Overcome the Obstacles to Personal Healing and Contribute to the Healing of the World
Ever notice the ways we can create suffering for ourselves and others? Our guest, author and spiritual practitioner, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, shares tools to navigate the obstacles that create suffering. We can facilitate positive change not only within ourselves but also within our communities and the broader world.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, yoga teacher and practitioner. She has led dismantling racism work in many settings for over 20 years, and has two decades of practice as a clinical social worker. Michelle’s work centers on healing from individual and collective trauma, coming back into wholeness and aligning the mind, body, spirit, and heart. She has a BA from the College of William and Mary and an MA in social work from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is the author of many books on yoga philosophy and social justice including the book we are discussing on this program, Illuminating Our True Nature: Yogic Practices for Personal and Collective Healing. Website: MichelleCJohnson.com
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#yoga #kleshas #avidya #egoism #healing #liberation
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS: Today's podcast with Michelle Cassandra Johnson was a fantastic discussion into the topic of the kleshas, as presented in her book, Illuminating Our True Nature. With a deep desire for healing, Ms. Johnson shares how the kleshas can guide our Self-study practice for liberation and give us clarity around the role of egoism in perpetuating division among communities. The kleshas are presented like a masterclass into what gets in the way of our freedom and understanding about the truth of Oneness. Using these distinctions, we can move away from chaos, suffering, and separation in our communities and globally.
DR. TRUJILLO’S COMMENTS: I enjoyed our rich discussion of the obstacles to liberation, or Kleshas. I appreciated Michelle Cassandra Johnson’s statement in the book that since she did not learn about Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in the way that Patanjali would have taught, she approached teaching yoga with both humility and curiosity. We explored all five Kleshas, beginning with ignorance of our true nature (or Avidya in Sanskrit), the root of all of the other obstacles. Our discussion illuminated the role of the Kleshas in both personal growth, as well as societal problems, pointing out that work to understand the kleshas can benefit us as individuals and as a community and society.