Yoga with Nya

12/30/2020

super cool to be on the 2021 calendar featuring some of DC’s finest yoga teachers, and — did y’all see?

#2021

11/26/2020

[happy thanksgiving] - i believe we can all be thankful for what we have in this new normal: family, friends, pets! and optimism for a brighter 2021. and i wish you a wonderful thanksgiving!
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09/22/2020

[reach for the outcome you’re wanting rather than the means to get it ]
- abraham hicks
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07/30/2020

[the paternal wound] - i am aware that the paternal wound has been something i have struggled with for the greater part of my life. a few days ago, i did something that i would have never thought to do in the last decade, i called my father.

we continue to learn through our evolution as beings of light that our own healing is our responsibility. so lately, my prayer to my guides and teachers is to carve out all that is festering in me, make me hollow, cleanse me deeply, so that all that filters through me is light.

july healing vibes in your inbox 📨 and at yogawithnya.com

06/28/2020

[only] L O V E lives here.

06/18/2020

[the great awakening] - all of these years i thought i could “pass” and so didn’t need to put a microscope on my blackness. somehow i thought maybe i could *transcend* race. i now realize that my denial was a shield protecting me from having to face the heavy weight of what the world feels i am worth, or at least those in america. i guess that is part of the oppression too, right, self-denial?
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reflections on this great awakening that i feel we are going through in your inbox 📨 and on yogawithnya.com — healing happens by feeling.
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06/18/2020

[the great awakening] -

it has been an intensely heartbreaking few weeks with all the violence against black lives. the grief that these mothers and families have to deal with now and the trauma being activated for all of those who have experienced racism is heavy. it’s beyond words. beyond protests. it's the kind of pa...

06/13/2020

[say their names] - i have been experiencing a refilling of hope over the last week or so. everywhere i turn white folks are holding “no justice, no peace” signs and even have them in the windowsill of their home. i have never seen such accountability from white people, it brings tears to my eyes. this evening, after a busy day of showing homes with I stopped by for supper. outside in spring valley was spelled out and underneath each letter were the names of all the black lives taken at the hands of the police. perhaps this is a massive awakening for us all and especially those of us who have used our privilege to hide and not take responsibility.
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@ Pizzeria Paradiso

06/12/2020

06/02/2020

✊🏽✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

06/01/2020

[unpack your knapsack] - i was in my second or third years at simmons, in a class called philosophy of race, class, and gender when our professor introduced this activity. she had us all stand from our desks, close our eyes, and take a step forward or backward if a sentence she read applied to us. this activity went on for maybe 15-20 minutes. when she ran out of sentences, she asked that we open our eyes. when we did, all of those who had white skin were farther along than those who were either black, brown, or non-white. when i tell you that all the white women in my class (simmons was an all women’s college) were embarrassingly shocked to discover perhaps for the first time that their skin color gave them an advantage over others, it was like the skies opened. it began a discussion, with mostly me, and others like me sharing their experiences of racial inequality and injustice.

i grew up in portland, maine - the very first place my family lived outside of ethiopia and the place we learned that WE WERE BLACK and somehow that was bad. i was seven when we came, so it took me a while to catch on to all-things-american. my parents, even though didn’t understand or ever had to think about racism, had a feeling their blackness was not welcome, but they buried that under the responsibility to care for 6 little immigrant children. we never talked about race at home because what was there to talk about? how outside of ethiopia we matter less?

the recent killings, violence, and innocent lives taken not just in the last few months but for decades and generations, have dredged up every racist experience i’ve had in my life and in my families life — it’s heavy. it’s horrible. it causes me to cry from a very deep place of long standing trauma. it’s the resurrection of pain long buried. it doesn’t matter how educated, kind, loving and open i am — there is a systemic belief in America that my right to life is not valued in this country in the same way as my white brothers and sisters for no other reason but that i was born with black skin.

white people need to understand that for me and all black people this time is charged with not only anger and exhaustion, but the deep feeling of unworthiness that was planted in us when we first learned that we are black and being black is bad and it means that you are less. sit with that.

i am not going to offer to be an educator, i will however share the article my professor used all those years ago. see link in bio.

at this very moment, we are all evaluating the white people and white relationships in our lives and watching closely to see how they advocate for us and ally with us. time is up!

05/31/2020

it’s not any safer for me today than it was in 1995, pre- America. i’m targeted still. i was pre-verbal, pre-toddler, pre-whatever-before-the-age-of-ten. pre-so-much you have to speak another language to my pain. and yet it follows me. into high school, out of college, into the work field, all as “the only one of my race.” even now? i still have to prove?

why? haven’t you had enough? is the abuse, aggression, deceit, hate, violence, that you have projected onto me satisfied? what would glorify you? my self-hatred? is that what you want?

perhaps i should be chained to systems
designed to suffocate me
or sulk in my self loathing.
perhaps i should punish myself for you
punishing me for retaliating.
for being mad at you for the flogging
and for the lynching
for the looting
and shooting
for hanging of the strange fruit
and my brother’s sentencing.

it is your evil
that incites THE evil in me.

don’t ask for my compassion
if you’re not willing to extend it.
don’t call me your friend
if you can’t imagine my suffering.
do. not. ever. assert. your. value. over. others.
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