WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.530 --> 00:00:04.130 Audio shared by Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Welcome to our office hours. 2 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:06.549 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Turn on a little more light. 3 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:19.840 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So I want to explore… 4 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:31.860 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Kind of back to foundations, yoga and social justice, trauma-informed yoga and social justice, and… 5 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:37.450 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you, right? Me. Because it starts right here. 6 00:00:37.650 --> 00:00:41.210 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then allows us to move. 7 00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:42.819 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Out from there. 8 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:49.830 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Mmm… just pulled yourself away from birdwatching. That's amazing. 9 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:09.559 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, just seeing what… Folks are sharing. 10 00:01:09.810 --> 00:01:13.900 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Tired, pensive, content, grateful. 11 00:01:15.350 --> 00:01:19.109 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): A little sleepy, full of gratitude. 12 00:01:20.020 --> 00:01:26.480 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): getting ready to plant vegetables in new vegetable beds. We're coming up to that time of year where it's like… 13 00:01:26.770 --> 00:01:29.459 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Spring, we can feel spring. 14 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:37.660 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm… Reflective and sad, but also optimistic. 15 00:01:38.710 --> 00:01:40.560 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, relief. 16 00:01:41.310 --> 00:01:43.209 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And gratitude. 17 00:01:46.550 --> 00:01:49.389 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so, I just… honoring… 18 00:01:49.990 --> 00:02:07.520 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you, as you're showing up, and also a reminder that some of us have been kind of on this exploration for a long time, you know, maybe a year, maybe a decade, maybe our whole lives, and then some folks are coming in super fresh, like. 19 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:16.590 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Just maybe this month, or with recent political kind of upheaval and, challenges. 20 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:23.850 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I think one of the things that makes this particular space so special is… 21 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:37.800 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): we're all welcome, right? Like, yes, it can be hard if your whole life you've had to deal with racial injustice or gender oppression, and someone is just waking up to that, and… 22 00:02:37.820 --> 00:02:46.800 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Like, in the big scope of things, when we pull back from a yogic perspective of unity, however we get. 23 00:02:46.870 --> 00:02:59.349 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to those ahas, or those insights, or those liberations, right? Because looking at suffering is part of, clearly, is part of what it means to start to taste freedom. 24 00:02:59.770 --> 00:03:06.739 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And it doesn't mean you have to, like, be okay with someone waking up to something you've lived your whole life. 25 00:03:07.260 --> 00:03:13.270 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But in this space, we welcome all of the avenues and pathways to liberation. 26 00:03:13.470 --> 00:03:31.860 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I get the sense from folks that, that that is a lot of the work that you're doing in your own lives and in your communities as well. And so having a space to also be able to just process, you know, the frustrations as well, 27 00:03:32.700 --> 00:03:36.279 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): however they might be arising. I think that's part of it. 28 00:03:36.810 --> 00:03:49.679 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… So our reflections today is around how trauma-informed yoga and yoga for social justice is not… 29 00:03:49.890 --> 00:03:59.050 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): really a set of techniques, so much as a way of relating, right? A way of relating to ourselves, a way of relating to the world. 30 00:03:59.430 --> 00:04:13.200 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And exploring how these practices, yoga itself, helps us become people who create conditions of dignity, and of humanity, and justice, and healing. 31 00:04:13.880 --> 00:04:17.700 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): imperfectly, right? That can sound really, like. 32 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:22.910 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Like, a big task, but we don't have to do it perfectly. 33 00:04:25.010 --> 00:04:26.630 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… 34 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:35.590 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So the theme I want to bring forward, and this, like, fits so perfectly with a lot of what you all were sharing, is… 35 00:04:36.450 --> 00:04:42.250 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how is it with you, right? What is emerging in you? What is changing in you? 36 00:04:42.770 --> 00:04:51.609 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): From a trauma-informed yoga perspective, like, self-awareness, vad yaya. 37 00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:55.150 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… sovereignty. 38 00:04:55.780 --> 00:04:59.350 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I wanted… in a moment, we'll do a little practice. 39 00:05:00.250 --> 00:05:02.160 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Let me just put those… 40 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:13.210 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So sovereignty and self-reflection, right? Like, in this moment, we're kind of moving into spring, how… 41 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:18.469 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Are you doing with safety, with dignity, with agency? 42 00:05:18.710 --> 00:05:20.010 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): with yourself. 43 00:05:20.350 --> 00:05:23.059 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I don't mean, like… 44 00:05:23.190 --> 00:05:37.460 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): again, to look at yourself with this critical eye of, like, oh, I'm doing terribly. It's okay, right? It's like, with… I think the other piece is, like, with compassion, and in this case, self-compassion, 45 00:05:37.890 --> 00:05:47.340 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how is it going? And being really honest as well, practicing satya. So I'll give a personal example. I do feel like… 46 00:05:50.030 --> 00:05:58.189 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): like, some of the sovereignty question that I'm carrying into this time, and I'll journal about it when we're journaling, is… 47 00:05:59.590 --> 00:06:12.709 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): what at this stage, and in this moment in my life, and with the causes and conditions that are present for me now, what does sovereignty look like now, right? It's different than the stage when I was an early parent. 