“Many are wondering how to respond to increasingly oppressive policies, political divisions and the current cultural upheaval. While we have questions about how to respond, I believe that we must respond with steadfastness and courageous hearts to the urgent concerns of this time.” – Michelle Johnson

Join Michelle Johnson for two online offerings this summer:
✓ Skill in Action: Responding to Unsettling and Uncertain Times
✓ Finding Refuge: Teachings from the Bhagavad Gita & Heart Work to Heal Collective Grief

Skill in Action: Responding to Unsettling and Uncertain Times
Friday, June 4th, 1pm-4pm

Many of us are wondering how to respond to the suffering inside and around us. The dismantling of systems and the resistance to this dismantling are colliding, creating suffering and opportunity. Many are wondering how to make space for their grief and liberation amid social isolation and distancing. Dominant culture wants us to continue to disassociate from ourselves and others, divide and conquer, maintain the status quo and turn away from the heartbreak we may be feeling at this time. While we have questions about how to respond and be in this moment, I believe that we must respond with steadfastness and courageous hearts to the urgent concerns of this time. Spiritual practice invites us to lean into discomfort and truth, move through and with our emotions and grief, better understand the nature and causes of suffering and transform in service of the collective good.

This workshop will explore how we can respond skillfully during unsettling and uncertain times. It will explore teachings from the Bhagavad Gita, Skill in Action and Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief. We will explore dharma—duty, and how we engage the practice of yoga to more deeply commit to our dharma. We will explore adharma—the cultural misalignment that causes suffering, and how to move back into alignment. We will explore how to connect with our grief and hearts as a pathway to heal. We will explore how to center relationship and accountability in our social change movements. Lastly, we will explore the importance of understanding our right role as we work towards creating conditions for liberation. The workshop will include meditation, asana, mantra, journaling and discussion.

In our time together, we’ll practice and engage in:
✓ Meditation
✓ Embodied practice and asana
✓ Creating culture: agreements and assumptions
✓ An explanation of how the Bhagavad Gita begins
✓ Principles from Skill in Action
✓ Dharma and Duty to intervene, disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression
✓ Meeting the Political and Cultural Moment with Spiritual Practice
✓ Collective Grief and Liberation
Wear comfortable clothing, have a journal and any other sacred objects nearby.

Cost:
✓ Supporting: $95
✓ Sustaining: $75
✓ Supported: $30

Finding Refuge (Saturday & Sunday)

Finding Refuge – Teachings from the Bhagavad Gita
Saturday, June 5th, 9am-11:30am & 1pm-4pm PST

Many of us are wondering how to respond to the suffering inside and around us. The dismantling of systems and the resistance to this dismantling are colliding, creating suffering and opportunity. The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient yogic text, is an antidote to much of our individual and collective suffering. It is a story about purpose, devotion, the larger Self and divinity. This workshop will support you in exploring what your higher purpose is at this time in response to the suffering we are experiencing as a collective. We will explore dharma, duty, and how we engage the practice of yoga to more deeply commit to our dharma. We will explore adharma, the cultural misalignment that causes suffering, and how to move back into alignment. Lastly, we will explore the role and importance of working towards liberation for the larger Self and all beings.

The workshop will include meditation, asana, mantra, journaling and discussion.

Finding Refuge – Heart Work to Heal Collective Grief
Sunday, June 6th, 1pm-4pm

Many of us have been searching for ways to find refuge during the onslaught of trauma connected with Covid-19 and the heightened awareness of how white supremacy and systems of oppression harm us all but disparately. These collective experiences of trauma mean that many of us are holding onto deep grief. We live in a culture that in large part doesn’t make space for us to process our grief and if we do have space to do so often we process privately not in community. This workshop is designed for us to turn toward our grief individually and collectively. It will be an opportunity for us to reflect on how our hearts are doing at this time and to begin to understand more about how to allow grief to move through us. It will include meditation, journaling, ritual, gentle movement and small group discussions.

Cost:
✓ Supporting: $255
✓ Sustaining: $185
✓ Supported: $85

Registration for this event will open by March 15, 2021

Teacher Training
These classes can be taken as part of the 8 Limbs 300/500-hour Teacher Training Program. Click here for more information on joining us!

Teacher Training Enrollee Registration
If you are enrolled in our 300/500-hour Teacher Training and would like to take these three classes Click here to register.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds of 90% up to five days prior to workshop. No refunds allowable after that time.

About the instructor: Michelle C. Johnson

Michelle C. Johnson is an author, yoga teacher, social justice activist, licensed clinical social worker and Dismantling Racism trainer. She approaches her life and work from a place of empowerment, embodiment and integration. With a deep understanding of trauma and the impact that it has on the mind, body, spirit and heart, much of her work focuses on helping people better understand how power and privilege operate in their life. She explores how privilege, power and oppression affects the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and energy body. Her book “Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World” was written for yoga teachers and practitioners.