Ompractice – Practice Makes Purpose
A conscious conversation about the goings on in the yoga and mindfulness worlds and beyond.
We’re thrilled to be kicking off our new series, Practice makes Purpose, with episodes this season hosted by Reggie Hubbard. We’ll be hosting each new episode live on Wednesdays on our Instagram channel. (Listen and follow on Spotify)
Epidsode 1 with Chanel Sledge
Read the Transcript:
Reggie Hubbard: Blessings and best wishes. Reggie Hubbard here on behalf of the Ompractice Platform with the debut of the Instagram live series Practice Makes Purpose. It is an online conversation, a conscious conversation online, where we talk about some things that maybe a lot of people don’t want to get into, but it’s the conscious conversations about diversity and inclusion. So the yoga industry, the wellness space for quite some time has been a monolith of a skinny homogenous, uni-racial experience. And I, as a plus sized Black dude who started practicing at 40 years old, really had nothing to do with the “I used to be a dancer”, all these other things. So for me, my yoga journey has been about smashing through with compassion. Some of these barriers that prevent other people from seeing the wellness and the beauty in these wellness experiences.
Reggie Hubbard: Again, I’m Reggie, we’ll be here for… god – through August, but today we have a sister Chanel Sledge who we’re going to talk about her yoga journey, her teaching journey, and her wellness experience. So Chanel, I saw that you’re here. So just hit request and we’ll get you live and direct. And I can also see if I can request that you come on as well. But happy to have you here for those who view us live, for those of you that view us on YouTube later, we’re happy to have you as well. So here we go, sister Chanel.
Chanel Sledge: Hello.
Reggie Hubbard: Yeah, live and direct. Happy to have you. Welcome.
Chanel Sledge: So glad to be here.
Reggie Hubbard: The debut of Practice Makes Purpose. Thank you for saying yes. Thank you for who you are in the world. And I just want… I’m basically excited to be here. I’ve heard so much about you reputationally. So it’s delightful to see you virtually in person, number one. And number two, I’m just delighted to have this conversation with you, because as you heard in the beginning, I am… For those of you that don’t know me, I grew up in the DC Metro area. And I most recently worked on Capitol Hill during the height of the Trump era. So for me, I like a good fight.
Reggie Hubbard: And as far as I’m concerned, the fight about democratizing wellness so that Black and Brown people, all body sizes and all identities feel welcome in the space, that’s what I’m focused on now. So the last four years I was focused on something else and we were mad successful there. So now that I’ve retired from politics, wellness, I got you on my side. So don’t bet against me is basically what I’m going to say. So with that Chanel, tell us a little bit about you, your yoga journey and then we’ll go from there.
Chanel Sledge: So, I am originally from Decatur, Georgia.
Reggie Hubbard: All right.
Chanel Sledge: Decatur where it’s greater, right outside of Atlanta. I’m actually at a lovely little park here in Decatur right now because the weather’s pretty. So I decided to take it outside. I discovered yoga and I’m actually through an injury. I used to run track. And when I was probably 33, I got out of my car one day and both of my knees buckled underneath me. So with the whole physical therapy thing, and they said, you should try some yoga. And I was like,
“I’m an athlete, I don’t want to stretch. I know how to stretch. I have no interest in doing yoga. None.” So I was trying to heal my knees so I could get back to running. So I was like let me just try it and see how this helps. And I said the first couple of practices that I did were online on YouTube. And I immediately was, so this is not just stretching.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I don’t know what this is, but my body really kind of likes this.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: And so I happened to find, I was in college at the… I was getting my masters I think at the time and I happened to find a yoga studio that was around the corner. First time I ever been into yoga studio. Didn’t know much about yoga. Like I said, I took a couple of classes. My first class was a hot yoga class in down south Georgia. It was 90 degrees outside. I had on long sleeves. I had no idea. Didn’t bring any water with me. Totally unprepared for this experience.
Reggie Hubbard: I’m happy. You’re still here.
Chanel Sledge: Right. So when I walked in the owner, she was like, “You know you signed up for hot yoga?” I don’t know what hot yoga is. I don’t… So she gave me a t-shirt. She was gave me some water. And I actually, I fell in love. That’s when I fell in love. And I started taking classes at that studio and realized that it was so much more than just the physical practice. And it was everything that I needed. I metaphorically in real life, I run for a living. I run from my problems. I run on the track. That is what I did. I would avoid things. And my teacher at the time, the owner of the studio she said, you need to take some restorative yoga classes. And I said, no.
