Jivana Heyman 13:52:58
Hi everyone, its Jivana I just want to come on for a moment and thank our sponsor offering tree. They're an all in one easy to use community back business that saves you time, energy and money as a Yoga teacher. Offering tree allows you to create a website in less than 30 minutes. Plus you get a discount to accessible Yoga. Just go to offering tree.com backslash accessible Yoga to get your discount today. Okay, here's our episode.
Anjali Rao 13:53:28
Welcome to the love of Yoga podcast. I'm your host, Anjali Rao. This podcast explores the teachings of Yoga for self and collective transformation. We dive into how spirituality and philosophy can ignite social change. I share conversations with folks who are on the front lines of justice and liberatory movements, thought leaders, change makers and healers.
Hello, everyone, I am Anjali Rao, your host of the love of Yoga Podcast. I'm so glad for you to join us today in this episode with Tysir Salih, who is a really special special person. And for those of you who don't know her work, I'm just going to introduce you to what she does and what she offers. Tysir Salih is a Yoga teacher with 500 hours of Yoga training came to Canada as a refugee in a youth. Today she is the founder of the Red Maat collective, and is currently working towards a designation in psychotherapy. Her dedicated passion to heal through her own traumas, has guided her desire to do more for and within the community. Tysir's approach encompasses a compassionate and intersectional lens that is geared towards uplifting and empowering Black Indigenous Women of Color. Gender expansive, folks, Tai is an intersectional feminist who believes in uplifting empowering women, gender expansive folks through intersectional wellness, therapeutic Yoga, and education on trauma, healing, to building resiliency and autonomy. Tai a very warm welcome to you on the Love of Yoga podcast, we are so very excited for you to join us. And I know that with all the things that you're doing such important work that you're doing in this, you know, heartbreaking moment of being witnesses to such terrible, terrible devastation. I can only imagine the the work that you are actively doing right now. And I appreciate your time and energy for being with us today.
Tysir Salih 13:56:04
Thank you so much for having me. I'm honestly so honored. I love your work. I'm always on your Instagram, I'm always inspired and always empowered by all that you do. So for me, it's just an honor to have space and hold space with you today. So thank you for having me.
Anjali Rao 13:56:26
Let's dive right in. First of all, how are you doing? Let's begin with that question. How are you doing? How are you being? How are you feeling?
Tysir Salih 13:56:34
So I like to be real. I'm not gonna be like, Oh, I'm good. But I do like to say that I'm doing the best that I can, given the reality of the situation. And my heart has been full thanks to the collective care that I've been afforded. And at the same time, my heart has been breaking with all of the systems of oppression that have been so active and causing harm for folks who look like me and you really great. And it's not anything that's new for us. But there seems to be an amplification that's going on right now. So, yeah, again, the best that I can get then, what is happening in the world today?
Anjali Rao 13:57:30
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I appreciate the realness and I was just saying that to one of my students today we are doing the best that we can and we need to afford ourselves that gentleness also so that we can then respond to what's happening with some sort of, you know, centeredness, and though that has been really put to question in the past few weeks for me, so I appreciate that a lot. Tai let's go back to the Before we begin to dive into the questions that I have for you, I wanted to just introduce you to the listening, folks. Where is your Yoga journey? How did that begin? Can you share with us what? How was your entry point into Yoga? Given given all given you a background?
Tysir Salih 13:58:17
Yeah, I actually entered kicking and screaming. So my now sister in law was begging me like, oh, come to this Yoga with me, please come do this Yoga with me. I think it'll really benefit you. And at that time, I was quite an avid runner. You know, I've done some gymnastics as well. I was like, oh, no, no, no, I don't, I don't feel like stretching. I don't want to stretch for an hour. Because that was my understanding. Right? That's really all you got to see about it. From my very first class that day, I fell in love with the practice during Savasana. The gift of the presence, especially for someone who suffers with complex trauma, and ADHD, was something that I couldn't just dismiss. And that piece, that awareness that groundedness is what kept pulling me back. And is what really helped me and my healing journey. And amplified, who I was as an activist, and advocate. As I started learning more as I started studying the philosophies. As I took training after training, I really found myself through the teachings. And the asna allowed me to break through some of the walls that were distancing me from those breakthroughs. So yeah, beautiful.