48 00:06:12.930 --> 00:06:21.629 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): different than at the stage when I was early and running my own thing, or when I was a teacher working for LA Unified, you know, and… 49 00:06:22.230 --> 00:06:30.989 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): there's maybe some echoes of things from that time that I need to revisit now, but from a different vantage point. So, 50 00:06:31.590 --> 00:06:41.520 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So really just taking time to pause, to kind of pull back on our lives big picture, which so often we can be, like, really in it. 51 00:06:41.700 --> 00:06:48.799 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And Explorer… that big picture of, like, becoming, right? Like… 52 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:54.550 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): One more thing I'll say, then we'll do a little practice, and then some journaling. 53 00:06:56.740 --> 00:07:05.260 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): One definition of yoga, one interpretation of what yoga is that aligns with many different schools, is 54 00:07:05.580 --> 00:07:07.320 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): A path of becoming. 55 00:07:07.590 --> 00:07:16.720 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): By becoming, we're talking about the little S self, like Catherine, or Jenna, or Miriam, or, you know, Lanisha, or Stardust, like. 56 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:19.050 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the unique self. 57 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:26.850 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): becoming… Their fullest, whole, most complete expression of yourselves. 58 00:07:27.850 --> 00:07:41.660 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That is in harmony and in connection with the whole. With the part of us that everyone here, and everyone listening to the recording, and everyone in our lives, and beyond that, past, present, future, we're all always already connected. 59 00:07:41.890 --> 00:07:50.479 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so we each have a unique arc, or perhaps, like, rollercoaster for some of us, or, like, many arcs on our journey of becoming. 60 00:07:51.130 --> 00:08:06.980 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And depending on the perspective you take, maybe we have lifetimes or cycles. You know, some of us think of this as reincarnation, you know, as part of it, and so we get many cycles of becoming, but you don't need to believe in reincarnation. 61 00:08:07.330 --> 00:08:16.149 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to see how we've lived, perhaps, many lives within even just this lifetime, right? So, in the span of becoming your growth path. 62 00:08:17.440 --> 00:08:24.070 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Pulling back a little bit to see, rather than, like, just in this little arc, which, for example, my arc is. 63 00:08:24.980 --> 00:08:33.729 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): perimenopause, child in this point, you know, working in the world, right? Like, there's some very specific things, but when I pull back, it's like, oh, right. 64 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:36.319 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): On my journey of becoming. 65 00:08:39.330 --> 00:08:41.950 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how am I doing, right? Like… 66 00:08:42.220 --> 00:08:49.389 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): what am I… what is important for me to be aware of? What responsibility? What dignity? What sovereignty? 67 00:08:49.790 --> 00:09:01.489 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): is there. And so, just pausing before we go into a practice and then some journaling to see if anyone has any questions or thoughts. I know this is… again, I feel like sometimes… 68 00:09:02.810 --> 00:09:05.659 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): These days, I'm a little less linear. 69 00:09:05.910 --> 00:09:11.720 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and there's two reasons for that. One is perimenopause. And two is… 70 00:09:12.930 --> 00:09:27.560 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the experience of yoga as unity is not gonna happen with our minds. It's gonna happen in symbols, and signs, and sensations and feelings. 71 00:09:27.650 --> 00:09:33.030 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I'm letting myself play with being less linear. 72 00:09:33.750 --> 00:09:53.450 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): explicitly in these spaces, with the idea that over time, it's sort of like light dawning slowly over the hole, right? We're watering these seeds, and something will emerge. But I also understand that that can feel a little unsettling sometimes for folks, so just pausing to see if there's any questions or inquiries. 73 00:10:00.330 --> 00:10:13.099 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Cleo, I find that I am currently working on finding a workable balance between sovereignty, yes, totally, hard to spell. I am always spelling sovereignty and privilege totally, you know… 74 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:24.920 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Like, creatively. And Ahimsa, asserting myself without lashing out or stepping it in, but something in between that I don't know yet how to name. 75 00:10:24.920 --> 00:10:41.450 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm working so hard to limit my own harm after accepting it for too long, and yet I don't want to be someone else's anxiety in the moment. I really love, Cleo, that you brought out this tension between Ahimsa and sovereignty. I think we talk a lot about the tension between Ahimsa and Satya. 76 00:10:41.520 --> 00:10:46.619 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Like, is it truthful? Is it kind, right? Is it non-harm? But… 77 00:10:46.940 --> 00:10:50.780 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Sovereignty in Ahimses is very deep. 78 00:10:50.940 --> 00:10:55.820 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And it's like that tension on your own arc of becoming. 79 00:10:56.210 --> 00:11:03.060 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): with the whole. And that tension can show up with people in our lives, as well. 80 00:11:04.160 --> 00:11:04.990 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah. 81 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:13.279 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean by sovereignty in this context, yeah. So sovereignty is… 82 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:22.790 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It… in a yogic context, It's Ishwarah. It's the divine… Within each of us. 83 00:11:22.910 --> 00:11:31.560 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The part of us that's always already whole and complete and perfect as we are, and that's completely unique and connected 84 00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:39.720 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to everything else. So, like, you know when… like a… like, just a little example of… 85 00:11:40.470 --> 00:11:48.140 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I have a friend who just went on a trip today for a medical conference, she's a doctor, and she messaged me, she's like, I totally bungled this trip. 86 00:11:49.650 --> 00:12:00.650 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And she made, you know, a couple, like, logistical errors. Expired license, can't rent the car, right? But it's, like, that inner conversation of, like, I completely messed this up. 87 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:08.400 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Versus, from a sovereignty place in that moment. And she, of course, she will get there, but it is, like… 88 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:29.430 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): okay, I surrender. I obviously wasn't meant to rent a car in this moment, you know, either I'm gonna go less places, or, you know, we have solutions, like Lyft, or… like, this is a very practical example, but sovereignty is that inner power that no one can give us and no one can take away. 89 00:12:29.870 --> 00:12:41.380 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And it's a power that yoga cultivates. It's you or I in our highest alignment, right? In our… in our clarity, in our, 90 00:12:43.770 --> 00:12:51.930 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): in what we're here to do. And it can show up in really basic, simple ways, like that, you know? 91 00:12:53.460 --> 00:13:08.339 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It can also be… I want to bring in the historical, political, sovereignty… in India, under British rule. 92 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:26.089 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): yoga's sovereignty was used to remind the great majority of Indian folks that they had power, despite British rule. The minority of people in the country who had guns, yes, political power, some economic, or a lot of economic power. 