EP110: Race in the Body, an Exploration of Whiteness in Yoga, Fitness, and Core Expression

Jan 31, 2021

Liz Koch rejoins me for a third interview, this time to discuss whiteness and colonization in the body. We explore how those pieces show up in the physical body and sensory systems, why it matters, and the importance of physical movement in anti-racism.

What Liz Shares: 

• The interconnection between how we use our bodies and our racialization of bodies
• Racialized movement patterns 
• Recognizing racialized nervous system responses
• How the idealized body in fitness is not only white, but also male, and how that impacts female fitness

What You’ll Hear:

• Noticing how performative behaviors re-iterate a frozen spine
• Changing our view to see Body as Process, rather than Body as Object
• Valuing the expressivity of the human body
• Re-assessing the idealized human body to include expression
• Developing your sense of self through knowing primal responses
• Examining your ancestral relationship with colonization
• Using movement patterns to re-enforce or interrupt white body supremacy
• Engaging with your psoas to feel more grounded 
• Letting go of control as decolonization
• Becoming available for genuine responses rather than socialized reactions
• Questioning what whiteness looks like in the white female body
• Tracking subtle whiteness
• Healing ancestral trauma through owning your Eros
• Decolonization as an ecological imperative
• Participating in society as a community member, not as an individual
• Re-membering into culture and community and out of strategy
• The more animal you are, the more human you become
• Animal body as coherence
• Pre-empting anti-racial work through movement and the sensory system
• If your body can’t move, you can’t feel your instincts

 

Resources: 

https://coreawareness.com/

IG: @stalkingwildpsoas

 

Liz Koch is an international teacher and author with 42 years of experience, focusing on kinesthetic intelligence and somatic awareness. She is the author of “The Psoas Book,” “Unraveling Scoliosis,” and “Stalking Wild Psoas: Embodying Your Core Intelligence.”