Meet your 2022 meditation challenge teachers

Included in the 31 Day Challenge

Daniel Sannito is a yoga and meditation facilitator, a writer, and a wellness and gender equity educator. Daniel moves through this world as a transgender, nonbinary advocate who dedicates their voice to creating affirming and welcoming spaces for all humans to connect with their hearts deeply and fully. Their work is guided by heart-forward connection, sharing these practices and this education to cultivate space where any and all students are able to access these healing practices rooted in liberation.

Daniel Sannito

(they/them)

Natasha is an able-bodied Black woman, the descendant of two Jamaican parents, born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She moved to America in her early twenties and is married with three children.

Natasha is the founder and owner of Dubwise Yoga, a certified hatha yoga instructor and member-owner of Satya Yoga Cooperative, Colorado’s first 200 hour yoga teacher training program for Black, Indigenous, People Of Color and the nations first BIPOC member-owned yoga cooperative. Natasha is a certified accessible yoga teacher, as well as a registered yoga teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance. She recently completed her 300hr yoga teacher training, as well as level 1 adaptive yoga training. She’s had a personal practice since 2000 and began teaching in 2018.

She offers trauma informed yoga, is passionate about disabilities, mental health and a medical cannabis advocate. Prior to teaching Natasha spent several years working for persons with developmental disabilities later teaching yoga and mindfulness practices to this community. She eventually became a CNA and had the pleasure of working at Craig Hospital with those who experienced a spinal cord injury (SCI) and/or brain injury (BI), as well as the neuro ICU at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

Recently, she became a certified LoveYourBrain yoga instructor, facilitator and joined their training team supporting and sharing the benefits of yoga and meditation with the TBI community. She currently contributes to their YTTs as well as their six week Mindset programs for those who have experienced a brain injury (BI), caregivers, care providers, as well as yoga teachers and practitioners with plans to support their retreats in the near future.

Natasha is grateful to collaborate with several community partners spreading her mission of equitable and accessible yoga to all, with a focus on BIPOC communities.

Natasha Chaoua

(she/her)

Tristan Katz is a writer, educator, and digital strategist based on the ancestral land of the Cowlitz and Clackamas peoples, now known as Portland, OR. Tristan offers justice-focused marketing individual and group mentorship programs for yoga and wellness professionals, along with workshops and trainings centered around queer identity and transgender awareness with an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. Through their podcast, articles, digital resources, and workshops, Tristan supports those who seek to grow their work while staying aligned with the practices of yoga, equity, diversity, and inclusivity.

Tristan Katz

(they/them)

Eric Mosley is a yoga and meditation teacher, educator, and diversity & inclusion consultant on a mission to encourage all people to show up as their most authentic selves on and off of their mats. With a background in education and school leadership spanning over 10 years, Eric integrates the nuances of his identity and his experiences as an educational leader to address identity based inequities in wellness. As a consultant, Eric uses mindfulness practices to help schools and companies navigate current events, have difficult conversations around race, equity, and belonging, and live into their values versus simply proclaiming them. He's excited to participate in the Love Your Brain meditation challenge.

Eric is a graduate of Morehouse College, Relay Graduate School of Education, and Three Sisters Yoga in New York City.

You can find more information and online classes at www.blackmat.yoga; or follow on social media at @black.mat.yoga on instagram and facebook.

Eric Mosley

(he/him)

About me: Having had two TBIs I understand the challenges and effects of recent and long-term injury. I have worked hard to overcome many of these challenges, yet it wasn't until I found LoveYourBrain that all the pieces fell into place. I am honored and humbled to share this program and witness the growth of each practitioner.

Why LYB: I'm always inspired by the resilience of the human spirit. We can achieve more than we may think with practice, patience and kindness to self and others. I see this in every individual and every class with whom I am lucky enough to spend time on the mat.

Superhero: My hero is always the person who took a risk, tried something new, pushed a boundary for growth (both personal and communal).

Resources: I founded Lotus Seed Lifestyles to offer a space to work with individuals, non-profits, and community groups to offer yoga and meditation as paths to recovery and personal improvement. You can learn more about what I do through my website, www.lotusseedlifestyles.com.

RJ Lisander

(she/her)

Jordan is a Diné and Tewa 2-Spirit leader and story-keeper, full time student and ERYT-500 Y-CEP yoga teacher. He is owner, Co-Director and lead of Teacher Development at Courageous Yoga in Denver, CO.

Jordan understands yoga as a path of liberation, and offers philosophy, meditation, and āsana (postural practice) from the perspective that all inner, outer and collective work are intertwined. His skilled and masterful lineage of teachers and inspirations include both traditional, Indigenous and rebellious sources of wisdom. He has been studying the relationship between social justice and yoga for the last 10 years, with the support of teachers such as Reverend angel Kyodo williams, Michael Stone, and most notably, his grandmothers Maximaña and María, and his mother Carolyna. In the yoga community, Jordan serves as an equity consultant, speaker, curriculum designer, editor, writer and teacher trainer. He is known for infusing poethics into his innovative and playful movement classes and learning environments. His lived wisdom and diverse, strong and radical teachers allow him to support a variety of practitioners and speak with authenticity, love and fire across the topics of philosophy, social identity, physiology, human development and andragogy.