Anjali Rao 14:00:08
And I love that you said that savasana got you. Because savasana is actually one of the most challenging practices because it is really a time where we are dropping into stillness, and stillness is really difficult for those of us who have experienced trauma and in the dominant cultures tell us is such a challenging practice to cultivate. So it's amazing that you felt that connection right away. And I really appreciated what you talked about when when you say, you know, the asana allowed you to break through? Because yes, Yoga is not all about us now. But asana is so powerful for us to get in a place of connection with our bodies. So especially for those of us who have so many different points of marginalization and disconnection with our bodies. So appreciate that. Were from that process of connection with Yoga? How does that connect with your work in the world, if you will, as an activist, as a as a radical intersectional feminist? What do you see the points of connection between the two?
Speaker 1 14:01:20
Yeah, well, when I think about the Yamas, and niyamas, and just even all of the stories from the Bhagavad Gita, it's so clear to me. These are calls to action. We'll even start with like a ahimsa says one of the main ones that gets circulated around quite a bit and often times how I see it being misused is well As long as I don't cause harm, then I'm doing my job and ahimsa. And it's like, okay, but what are you implicit in? Yeah, that causes harm that causes violence. What do you enable, when you're being silent? Are those not forms of harm and violence as well too. And you pulling yourself away from it doesn't take away from how horrible some of these atrocities are, you're basically trying to give yourself an out an excuse by saying, Oh, well, I'm not actively participating. Well, being passive is being active in a lot of these situations. And so, again, the more I studied, the more I learned. There was no way for me to keep my practice without having to also show up in my activism in my advocacy, and somehow claimed to be a practicing yogi.
Anjali Rao 14:02:54
Beautifully said, Absolutely. These are all calls to action, and understanding how the individual is connected to the collective and collective influences the individual, you know that that whole, that whole piece is, is a big part of the teachings of Yoga. So I appreciate you bringing that in. You talk about atrocities, and I follow your work on Instagram as well, where you're sharing so much in the past few weeks, especially on about Sudan and Congo, could you please share if you have the capacity? And I know it's labor for you. But if you could share that with with the listeners about what is going on in Sudan? And what are some of the things that we should be cognizant of, for those of us who are not a part of that those cultures?
Tysir Salih 14:03:37
No, of course, I think it's very easy to remove yourself from what's going on in other parts of the world. For multitude of reasons, one, that's colonialism and capitalism, right there, they want you to be disconnected from everything that's going on, so that they can continue to do the atrocities that they're doing. Number two, when I think Yoga sanskrit Yoga, yoke, union join, you know, how do we come back into seeing the Sacred Divine and all of us and the unity that's in all of us. So when we're kind of holding those two truths, that there's a very intentional masking of what's going on. And then within our practice, there's a conscious and intentional call to action to unveil right to seek Satya. We have to be so conscious of how the world is and what our role in it is. And so with Sudan, and with Congo, it may be 1000s of miles away from us. But the problems that are happening there, are anchored and rooted into our daily living. So Congo, for example, what is happening, there is a massive genocide that has been largely ignored by Western media, for their resources. We have cobalt, and copper, and even gold's that are constantly being exploited within those regions. And an intentional destabilizing of the governments and the communities to ensure that the extraction can be done for as little financial output as possible. And so we have a culture of people being robbed of their natural resources, and environment being destroyed for its natural resources, mass displacement, that is manufactured all for the name of these resources to be manufactured and used for, quote unquote, dominant culture. So when we're upgrading our phones when we don't need to, that's a direct line to impact in Congo. Sudan. Since its independence in 1956, there's been 35 military coups, six have been successful. And there's been three different attempts for democracy. Each and every step of the way. There have been foreign governments and corporations intentionally laying puppet and backing whoever will allow them to gain access to the resources. They're now in can Sudan, the main ones that you have there are gold, you have natural gas and oil. And everyone wants a piece of that. And everyone's willing to kill for that. And today, what you have are two military generals, who, after we've suffered through a 30 year dictatorship, are now trying to force another dictatorship in but they first have to beat each other. No one of them can win, and then instilled there dictatorship and both are backed by US and Russia and other global powers, of course. But everything, at the end of the day, all of the lives lost the starvation, the lack of water, school closures, everything you can think of that is destroying the well being of the communities there is anchored and rooted in upholding colonialism and capitalism. And so to me to not know about that, to not speak, the truth in that not aim to remove the harm that's going on that we here in the West, perpetuate is a complete disregard to yogic philosophy and teachings.