93 00:13:27.250 --> 00:13:33.600 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But there was a kind of self-determination that could… Overthrow that, that control. 94 00:13:33.780 --> 00:13:35.829 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so sovereignty in that… 95 00:13:35.880 --> 00:13:52.990 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): context is what enabled the freedom fighters, and many everyday people who didn't think of themselves as freedom fighters, right? Because I know with everyone here, some of us are like, yes, I'm an activist, and some of us are like, oh no, I am a knitter, and I do yoga, and… 96 00:13:52.990 --> 00:14:12.119 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You know, I'll talk to my friends and family, but I'm not a… I'm not a warrior. That's… no, that's for other people. And that's great, like, this is part of the arc, right? Not everyone's arc has to look the same. And so, yes, there were freedom fighters, but there were also, like, grandmas and aunties and nephews and nieces who… 97 00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:21.710 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): had the… teaching of Swaraj, self-rule, which is related to… to sovereignty, 98 00:14:21.980 --> 00:14:28.139 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): sua self-raj rule, right? That's literally what sovereignty is, and they were learning this through… 99 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:31.129 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Often, it would be passed through, like. 100 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:46.590 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): kulas, sanghas, communities, sometimes yoga teachers, but often it would be, like, in the temples, or in the community spaces, or in schools, right? It wasn't always in a formal, like, yoga teaching structure, or spiritual teaching structure. 101 00:14:46.910 --> 00:14:52.840 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And that practice led people to say, oh, okay, I don't need to buy British 102 00:14:52.840 --> 00:15:08.970 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): materials. I don't need to, you know, pay the tax on salt. I can go and defy the law, but get my own salt from the sea. Led to the salt march, right? And so, over time, it's not like it was like this. I think the other piece is sovereignty 103 00:15:10.070 --> 00:15:14.500 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It happens over time, both culturally, politically, and personally. 104 00:15:14.730 --> 00:15:29.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so from the first, kind of, uplifting of those teachings, which is in, like, 1930s in India, it took 20-plus years to get to independence. Early 1920s, it took… 105 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:34.659 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): almost 30 years, right, for liberation. Political liberation. 106 00:15:34.760 --> 00:15:50.039 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You can also argue that we're in a backswing in India, politically, right? Of, like, a real loss of sovereignty and right-wing, you know, political control, and the work of that 107 00:15:50.310 --> 00:15:59.040 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the sovereignty work is still happening on… in smaller pockets, right? It doesn't go away, it just kind of changes. So… 108 00:15:59.560 --> 00:16:00.980 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I hope that that… 109 00:16:01.110 --> 00:16:12.139 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Helped Jenna and Marisol. How can I best respond to what is true in this moment? Yeah. Does it mean to be truthful between mind and heart, align thoughts and actions? Yeah. 110 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:19.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I think that, that's exactly it, Miriam. It's sort of like… Sovereignty is… 111 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:26.019 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): acting… it's… yeah, it's integrity. And by integrity, I mean, like, integral. 112 00:16:26.580 --> 00:16:32.590 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, moving with the whole, the whole of you, in relationship with the whole of the world. 113 00:16:33.270 --> 00:16:42.689 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Any other thoughts or comments or questions before we do a little practice and some journaling? 114 00:16:43.710 --> 00:16:51.159 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I haven't forgotten… we have one practical question, I'll come to it later, I just want to… I wanna begin more here. 115 00:16:53.140 --> 00:16:54.430 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Okay, great. 116 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:56.440 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Alright. 117 00:17:07.829 --> 00:17:11.939 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So we'll move into a practice. I'm just gonna take a sip of water. 118 00:17:23.829 --> 00:17:29.920 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Mmm… Plio, I love the word as well that I can't spell because it elicits the vision of 119 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:34.290 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, like, a regal air of movement, yes. 120 00:17:34.980 --> 00:17:36.069 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I love that. 121 00:17:36.270 --> 00:17:40.380 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So, in our practice, invitation to… 122 00:17:40.760 --> 00:17:49.909 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to respond more intuitively, right? To be less, kind of like, let me do the movement right or correctly, but to feel in your body 123 00:17:50.030 --> 00:17:58.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): how does this want to be expressed, or how does, what I say Emerge for you. 124 00:18:00.390 --> 00:18:01.430 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Okay. 125 00:18:02.290 --> 00:18:04.160 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So we'll begin… 126 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:21.970 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'd love to invite you to begin in your version of Shavasana, so your version of a resting shape, whether that is maybe resting your head on your hands, on the desk, or leaning back in your chair, lying over to one side. 127 00:18:22.780 --> 00:18:25.240 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Lying on the ground… 128 00:18:28.410 --> 00:18:31.399 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): However you would like to find rest. 129 00:18:35.300 --> 00:18:36.180 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm. 130 00:18:42.740 --> 00:18:47.440 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And as you let your body… In mind. 131 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:48.900 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Rest. 132 00:18:51.940 --> 00:19:02.230 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Seeing if you can let go just a little bit more, if there's any movement or adjustment that can bring you to a little more ease, a little more… 133 00:19:02.820 --> 00:19:04.100 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Release. 134 00:19:26.760 --> 00:19:28.829 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): How can you practice? 135 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:32.509 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Swirage. Self-rule. 136 00:19:33.820 --> 00:19:35.330 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): sovereignty. 137 00:19:35.660 --> 00:19:39.070 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In your own mind, body, spirit. 138 00:19:44.330 --> 00:19:47.769 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe releasing and letting a deep breath. 