Chanel Sledge: And I refused. I kept refusing. And when she finally talked me into doing teacher training, she said, I’m going to require you take four restorative yoga classes a week.
Reggie Hubbard: Oh, wow.
Chanel Sledge: It was what I needed, but then I didn’t know that’s what I needed. The first couple of times I took the class. I couldn’t understand why I was so anxious, why I was so… Because I wasn’t used to sitting still.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And just being with everything that was going on. I was used to running, moving. I always wanted to take the very powerful classes, the ones that you can get the sweat, the ones that you just burn all the energy out. But what I really needed was to slow down.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: To slow down, to stop, to be still.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And, I took the teacher training there. And when I came out teacher training, she said you’re going to teach beginners.
Chanel Sledge: I can’t teach beginners. I’m still kind of a beginner. How can I teach beginners when I’m still, I felt like I was still a beginner. And I absolutely fell in love with teaching beginners. One, the original reason I fell in love with it, because it was a challenge to me.
Reggie Hubbard: Okay.
Chanel Sledge: Because it was a challenge for me to figure out how to try to make it accessible for everybody. Because in beginners classes, a lot of times, and even most classes, you never know who’s going to walk in that door. You never know what they have going on in their body, what… All those kinds of things. So it created this challenge of how can I make this pose work for them.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: How can I make the pose fit their bodies instead of us trying to fit our bodies into these poses.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And so ever since then, I’ve kind of always loved teaching beginners. And I love that when I have beginners, their minds are open, their hearts a little bit more open and receptive. There’s not as much ego as I find, as opposed to in some of the ‘more advanced classes’.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And so I love that student heart. I love that this is something about it that just… I love it. I just and I love being as one of the first people they encounter when they try yoga.
Reggie Hubbard: I love what you just said and it’s funny because you don’t know this, but maybe this is how in tune we are. All the questions I was to ask you in order, because all my notes is that Chanel tell us about your yoga and wellness journey. Tell us about your teaching journey. What is about beginner’s mind? So you already answered Black hippies question. So props to that. Tell me a little bit more about this beginner’s mind though, because I haven’t taken your class yet, but it’s on my list and I teach yoga in a way that kind of breaks through ego as well.
Reggie Hubbard: So I welcome all people because I grew up, I wasn’t an athlete and I didn’t start in practicing yoga till I was 40. And so for me, when people would be, okay, so now compass pose then headstand. I’m like, what? What does it even mean? How are you doing this? So then as I progressed in my yoga study, I started teaching specifically Hatha. The pose.. and slow and mindful… when people are like, “I think Hatha is boring”, – a word? stand in tree pose for a minute and a half.
Chanel Sledge: Right.
Reggie Hubbard: Is that boring? So tell me a little bit more about beginner’s mind and how you approach that and then how you offer that to your students.
Chanel Sledge: So, for me, when I’m teaching beginners, I love to do series. Cause series I feel like if you do a beginning series, it really sets them up really well for a nice lifelong practice. Cause this is a long practice. This is not just a, something that you just do to get in shape. This is… And some people get into it for the physical reason and that’s totally cool. Cause that’s how I got there.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: But guess what? Once you start getting into, you’re like, oh, wow. I got a little, the smile on my face just won’t go away. What is this feeling? What is? And you start getting deeper but… A couple of things like for beginners, one of the first things I always love to teach is the breath.
Reggie Hubbard: Okay.
Chanel Sledge: The breath to me is one of the most important things. And I just got done reading another book about the breath I’m fascinated with the body in general, The Science of Breath.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: And it’s just so amazing how we don’t breathe full breath. And for beginners, I find that they hold their breath a lot. They forget to breathe when they’re practicing. So queuing the breath is super important. And except for beginners is setting the foundation and letting them know from the jump that some of these things may be a little challenging.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: This is not going to happen like that. This is a journey.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And I always… And I like to show them that I’m not perfect.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I am still working on several different things. I’m on this journey along with them. I may be a few steps ahead.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: But I’m still on this journey with them. And so trying to set the foundation for them, for this journey, with the breath, with certain postures. And I try not to… you know, I find that you go into a yoga class and it can be really intimidating.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: You got the yoga teacher saying “Ardha Chandrasana” – and you’re like who? [crosstalk 00:11:03] What is Ardha?
