Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hello, hello and welcome.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm so excited for us to gather for our office hours in November.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And for those who are newer to office hours, we'll usually begin with a little practice. There'll be a theme. Some folks have submitted questions, and I'll share those in the chat in just a moment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then I'll kind of share a little bit on those questions, and we'll open up for reflection.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, we'll just take a moment while folks are coming in to…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): ground and orient ourselves. I'll play a little music, and if you could drop
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): two words, a phrase, how are you doing? How is yoga showing up for you right now? And… how are you doing?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): How is yoga showing up for you? And then our theme is Brahmacharya.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Our theme for this…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): this particular period of time, and you can carry that through your next couple weeks, if you like. So, how is energy flowing for you? How are you managing your energy, right? Some people like to…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): talk about brahmacharya as energy management, I like to think of it that way. In a monastic context, it's celibacy, but in a household or everyday context, like many of us are in, it's just how we… how we manage our energy, our life force energy. And…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, in your tech-in, invitation to share, you know, how is energy flowing for you? And one… one,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): invitation, and I'll repeat this later as well, is how are you loving yourself so much that you don't even need to have boundaries, right? Like, we can think of brahmacharya as boundaries. We can also think of it as, like, self-sovereignty, self-love, so much self-love that we don't even need that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): External, internal,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): divide. So, just some invitations. I'll play some music for us to just gather and drop in, and for those who are just joining, invitation to share.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how energy… Okay, I'm gonna pause for a sec, just because a few more people are…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): are coming in.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So let me drop it now. How, is energy blowing for you? So these are some reflections, let me put on.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Some music with no words.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Okay…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm, this felt like a soft entry would be nice for an exploration of brahmacharya and for this moment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you, and thanks for the folks who came in. I don't know if you all have been reading what folks have dropped in the chat around how yoga is showing up for you, but wow, just want to, like, maybe do sparkle… sparkles or, you know, a reaction if you relate with what someone else shared. I'm like, oh, I could have written that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And that, and that, like… So much interconnection. Anyone else feel that?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you for all of you who shared, and if you didn't, you're welcome to throughout our time.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So we're exploring Brahmatarya, which Brahma is life force.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Ancharya is chariot, right? So it's like you're a life force chariot. And particularly, I think, at this time, you know, those who've been with me for a few years, coming to these office hours, I think there's a few of you that, have been here for a while, I'll often bring brahmatarya in around this time, because
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): we do this funny thing in Western culture where it's, like, the end of the year. For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's darker. Someone mentioned snow. Where I am, it's gonna rain, potentially, for, like, 5 days or 6 days in a row, which is, you know, it's a time where
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Going inward, doing less, calming down, you know, being a bit more internal.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): is part of that natural rhythm, but our culture is like, Q4, year-end this, year-end that, and then we party, right? Like, and the partying can be fun.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But it can also be really exhausting, and draining, and being around people that we maybe want to see, and people maybe we don't want to see, or we have complicated relationships with.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, just letting, you know, part of what it is to live our yoga is to…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To give ourselves a space.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): if it's a 5-minute song at the beginning of a class, if it's 3 breaths, you know, a hand on your heart, to be like, what is it that I really need? How is it with me? How is my energy in this… this time?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so that's what we'll explore, and in a beautiful way, many of the questions that came in
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): weave into this theme as well. I'm also picking the theme from what's alive for you. And if you're like, wait, I don't remember where to ask questions ahead of time, that's okay, you can always ask them live.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And there's a…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): form where you can submit your questions if you want to, and I'll pull that up later.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I want to begin with just a little bit of a practice to ground us.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… so… You can sit or stand.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): As easily as you would like, or lie down.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And we'll inhale through our nose.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And exhale through your mouth with a sound.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale through your nose.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Exhale with the sound.