139 00:19:48.590 --> 00:19:49.850 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Out. 140 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:58.249 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe… Rolling to one side, or curling up in a ball, or… 141 00:19:59.100 --> 00:20:02.650 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Choosing to stay in whatever position. 142 00:20:03.250 --> 00:20:08.840 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Your body wants right now, and not moving from that position. 143 00:20:09.140 --> 00:20:12.500 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): No matter what I say or do. 144 00:20:14.740 --> 00:20:25.809 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Really allowing yourself to experience… Centering your own will. 145 00:20:26.100 --> 00:20:28.399 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Your own essence. 146 00:20:35.620 --> 00:20:37.210 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): For many of us. 147 00:20:42.780 --> 00:20:50.859 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That awareness can be really attenuated, really hard to tune into, because we're so conditioned. 148 00:20:53.110 --> 00:20:55.210 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To prioritize others. 149 00:20:56.340 --> 00:21:01.230 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Or the voice of what is expected, or what we should do. 150 00:21:01.780 --> 00:21:11.839 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So letting go, if you can, as much as you can, as much as feels okay for you, of the shoulds, or others, what they need. 151 00:21:15.040 --> 00:21:24.370 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… even what I… you think I think you should be doing, but just truly what… You… 152 00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:30.859 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Wish and will. 153 00:21:44.290 --> 00:21:46.689 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): From this ground. 154 00:21:48.010 --> 00:21:51.210 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): This place of inner sovereignty. 155 00:21:53.290 --> 00:22:01.349 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Feel free to choose, perhaps, to stay right here in stillness, or if you're moving, to keep moving. 156 00:22:03.490 --> 00:22:08.160 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Invitation to move not in any kind of yogic shape. 157 00:22:09.770 --> 00:22:12.750 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But to allow one limb. 158 00:22:13.090 --> 00:22:18.059 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To move, just as it wishes to, and so it might look like… 159 00:22:19.420 --> 00:22:24.450 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): One arm, like your right arm, coming up and feeling it. 160 00:22:24.850 --> 00:22:26.960 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Move in space. 161 00:22:28.510 --> 00:22:31.430 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Slowly, meditatively. 162 00:22:33.040 --> 00:22:35.699 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That sensation of will. 163 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:38.360 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): meeting… 164 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.250 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The environment around it. 165 00:22:45.650 --> 00:22:52.260 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'll be noticing temperature… Form… 166 00:23:01.560 --> 00:23:04.820 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It might be slow, or it might be fast. 167 00:23:11.610 --> 00:23:19.190 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And perhaps… The other arm or leg wants to join, or… Perhaps it's… 168 00:23:20.670 --> 00:23:25.949 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Letting go of the first arm, and the other one comes up and begins to move. 169 00:23:27.050 --> 00:23:29.230 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Slow or fast? 170 00:23:30.070 --> 00:23:34.760 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Rhythmically, or… In a staccato motion. 171 00:23:38.080 --> 00:23:43.250 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm just really feeling… What is it? 172 00:23:44.900 --> 00:23:52.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That my body, my will… Wishes to explore, to experience right now. 173 00:23:54.760 --> 00:24:01.170 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Maybe your whole torso or your head and neck starts swaying, maybe it's still. 174 00:24:14.030 --> 00:24:22.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And perhaps your whole body… Leg, or… Back, or spine, or… 175 00:24:22.410 --> 00:24:26.230 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Feet. Want to join this movement. 176 00:24:28.050 --> 00:24:33.969 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm seeing… What your body… Moving in space. 177 00:24:34.930 --> 00:24:36.970 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We're still in space. 178 00:24:38.610 --> 00:24:40.490 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Wishes to explore. 179 00:25:16.810 --> 00:25:22.189 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Continuing to move… Or be still. 180 00:25:27.340 --> 00:25:35.260 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I wonder if you bring… The quality of safety, moving in a way that… 181 00:25:38.050 --> 00:25:43.029 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Feels like it cultivates safety in your body. 182 00:25:44.110 --> 00:25:46.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Does anything shift? 183 00:26:32.440 --> 00:26:37.160 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Perhaps noticing the movement or the stillness. 184 00:26:37.820 --> 00:26:43.960 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The ways that your body… Experiences… Strength. 185 00:26:45.600 --> 00:26:47.170 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And tenderness. 186 00:27:14.730 --> 00:27:17.789 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And if your body is still moving… 187 00:27:18.950 --> 00:27:24.710 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Noticing if you would like to continue moving, or move into stillness. 188 00:27:37.520 --> 00:27:41.859 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm feeling… Into your dignity. 189 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:45.170 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Your sovereignty. 190 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:54.509 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And allowing any words or sensations or images. 191 00:27:55.990 --> 00:27:57.470 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to arrive. 192 00:28:56.430 --> 00:29:03.290 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Perhaps noticing qualities… Courage. Compassion. 193 00:29:41.370 --> 00:29:43.040 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Allow yourself. 194 00:29:44.180 --> 00:29:50.360 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): To feel… Your inherent dignity. 195 00:29:53.940 --> 00:30:02.170 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The sovereignty of being… Exactly who you are, in exactly the way that you are. 196 00:30:03.250 --> 00:30:05.409 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): This moment of unfolding. 197 00:30:16.430 --> 00:30:21.149 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Now letting your awareness pull back to this bigger arc. 198 00:30:23.250 --> 00:30:25.099 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): of your becoming. 199 00:30:44.270 --> 00:30:52.270 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You can stay right where you are, or if you would like to move into… Some meditative journaling. 200 00:30:54.060 --> 00:30:59.280 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Picking up a pen… Paper, writing into the chat. 201 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:08.999 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Just first thought, best thought. 202 00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:14.649 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Around 70… Your own arc of becoming. 203 00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:17.870 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In this moment. 