Reggie Hubbard: Who is that?
Chanel Sledge: Ardha in the back? Ardha? No.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: So trying to, one, make it accessible and make it so that they can understand what you’re saying and breaking things down. So in my beginners classes, we do flow because a lot of people come to flow. But when we flow, we usually turn just through some sun salutations that I’ve already broken down and the flow. But then we do, it’s more like it’s a combination of flow and Hatha.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Because I stop, we break down the poses, we set you up, we get you to feel into the poses. And then maybe you might flow a little bit with those poses. And it’ll only be a few per class. It’s not going to be, I’m going to teach all the backbends or we’re going to do all the external hip openers… We don’t do that. It’s a few poses per class.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: We flow first, get you going.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Pause, break things down. And then maybe flow a little bit more.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: To get into the flow. Cause people like, when they come to class, a lot of times they like to move.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And so I want to make sure that they get that movement in, but I also want to make sure that I give them the tools they need so that they are set up for when they go into a flow class. And they’re like, I have no idea what this pose is or what it’s supposed to feel like or how I can modify it and all that.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Because most of the time, flow, a true flow class, you don’t have the time to give all the different variations.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: You can use the block here. You can adjust your stance here. All these little things that you can’t do in a traditional flow class, I like to incorporate it into my classes. So my classes are more like a half and half. It’s a little flow and a little hatha, breath work at the beginning.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Stillness at the end.
Reggie Hubbard: Okay. So how do you make… So you talked a little bit about it, but how do you specifically focus on making the practice more approachable? Because one of the things that I’ve noticed the teachers do, and this is specifically, this comment is to the teachers out there, we need to make yoga approachable. And I’ll tell you where I’m coming from with this. So I taught yoga and meditation online during the pandemic to members of Congress, to their staff, to political operatives. And that wasn’t okay, we’re going to do headstand. It was just, so if you’re hunched over your desk, find a tall spot. If you look like this, the only person that should look like this is either a T-Rex or someone in Michael Jackson’s [mime’s Thriller] look like this. So get into the wrists. Shake it out. So how do you make the process and the experience more approachable? Because one of the things that I’ve noticed is that when it’s not approachable, people leave.
Chanel Sledge: Right.
Reggie Hubbard: So to make it more approachable.
Chanel Sledge: I kind of do kind of like how you do. I talk about… I try to always incorporate real life bodies in situations, how we sit down all the time or how… Yeah. All that kind of stuff. And the tight hips and all that stuff from sitting down all day. And I’m like so if you wake up or if you sit down on the floor and your back automatically starts to round, this is how you help that. If you find yourself always like this, we’re going to work on the class that helps to open you up so that you can sit up nice and tall, works on the back muscles. But also try, like I said, I have a very, I don’t know if this comes across it right now. Very bubbly person. I’m a very…
Reggie Hubbard: No.
Chanel Sledge: Yeah. I like to call myself a little bottle of sunshine. And so I am a very… I hope it comes across as a very welcoming, a very warm person who and I let them know that yoga is for everybody, every shape. And I always tell people at the beginning of my class, I have two rules in my class.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: And I tell them at the beginning of the class. These are my rules.
Reggie Hubbard: All right.
Chanel Sledge: You don’t like my rules. Rule number one, you honor your body wherever it is today.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Not where it was 15, 20 years ago. Not where you want it to be 10 years from now. We honor our bodies where they are today.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: And I give people the power to, I give them the permission to take what they need and leave everything else. I’m not in your body. You know what’s going on in your body. So we’re going to work with it and we’re going to honor it. If you need to pause, take a pause. I’ll tell ’em like, I’ll be right here waiting on you. I’m not going anywhere for the next hour. Take your time.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And rule number two, put a smile on your face.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: You can’t be in my class without smile at some point. Not allowed. So if you come in here all, no.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Let’s start off with a smile.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Let’s get it together. So I try to, I just try to make it really friendly. I try to… I am not the, and I have taken classes where it’s really serious and really just kind of, and there’s a place for that. And I do love that sometimes, but I’m not that teacher. I am the teacher that is going to make you laugh, make you smile, make you feel good. We will take a little shake break.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I tell people I can’t dance. Don’t ever invite me to a party. I will embarrass you. All I can do is a little two-step that’s it. That’s all I got is two steps.