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale. One last full, big exhale through your mouth.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Gaze can be soft, or eyes can be closed.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Invitation to place a hand over your heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Make sure you can see me. So to place a hand over your heart, one there, and then the other on top.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm just checking in…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe seeing if you can feel where your energy is nourishing, and maybe where it's a little bit depleted.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then we'll do a practice with our hands. This can be a pranayama practice, as well as a mudra practice. So you're gonna bring one arm out.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And inhale, and then exhale, bring it in, and as you do, bring the other arm out. So you're just alternating.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In X. In X. And lengthening through your spine, slight tilts.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In your tailbone, if that feels good, to engage through your midline.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And you can stay like this, or if it feels good to bring in Breath of Fire, and you're not germinating life.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Because we don't want to do any forceful breathing when you're germinating. Your invitation to speed it up and bring in breath of fire. So it would be like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In, out, in, X, in, X, in X, like that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And last few.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Now on the last one, inhale, arms rise, holding the breath in, if you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And on your exhale, as you're ready, bringing your arms down, but letting the energy come up, maybe feeling tingles out through the crown of your head and arms down.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Taking a moment to feel that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We'll do this again at the… In a few moments.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Invitation now to twist gently, and a couple options here, you can stay seated if you would like, or for those who want a little more heat, maybe coming up to stand into,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): your chair pose, so Utkatasana, so welcome to… to stand, or if you're in a chair, maybe sitting on the edge of your chair.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then, being here, you can stay right here with your hands on your legs, or push one hand on the inside of one thigh and the other arm up. So, whether you're seated or standing.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Just getting a little twist.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Into one side, and breathing here.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm playing with your own boundaries, right? If you're like, oh, I want to come out a little bit, that's great. If you want to go deeper…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Exhaling through center when you're ready, and twisting to the other side.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So many forms of twists.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm feeling into… How it feels in your body to open up the side body.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe as you come back.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Just giving yourself a little bit of softness, a little bit of massage along the belly, or even along your side body, massaging down your sides for your back.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And if your hands are on your low back, or if you'd like to put them there on the chair behind you, inhale, gentle arch, opening your heart up towards the sky.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Breathing into the back of your heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Exhaling, rounding now, folding forward any amount. As we started with, sometimes brahmacharya is finding so much self-love.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That you don't even have the need to set up boundaries, because you're just caring for yourself, loving yourself.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so we're working a little bit with our heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Chakra, or Heart Energy Center.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Just feeling into it.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale back up. And noticing, is it armored? Sometimes that armor can be around here, sometimes up in our jaw, so maybe just taking your hands and rubbing alongside, taking your fingers like this, rubbing along your jaw.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Down.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To your neck.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Down to your heart, and feeling once again, how does it feel?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): How is it with you?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Dropping one shoulder… one shoulder towards the earth, one ear towards that shoulder, maybe lifting up with your hand to stretch through the side of your neck.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The side you're stretching can be… that arm can be lengthened out.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You can gaze down or up towards the sky.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Gently sliding your hand back over and using it at your temple, maybe even a little massage on your temple as you come back up to center.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Dropping your head in the other direction, so this ear, down towards your shoulder, shoulder down towards the ground.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Nice.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's a different side, so just checking in what you need here.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe a little gaze towards the earth.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Up towards the sky, or hanging out anywhere that you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): When you're ready, hand comes down to the side.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe a massage gently on your temple.