204 00:31:18.930 --> 00:31:23.220 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'll journal for a few minutes, I'll play some music without words. 205 00:31:24.250 --> 00:31:26.890 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And we'll talk again in time. 206 00:35:55.270 --> 00:35:59.970 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm just taking a minute more to finish up your reflections. 207 00:36:43.450 --> 00:36:50.800 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Love to invite in if anyone would like to share. No pressure, of course. 208 00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:57.520 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You don't have to read what you wrote, but perhaps there's, like, some… Insights or ahas? 209 00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:07.560 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): With a reminder, too, that we all have these different arcs, right? So, what someone shares is their experience, their way of… 210 00:37:08.130 --> 00:37:22.230 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Expressing sovereignty, and the beauty in sharing is sometimes, as we see each other kind of exploring or touching into that sovereignty or that unity, it can wake up 211 00:37:22.520 --> 00:37:40.120 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): that experience in others. And so, particularly for shy folks, or if you weren't planning on sharing, but you're like, oh, I did have an aha, or that was… there was something there, an invitation to perhaps consider sharing in the chat or out loud. 212 00:37:40.250 --> 00:37:46.760 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Because it may be for you, but it also might be for someone else, and… The circle here. 213 00:37:49.680 --> 00:37:50.540 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Oh, sure. 214 00:37:51.030 --> 00:37:52.970 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, Celine, hi. 215 00:37:53.200 --> 00:37:59.810 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): I found while we were in the movement, in the meditative space, 216 00:38:00.040 --> 00:38:09.980 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): you said something about words coming, and so words came. And what came was… Now… Present. 217 00:38:10.910 --> 00:38:12.290 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Attentive. 218 00:38:13.060 --> 00:38:14.240 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Open. 219 00:38:14.970 --> 00:38:16.360 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Responsive. 220 00:38:17.490 --> 00:38:22.860 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): And then, in journaling, where that went was… 221 00:38:22.980 --> 00:38:38.509 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): And this is… this is in response to where I am in my cycle of life, which I think may be older than a lot of you, so I'm in a different point of where I am, and I'm shifting out of some of the responsibilities I've had, and… 222 00:38:38.980 --> 00:38:42.860 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Wondering what's next, so what came was… 223 00:38:43.220 --> 00:38:57.539 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): It is important to resist the pressure to know what's next, and to plan beyond what is emergent, to let my whole being respond to possibilities. 224 00:38:57.710 --> 00:39:00.569 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Rather than just the thinking mind. 225 00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:11.019 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): that plans… And… That in this moment, it feels like My foundation, or my… 226 00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:18.590 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): main focus is providing support in the various ways that I can and do. 227 00:39:19.380 --> 00:39:20.820 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): That's what came. 228 00:39:24.640 --> 00:39:26.190 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you, Celine. 229 00:39:26.640 --> 00:39:29.049 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, I really appreciate that. 230 00:39:29.140 --> 00:39:48.420 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I just want to kind of echo for… particularly for folks who are in different stages, and I don't know if this is true for everyone, but when I was younger, so, like, in my teens and 20s, I really felt like there was a plan, and I should have the plan, and I often felt like I was behind the plan, you know, on the plan. 231 00:39:48.440 --> 00:39:56.220 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And mine wasn't, like, the have kids and get married and all that, but it was a different kind of plan, like an academic plan. And, 232 00:39:57.240 --> 00:40:05.329 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I just really appreciate that reminder of, like, the great mystery and letting go, because there really is no… 233 00:40:05.640 --> 00:40:10.060 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): plan, you know? It… so much has happened in my life. 234 00:40:10.250 --> 00:40:17.149 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I've lived almost half a decade now, or I mean, sorry, half a century. Half a decade would be very different. 235 00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:24.380 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That's a long time, you know? That's a long time, and it's also, like, like, nothing. 236 00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:31.160 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… So, thank you for bringing in the mystery. Yeah. 237 00:40:31.260 --> 00:40:41.539 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I believe, I don't… actually, someone else might be able to share, if you know, but I feel like hearing the words, the Great Mystery, I think that's an Indigenous, 238 00:40:41.710 --> 00:40:51.870 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): framing Indigenous in the Americas, so I just want to also acknowledge that, in yoga, we have that. 239 00:40:51.870 --> 00:40:56.400 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): That terminology comes out of some of the Western mysticism as well. 240 00:40:56.400 --> 00:40:57.530 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's not… 241 00:40:57.530 --> 00:41:06.930 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): I mean, did it come out of Indigenous in Europe? Maybe, I don't know, but the great mystery? It's there in a lot of traditions. 242 00:41:08.550 --> 00:41:13.399 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, that makes sense. There's so, so much that is mysterious. 243 00:41:16.430 --> 00:41:18.870 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then I'm seeing Lanisha says… 244 00:41:19.800 --> 00:41:24.669 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Jenna says, I'm feeling like alignment could be really scary. Yes. 245 00:41:24.870 --> 00:41:38.830 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): If you want to say more, maybe you did and I didn't see. And then Lanisha says, summarizing touchstone from nonprofit, balance my yearning for change with patience for what can be. Yes, thank you. 246 00:41:39.350 --> 00:41:45.100 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In Grand Durismo, it's known as the fifth Direction. Wow. Yeah. 247 00:41:45.850 --> 00:41:46.920 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you. 248 00:41:47.750 --> 00:41:49.190 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anyone else? 249 00:41:51.500 --> 00:41:53.060 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Jenna, yeah, hi. 250 00:41:53.800 --> 00:42:12.749 Jena McCutchen: I… guess I'll expand a little bit on alignment feeling scary. I'm feeling kind of like I'm definitely in a different arc than Celine was sharing. I feel like my whole life, I've been very good at going with the flow, and like… 251 00:42:13.270 --> 00:42:15.169 Jena McCutchen: Accepting what comes. 