Chanel Sledge: Maybe electric slide on a good day.
Reggie Hubbard: That’s all right. That’s all you need.
Chanel Sledge: But I just really try to, I try to make it less intimidating. And I always start with, I don’t like to say modifications. I always start with the easier variations of every pose.
Reggie Hubbard: Sure.
Chanel Sledge: And then always give the option to maybe take it here. Maybe take it here. But I’ll only going where you need to. And I tell people, if you start frowning up, stop, you’ve gone too far. If you’re not breathing…
Reggie Hubbard: When your breath gets held inside.
Chanel Sledge: Right. If the breath gets all or you like, you’ve gone too far. And giving them that permission cause a lot of times that’s something I find is not given. They’re not given that permission to really listen to the body and do what they need to do.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And there’s no ego in my class.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: Don’t worry about what Paul, Jimmy, John, Susie Q. They’re not in your body.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And I tell them, nobody’s watching you but me. But I’m not watching you in a creepy way, I’m just watching you in the way just the guy to keep you safe. But nobody else is paying attention to you.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: You do what you need to do, honor your body and let’s do this and have fun.
Reggie Hubbard: That’s what’s up. So for those of you that are here, please ask questions because we’re here for you. Chanel and I, we could probably go back and forth all day.
Chanel Sledge: We could.
Reggie Hubbard: But if you’ve got questions, just holla at us. We’d love to answer them. I guess one of the things I would ask is that, so tell me a little bit about not only your journey as a sister teacher, but as just like a Black woman in the yoga space. You want to talk about approachability and accessibility. This right here, Black male teacher, Black female teacher chopping it up, talking about the things. This is like catching lightning in a bottle.
Chanel Sledge: Right.
Reggie Hubbard: Would you please tell me about your experience as Black female practitioner and Black female teacher because I don’t think enough people know what we go through when we don’t look like that.
Chanel Sledge: So obviously… well…not obviously, when I first started doing yoga, there weren’t many people who looked like me doing yoga.
Reggie Hubbard: Yeah.
Chanel Sledge: I will say at the studio that I was at, there was… The reason was why I love that studio, that’s my home studio, she was very good about being inclusive. And there was a, but [inaudible 00:18:55] teachers.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I didn’t see a person of color teacher until… It was well after I was in my practice.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And that’s one of the things, that was one of my things is that I want to be one of those people that lets other people know that we do do yoga.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And we need yoga.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: We need yoga. And it doesn’t matter the shape. I’ve been all kinds of shapes. If you look back at my pictures, I’ve been here, I’ve been here, I’ve been here and it doesn’t matter. I’m still Yogi. I’m still… The shape of your body doesn’t matter. The color of your skin doesn’t matter. None of that matters. But I think it’s really important that we are represented because I don’t feel like we are properly represented.
Chanel Sledge: I don’t feel that we are properly valued as well. I feel like those are the people that they had the choice between a white yoga teacher and maybe a thicker person of color that they would choose the white person. And even though I might have the more conditionals, more knowledge, more this and that.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: It’s just sometimes it’s what it is.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And that’s something that I’m trying to help kind of crush through and show. And honestly, I thank Ompractice because I feel like they have done a really great job of helping to do that.
Chanel Sledge: And I was one of the OG Ompractice teachers.
Reggie Hubbard: All right.
Chanel Sledge: So the fact that they came to me and this is when I was little known, little Black girl in down south Georgia.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And they reached out to me and the fact that they did that, and it wasn’t because we were going through this Black Lives Matter thing. No, they were ahead of the game.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: They already trying to do this. And I thank them for that all the time. That they gave me this opportunity. They gave me this chance and believed in me when other people might not have.
Reggie Hubbard: Right. And look at you now. I mean [inaudible 00:21:04].
Chanel Sledge: I know, right?
Reggie Hubbard: But that’s also quite serious. And Chris and Rachael and Sam, like love y’all and appreciate y’all because this series came about because they were just like, Reggie, we want to do a little bit more online. I was like, I don’t have a problem talking. So let’s go, let’s get it. And so thank them for again, the willingness, because a lot of people think it’s a risk to employ or interact with people who aren’t the norm. Whereas what I love about them is that they seek to do things that are not the norm. Even before the pandemic, the thought of taking yoga class through your computer, people were, I don’t want to do that. I can’t tell you Chanel how many people were just like, Reggie, I can’t wait to take a class with you in person.
Reggie Hubbard: And this is in April of 2020. I was like, you know that may not happen until October of next year.
Chanel Sledge: Right.
Reggie Hubbard: You’re going to not do yoga because the computer thing? Really? So tell me a little bit more about your experience with teaching online, because I found it to be quite accessible, not only as a teacher, because I, similar to you, but probably more exponentially over the pandemic I’m going from who was this to who is this. So, I went from not teaching at all to teaching globally.
Chanel Sledge: Mm-hmm.
Reggie Hubbard: And so, how has teaching online been for you as a teacher, but also how you serve students?
Chanel Sledge: So teaching on like say when this opportunity first came to me, it actually came to me at the most perfect time. And I love computers. I’m a little techie and I love to be at home. Real talk. I am a home body. I am a home body. So at the time I was doing a lot of moving. And so I was having to leave studio and all this and that. And honestly, it was, like I said, it was the vine leak presented to me. I was looking for a way that I could still be able to connect to my students. And when I was moving and changing locations.
Reggie Hubbard: Yeah.
Chanel Sledge: And so when this opportunity came to me, it was like, sign me up. Yes.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: But I was really nervous because I was just like, I don’t know how this is going to go. Cause I’ve always been used to being in person and there’s a different energy from in person. I was like am I still going to be able to get that energy and to give that energy online? And so that to me was the first kind of hurdle that I had to get over was I had to… Cause I was nervous at first teaching online. It just felt different.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And I wasn’t… When I first started teaching, I don’t feel like I was completely truly my authentic self cause I was nervous. I was little… But then once I started to get kind of get the nerves out, I started showing up this is me. Yeah. And I feel like I’ve… The connections that I have with my students online has been just as good or even greater than the ones I have had in person.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Even in my classes, they know each other. They talk to each other. They can be… It’s so awesome that people will ask about, Hey, how’s your vacation going? It’s still that community. And that’s one of the biggest things for me was still to create that community because I didn’t want it to just be this, just these squares.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I don’t want it to be just these little squares and these like a number. I want to know you, connect with you. I want you to know me, connect with me, know each other. And I had a student the other day, she was like, Hey, I haven’t seen Paula in class in a while. Have you heard from her? I was like, oh yeah, she’s back at work. The fact that they noticed someone’s not been in class and to ask about them. It did up my teaching skills, teaching online because I had to learn to get really good with my verbal cues.
Reggie Hubbard: Absolutely.
Chanel Sledge: Really good. I couldn’t depend on my body as much as I used to, to demo. So I had to get really good with that. The only thing that I have found though, it’s with my beginner’s class is I do find that I do have to demo more with my beginner’s class. Just because there are a lot of people who, people learn differently. There are some people are very visual and they, I have found that they will do exactly what I do. If I’m on my mat demoing something and i stopped, they stopped. I’m like, no, keep going.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: But it really has changed the way I teach. I think it has definitely made me a better teacher, teaching online. Definitely. I feel like I said, cause my words have gotten better and more concise and direct and a lot, no shade to anybody, but a lot of teachers who are teaching online are on their mats the whole entire time.
Chanel Sledge: And so you can’t see anything if you’re on your mat the whole time.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And so being able to stop and come up to the computer to look and to give suggestions or not corrections, I don’t believe in corrections, just suggestions and guidance is a really cool thing. I love teaching online, like I said, I’m a home body. So if I can teach from home and then go have my breakfast. I’m good. I don’t have to drive anywhere. Yeah. I love it. I absolutely love it. How has your experience been teaching online? Just curious. I know it’s about, you’re talking to me, but I just want to know.
Reggie Hubbard: Cause I, prior to the pandemic, you kidding me, I had a full-time job. I’m not going to leave work early, try and get cross town and maybe not make the six o’clock class. You know what I mean? So, because in DC traffic, you enjoyed is what am I telling you? Especially if you [inaudible 00:26:36] whatever. So like what happens, traffic and just the, to get into a slot, one slot and then maybe try and go other places that never really appealed to me. And again, the studio’s wanted and no shade, but certain studios wanted you to teach a certain way. That’s not how Black hippie gets down. I teach like this. And if you down with that, let’s kick it. If you not down with that blessings. No shade and no shame. But what I found via online, both through Ompractice and through Active Peace, which is my world, I had complete freedom.
Chanel Sledge: Mm-hmm.
Reggie Hubbard: Complete freedom to do what I wanted to do, but also to serve how and where I wanted to serve. So rather than being in the DC area, I put a call out and I had people and have people from Berlin to Hawaii coming in virtual sangha, right?
Chanel Sledge: Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard: That’s mind blowing. And the other thing I’ll say is that I’m an organizer and activist when I’m not teaching and I’ve merged the two is that online… Sometimes studios, whether it be culturally or otherwise are inaccessible. And there are some parts of the world that where you don’t have access to a computer. So I’m not saying that this isn’t first world problem. But all you need is an access to the internet and you can get quality yoga, quality [crosstalk 00:28:12]
Chanel Sledge: Right. You don’t even need a computer. You can do it, cell phone, iPad, tablet, whatever.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And here we go. I have so many people. One of my ladies is so, she was doing some renovations on our house.
Reggie Hubbard: Yeah.
Chanel Sledge: So they bought, they had this little tiny, they bought a little tiny house to live in while they were doing the renovations in the big house.
Reggie Hubbard: Yeah.
Chanel Sledge: They had a little cell phone propped up in this little corner. You can do it anywhere. In a hotel room. You can literally, I tell people you can take me anywhere in the world.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I’ll be right there with you.
Reggie Hubbard: Right. I’m going to put that on my website. But I’m up to do like asterisk shit. It will say “Take me anywhere in the world!” Asterisk, Chanel Sledge said this. Right. Cause I ain’t going to take your shot. Now, but it has been a delightful experience to be of service at this time especially when studios closed down and all you had was this.
Chanel Sledge: Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard: It gave an opportunity to be of match service. So in one year I’ve gone from not teaching at all to branded teaching practice with Prince stuff and Marvin Gaye this and Kangols and head bands and all this. So Black hippy has gone from like I said, for “who this to who that”.
Chanel Sledge: Right.
Reggie Hubbard: So it’s been beautiful. But the best part for me has been the opportunity to serve greater.
Reggie Hubbard: And that’s the thing is that now we have this opportunity to reach so many people that we didn’t have the ability to reach before.
Chanel Sledge: Right. And like I say, especially in these times, I feel like we need it more than ever.
Reggie Hubbard: Everybody. Yeah.
Chanel Sledge: More than ever. More than ever we need this practice because there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world and we need this to kind of help… And I’m a big believer of sharing love, spreading love. The more people who I can get to get into this practice, the more love that can be spread out. And we all can use a little more love, a little more sunshine and in the world.
Reggie Hubbard: And a little bit more [inaudible 00:30:15] too.
Reggie Hubbard: So as we conclude what I want to ask, I want to ask you two more questions. One is what would you, what do you consider, and I think you’ve mentioned it a little bit, but maybe tease this out a little bit more. What do you consider an important thing for us to focus on now? So as we emerge from the pandemic, as people rushed to this or people try and go back to normal or whatever it is, what do you as Yogi, Yogani teacher, but also human think is important for us to focus on in general, but especially as we seek to make these things more accessible?
Chanel Sledge: I think as we go back to this new normal, cause it’s never going to be what it was before. I think we need to make sure that we take the lessons that we learned during the pandemic and not forget those lessons.
Reggie Hubbard: Mm-hmm.
Chanel Sledge: And not forget those things. I know for me during the pandemic, I learned a lot more about priorities and boundaries and I’m not going to go back to what I was before. I’m not going to go back to trying to kill myself at this job that doesn’t care about me. Just stuff like that and just make sure that you prioritize yourself, prioritize your mental health.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: And I think during this time, people started to really pay attention to mental health. And I hope that continues, I hope the conversation continues with that because it is a real thing. And in the Black community is not a thing that is often talked about.
Reggie Hubbard: Not really.
Chanel Sledge: But it is so important. And it’s something that I think that we all need to kind of get into and check into and work on that.