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Checking in with your heart, and then…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): practitioner's choice, right? Maybe you just want to take a little…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): moment with your heart, or at the back of your heart, feeling in one hand in the front, one hand in the back. My hand doesn't really stretch all the way up there, but, you know, somewhere there. Or, perhaps you want to do this practice one more time, just feeling…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Perhaps if you want to move some energy doing this, and if you want more attending, more nurturing, then…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Staying right there, so you can make your choice.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): If you're doing Breath of Fire, inhale, opening out, switching.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): X, X, X, X, moving at your own rhythm.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): 10 more breaths, wherever you are.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Exhaling…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale, arms come up or stay on your heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Holding breath in…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): As you're ready, exhale, arms come down, but envisioning the energy rising up through your spine and out the crown of your head.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Merging with the universe.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Beautiful.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You know, finding your easeful, meditative seat.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm taking a moment… I'm just…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Drop in with you.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Where can you love yourself more?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And if it's helpful to think of what boundaries you might…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Set, or… maybe if there's an area of life that's been draining energy.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Reflect on that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Reflect on what replenishes you.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'll take a moment… To move this meditation into some journaling, if you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): How… what did I ask you? How can I practice self-love? Any boundaries?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That are alive right now.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What drains your energy, and what replenishes it?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So welcome to… to reflect on that, keeping that kind of meditative…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Almost like journaling as meditation practice, so…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Perhaps gazing around, just taking in form and color, noticing where you are.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): taking a piece of paper, your journal, or journaling digitally, or into the chat. And it can also be super, like, maybe you're drawing, right? Like, maybe it's, like… or maybe it's, like, an actual, you know, representative drawing, or maybe… let me…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Super bell. Maybe it's just symbolic, like if I was to say, What's… What's nourishing me?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Sometimes it's just being in spaces that help my energy feel kind of like this, and someone could look at that and be like, oh, I don't really don't want that energy. And that's great, right? It's not… it's not about judging ourselves or each other, it's just what is… what is for you. So this'll be a first thought, best thought, like, 2 minutes.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Reflection on how can you practice
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): More, more and more self-love. Any boundaries alive for you? What drains your energy? What replenishes it?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Okay, and you can keep journaling, or… Let's listen…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So I just want to ground us in how brahmacharya isn't just about sexual energy, it's about integrity, right? Integrity of our energy.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And alignment with our… our values.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And in trauma-informed yoga, we are exploring how safety and harmony, right, maybe some of us have learned that as regulation.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Are the foundation for recovery, for healing.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And brahmacharya comes in so deeply here, because when we push past our own capacity, right, our own availability for something.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We can replicate the same harm that we're trying to dismantle.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so, brahmacharya is, like, this reminder to move from our own center, not from, like, I have to, or I should, or compulsion. Now, I know that many of us work, or… it's really hard to have that kind of…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): inner compass, and then move from that in the world. Like, our jobs or the world around us might be moving at a different pace.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But even just pausing in the midst of it to be like, what do I need? Am I hungry? Am I tired? Am I, you know, do I need a connection with a friend? It helps us trust our own energy, and that, in turn, helps others trust our energy. And it shifts things.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I want to open into some of your really thoughtful questions. I'm gonna drop them in the chat in just a moment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… And explore them. Give me a moment…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So our very first question, and I'm just going to drop them all so you'll see the four there, kind of summarized.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But, I'm gonna go one by one, so…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Can I share scripting about how to hold space for difficult conversations, or heavy moments in life, and how, yoga practices can offer opportunities to expand our capacity for these tough conversations?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I love this. I want to first just give a plug for Blair Imani, who did the, Tough Conversations Across Difference.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): She fleshed out a really wonderful kind of practice for how we can have tough conversations across differences.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And even just