252 00:42:17.470 --> 00:42:23.079 Jena McCutchen: oh, I feel a little emotional. And I'm at this point in my life where I need to… 253 00:42:23.230 --> 00:42:28.810 Jena McCutchen: be decisive about, like, a really big choice. I… 254 00:42:29.090 --> 00:42:38.569 Jena McCutchen: about, like, what country I want to, like, immigrate to. Like, if I want to stay here, or if I want to immigrate, to Australia, which… 255 00:42:38.890 --> 00:42:45.719 Jena McCutchen: I had lived there for 5 years, and then life… it's a whole thing, but I'm at this… 256 00:42:45.910 --> 00:42:52.489 Jena McCutchen: very clear crossword road where I need to decide, like, if I will make that big leap and actually 257 00:42:52.730 --> 00:43:06.360 Jena McCutchen: immigrate to Australia, or if I will stay here, and I think, like, when I… I've been actively avoiding this, there's, like, a part of my arc that I've been putting a lot of attention into, and… 258 00:43:06.530 --> 00:43:23.930 Jena McCutchen: part of my arc that I've been very aware that I'm avoiding. And, you know, I'm really focused in the now, but I haven't zoomed out to, like, what, like, the big picture will look like, so thank you for forcing me to examine that today. 259 00:43:25.510 --> 00:43:32.020 Jena McCutchen: And I… I think, when I sit with it, like, the truth is that, like. 260 00:43:32.280 --> 00:43:46.790 Jena McCutchen: I need to go, and that's terrifying, because of the state of the world, and the, like… I mean, there are… it's, like, very, very complicated, obviously, but… 261 00:43:48.280 --> 00:43:54.549 Jena McCutchen: I'm wanting… really badly to choose safety. 262 00:43:56.420 --> 00:44:06.490 Jena McCutchen: as if choosing alignment is not safe, and I know that that's not necessarily true, but I think… 263 00:44:07.090 --> 00:44:14.060 Jena McCutchen: Yeah, I think alignment can force you to make some scary decisions, some really difficult decisions. 264 00:44:14.210 --> 00:44:19.640 Jena McCutchen: And I guess I'm just sitting with that in this current moment. Yeah. 265 00:44:19.640 --> 00:44:20.390 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm. 266 00:44:20.690 --> 00:44:21.270 Jena McCutchen: Bam. 267 00:44:22.100 --> 00:44:24.319 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you so much for sharing that. 268 00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:25.010 Jena McCutchen: I don't know. 269 00:44:25.810 --> 00:44:26.730 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah. 270 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:28.380 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): it really… 271 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:37.260 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): can be terrifying. Alignment, you know? And, like, even when we know in some part of ourselves that it's right. 272 00:44:37.370 --> 00:44:39.509 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It can be terrifying. 273 00:44:39.720 --> 00:44:55.819 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And something in your sharing, it reminded me some… it's sort of, like, become lore in my family, right? But we emigrated to the U.S, and some of it was, like, the push and pull factors, right? Safety and lack of safety, but also the pull of a better life and all of that. But my parents… 274 00:44:55.930 --> 00:45:15.279 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): had me, my little brother, and they were sitting around the fire in England, and my mom was like, you know, we gotta go. Like, we're gonna regret it if we don't go. We're gonna be sitting here at 80 or whatever, you know, and we'll be like, what would our life would have been? And we'll be in the same house, by the same fire, and… 275 00:45:16.390 --> 00:45:32.400 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you know, it's… when I think of their lives, right, my dad, who grew up in a small mud, like, literally a mud hut in Assam, and my mom next to, like, a bombed-out house from World War II, you know, in England, and now we're here, and… 276 00:45:32.930 --> 00:45:44.760 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so, of course, looking back, you're like, oh yeah, that was the right choice, you know? And there were many years where I was like, would it have been better if we had stayed in England? I don't know. 277 00:45:45.990 --> 00:46:00.850 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But I really have always come back to that, like, with the choice between staying and going, always go, you know? Always go. Unless you're like, oh no, I clearly know I need to be here, and my work is here, which I've had that feeling as well in the Los Angeles area. 278 00:46:01.110 --> 00:46:03.079 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then the same with… 279 00:46:03.560 --> 00:46:18.250 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): when all of a sudden our lives got, like… like, we don't really have a choice, but I was sort of forced to move to Florida. Again, no shade on Florida for those who live there or love it. It wasn't somewhere I ever wanted to even visit, and all of a sudden, I was there, and… 280 00:46:18.640 --> 00:46:28.050 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): everything that I do now came out of that time, you know? So looking back, I can retrospectively see. But while I was in it, it was, like, the most… 281 00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:33.959 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): unstabilizing thing. And so it's almost like when we have the choice. 282 00:46:34.750 --> 00:46:41.480 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): it's harder, right? Like, because you have to choose the alignment, even though it's scary. Yeah. 283 00:46:42.050 --> 00:46:52.250 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so then, I think it's just coming back to and being grateful for the practices that ground us through the upheaval, which is, like, there whether we choose it or not. 284 00:46:52.480 --> 00:46:53.950 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah. 285 00:46:54.280 --> 00:46:55.450 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you. 286 00:46:55.450 --> 00:46:56.710 Jena McCutchen: Thank you for sharing. 287 00:46:56.850 --> 00:46:57.510 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah! 288 00:46:58.010 --> 00:47:08.580 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm looking, Celine says, no decision is likely to be perfect, and each choice involves a meaningful path. Yes, I think about that a lot in, 289 00:47:09.770 --> 00:47:23.830 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): terms of having a kid, because, you know, a lot of anyone else who's a parent, it's like, oh, should I put them in this school, or that school, or this teacher, or that preschool, or that, you know… and it's like, ultimately, they'll be fine. 290 00:47:23.990 --> 00:47:34.390 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): They'll be fun, they, you know? Like, all the paths lead to somewhere, you know, whatever college they go to, or whatever elementary school, or, you know, 291 00:47:34.810 --> 00:47:40.250 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): with love, with support. So that's true for us, too. 292 00:47:41.260 --> 00:47:42.509 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In some ways. 293 00:47:42.680 --> 00:47:44.079 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Fine until we're not. 294 00:47:44.470 --> 00:47:49.659 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I want to say one thing, and then I'm gonna come to Miriam and then Laura. 295 00:47:56.690 --> 00:48:00.020 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Actually, let's go to Miriam, and then Laura. 296 00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:05.229 Miriam: Okay, thank you. 297 00:48:05.540 --> 00:48:13.799 Miriam: If I think about, being aligned with, like, thoughts, My actions and my heart. 298 00:48:14.410 --> 00:48:19.020 Miriam: Then, what came up was, like, clarity? 299 00:48:20.620 --> 00:48:22.619 Miriam: Somehow also small? 300 00:48:22.850 --> 00:48:30.200 Miriam: it… made… Like, things that have been big before, became smaller. 301 00:48:30.630 --> 00:48:38.370 Miriam: Not in a negative way, but, like, in a clear way, and somehow reduced and very simple. 302 00:48:39.010 --> 00:48:46.300 Miriam: Without, I don't know the English word, ballast, like, 303 00:48:46.630 --> 00:48:49.280 Miriam: Is this a word? No, that's not the word in English. 304 00:48:49.420 --> 00:48:56.330 Miriam: Without, additional weight. I don't know the word in English right now, like… Light. 305 00:48:57.030 --> 00:48:57.860 Miriam: Maybe. 306 00:49:05.760 --> 00:49:08.379 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you so much. Yeah. 307 00:49:09.120 --> 00:49:12.319 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm just feeling the… that quality. 