Anjali Rao 14:08:52
Hmm, I think you bring up a really good point that, you know, we are consumers of so many things that we don't know the sources of, like some things which we are taking so much for granted. And I always say that, you know, if even if you don't do anything else, learn where everything comes from. And that will take you to so much of, you know, the differences in power in the world. And that's the biggest ways in which you can make make impact as learn where everything comes from, from food to like, like you said, phones, and, you know, I think that's a really important connection. How else can we? I mean, that's, that, in itself, I think, is changing so many things, creating those ripples. How else can we be in solidarity? And by us, I mean, you know, people who are in the North America, ours, or, or Europe, some of our listeners are all over. So how could we be in solidarity, your everyday citizen, what can we do to show up in solidarity,
Tysir Salih 14:10:00
There are so many ways to show up. And what I really want to encourage people to do is one recognize the role of anti Black racism in the media and in the information that they're getting. And to understand that they have to be an active seeker of knowledge and active seeker of Truth. And when they're in that space, we'll stop hearing people say, Oh, my God, I didn't know that was happening. Well, it's intentionally kept from you. Not intentionally seeking it, you'll be left in the dark. So I think that's a really, really big step that everyone can step into. Number two, there's a lot of us who are doing the work. But sometimes we don't have the platform. Sometimes we don't have the reach. And so how can you amplify like that's for free, repost, reshare tag, you know, get things circulating, even if you don't have the full knowledge. Look for folks who have been doing the work, whose work you can trust and amplify, you don't have to have all of the answers. You don't even have to have a deeply formed opinion. All you have to do is have empathy and compassion and say, hey, something is wrong. There is suffering going on. And as a human, I need to share that. I don't need all the details and all the knowledge and all the background of it. Yeah, I see suffering. And that should be enough for me to start at least asking questions.
Jivana Heyman 14:11:55
Hey, hi, everyone. I just want to pop in here really quick, and remind you about our sponsor Offering Tree. As Yoga teachers, we our own business managers, website, designers and producers, it's a lot. An offering tree offers an all in one platform that makes it easy to succeed while we're doing all the things. And I just like to say that through this partnership with the love of Yoga podcast offering tree has shown that it's committed to supporting accessibility and equity in the Yoga world. Offering tree is a public benefit corporation and they're driven by a mission of wellness accessibility, which we share with them at accessible Yoga. As an offering tree user, you'll get to join a supportive educational community. And you'll also get free webinars with top experts in wellness and entrepreneurship. And of course, you get a discount so go to offering t.com backslash accessible Yoga to learn more, and to get your discount. Okay, let's go back to the episode.
Anjali Rao 14:12:53
I think the biggest I think the biggest import, the lesson for all of us is to ask questions. I don't think we do that enough, we are accepting of so many things as the truth. You know, so yeah. So thank you appreciate that asking questions, looking for looking for people who are doing the work and amplifying the people who are doing the work itself, rather than thinking that one has to sort of reinvent, you know, take up space, I think, especially for people who are not Black and or People of Color, but especially the Black Black folks in this movement. We just need to amplify, amplify the voices. So yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. What would you think? So I also saw some things on your Instagram. And I really wanted to ask you this question. You shared something about, like vicarious trauma, right? I feel, I feel that I connected that because for the past four or five weeks, what we are witnessing in real time is is devastation that I really have not seen in the past few weeks. And it does not mean that it does not happen or it is not happening. Because colonization is brutal. War is brutal. And things have happened, for example, India, and parts of Africa, all kinds, all parts of Africa. You know, and people just did not know about it, because there were no visuals to it. Now we're seeing how it happened in real time. And it's bringing up so much, you know, for so many of us. And you put that in, in your in your Instagram the other day, and I connected to that you talked about I think you called it vicarious trauma. Yeah. Could you could you share a little bit about that, please?