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): being in the reminder of that, right? That we can do that, that we're built for that, that, to some extent, what yoga is as a path of yana yoga is inviting us to see things a different way, and not just be in our own, kind of, fixed views or our own silos.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so the very first step in terms of, like, a script for this, I would actually say begins with pratyahara. It begins with drawing inwards, right? The sensory practice of going within. So when I'm in a tough conversation or,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): A difficult or heavy moment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'll take…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a breath and pause and check in with myself. Now, I had to learn how to do this
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): With friends, with partners, with my kiddo, at work, in activist spaces like this.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I feel like I'm always relearning this, and I'll just share an example with my kiddo. So the way that I was raised when I was young, and some other people here might relate to this, is if I was upset or angry, even if I was sad or hurt, it was like the…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): reaction that my parents had, particularly my dad, was like, go away and come back when you can, like, be more rational, right? It was like anger.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so, you know, and I'm sure his parents had that reaction. And so, for me, it really sparked up around my own child, because he would get hurt, like, toddlers, little kids, they get hurt all the time.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And the reaction that would come was, like, fury in me.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): it would come out as, like, what happened? What, you know, and I'm like, wait, where is that coming from? Why? Why in this hard moment, right? It's really… child is crying.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What can I do? Why is anger the thing that is emerging? Well, right, habit energies, cyclical patterns, ancestral wounds, all of the things.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I learned to tend to myself, and literally do what we've been doing in the practice, like, take a moment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Put a hand on my heart, sometimes on my belly.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): take a breath, and so I… and then go and tend, right? Let that intensity of emotion, the fight-flight, kind of move through me and pass. And my kiddo was around…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): 3. I wish I had realized it before he was… he was, like, 3 or 4. So the 2 to… 2 to 4 was a little rough for… in our house.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But we got through it. But around that time, when I started to understand, oh…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I hate to care for myself and practice pratyahara, right? Like, apply yoga in this way. I mentioned it. I told him. I was like, I have this habit energy, probably comes from the way I was parented.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And what I'm doing, like, if you fall on your trike or whatever, and I don't come running right, right, you know, as soon as you fall.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): is I'm taking a moment to calm myself down so I can really be what I want to be, which is loving and supportive and present. And often in those moments.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a kid doesn't need, like, what are you doing? What hap… like, it doesn't matter what happened, right? Like, who cares how they got hurt? They're hurt. And this is little kids, big kids, right? Like, our friends, when they're upset, or our colleagues, they don't need to explain it, they just need to be witnessed.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I go over, right, and I'm regulated now, I'm calm, harmonized in myself.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Obviously still a little worried, like, are they okay? But… and place a hand.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): On his back, often, right? If it's not the back that's hurt.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And just breathe.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the crying would often kind of move through or subside, or we would move into, like, he would share what he needed, not the barrage of questions, the need to control, right? The anxiety that's coming out for me.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, I share that as a metaphor for…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): in any situation, right? A friend who might be thinking about getting divorced from their partner, and they turn to you in a moment of need, or a coworker who is really upset about something that your boss did.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Taking that time.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to go within. And so I can't give you, like, a script of what to say, because it's gonna depend on the circumstance, right? But I can give you the script of what to practice, because it's yoga. It's internal, like the pratyahara.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): kind of resisting that impulse to fix, right? To dominate the space, to control the space, even to withdraw out of discomfort. Because so often, like, think about if you've been in a circle of people
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And someone shares, and they start to cry. And someone gets up and takes them tissues.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What does that do? It actually stops the crying. It takes someone who's having a cycle of emotional expression.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And they have to, like, button it up because there's a subtext with the tissues. Yes, it's supportive.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But it's a little more about, you know, if I'm the one giving the tissue, me and my discomfort with their crying than it is truly about that person. So I've learned, when I'm in circles, and in many, where people cry, is…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We don't have to fix that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's not our job. Actually, what our job is, is to witness the full cycle of their expression, right? Their emotion. And with the tools of yoga, right, we're not therapists, unless you're also a therapist, but with the tools of yoga, which are pratyahara.