The Grind Culture Detox: Heal Yourself from the Poisonous Intersection of Racism, Capitalism, and the Need to Produce by Heather Archer

Author:Heather Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950253265
Publisher: Hierophant Publishing

The Healing Benefits of Yoga

Cameo Turner is an Oakland-based yoga practitioner who was diagnosed with depression at the age of sixteen. Prior to her career in yoga, she was a construction worker for fifteen years. As an African American female working in an industry dominated by white males, the stressful dynamics of her job led her to bouts of anxiety and further depression, but the final straw was when she discovered a lump on her breast.

Cameo was fearful for her well-being and the future of her kids. She knew that she needed to relax, destress, and take care of her mind and body, but she was unsure of what that path would look like for her. She had friends who encouraged her to try yoga, but she was very resistant. “Everybody kept trying to get me to do yoga, so I could let out my emotions, but I was terrified. I thought I was going to die. I have two kids and was trapped in fear-based thoughts. One day a friend of mine was like, ‘Let's do yoga.’ And I was like, ‘Nope, that's a white people thing.’ I kept resisting until one day she was like, ‘You want to smoke weed and do yoga?’ That sounded fun, so I said yes. She let me borrow Dee Dussault's Ganja Yoga. At first I brushed the book off, but by the end of my first ganja yoga session, I was hooked. Before that moment, I never saw my space in the world of wellness, but once I was able to connect yoga with weed, then my yoga journey began.”

Cameo soon became the first certified Black Ganja Yoga practitioner in the Bay Area, and worked to carve out a space for herself that supported her healing and well-being. Cameo states, “When I started my yoga training, I only wanted to do it for myself. I never planned on teaching. I couldn't see myself as a yoga teacher because I saw most yoga studios as whitewashed. I felt uncomfortable. I didn't feel safe in those spaces. One day, I realized how badly I wanted to fulfill this dream of being a yoga instructor. I realized that if I wanted this dream fulfilled, I was going to need to carve out my own space. Being the only minority in my training program made me feel some type of way.”

This journey of self and community acceptance in the yoga space led Cameo to follow her passion for teaching yoga as a full-time profession, and she divested from the relationship she had with grind culture during the time of her construction career.

In an era when many of us have a sedentary lifestyle due to spending long hours at our computer screens, it's more important than ever to incorporate intentional stretching throughout our workday. Not only can yoga counteract the stiffness of long hours of sitting, but it also increases blood circulation and helps to improve brain function. Yoga can help elevate spirits and mellow tempers, as

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