Tysir Salih 14:13:39
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's very easy for us to not understand the impact on our nervous system. With the images, we see the stories we see and hear. The body is a very well oiled machine, I will say that, but it has trouble differentiating certain things. And so when we're taking in content of trauma, the nervous system just interprets that as trauma. And so, that idea of like that being separate, or that being over there isn't true, because we're compassionate beings in our core. We're divinely connected in our core. So when we see that suffering, the body believes that it's its own brain. And so we find things like chronic fatigue, kicking in loss of appetite, dysregulated, sleep, irritability, low mood, all of those things are just symptomatic of our profound capacity of connection and love one another. And so in one regard, but like hairiest trauma and that empathy, fatigue, are a reminder of how beautifully connected we are. But at the same time, it is a call for care. Because the nervous system can't be that dysregulated for that long without it creating problems in the body. Yes. And so we need to interrupt that. Right, we need to interrupt that with rest, we need to interrupt that with health care. We need to interrupt that with things that fill our cups and make us whole, so that we can continue to show up. Because otherwise, apathy will kick in and be so overwhelmed. We just suck. We want to be disconnected. We don't want to feel all of those feelings anymore. To a space of apathy. And now we can't show up.
Anjali Rao 14:17:19
Right? We have frozen, we are completely frozen.
Tysir Salih 14:17:22
Yeah, like we're frozen repressed we're just like, oh, I can't do this anymore. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to know, I don't want to have these conversations anymore. Yeah, yeah, of course, like your nervous system is flooded. Yeah, it has no space. And so for anyone who cares about any form of activism or just humanity, self care is non negotiable. Self Care is actually radical and political. Because it is the thing that allows you to be sustained in your work, as well. Surrounded by a colonial and capitalistic structure that banks on our apathy, that is what they want. Because then there's no one to resist. There's no one to demand better.
Anjali Rao 14:18:14
Yeah, beautiful is that beautifully said, I'm not nodding my head, we could just leave. taking down notes so that it shows up. Because I think these are really important highlights for all of us to listen, especially given where we are. And I was just talking about this with my students as well that this cultivation of sort of santosha you know, the off jaw of I don't even want to call it it's not joy, but it's it is sort of a complete acceptance of where we are, it's really critical for us to be resilient enough to show up for, for collective liberation. And I also liked what you shared once in your story in your Instagram about about some of these care, take care practices, which are indigenous. And I love that what you mentioned about, you know, the African traditions, I'm always very interested in seeing whether there are parallels to the Indic Traditions, and there are so many, so could you could you please share that, if you will? Yeah,
Tysir Salih 14:19:28
I'll say, first of all, is our ancestors knew what they were doing.
Anjali Rao 14:19:32
100%.
Tysir Salih 14:19:37
Like, the way that they showed up for the collective was so profound. What I really try and do on my page with the content that I create, is showing people how we can care for ourselves outside of capitalism, outside of dominant culture norms, and going back into our ancestral wisdoms, that have sustained us for 1000s and 1000s of years, like, this modern form of colonialism. And capitalism is only a few 100 years old, right? Like it is quite modern, and the whole grand scheme of things. And it is extremely individualistic. And when we are hyper individualistic, it is very easy to feel like, you can't have an impact. You can't do enough. What you do doesn't matter. Like you just become so vulnerable. But when you start taking on a collectivist mindset, and you start thinking about collective care, as well as collective liberation, all of a sudden, you start to realize, like, oh, I don't have to do everything, to do something. Because here, look at me, I'm here with 100 other people who, if we all just did one thing, how powerful would that be? Right? And so now I don't have to feel so small. And so when we think about our traditional indigenous African Indic practices, those are all things that were meant to empower us to show up for community through collective care actions, that would also fill your individual cup as well, too. And so in that particular pose, I've broken down dose. So dose are the primary hormones that are all about like feeling good, and being able to flourish and moving from survival to thriving, and how our old practices, how our traditions, Amplified, each one of those hormones will allow for holistic care. And I give an indigenous I give an African, indigenous, but I also give an at home, because sometimes, for many of us, we don't have access to our community, we don't have access to our traditions as easily. And we still need to find ways to be able to connect, even when we don't have access. So that's why I'm sure to include that one there. Right.
