Ep 04 | The Wellness Industry Isn't Well with Aisha Nash

Wayward Bodies

Aisha Nash and I got together to talk about diet culture, the unwellness of the wellness industry and the importance of being a troublemaker.

This conversation was a whirlwind of big topics, and there are links to dive deeper in the notes below.

We covered lots of ground, roaming from the insidious nature of diet culture, to the ways that cultural systems like capitalism and racism play out in the wellness industry. We touched on Aisha’s personal experiences as a south Asian woman in the Western yoga world, and caught a glimpse behind the curtain of the yoga industry, which is not always as love and light as it appears.

ABOUT AISHA

Aisha is a yoga teacher who left a career working in Michelin starred restaurants after the stress of the job caught up with both her body and mind.

She rediscovered yoga and wanted to share the practice that helped her be entirely content with exactly the person she is, but found that she didn't fit the mould of a yoga teacher that studios were looking for.

Aisha now teaches classes that are focused on inclusivity, diversity and self love, with what she calls her Anti-Diet Yoga Approach.

Find more of her work:

www.aishanash.com

Patreon

@theaishanash

MENTIONED & FURTHER RESOURCES

Bad Influencer. The documentary about Belle Gibson, the Instagram influencer who lied about having cancer (and curing it through healthy eating)

Yoga Teacher's Union is working to make sure the industry reflects the values of liberation and healing at the heart of yoga

Jonelle Lewis and Kallie Schut in conversation about yoga's roots, colonialism & cultural appropriation. Jonelle has a whole series of conversations about racism in wellness in her IGTV, each a treasure trove of insight and wisdom

Yoga is Dead Podcast. Indian-American hosts Tejal and Jesal explore power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds

On this episode of Short Wave Sabrina Strings, author of the book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia, explains the links between fatphobia and white supremacy

WORK WITH ME

Download the Radical Rest Studio

One-to-One Embodiment Guidance

In Practice, letters on embodiment magic in the real world

LINKS & CREDITS

Drop me an email - [e-mail]

Find more of my work at ellebowerjohnston.com

Join the mailing list, my other favourite way to communicate

This episode is edited by the radiant Joeli Kelly, with eternal thanks and praises.