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Then deep listening, satya, like being a loving witness, just bringing that grounded…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): present, clear energy to just listen. Maybe ask open-ended questions.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And meeting, like, that pain with our presence, right? Like, another metaphor, and this is from,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Shanti Deva, who is a, a Tibetan…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Buddhist practitioner from, like, 12th century BCE. He used… or 12th century CE, so, like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thousand or so, years ago.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): A little bit less.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And he would talk about… his teachings were about…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you know, in yoga, we're in this, like, cosmic soup of oneness. I'm closing my eyes because I'm visualizing it, right? We're in this… we're all one.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And we're each unique manifestations of that one. And sometimes, you know, we're just kind of going along, like, trying to realize our own oneness and our fullest flowering, but sometimes what he called a sentient being pops up. Someone in pain, someone suffering. Could be us, could be someone else, right? Sentient being arises.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Right? But we're all part of this cosmic oneness, and so when a sentient being arises, what a bodhisattva, which in the Tibetan tradition is, like, someone committed to their own and everyone else's uplift and liberation, which is really what, when you're committed to the yogic path, it's the same thing, just different name.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You arise as a sentient being, to be with that person, hold them, care for them, until they can go back into the flow, right, of becoming
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): their own unfoldment of oneness, and then you, too, go back into that unfoldment. So it's, like, that kind of witnessing, that kind of presencing.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): which, to be fair, and to be honest, right, we're talking about brahmacharya, sometimes we don't have the capacity to do that. It can take energy, it can take presence, but…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Sometimes.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): if we want to look at it as part of our practice, right, then we do. Or we're in a work environment, or with a friend, or with someone that we're… we're, you know.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I guess from a yogic perspective, karmically, or energetically bound up with, like, a child, right? Like, here we go, you know?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): How many times can a sentient being pop up in one day? A lot of times when they're 5 or 13. So…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But also, like, when they're 25, or 35, or 55, or 75, right? Like, we're just kind of accompanying… accompanying each other through our unfoldment. And that's…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): that's what I bring to those heavy or difficult conversations, to be honest, is the sort of practices go in
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Harmonize.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Be present.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then be offered as a practice, right? It is an offering to their unfoldment, to your unfoldment, and, and just be with what is. So, I'm sorry if I can't, you know, give you an exact, like, wording. If you have a specific conversation, I maybe could, you're… you're welcome to,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to ask, and I'm just looking for who asked this.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm… Maggie.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Are you here, Maggie?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): No. Okay. Well, hopefully you'll listen. That's alright.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Then, our next question is, I signed up for this course but haven't done a whole lot, haven't really started anything. So, yeah, that happens. Life happens. And you are not alone.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how to engage with the program, right? So, I think the best way…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I would say is really, like,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): kind of allowing the depth to come through the rhythm and the relationship. We have these two live calls every month, our office hours for conversation and integration and pilgrimage and puja for ritual and practice and embodiment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And coming live helps us experience kind of that Sangha, and then also we have the extra, like, calls, usually about once a month, with, one of our faculty.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so, come when you can, you know, let it hold you. If you're like, I really want to understand how to honor the roots of yoga, and that's very important, which, you know, for lots of folks, especially folks who are not South Asian.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I would say start with Embrace Yoga's Roots in terms of the coursework. It's pretty quick, and you can go through it.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then, Yoga Class Curator is more like a beautiful, reverential practice space. I listen to it still, right? I recorded those, and I turn on my Dharma talks when I need to, like, be reminded of brahmacharya, or be reminded of satya. I do my own practices in that. It's more of a practice space, so it's a bit more like…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): dive in when you need it. You can be, you know, very structured, like, top of every month or end of every month, listen to the talk, do the practice, do the meditation, do the mudra through the month. That's wonderful, too, but I will say, for me, I treat it more oracularly.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Kind of like, you know, when you have a book, and you just…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I just happen to have my book here, open to a page. Huh.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Okay, this is an example where I just opened to a page, page 92. When we practice interconnection and community care, we remember that our survival and liberation are bound together with the survival and liberation of others, right? Like…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): that's a great thing for me to meditate on. Please drop in any other…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): comments on that. Is it possible to do a one-on-one call to connect and meet? So, right now, at this stage, other than, like, some people got a bonus call, either for signing up for the YTT200, I'm doing one-on-one coaching with folks who join the 200-hour training.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Or a few folks right at the beginning we did, who signed up in a particular window, have one-on-ones that'll happen through the year to honor my own energy.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To honor, you know, what,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): like, the essence of brahmacharya for myself, I have to be mindful of where and how my energy flows.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I get requests to do one-on-one calls
