I would say anti-oppression practice is part of every moment of my life. I try to be as radically inclusive and accessible as possible in words, intentions, actions, knowing that it's a constant journey of unlearning and learning. I'm one of those people who remembers pronouns. I notice who is feeling left out in a conversation or space, and I do something about it. I can't be a bystander--I know what it's like to be silenced, to be unfairly targeted, and misunderstood, and I can't stand it when this happens to others regardless of if I know them or not. I come from peoples who were colonized, bombed, tortured, and I come from people who spoke truth to power. I also am neurodivergent, multigender, queer, chronically ill, from a working-class mixed cultural background, and I grew up in a place where white people were the minority and Black culture was celebrated, so that has informed a lot of my worldview. 

In my life and as part of my practice, I try to actively fight anti-Blackness, anti-Indigenous, anti-Asianness, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, cultural theft and cultural appropriation, Orientalism and cultural fetishization, queerphobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, spiritual capitalism, spiritual bypass. As someone who tries to support others in their healing, I am against toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing--the "spiritual" and "wellness" industries are rampant with people who don't acknowledge dynamics of power and privilege and systemic oppression, and I don't want to contribute to that.

I used to massage my grandma from a young age, and even though I didn't have the language for it, I knew that it brought her relief. You could say I had an intuitive sense for bodywork, which I further honed when I went to massage school after she passed away.

I also had considerable early childhood trauma which manifested in somatic ways: stomachaches, headaches, chest pains, alternating with periods of dissociation from my body, so there was my intro to somatics. Again, I didn't have the language for it until I did further study, but I had strong interoception (a sense of what's happening inside your body) for as long as I can remember.

I started with P90X's Yoga X DVD back in 2009, so the epitome of "western yoga" aka bodyweight exercises divorced from their original context. I had recently graduated college and was deep into a depression, with lots of old trauma resurfacing due to my living situation. Although I grew up in the bay area, which has a very woo woo reputation, I come from the underresourced parts: Vallejo, Richmond. No one from those areas did yoga/somatics for stress relief or self-empowerment in the 90s/early 2000s, we just got angry and fought it out!

My first deep study with yoga and its multiple limbs--not just asana, or postures--was when I did a teacher training with the Niroga Institute. Being low-income, I only was able to attend due to a scholarship they provided. I also chose them specifically because the director is South Asian who grew up practicing in the Himalayas... I did so much research before making the commitment. Our other teachers were POC, or if they were white, they were seniors or otherwise not completely able-bodied.

 I would say that yoga/somatics has allowed for me to return to my body and get out of my head, and to develop and trust my intuition. Because of my complex trauma history and neurodivergence, and because this white supremacist western culture we are all steeped in emphasizes using your brain at the expense of your body, I have a tendency to overthink. Dropping down into the body, breathing, noticing sensations, allows me to slow down and gives me freedom to just be, even if just for a moment. And doing this in community, in circle, where folks feel safe to be vulnerable, silly, and supported, is so important. These are ways to embody liberation, from a mat, from a chair, from a bed (You do not need a mat or "yoga clothes" to practice! Can you imagine folks thousands of years ago wearing stretchy leggings? It makes me laugh.) I've also been more uncompromising when it comes to REST in the context of justice and liberation work. It is ableist to expect folks to go go go all the time, and it is just reinforcing hypercapitalist modes of being. I primarily try to serve BIPOC communities, and in particular QTBIPOC because of the additional marginalizations we tend to face. Also to my folks who also struggle with ADHD, OCD, anxiety, depression--let me tell you about how these practices have made daily existence more bearable! And less reactive even when in situations where I must act--I can respond with agency instead of out of habit.