308 00:49:12.850 --> 00:49:14.689 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, of lightness. 309 00:49:16.200 --> 00:49:19.939 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then there was another hand, and now I've lost it. Did you put your hand? 310 00:49:19.940 --> 00:49:23.240 Laura: I had my hand up, and then I, yeah, I put it down since you said… 311 00:49:23.470 --> 00:49:28.190 Laura: my name, but not realizing until you see it, but… 312 00:49:28.190 --> 00:49:29.149 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Laura, and then Gmail. 313 00:49:31.850 --> 00:49:45.209 Laura: Yeah, it was funny, I was starting, except I'm on my phone, so it's hard to do the chat, but I was starting to type in just that I really appreciated… like you said, you never know what you're… what you may be willing to speak in, and how that speaks to others, and so… 314 00:49:45.370 --> 00:49:51.969 Laura: gina sharing about, like, do I… do I stay or do I go? And, like, that kind of… 315 00:49:53.640 --> 00:50:11.159 Laura: where is the stability? Sometimes, you know, is it in the staying, or is it in the going? And I was thinking about that in relation to, we are making a middle school choice, and it was so funny that you started speaking, Susanna, about, like, parenting and schools, and… 316 00:50:11.250 --> 00:50:17.090 Laura: We've had a really beautiful experience in the school that our child's been in. 317 00:50:18.420 --> 00:50:23.929 Laura: And it almost feels hard to choose what… what… 318 00:50:24.990 --> 00:50:29.900 Laura: I know will be the more stable place for her for middle school. 319 00:50:30.240 --> 00:50:37.430 Laura: And I know because I work in the middle school, that is the extension of the current school that she's in. 320 00:50:38.520 --> 00:50:39.900 Laura: And so… 321 00:50:40.430 --> 00:50:48.729 Laura: There's a level at which, like, we're really tempted to just stay because it's familiar, and we have relationships that are dear that we treasure. 322 00:50:49.270 --> 00:51:01.199 Laura: But sometimes you do have to make that, like, what's gonna… it's not always easy to make the choice that you know is in alignment, and that you know will bring a greater depth of stability for the long run, because 323 00:51:01.400 --> 00:51:03.840 Laura: Because there's loss. 324 00:51:03.990 --> 00:51:09.650 Laura: in the choice in the short run, so… Just really appreciate this conversation. 325 00:51:13.200 --> 00:51:17.980 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you. Yeah, and it's that pulling back to the bigger arc. 326 00:51:18.500 --> 00:51:24.270 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I think that's one of the things I'm taking away from our exploration today. 327 00:51:24.530 --> 00:51:26.249 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Gina, coming to you. 328 00:51:34.180 --> 00:51:36.110 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Wait, Gina, you're muted. 329 00:51:36.250 --> 00:51:38.090 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I see you talking, but I don't hear you. 330 00:51:39.150 --> 00:51:40.530 Gina Villarraga: Okay, sorry about that. 331 00:51:40.530 --> 00:51:41.200 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That's okay. 332 00:51:41.200 --> 00:51:54.640 Gina Villarraga: I just said, thank you everyone for sharing. It's been really insightful, and I am kind of that person that I… I bounce ideas off what everybody else says, so it's helpful. I think, in the meditation, I… 333 00:51:56.850 --> 00:52:04.439 Gina Villarraga: I, visualized kind of, like, sitting here under the sun and feeling… 334 00:52:04.830 --> 00:52:16.049 Gina Villarraga: like, very grounded, and very much kind of, like, different, like, but I guess in a good way, but I think the sovereignty really is a sense of… 335 00:52:16.200 --> 00:52:29.799 Gina Villarraga: It's okay to pull out of mainstream, and it's okay to pull out of things that maybe don't align with you, but you've been kind of put in these systems that you've been forced to align with, and never even knew it. 336 00:52:30.150 --> 00:52:34.340 Gina Villarraga: You see some nodding heads did, so I'm not totally out there today. 337 00:52:34.810 --> 00:52:41.319 Gina Villarraga: So, I think… That is a very hard… 338 00:52:41.760 --> 00:52:45.929 Gina Villarraga: Almost like a grief feeling, in a way. 339 00:52:48.580 --> 00:52:54.869 Gina Villarraga: I've obviously been doing a lot of work with myself lately, so I might get emotional as I'm sharing with this, but, like. 340 00:52:55.040 --> 00:53:14.089 Gina Villarraga: it's okay. It's okay. You know, that is to kind of go in that fear, or in that, you're not going to be very popular. You're not going to be the favorite. You're not gonna be, you know, you're pulling away from these systems, and that's okay, and trying to figure out 341 00:53:14.270 --> 00:53:16.170 Gina Villarraga: Life in a new way. 342 00:53:16.420 --> 00:53:29.620 Gina Villarraga: can be hard. There's… there's grief with that. So I think I'm just acknowledging that, and I also sense of, like, my ancestry saying, it's okay, you know, it's okay. 343 00:53:29.770 --> 00:53:33.899 Gina Villarraga: There may be some… Some… some nurturing of the self there. 344 00:53:34.320 --> 00:53:35.880 Gina Villarraga: That's what I wanted to say. 345 00:53:40.770 --> 00:53:44.380 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you. Thank you for bringing in the grief. 346 00:53:46.810 --> 00:53:48.589 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's so real. 347 00:53:49.110 --> 00:53:52.240 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so present, I think, even as we're… 348 00:53:52.570 --> 00:53:56.910 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): In the process of becoming, right, and emerging. 349 00:53:58.390 --> 00:54:07.430 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We had one question that came in that I want to, drop in the chat. 350 00:54:07.730 --> 00:54:27.560 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I'll just speak to it briefly, which was around certification and the Western construct, right? Yoga Alliance, particularly. How do I move in relationship to them? And I sort of started putting my thoughts together, and so I just figured I'd put my notes in the chat. 351 00:54:28.020 --> 00:54:32.300 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): it's an imperfect structure, you know? Like, all of these things… 352 00:54:32.460 --> 00:54:43.450 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): super flawed. I mean, it's only been around for about 30 years, and yoga's been around for thousands, and it came up, you know, in the sort of hyper-physical orientation of yoga. 353 00:54:43.650 --> 00:54:50.050 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And it's a gatekeeper. It creates access, for me as I came back from, like. 354 00:54:50.050 --> 00:55:04.679 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): one real… kind of reclaiming the roots of yoga, and then learning in India, and then came to try to teach in LA. No one would hire me, even with, like, all of that time and practice and study, and… 355 00:55:04.910 --> 00:55:18.599 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So I had to go through training schools that offered certifications to be able to get the access to teaching. And so, because we work in this kind of westernized structure. 356 00:55:19.050 --> 00:55:31.020 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I wanted to provide that for you all, not because I believe that Yoga Alliance is the end-all be-all, I certainly don't, but for some of us, having that, you know, certification, whether it's a 357 00:55:31.020 --> 00:55:41.749 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): YTT, or in this case, like, trauma-informed certification, can be that point of access that allows you to do the work that you're here to do in a meaningful way. And so… 358 00:55:41.750 --> 00:55:57.810 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): That's why we do that, and also acknowledge they're problematic and work to change them, or many of you, I know, are creating your own structures, you know, your own… your own kind of mechanisms for that. So just bringing that in. 359 00:55:58.750 --> 00:56:05.370 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I hope that's helpful, and also open to more thoughts on that, acknowledging the imperfection. 360 00:56:06.160 --> 00:56:15.329 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then the last piece is I just want to… I did a little, like, quick little looking at, sort of the origin of the idea of the Great Mystery, which… 361 00:56:15.450 --> 00:56:28.290 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): does originate from Indigenous, spiritual beliefs, particularly Lakota Anishinaabe. And I think one of the things I want to name is, as we're exploring. 362 00:56:29.270 --> 00:56:36.640 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's like that, like, both-and, right? Like, it can have emerged in, like, I think Jung and other Western thinkers. 363 00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:40.580 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And even some of the Greeks, right? The Greeks, 364 00:56:41.970 --> 00:56:45.570 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Zeno and Plato and all of that, like, talk about 365 00:56:46.170 --> 00:56:51.610 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): mystery in various ways. And so it can be in multiple cultures. 366 00:56:51.810 --> 00:56:58.290 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But because Indigenous, particularly, like, Indigenous in North America and the Americas. 367 00:56:59.320 --> 00:57:05.670 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): are undervalued, or under, under… they're literally erased. 368 00:57:05.840 --> 00:57:11.230 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): just being aware and being careful, I am trying to also be really careful of… 369 00:57:12.110 --> 00:57:18.200 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): highlighting and foregrounding Indigenous knowledge systems and not… 370 00:57:18.580 --> 00:57:32.389 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): putting forward, like, this came from, you know, Western culture as well. Like, of course it could be also there, but it doesn't erase that. And so just wanted to… to bring that in. Cleo, yeah. 371 00:57:35.310 --> 00:57:36.470 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I think you're… 372 00:57:36.470 --> 00:57:54.650 Cleo - Turtle Island: Hi, thank you. Sorry, I'm… I'm coming back to Zoom and learning all the buttons again. I know we're ending, so I just wanted to say quickly, as a reflection with the meditation, I realize that sometimes I learn things slowly, which can mean looking at things very literally, and so I often look at, like, the 373 00:57:54.650 --> 00:57:59.539 Cleo - Turtle Island: the thesaurus, the thethaurus, when I am, 374 00:57:59.600 --> 00:58:17.259 Cleo - Turtle Island: Trying to really explore a concept, and so looking at sovereignty as a word, you can see that rain is right in the middle, very loud, and that brings image of, like, ruling and, you know, regalness and being in charge and responsible for things. 375 00:58:17.260 --> 00:58:27.860 Cleo - Turtle Island: And then the word sove, I just did a quick Google, we're all complicit, sorry, I use Google. And it's a Norwegian word that means to sleep. 376 00:58:27.940 --> 00:58:40.789 Cleo - Turtle Island: Apparently, and also to save. And so this image of, like, this very calm ruler, or this very balanced, authority figure. 377 00:58:40.970 --> 00:58:54.849 Cleo - Turtle Island: and came to mind, and I think as I further sit in meditation about sovereignty and about the balance between that and the hymnza with others, I think I will sit with this very warm thought of this person in this very… 378 00:58:55.480 --> 00:59:07.580 Cleo - Turtle Island: even keeled space as they project whatever they need to project. If that works for anybody, feel free to use it. And the last thing I'll say about that is that 379 00:59:07.580 --> 00:59:20.960 Cleo - Turtle Island: It also made me think of the negative side of sovereignty, and people ruling over others, or trying to assert themselves and live other people's lives for them. Telling people what to do. 380 00:59:21.030 --> 00:59:28.469 Cleo - Turtle Island: why can't you tell yourself what to do and not other people, is something that a little voice came in my head, and I was like, excuse me, I'm exploring, can you leave me alone? 381 00:59:28.480 --> 00:59:42.669 Cleo - Turtle Island: So yeah, I'm very slowly exploring that, and then, so in terms of what came up for synonyms with sovereignty, autonomy was the big one that I was forgetting when I wrote my comment before. Why couldn't I find it? 382 00:59:42.670 --> 00:59:51.320 Cleo - Turtle Island: We use this word so much, especially in this space. Why couldn't I find that word? So that was the missing word. Supremacy, which elicits kind of a shudder, personally. 383 00:59:51.460 --> 01:00:01.729 Cleo - Turtle Island: Dominion, another negative connotation in my mind. Jurisdiction seems a little more even to me. And self-governance, which seems a little more foggy. 384 01:00:02.100 --> 01:00:07.370 Cleo - Turtle Island: So… Yeah, that's what I wanted to share about that. Thank you for the space to do so. 385 01:00:08.010 --> 01:00:13.790 Cleo - Turtle Island: And I heard everything everyone else said, and it resonated on a deep level, so thank you for your shares as well. 386 01:00:15.210 --> 01:00:21.510 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you, Cleo. And yes, thank you, everyone. This has been such a deep and rich exploration. 387 01:00:22.010 --> 01:00:23.760 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I love… 388 01:00:24.380 --> 01:00:32.129 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): what is also being shared in the chat. And, just to close us, because I know we're at time. 389 01:00:32.790 --> 01:00:42.380 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I want to underscore, you do not need to register with Yoga Alliance. It's really just, we provide that option for you if you want the certification through them. 390 01:00:42.510 --> 01:00:57.270 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): If it's helpful for you. Many, many people do not ask for that. In fact, just having the certification, which you'll get a certificate at the conclusion of, you know, any training you do with me, you get a certificate. Then you… 391 01:00:57.270 --> 01:01:07.730 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You can use that, and that is absolutely plenty for most places, like schools or hospitals, or any kind of place that you would want to teach. 392 01:01:08.580 --> 01:01:12.320 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And… I just wanna say, like, ugh… 393 01:01:12.480 --> 01:01:27.199 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): 4-year-old came in as Monica was writing, and said, why did you stop writing? I'm not sure what to write. Why don't you write about what you love? Sunsets, sunshine, flowers, Romani and Casa are pet names. So beautiful. She immediately went to love, and I'm on the right path. 394 01:01:27.490 --> 01:01:30.360 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so an invitation to take out with us 395 01:01:30.500 --> 01:01:39.020 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anything from today, anything that you're bringing with you, and to perhaps do what Cleo and all… many of you in your shares. 396 01:01:39.280 --> 01:01:47.950 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): everyone, really, who shared is in this inner exploration of sovereignty, right? Like, that alone, if we just explore that. 397 01:01:48.110 --> 01:01:49.619 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): More than enough. 398 01:01:50.910 --> 01:02:06.799 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so, taking a deep breath, maybe moving intuitively, coming back to and inviting in, right? Like, before you go to bed, maybe there's just some intuitive movements your body wants to do when you wake up, some intuitive movements. 399 01:02:09.770 --> 01:02:13.479 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I love seeing other people's intuitive movements. 400 01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:16.490 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And thank you so much. 401 01:02:18.880 --> 01:02:20.449 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Wishing you well. 402 01:02:21.070 --> 01:02:22.680 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And see you soon. 403 01:02:23.150 --> 01:02:24.390 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Bye, y'all. 404 01:02:25.070 --> 01:02:26.860 Selene Kumin Vega (she, her): Bye. Thanks, everyone. 405 01:02:27.070 --> 01:02:29.720 Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you. Can I mute and say goodbye?