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When Jessamyn Stanley told me that she loves smoking spliffs, I was surprised. As a yoga teacher who has gained prominence as an outspoken critic of white-centric, commercialized yoga, Stanley occupies a particular intersection of weed and wellness that I didn\u2019t expect to be cool with tobacco.<\/p>\n
But perhaps I should have expected it.<\/p>\n
After all, it\u2019s Stanley\u2019s seeming contradictions that have vaulted her to becoming one of the most sought-after voices in yoga. Identifying as fat, black and queer,\u00a0Stanley<\/a>\u00a0is an inspiration to women who don\u2019t look like the typical skinny-white-girl-doing-a-handstand image of yoga that has come to dominate wellness culture. She is here to tell us that, in fact, it is not a contradiction to be fat and fit. And now, she\u2019s here to tell us that it is not a contradiction to be productive and a stoner. (Hear, hear!)<\/p>\n In many ways, her journey to becoming a cannabis consumer and advocate mirrors her journey to practicing, teaching and speaking about yoga.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a Reagan baby. My parents made sure that I was in D.A.R.E.,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo I was really anti-everything up until undergrad, and even then, [smoking cannabis] still made me think, \u2018This is like a bad thing to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The thought that marijuana could be medicine was not really something that occurred to her, until she dated a cannabis consumer who showed her the plant in a new light \u2014 as a \u201chealing practice\u201d rather than a shameful activity. And later, this new mentality about cannabis turned out to be instrumental to her success in the yoga world.<\/p>\n Stanley, who is based in Durham, North Carolina, re-discovered yoga while struggling with anxiety and depression in the wake of her aunt\u2019s death. When she first started posting photos of her yoga practice on Instagram in 2013, she had hoped to solicit feedback and improve her form. Instead, she dispelled stereotypes and inspired others to start practicing yoga, too. Those early Instagram posts are littered with comments like, \u201cI just started doing yoga and I didn\u2019t think I could do some of the moves because I am not a twig! Thanks for showing me anyone can do yoga!\u201d<\/p>\n As her community has grown exponentially since 2013, Stanley has been featured in publications from\u00a0The New York Times<\/a>\u00a0to People, published a book (\u201cEvery Body Yoga<\/a>\u201d) and taught yoga classes all over the world. Earlier this year, she launched her new app The\u00a0Underbelly<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a subscription service for those who \u201chave ever thought that people who look like you or think like you or live like you don\u2019t do yoga.\u201d<\/p>\n When we sat down for an interview at\u00a0The Wing Soho in New York<\/a>\u00a0(Stanley and I are both members of the women\u2019s co-working space) on a summer afternoon, she says she couldn\u2019t have managed her whirlwind rise to prominence if it hadn\u2019t been for cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe combination of cannabis, yoga and meditation\u2026 I don\u2019t know where I would be without them,\u201d she says. Marijuana is \u201csomething that I attribute so much of my health and success to. As my life has evolved to have this career that takes so many different pathways, it\u2019s very difficult for me to be emotionally available for my work in the way that I need to be without it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Reagan baby-turned D.A.R.E. kid has now been a daily cannabis consumer for the past decade. She prefers smoking joints and\u00a0spliffs<\/a>\u00a0(whether mixed with tobacco or other herbs). Vaping and edibles are nice while traveling, and dabbing is reserved for special occasions. \u201cBut smoking a spliff or smoking a jay is definitely my go-to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As a fellow fan of smoking spliffs, I mentioned to Stanley the pushback to mixing weed with tobacco that I\u2019ve encountered in the cannabis world. \u201cPeople often view tobacco as\u00a0tainting\u00a0<\/em>the cannabis,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the same with cannabis and yoga!\u201d she said. \u201cPeople think that it\u2019s tainting the practice somehow, or that it\u2019s fogging the space that needs to be cleared. And I think that that is the prohibition mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n And while she hasn\u2019t taught any 420-friendly classes\u00a0yet<\/em>, her home practice is \u201cextremely\u201d 420-friendly.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything that you can do to let go of the f*ckery of this world is helpful. I think that that\u2019s where the combination of cannabis and yoga is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Stanley hasn\u2019t always been so open about her cannabis use. Despite recent gains in legalization across the U.S., the stigma surrounding marijuana persists. People can still lose their jobs over medical marijuana use \u2014 even in states where it\u2019s legal.<\/p>\n When she first considered opening up about her cannabis advocacy, she says her \u201cimmediate fear\u201d was that that it would impact her professional standing, a fear that still keeps many a cannabis consumer in the closet.<\/p>\n But ultimately, she realized that, by not talking about it, she was complicit in a system where too many are still incarcerated for the very substance that had helped her succeed.<\/p>\n \u201cI just felt like, \u2018What\u2019s the point of having the platform if you\u2019re not going to really use it for something that matters?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The same forces of gentrification have shaped both the yoga and cannabis industries. As a fat-bodied yoga practitioner, Stanley says seeing changes in the yoga world helped inspire her to speak out about cannabis, especially since the cannabis industry is still in its early days.