The people I want to teach beside
Dear Village,
I've been thinking lately about who I want to make things with.
I've had experiences in yoga and business that made me more protective of what I create. I've learned what it feels like when partnership isn't reciprocal, when trust isn't handled carefully, and when the values we talk about aren't necessarily the ones practiced behind the scenes.
For a while, that made me want to do more things alone.
But it also made me more discerning.
These days, I want to collaborate with people whose knowledge I respect and whose character I trust—people who bring something to the table that I can't.
And I'm realizing how many of my upcoming offerings have grown from exactly that.
NOURISH — OCTOBER 1–5
At our fall Nourish Yoga & Ayurveda Retreat, my friend Kat Souvertjis brings sound into the experience through Peter Hess® sound meditation and Yoga Nidra.
Alongside Ayurveda, yoga, seasonal food and nature, her work gives us another pathway into deep rest.
SOUL SONG — NOVEMBER
My friend Scott Paynter brings a very different relationship with sound.
Scott has spent 34 years performing and writing music as the lead singer of Jah Works, while also working as a Wholeness Specialist in a Baltimore City public school.
At Soul Song, his world of music and community meets my work with yoga, Ayurveda, breath, and North Indian classical music.
We'll sing, breathe, practice, listen and rest together.
You don't need to think of yourself as a singer.
You just need to be willing to have a voice.
COLUMBIA, MARYLAND —
SEPTEMBER 27
I'm also joining Claudia Neuman to teach Yoga & Ayurveda: Supporting the Lymphatic System at the Yoga Center of Columbia.
Claudia has been teaching yoga for more than four decades. There is something invaluable about teaching beside someone who carries that kind of lived history.
September 27, 1–4 pm
AYURVEDA IMMERSION — WISE WOMEN LEARNING FROM WISE WOMEN
This same spirit is woven into the Ayurveda Immersion for Women.
I'll teach the heart of the Ayurvedic curriculum, but I don't want a year of living wisdom to suggest that wisdom comes through only one teacher.
So other women will join our circle:
Dalani Garcia — womb wisdom Savitha Enner — vegetarian cooking Mira Diwani — Tantric Art Meditation (pictured above) Lucretia of House of Lukaya — herbalism
Not one wise woman at the front of the room. Wise women learning from wise women.
The Immersion is online, so you can join us from anywhere, with optional in-person gatherings in Baltimore and Richmond.
AND COMING IN FEBRUARY...
J Miles and I are also building a new 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training.
J brings more than 20 years of yoga teaching alongside decades of community organizing and justice work in Richmond.
We won't approach every question in exactly the same way.
That's part of the point.
More on that soon.
I believe deeply in personal practice.
But I also know the limits of what I can see and know on my own.
My friends have studied things I haven't studied. They've lived things I haven't lived. They have skills I don't have.
And I've learned not to take trustworthy people for granted.
When we come together, we make room for one another—and sometimes we make something none of us could have made alone.
Maybe that's why I keep returning to collaboration.
At its best, it makes the work feel a little more like a village.
With love,
Anjali Sunita Village Life Wellness
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