dreamers and creators of justice and equity, I believe Kavitha’s offering is an essential foundation for the transformations we need to heal.
Related resources
Healing from white-body supremacy begins with the body — your body. But it does not end there. In order to heal the collective body that is America, we also need social activism that is body centered. We cannot individualize our way out of white-body supremacy. Nor can we merely strategize our way out. We need collective action — action that heals.
— Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands
Art by Alixa Garcia