Anjali Rao 14:22:26
Beautiful. I love that. And so you said dose which is dopamine.
Tysir Salih 14:22:31
What are the other ones so doses dopamine, oh, oxytocin, s serotonin and e is the endorsement?
Anjali Rao 14:22:41
Of course. Okay, great. Then one more thing is, you know, first of all, I think, I think what you shared about that all of us don't have to do everything but all of us have to do something. I think that is really an empowering thing to say because so I Whenever I speak with people, there is such a sense of overwhelm with what we are facing and this this thing to do something perfectly I think that shows up. And I have to be this perfect activist I have to be this perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect, perfect anything we cannot we are not perfect human beings know how can we be perfect activists? Right.
Tysir Salih 14:23:21
Perfect is a colonial structure? Absolutely. That does not exist beyond this toxic ideology. Yeah. Upset away from it. No one wants to be perfect. No one wants you to be perfect. Because perfect doesn't exist. It's something that you keep chasing. So you've exhausted yourself? Or hey, and so instead of being perfect, how can I be authentic? Like that? You're one right? How can I be in relation? That's it. That's
Anjali Rao 14:23:59
beautiful. That's so beautiful and so true. What are some of the practices of your own self care tie? How do you manage to do this?
Tysir Salih 14:24:11
Well, I'm fortunate enough to live with my sisters who I absolutely love. So I bug them like crazy. So with them, eat with them, hug them all the time, they can't. Oh, I also have like a regular practice that I maintain, which is very important. I do enjoy writing and reading a lot. Those are ways for me to just put things out and release them from my body. EFT tapping, like I have a whole arsenal of self care things, but it's like, okay, what do I need today? Like, it'll be super complex. Do you know what I'm just gonna bench tonight? I'm just gonna lay in bed. I'm gonna eat something delicious and binge like, whatever it needs to be. I think it's so important to just meet yourself where you're at. Offer some kind of care, whatever that care is.
Anjali Rao 14:25:16
I love that. I think you and I have a lot in common. I do the same thing. Yeah, I've been sometimes I like I can eat a whole box of chocolates. Thank you, thank you so much for sharing. So can you also share with the with the listeners? How can we connect with you? What are some of the ways in which we can support your amazing important work? What are you up to in the next few months? Your What is your vision? Anything?
Tysir Salih 14:25:49
Okay, so terms of connecting with me, like, go on my Instagram, that's always the easiest. So it's at Red underscore maat. So our EDI underscore M A A T. DM me I do check it. I do have ADHD. So I will warn you I will forget sometimes that there's a message there. So you got to follow up with us in terms of future works in plantings. So I have a few lives that are coming up soon, where I'm collaborating with grassroots organizers in Congo, and Sudan and Yemen and to gray just to have firsthand accounts and really share with folks from a lived experience perspective of what's going on. There is going to be a good number of in person events, specifically geared towards women of color, and gender expansive folks of colors for healing, for community building, so those will all be posted and listed on my Instagram story. And in terms of supporting like, for free, follow tag, like, share, amplify. For pay it forward. I'm always having a different grassroots organization that I'm uplifting, feel free to donate to any of those beautiful casters who are on the ground, they've been vetted and they're doing the work. And for me, like subscribe, like just helped me maintain during the work then set up a subscription on my Instagram and that allows me to take more time off doing the work that is really important for the community.
Anjali Rao 14:27:44
Love that. Love that. Thank you so much and we wish you the very best I know I will be you know, obviously following your work and uplifting all the things that you're doing so, so appreciate you and your heart and the Ways in which you're showing up for Sudan, Congo, just all of us, really. So thank you so much.
Tysir Salih 14:28:05
Thank you. Thank you. It's such an honor. And honestly all I can say is like, having this conversation with you, is another way of like caring for yourself. And thank you for being a space holder, a caretaker and an amplifier and an ally like, it gives my heart a lot of less like deep appreciation.
Anjali Rao 14:28:31
Thank you. Thank you.
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai
