Season 4 Episode 8: Let’s talk about ’Fat Bodies’ in Yoga with Dawn Lister and Lucy Bishop

Trigger warning. This episode contains adult language and themes including eating disorders, body image and appearance. Please take care whilst listening. Not suitable for children. Contains swearing. You might have heard the term "every body is a yoga body". Yoga should be accessible to everyone, regardless of shape or size. There is a huge amount of body shaming in the world and the yoga business versus the yogic community is horrifically entangled with it. Yoga can be intimidating and overwhelmingly associated with images of thinness. This is not a truthful representation of yoga or its benefits. In this inspiring episode Dawn welcomes Lucy Bishop, an inclusive yoga teacher and movement specialist. Lucy first found yoga at a time when she had a difficult relationship with her body and eating. She felt connected to the practice but uncomfortable in the space, and looking back she can see the lack of modifications, accessibility and size diversity. Knowing the potential of an accessible practice and the lack of size diversity within the yoga community, Lucy decided to do her teacher training in India and has been teaching yoga since 2016. We talk about Lucy's journey to becoming a yoga teacher, working hard and passionately to promote safe and inclusive spaces. Dawn and Lucy also discuss the false claim that promoting larger bodies in yoga postures means promoting obesity, diet culture's impact on the industry, how we talk to and about ourselves, and the experience of being a larger bodied person in the industry. An important conversation to have, but together they help raise awareness on the need to acknowledge that things need to change within the yoga community and to allow everyone to feel included in their practice. Lucy Bishop is an inclusive yoga teacher and movement specialist who has been teaching yoga since 2016. Lucy is a full time yoga teacher teaching in community spaces, studios, for corporate clients and lots of other weird and wonderful places. She also runs training sessions for teachers on inclusivity and size inclusivity and is fiercely passionate about making everyone feel welcome in the yoga space.

Connect with Lucy at www.lucybyoga.com and on Instagram at @lucybyoga.

*** From The Heart is a podcast from Dawn Lister, co-owner of the Dawn Lister Therapy Centre and owner of Anahata Yoga and Wellbeing Centre, both in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK. This podcast series brings together inspiring people to have deep, profound and meaningful conversations about topical and relevant subjects that matter. With a focus on Spirituality, they share their stories, knowledge, experiences and insights with us through light hearted, kind and honest conversations. Dawn Lister  (she/her) is a Cranial Sacral Therapist, Massage Therapist, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Hatha Yoga and Mindfulness teacher. A creator of courses and workshops as well as a retreat leader, Dawn has run retreats for 26 years and is renowned for her light touch, humour and grounded approach to spirituality. She has worked in the field of complementary therapies for 28 years. Dawn is a firm believer in the power of the connection, the need we all have to feel heard and seen. She loves finding new ways to help us connect with mother earth, each other, our voice and our collective connection as a source for love and healing in the world. Follow Dawn Lister on Instagram at @dawnlisterlos and visit www.dawnlister.com Catch up on previous episodes via the Anahata Yoga Centre website at www.anahatayogacentre.com/podcast