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s key for marginalized people is to stop trying to be accepted by this mainstream whitewashing of the cannabis industry,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve noticed that in the yoga world, there are so many black and brown voices who have f*cking co-signed this [mainstream] agenda,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are fat bodies that have co-signed\u2026 Lululemon. How far can we really go if we\u2019ve already given them the sign off?\u201d<\/p>\n In the cannabis industry, the forces of white, corporate control are especially insidious, thanks to the patchwork of state marijuana laws and continued federal prohibition that disproportionately punish black and brown people.<\/p>\n Often, it\u2019s the already privileged who have the resources or connections to start a business, whether it\u2019s a yoga studio or a marijuana dispensary. Stanley pointed out that these dynamics are even more pronounced in the cannabis industry because of all the legal barriers to entry: Funding is scarce due to federal prohibition and just applying for a license can cost thousands of dollars. And that\u2019s not even considering the fact that many marijuana programs bar those with past cannabis convictions from even entering the industry.<\/p>\n When Stanley first started traveling to Seattle as her yoga work took her around the country, she says she was excited to be in a legal state \u00ad\u2014 a sharp contrast to her home in North Carolina. She looked up dispensaries on Yelp and headed to Uncle Ike\u2019s, a popular spot in the city\u2019s Central District. \u201cI loved it,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything was great.\u201d She went back there every time she came to town and started talking about it on social media, too.<\/p>\n But her followers started to push back. At first, she dismissed the critics \u2014 \u201cyeah, y\u2019all mad, whatever. It\u2019s great,\u201d she thought. But then, she realized, \u201cActually,\u00a0it\u2019s really not<\/em>\u00a0[great] because we\u2019re just continuing to feed the cycle,\u201d she says. \u201cThe corner that the dispensary is on was once the corner where like everybody was getting locked up\u2026 that story is being lost as time goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, she goes to the woman-owned cannabis retail shop\u00a0Ganja Goddess<\/a>\u00a0when she visits Seattle. She\u2019s mindful that consumer choices are important, and says this is about more than the fa\u00e7ade of a company. \u201cThis isn\u2019t an anti-white guys club,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about the ethics of the company. What work are they doing on the other side to lessen inequality? What work are they doing in terms of prison abolition? What are you doing for incarcerated populations?\u201d<\/p>\n Plenty of cannabis companies purport to promote certain values in the industry, whether it\u2019s participating in social equity programs, funding expungement clinics or hiring those with past cannabis convictions. At best, these actions are well-intentioned attempts to remedy the harms of racially disparate drug enforcement. At worst, they\u2019re cynical undertakings to gain good press while skirting the real work that needs to be done to achieve systemic change.<\/p>\n \u201cYoga studios and companies ask this all the time \u2014 \u2018What can I be doing? We want to be body positive, we want to be diverse,\u2019\u201d said Stanley. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Look around you, dude. If you\u2019re only looking at people who look like you, why would anything different be happening?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As for advice she has for companies looking to genuinely make a difference, she says: \u201cDon\u2019t tokenize your space, but truly diversify. Listen to the other voices who are in the room and then you\u2019ll know what you need to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Moving forward, Stanley hopes to continue making use of her platform while incorporating cannabis into her yoga teaching, too.<\/p>\n But in the meantime, subscribers to The Underbelly are able to use cannabis at their own leisure. \u201cThe home practice is really designed for that,\u201d she says. \u201cTruly the heart of The Underbelly is to create the yoga space that is really authentic to you\u2026 [The home] is also one of the only places \u2014 even if you live in a legal state \u2014 where you can consume cannabis legally.\u201d<\/p>\n And you better believe that she\u2019s going to continue speaking out against inequality and unequal representation, whether it\u2019s in yoga, cannabis and beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cActivism seems fun and easy before you\u2019re actually doing it. And then it\u2019s scary and lonely,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you think about it in the bigger picture, the discomfort in the short term just doesn\u2019t really matter because [it] makes a difference to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0have you ever incorporated cannabis into your yoga practice?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 39 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Stretch Further: Jessamyn Stanley Redefines Wellness Culture<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
When Jessamyn Stanley told me that she loves smoking spliffs, I was surprised. As a yoga teacher who has gained prominence as an outspoken critic of white-centric, commercialized yoga, Stanley occupies a particular intersection of weed and wellness that I didn\u2019t expect to be cool with tobacco. But perhaps IContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":39836,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,99,85,12901,12902,3163,1885],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39837,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39835\/revisions\/39837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Jessalyn-Stanley-Blue-Chair.jpg\")
An Elevated Flow<\/h4>\n
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Combating Stigma, On and Off the Mat<\/h4>\n
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Mindful Movements<\/h4>\n
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A Homegrown Practice<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Stretch Further: Jessamyn Stanley Redefines Wellness Culture<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"