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): All the time. And if I did all of them, I wouldn't have time to do any of the other stuff that I do. And I also just want to name, like, I've been socialized to… to kind of give and also to equate
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): my worth with how much I can be helpful. So it's… this is a hard… this is one of those where it's not yet fully self-love, it's still a boundary for me, because I'm trying to figure it out, like, how can I…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): serve the need, but, like, meet that need, but also care for myself. And I will say I'm also, like, healing some chronic,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): digestion stuff, right? Like, I'm in a lowered capacity at this moment. My answer at a different time might be different. But right now, I'm… I'm working on healing as well as, like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): doing, you know, all the things, teaching and things. So, we do have, for individual guidance, you can reach out to hello at Ignite Be Well for consulting options.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But the… at this point, those are gonna be,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): like, donation-based or paid, right? It's not… I'm not doing free,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): One-on-ones outside of what is already, like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): set up. So, I'm just gonna drop in that, because I put,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… yeah, it's… so I know it might be disappointed… disappointing, but I also want to say…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We have plenty of time to talk here, you know? We're meeting every two weeks, sometimes every…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): every week, you know, when we have events, and so jump in and, like, chat, you know? Because I'll get to know you that way.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then, how do we honor yoga's lineage? Okay, I want to pause before answering this one. Lineage while acknowledging the abuse and oppression in yoga's past, yeah. Where is there information about women present in yoga's history? So I'll come to that, but just any…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anything arising for folks on these questions, or just your own questions?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Mmm.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, okay, cool. I see in the chat, I love Celine's suggestion about having tissues around, because then people can get them if they need them, because it is hard to, like, speak or process if your nose is dripping. So it can be supportive, but self-chosen.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And checking in with yourself. Am I stopping my cycle of emotions because I feel weird crying in a group?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Or am I just supporting myself, you know? And we're not… it's okay, like… Okay.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So I love this question. I think…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Honoring lineage while acknowledging abuse and oppression is just naming it. Being transparent.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We don't need to pretend like…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yoga is flawless, or faultless. It is a tool that has been used to heal, absolutely, and also to harm. It's neutral, in a way, right? Like any kind of power is. Power can be used for good, and it can be used, and we see it used so often.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In ways that are harmful and unjust and inequitable. And it's the same with yoga. And so honoring lineage is, to me, it is actually part of honoring
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To tell the truth about How we're relating with yoga.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I think it can be, if you have a particular yoga lineage, wonderful, and naming if there's been any abuse, you know, kind of claims or abuse issues as part of that lineage, and then also.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): perhaps your lineage is, like, more general, like Hatta Yoga or Patanjali's Yoga sutras, right? Like, the Patanjali lineage of yoga, which is much broader, and is the kind of general, like, where I'm guiding you and teaching you from, is Advaita Vedanta, specifically.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and also Sri Orbindo's lineage, right? And then there… also, there's Thich Nhat Hanh in terms of the lineage of what I bring.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): forward, and so I name those a lot, I try to name them, and honor them, and honor the teachers who I've learned from, and who've come before even my teachers, and before that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then also name. That…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): there has been abuse in many, many lineages, most lineages that are in… present in the West, and in India. And…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): telling that full story, right? The ways that caste, that patriarchy, that abuse, that colonization.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): have shaped.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how yoga is moving today. And I think acknowledging that doesn't, like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): reject or diminish yoga, it kind of protects it. Because when we're transparent.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): we can practice right relationship. We can practice healing those… those generational harms, right? Like, that thing I just described.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): it's changed now, right? My kid will not pass on being, hopefully.