EDUCATOR FEATURE: Anusha Wijeyakumar
FEMINIST sits down with Anusha Wijeyakumar, MA, CPC, E-RYT, Dip Mentoring (she/her/hers), Founder Shanti Within Wellness, Professor at San Diego State University and Hoag Hospital Wellness Consultant to learn more about decolonizing wellness practices and much more!
Anusha Wijeyakumar of Shanti Within Wellness
Q: What is your personal mantra?
AW: First let’s decolonize the word Mantra. Mantras are not affirmations and there is often a lot of confusion about this in mainstream Yoga and wellness. Mantras are ancient Vedic Sanskrit chants that originated in the Indian subcontinent thousands of years ago. My favorite mantra is OM which is taught in the Bhagavad Gita as translating to the sound of divine or universal consciousness. The word Mantra itself derives from the Sanskrit word Manas which is the wandering aspect of the mind and tra which is a vehicle or instrument that allows us to bring the mind under our control through the power of chanting and sound healing. Sanskrit one of the world’s oldest surviving languages is believed to hold some of the highest vibratory powers. Chanting the mantra OM can aid us in finding a sense of true peace, equanimity and collective consciousness from within as the individual consciousness Jivatma is reabsorbed back into the universal consciousness Paramatma. I devote a whole intention to this in my book Meditation with Intention where you can learn more!
Q: What motivates you in your personal mindfulness and wellness journey?
AW: My personal motivation stems from the fact that until we can all be well, none of us are truly well. I repeat this in each class to my students as a Professor at San Diego State University where I teach on collective care and the intersection of wellness and social justice. So often there is a hyper focus on the self in western wellness spaces which feeds rife individualism. Whilst the philosophy of Yoga is a path to individual liberation, individual liberation is intimately connected to collective liberation in the time that we are in.
🎤 #FeministTalks with Anusha Wijeyakumar in conversation with founder, Ky Polanco.
→ Listen back to our IG Live conversation
Q: What inspires you to continue educating others about the intersection of wellness and social justice?
AW: The cultural appropriation of Yoga is a huge part of the problem. You would never know the real meaning of Yoga given the spiritual bypassing and co-opting of this ancient spiritual Indian practice in the west. For someone who was born and raised in the philosophy of Yoga and Vedic traditions it's particularly jarring to see how far we have come from the true essence of the practice, which is unity.
The journey of a person on the path of Yoga is to recognize their own divine nature through the practice and, in turn, also recognize and honor the divine nature of others. Yoga teachers have popularized the statement "we are all one," but unless we actually take actions to make this a reality, it becomes an empty slogan and a part of spiritual bypassing, which causes direct harm by dismissing the discrimination of those who are marginalized and oppressed. Yoga, is, in fact, social justice, and incredibly relevant to these times. Holding a crystal and chanting OM is not enough and never has been.
The ancient yogic texts including "The Ramayana" and the "Bhagavad Gita" talk about the importance of social justice as a part of our yoga practice. Concepts such as Dharma, the path of truth and right conduct; Karma, the law of action, cause, and effect; and Seva, selfless service — these concepts appear to have been lost on members of the yoga community who never really understood the true spirit of yoga, which is love and compassion for all beings and selfless service to those in need of our protection.
Q: How is Shanti Within intertwined with the intersectional feminist movement?
AW: My own personal Yoga practice has always been focused on intersectionality coming from intersecting identities myself. Through svadyaya (self study), the fourth niyama in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, our yoga practice offers us the tools of discernment (viveka in Sanskrit), to go deeper in unpacking our own biases so we can unlearn and relearn. We must utilize svadhyaya and viveka in tandem to dismantle harmful spiritual bypassing, cultural appropriation, sexual objectification, ableism, size-ism, ageism, and toxic masculinity. We must stand against the concept of the "yoga body," as well as the commodification of yoga practice in the West.