Chanel Sledge: Breath. Remembering the breathe in the tough times when things get really crazy. Stop, pause, and breathe.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: I think that’s so important. And taking care of your body inside and out.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Inside and out. To me those are the biggest things that we, that I feel like we need to focus on as we go back to this ‘new normal’.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: Whatever that’s going to look like. And honoring, respecting yourself and your body and honoring respecting others as well. Cause we are all one.
Reggie Hubbard: Right.
Chanel Sledge: We are all one.
Reggie Hubbard: And so any other closing thoughts or anything else you want to share? So where can we find you as one thing. And then, so where can we find you either online or Ompractice? When do you teach? And if there’s anything else you want to share, go for it and then I’ll close us out.
Chanel Sledge: All right. So on Ompractice. You ready?
Reggie Hubbard: Yeah.
Chanel Sledge: I don’t see, I don’t know how many classes I teach, but I’m about to tell you. So you can find me at all times on Ompractice. Just about every day. So Monday I teach at 6 30… Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings, I teach a 6:30 AM Vinyasa express classes. Twenty-five minutes. Monday afternoon, I teach the afternoon flow at 12:00 PM. Monday evening, I teach a beginners class at 5:30 PM. On Saturday, I teach a beginners yoga class at 8:00 AM and a power yoga class at 9:00 AM.
Chanel Sledge: So several opportunities to come and hang out with me on Ompractice. Obviously here you can find me at @Chanel_Sledge. Online, you can find me at asimpletwistyoga.com. If you want to do some more personal one-on-one classes with me. And let’s see, what else could I just, it’s kind of tied up. I thank everybody for showing up and hanging out with us. If you’re catching this live or on the replay. I love to see the comments. If you have any questions, please get at me or Reggie, we would love to facilitate you in any way that we can.
Reggie Hubbard: We will.
Chanel Sledge: And let’s just go out there and bring more little light and love into the world.
Reggie Hubbard: That’s a great way to end. I’ll close by saying it has been thank you for being my first guest on this summer series.
Chanel Sledge: I’m honored
Reggie Hubbard: Practice Make Purpose. Making sure that we have real conversations with real people about real stuff. There are a lot of people, the blessing of the internet is that people have free access to communication. The curse of the internet is that a lot of people have that and they ain’t saying nothing. So you have my promise. Black hippy promises you that if you see my face we going to be talking about something. We’re not going to be like, oh, and then. No, ain’t nobody got time for that. We talk about things, especially as it pertains to accessibility and inclusion. Because again, I said this before, we’re not for the pandemic. I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be this emergent personality. The pandemic gave me the space for that. And y’all know how…. Y’all know Black people, I’m going to tell you, once you let us in, I ain’t going nowhere.
Chanel Sledge: Nowhere.
Reggie Hubbard: I’m here. So…
Chanel Sledge: I would say my favorite little saying, but I’m keeping it PG [crosstalk 00:35:15].
Reggie Hubbard: You can find me…
Chanel Sledge: Y’all stuck with me. Y’all just, y’all figure out the rest.
Reggie Hubbard: Absolutely. At Reggie global Active Peace yoga, go to www.activepeaceyoga.com. But it ain’t really about that. I’ll be here through August. And then hopefully homegirl Yasmene will take up after this. After we tell the soul, she can bring the flowers to bloom. So with that, I have all singing bowls behind me. I’m going to play one of them in conclusion. So for those of you that are here, for those of you who view this online, find your tall spine, shoulders back. Maybe take some half circles with the neck, just relieve some of the tension and find just better posture. Navels engaged. And reflect on the beautiful conversation. Again, like I said, we caught lightning in a bottle. So Black male teacher, Black female teacher, talk about accessibility with peace and love. That doesn’t happen often. So reflect on this beautiful, accessible, delightful, melanated experience, especially the week after Juneteenth, Ashe. I’ll ring this bowl three times. Let’s inhale through the nose, exhale out the mouth. Deep inhale. Cherish the breath. Allow it to fill the lungs. Exhale out the mouth. Fully and completely
Reggie Hubbard: Last breath. In through the nose, exhale out the mouth. Blessings to all who showed up. Deep bow of gratitude to each of you. See you next Wednesday around this time. We will have Men Care Now, president and founder, Nick de Alejo, talking about yoga and accessibility for men. Because yoga in the west is probably predominantly female, which is fine, but men need this love and stress relief too though. We’re going to talk about that next week. And until then, love and grace to each of you take good care of yourself over and out. Thank you very much.
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