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm pretty sure I've been able to change it enough.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): that… or if they have the anger, it'll be easier for them not to act on it, you know? And when… if their kid or, you know, someone around them gets hurt. They have compassion. In fact, I've seen it, like, when someone around them gets hurt, they just, like, feel for them.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): They want to help them. They don't have that same impulse that my dad, maybe his dad, or mom, and then I, carry. So, we can change those cycles, the vicious cycles, into virtuous cycles. This is part of what yoga does, right? It actually heals ancestral wounds.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Backwards and forwards! You will not believe it, but guess who is different now? Still alive, right? My dad is…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We don't exactly know his age, because in India you don't.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): get a birth certificate in the same way you do in the West, but he's probably in his mid-70s.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe late 70s, and so… He doesn't get angry anymore.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): He doesn't have that same impulse.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's not like he went to therapy. He has not gone to therapy.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But he is different, right? And is he different in part because I'm different? I 100% believe that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Right? Like, we heal, we change those cycles.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And sometimes it's in the afterlife, like, there, you know, sometimes it's in another world, sometimes it's not in this life, sometimes we don't get to see the healing manifest.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But we may feel it.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Or we might not, and then connect to other, right? Other ancestors, other living beings, other chosen families. So it's not always a cure-all for everything, yoga.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But it has a lot of power.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then the second part of your question, women in yoga.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): They've always been… women have always been part of yoga's transmission. I love the question, because I do think it's a misconstrual, actually, of yoga's history, that it has been men, or in the purview of men. Definitely…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You know, there have been female yogis, yoginis, sages, tantric philosophers and practitioners,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): all throughout history, from the early days to the, you know, Middle Ages, and of course now.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): However, under colonial rule especially, and under brahminical patriarchy, the power was consolidated in Brahman priests, which, you know, is men, often, although not everywhere. Where my family is from, there are female priests and leaders, spiritual leaders. It's matriarchal, more matriarchal.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So there's no general needle.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): absolute, but… and then under colonization, and with the way patriarchy is practiced in the West, you kind of had a reinforcing of that. So for the last…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): like, 150 years ago back, maybe 350 years, definitely. We had a foregrounding of the male voice, male teachers in yoga, but I think it's so powerful to reclaim the stories and the voices of, like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Akamaha Debi, you know, Mirabay, like, there's all these wonderful stories, and I want to leave some space for folks to…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): share, so I'm gonna stop, and in the future, I can kind of…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): guide us around some of those stories, but there's a lot of reclaiming that we can do around the stories of women, women in yoga. And, it's a very beautiful
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Beautiful journey, and then also, I think.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to think about the feminization, I think that was part of your question, or like…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the feminine energy, right, which…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): for some people, I think it's helpful to think in terms of, like, feminine or masculine. For many, I think it's helpful to just think of, like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): qualities, like the lunar or the solar, gender as a…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): as a spectrum, or as a continuum, right, that there's as many genders as there are beings, and even more, because we can change our gender, it can evolve.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But in…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a lot of yoga philosophy, there is the idea that shakti, which is more of the feminine, you know, the feminine energy, is imperative for the awakening of
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): any consciousness, right? That we're not gonna get, essentially, to liberation without that… that energy, and a lot of Tantric yoga explores these paths, so that's another place to explore.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Oh, yes, thank you for dropping Yoga is Dead and the Original Godmothers of yoga. I love that, resource.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anyone want to share? Anything on your heart or mind?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Questions? What is alive for you?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Does anyone want to share about boundaries or brahmacharya? Yes, Laura, I see your hand.
Laura Henderson: Sorry, I'm not on camera. I was going to type this, but then I was like, well, it'll just be easier to say. But in the conversation around… that you were… that you were just having around,
Laura Henderson: Women, or feminine energy in yoga.
Laura Henderson: Valerie Kaur wrote a really beautiful book called Sage Warrior, and it tells… it gives the history of the Sikh gurus.
Laura Henderson: From the perspective of the women in, like, the… the…
Laura Henderson: Wives and daughters and mothers, and, it's… It's really beautiful, and not…
Laura Henderson: not everyone may consider it directly related to yoga, but of course, if you practice kundalini yoga.
