29/07/2020
Hi! Allow me to introduce myself!
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My name is Emily Madigan, and I am (was? 2020 is very confusing) a dancer and performer, mostly in musical theater.
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I spent a good amount of my adult life recovering from the spiritual trauma of growing up in the Christian faith. Being a young, outspoken woman of color in a predominantly White church, I received my fair share of discrimination. I went on to have an aggressive atheist phase, like most of us do, and eventually started getting acquainted with, what I could only call, “spirituality”.
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Crystals were my gateway onto this path. Eventually leading me to discover many of the Earth based spiritual practices of my ancestors, and the wild women of this planet. I became a practitioner of the magic of Tarot, witchcraft, self discovery, and the power of the Divine Feminine.
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I discovered Yoga years ago and, laughably, thought that it wasn’t for me. I thought yoga was all about “clearing your mind”. HA! Clear my mind? MY mind? Not a chance in hell. I went to a few classes, and realized that the teachers expected me to know what the hell they were talking about (“a downward…what?”) even though I was a beginner. It wasn’t until I discovered Yoga with Adrienne () during a particularly rough time doing a contract at a theater that was exceptionally toxic, that I found my love for yoga. She made it accessible and fun.
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When the quarantine hit, I turned to yoga again, and decided “Well, theater isn’t coming back for awhile, how can I stay active and centered, while also finding a new path?” So I decided to go through my 200 hour yoga teacher training.
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That’s where I really learned the depth of yoga, the history of yoga, that Yoga is more than the Western bastardization of turning this ancient practice into a White washed exercise craze.
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So that’s where I’m at now. Still diving deep. Still learning. Still determined to love, honor, and respect the practice of Yoga and the people and place of its origin. Open to suggestions. Open to information. Wanting to bring spirituality back to the practice. My version may look different, but it’s me.
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Thank you for being here. Let’s heal together.