Jordan Smiley

(he/him)

Tiya Caniel is a queer, black human currently based in the Statesville, NC area. She is in a very deliberate and dedicated liberation practice, which informs her work as a creative, writer, and innerspace stylist.

As an innerspace stylist, Tiya helps folks style and adorn themselves from within by teaching them sustainable tools to facilitate their own healing.

In addition to teaching and styling, she loves making jewelry and adornments, creating sacred living & workspaces, cooking & eating delicious foods, practicing rest as rebellion, writing, spending time outdoors, and embodying liberation.

Tiya Caniel

(she/her)

Michelle C. Johnson is an author, yoga teacher, social justice activist, intuitive healer, and Dismantling Racism trainer. She approaches her life and work from a place of empowerment, embodiment, and integration. As a dismantling racism trainer, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups, including the ACLU-WA, Duke University, Google, This American Life, Auburn Seminary, Kripalu, Mercedes, Spotify, Lululemon, and many others. Michelle published Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017; the second edition of Skill in Action was published by Shambhala Publication in November 2021. She teaches workshops in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide. Michelle’s latest book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, published by Shambhala Publications came out in July 2021.

She was a Tedx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019 and has been interviewed on several podcasts in which she explores the premise and foundation of Skill in Action, along with creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal. Recently, she created her own podcast, Finding Refuge, which explores collective grief and liberation and serves as a reminder about all the ways we can find refuge during unsettling and uncertain times and of the resilience and joy that comes from allowing ourselves to find refuge.

Whether in an anti-oppression training, yoga space, individual or group intuitive healing session, the heart, healing, and wholeness are at the center of how Michelle approaches all of her work in the world.


Michelle Johnson

(she/her)

Tracee Stanley is the founder of Empowered Life Circle, a sacred community and portal of practices, rituals, and Tantric teachings inspired by more than 20 years of study in various Yoga and Tantric traditions, including Sri Vidya Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan masters. 

As a post-lineage teacher, Tracee is devoted to sharing the wisdom of yoga nidra, meditation, self-inquiry, nature as a teacher, ritual, and ancestor reverence. She is the creatrix of the Empowered Life Self-Inquiry Oracle Deck and host of the Radiant Rest Podcast, which celebrates the practices, teachers, and traditions that prioritize the rituals of rest, sacred dreaming, and self-care.

Tracee’s best-selling book Radiant Rest - Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity, published by Shambhala Publishing, is now available everywhere books are sold. She is currently working on her second book and oracle deck. Learn more at radiantrest.com, and traceeyoga.com


Tracee Stanley

(she/her)


Included in the 10 day challenge

Eric Mosley is a yoga and meditation teacher, educator, and diversity & inclusion consultant on a mission to encourage all people to show up as their most authentic selves on and off of their mats. With a background in education and school leadership spanning over 10 years, Eric integrates the nuances of his identity and his experiences as an educational leader to address identity based inequities in wellness. As a consultant, Eric uses mindfulness practices to help schools and companies navigate current events, have difficult conversations around race, equity, and belonging, and live into their values versus simply proclaiming them. He's excited to participate in the Love Your Brain meditation challenge.

Eric is a graduate of Morehouse College, Relay Graduate School of Education, and Three Sisters Yoga in New York City.

You can find more information and online classes at www.blackmat.yoga; or follow on social media at @black.mat.yoga on instagram and facebook.

Eric Mosley

(he/him)

Michelle C. Johnson is an author, yoga teacher, social justice activist, intuitive healer, and Dismantling Racism trainer. She approaches her life and work from a place of empowerment, embodiment, and integration. As a dismantling racism trainer, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups, including the ACLU-WA, Duke University, Google, This American Life, Auburn Seminary, Kripalu, Mercedes, Spotify, Lululemon, and many others. Michelle published Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017; the second edition of Skill in Action was published by Shambhala Publication in November 2021. She teaches workshops in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide. Michelle’s latest book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, published by Shambhala Publications came out in July 2021.

Whether in an anti-oppression training, yoga space, individual or group intuitive healing session, the heart, healing, and wholeness are at the center of how Michelle approaches all of her work in the world.

Michelle Johnson

(she/her)

Tristan Katz is a writer, educator, and digital strategist based on the ancestral land of the Cowlitz and Clackamas peoples, now known as Portland, OR. Tristan offers justice-focused marketing individual and group mentorship programs for yoga and wellness professionals, along with workshops and trainings centered around queer identity and transgender awareness with an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. Through their podcast, articles, digital resources, and workshops, Tristan supports those who seek to grow their work while staying aligned with the practices of yoga, equity, diversity, and inclusivity.

Tristan Katz

(they/them)

 

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yoga nidra meditation

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