Intersectionality is the path forward and the future of wellness so we can be more inclusive of all marginalized voices and experiences. It allows us to examine the truth in a holistic way without giving in to denial, distorting reality, or leaning out of the conversation due to privilege, guilt or shame. Like our lived Yoga practices, intersectionality allows us to step out of perceived and socially constructed binaries to hold the full spectrum of experience and move into conscious action to create social change.
Q: Do you feel that your work with collective healing and decolonizing yoga and wellness is rooted in an approach towards liberation for all?
AW: As the daughter of Sri Lankan Tamil immigrant parents I was born and raised in Vedic philosophy and ancestral traditions that are a part of my indigeneity. My ancestors had to resist 443 years of brutal colonization, proselytization, white supremacy and oppression to hold onto our indigenous culture, philosophy, language and customs. Collective liberation is at the forefront of my work as my passion is decolonizing Yoga, and wellness to ensure that these practices are equitable, inclusive and accessible to all.
Q: What advice would you give those looking to find their inner peace through wellness but do not feel included or represented in the greater wellness movement?
AW: There's a history of racism in Westernized wellness culture. Racism is, and has been for many years, prevalent across the wellness industry; many Black and brown practitioners and teachers have spoken openly about being tokenized, facing overt racism within the wellness community, and being held to a higher standard than their white counterparts. A lot of commitment can be tokenistic and performative as we have seen clearly over the past 3 years from most mainstream Yoga and wellness platforms. This can be retraumatizing for communities of color. Finding true community in these spaces, especially for BIPOC can be impossible so I suggest doing what I practice myself is to first not lose hope, then find community virtually or in other spaces where you are welcomed, seen and heard. This is also one of the main reasons I created my Patreon community a few years ago focused on decolonizing Yoga and wellness as I was unable to find this space elsewhere. Here all people are welcomed, and we are committed to sustainable change internally and externally. I would love to have people join me and become a part of this dedicated community!
Q: What does the future of the mindfulness space look like to you?
AW: I would love to see a true commitment to decolonizing Yoga and wellness spaces to ensure that we can dismantle capitalism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and white supremacy. This first begins with a true commitment to unlearning and relearning by listening and learning from BIPOC voices. So much of our indigenous healing practices have been stolen from us through the lasting legacy of colonization, ethnic cleansing and genocide. This cultural extractivism and cultural erasure must be firmly denounced by us all and the dominant culture in particular who continues to commercialize and commoditize indigenous healing practices that are not their own. The time to adopt a decolonial mindset and focus on antiracism in action is long overdue.
Q: What does being an intersectional feminist mean to you?
AW: Real change is required to move beyond tokenism to sustainable activism, and representation is a pivotal part of this change. It is one reason why the word Feminist never resonated with me as I never saw myself or people who looked like me included in this framework. The whiteness of wellness must be unpacked so we can work towards creating a system where we can all be seen, heard, and well. There is nothing wrong with having privilege, it is what we do with our privilege that counts. The first step is acknowledging the privilege we have and then take steps in order to utilize this as agents of change in our communities and wider society. This is yoga in action. Being an ally and accomplice to change begins with each individual person. Anti-racism and anti-colonialism is Yoga in action. Collective consciousness is the heart of yoga. This translates very simply right now into being actively anti-racist and anti-colonial as a vital part of our Yoga practice at this critical time in our history. We need to keep shining the light on injustices and systems of oppression that feed inequities from an intersectional lens. This is how we can actually become one — which is what the essence of Yoga is all about and we need this now more than ever.
Anusha is the daughter of Sri Lankan Tamil immigrant parents and has been born and raised in Vedic philosophy and ancestral traditions that are a part of her indigeneity. Collective care is at the forefront of her work, her passion is decolonizing Yoga, and wellness to ensure that these practices are equitable, inclusive and accessible to all. Anusha is the Wellness Consultant for Hoag Hospital, one of the top-rated hospitals in the USA where she leads on integrative medicine and implementing mindfulness and meditation practices for maternal mental health programs, early risk assessment for breast & ovarian cancer prevention programs and breast cancer survivorship programs. Anusha is very passionate about her work in STEM and is one of the first people to create a meditation program to be used in clinical research at Hoag Hospital.
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