Laura Henderson: the origins of Kundalini, you know, Kundalini Yoga was taken from the 6th April.
Laura Henderson: It's just really beautiful, if you're interested in a book that… oh, thank you, whoever dropped that in.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): She's a wonderful teacher.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anyone else?
Margaret Graham (she/her): I have a question, but I don't know how to raise my hand.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah!
Margaret Graham (she/her): I shared a little bit about my project last time,
Margaret Graham (she/her): But I recall that you mentioned a few organizations that I could consider giving back to, but I did not write them down, and I was wondering if you could repeat those for me again, so that I can actually…
Margaret Graham (she/her): Get them down this time.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hold that…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Mine Drive is doing something weird.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I have a whole document, however, I do want to say
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What is happening? Why is Google not letting me?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Give me just a moment…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): There we go, okay.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, a few of these organizations
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): are a little bit outdated, you know how orgs change, or all of that. So, right at the top, there's, like, trainings, people to continue learning from, a lot of resources, books, podcasts…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): in this doc, books that I love, kids yoga, there's just a lot of resources. And then, underneath, I put resources to research, and I'm just gonna share my… my screen so you can see.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So… Resources to research, learn from, donate to.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… just letting you know that I donate, particularly to Black Lives Matter, but particularly now, actually it's,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a specific organization that I'll drop in here, as well as Indigenous First Nations and South Asian justice organizations, right? So, so here's some yoga-based
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): schools or service in India.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): U.S.-based organizations, South Asian organizations, humanitarian aid, intersectional equity organizations.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And, and so, I hope that's helpful.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But yeah, that's accessible to everyone. I think you all can… Just open that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I think I linked it in the… As well, in our…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): syllabus, but if I didn't, I will.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Any other questions?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Comments. So nice to see the babies today.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Oh my goodness.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Like, such a gift.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So in this time, right, like, what fills your energy? Can you do more of it?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I… Ended up co-organizing a neighborhood gathering last week that kind of came out of some needfulness.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Of stuff going on in our community, it's a little bit intense.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I realized that night and the next day, I was like, wow, I feel really good. And I think it's because, like, gathering with neighbors, conversations across difference, I don't love, I don't agree with the values of all my neighbors, but I still felt recharged and energized, right, by doing something social. We're thinking about now maybe having, like, a…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a holiday gathering out in the kind of community area in the middle of all of our places. Like, really…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I never would have thought that that recharged my energy, but it totally did. And so, being mindful of…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you know, what is surprisingly recharging you? What might surprisingly be draining you? And maybe you can't not go to work, right, if it's work, but maybe, you know, I spent…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a good couple years in a job that was really draining that I couldn't leave for, you know, financial reasons, and…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I just shifted my orientation. Sometimes I was a teacher, right? I love the students, but, you know, the administration was difficult, tricky, and so some days I would literally say, okay, Susanna, like, can I sub for myself?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): can I basically, like, do… like, when I'm with the kids, really be there, but in the… in the requirements of the administration, can I just be a sub? Like, not do…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): 100%, do 80, 70%.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And it really changed things. It helped preserve my own energy for the things that I loved.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, an invitation to practice brahmatarya through our day, through our week.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And we will close, and if you'd like…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Stretching, what's more, lifting up towards the sky.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale, exhale, hands down at your heart, and we'll close with…
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Omloka, Samasta Suki no Babantu, may all beings everywhere be happy, safe.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Free from harm, and full of everlasting joy. And if you'd like to chant, you are most welcome.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Sukino, Pavantu.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you, and please unmute and say goodbye if you would like.
Siri Gillespie: Thank you so much.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you. Thank you.
Katherine Sorensen: I hate.
Katie's iPhone: Thank you. Bye!
--Heather Hale: Thank you.
Laura Henderson: Thank you.
Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): here.
Eva (she/her): Thank you.