You Are Your Own Best Teacher

I’ve been re-reading Tricia Hersey’s recent book Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, and loving her emphasis on Womanist and Black liberation theologies.

This line jumped out at me today. ✨

It’s a version of something I often say in yoga class: Remember that you are your own best teacher, and you know your body better than anyone else. So take what I say with a grain of salt, and trust your own deep knowing as you move through your practice.

Did you grow up learning this sense of embodied trust in your own faith tradition? 🥴 Reclaiming it can be super hard for those of us who didn’t. (Ahem, Christianity.)

But that’s why I love the yogic (and Black Womanist, and ecofeminist) traditions. They cultivate that sense of inherent bodily goodness; of radical wholeness; of the fact that our bodies are wise and holy and strong, just as they are.

Grateful for theologians like Hersey who are spreading this powerful wisdom on a global scale. 🪷

Your body is the site of liberation

Everywhere you look right now you can find @thenapministry and her new book, “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto” — and I f**king LOVE it. ✨⚡️💫

Atlanta’s self-proclaimed “Nap Bishop” Tricia Hersey is splashed all over the pages of the NYT (and is now a bestseller!) and you’ll find her making the podcast rounds, too.

I couldn’t love her message more. Hersey weaves together

✨ Black liberation theology
✨ Womanist theory and praxis
✨ A critique of capitalism
✨ White supremacy
✨ The legacy of slavery
✨ Grind culture
✨ Commodification
✨ Our bodies as a site of resistance and liberation
✨ The notion of enoughness
✨ Why urgency’s a myth
✨ Imagination
✨ Creativity
✨ Silence
✨ The history of labor
✨ Community care vs self care
✨ The inherent divinity and goodness of every body (yours too)

And so much more. 🔥 Check out her recent interview with Glennon Doyle for a great introduction.

Love the ways in which Hersey has combined her theological training as an M.Div with performance art and community care. It’s just *chef’s kiss*. Inspired interdisciplinary work that the world needs so much. 💫⚡️✨