s o n a d e s ai b u c h a n a n

B.A., E-RYT 500, YACEP
pronouns: she/her/hers

I’m a first-generation Indian American yoga educator with roots in Gujarat, India. I was born in Melbourne, Australia, raised in Raleigh, NC, and have since lived in New York City, Florence - Italy, Tacoma -WA and O’ahu - HI. I am also a military spouse, currently living in Las Cruces - NM on the ancestral and current homelands of the Chiricahua Apache, the Mescalero Apache, the Piro, Manso, Tigua, Tortugas Pueblo, and the Mexica. I reside here with my husband, my baby girl and my 12 year old pup, Pickle.

A lifelong yoga and Āyurveda student, I have been a mentor and guide for 15 years, facilitating teacher trainings, workshops, classes and individual and team development. My mission is to honor, uphold and share my wisdom traditions in a simple and heartfelt way, while creating awareness and opportunities for action towards inclusivity, equity and access in yoga spaces and all spaces.

I received two degrees from New York University (NYU) in Psychology and Anthropology. I am an E-RYT 500 and graduate of 8 Limbs Yoga (300 hours) and Kripalu School of Yoga (200 hours), with additional training in:

• Tantric traditions: prāṇāyāma, meditation, Laya Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Kriyā Yoga

• Rest practices: Yoga Nidrā, Restorative Yoga, Yin Yoga

• Mantra Yoga: Bhakti & Vedic Chanting

• Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY), Yoga for Veterans & Social Justice

• Pre/Postnatal, Children’s & Teens Yoga (trauma-informed focus)

• Thai Yoga Bodywork, Shamanic Reiki and Qi Gong

Prior to yoga, I worked in non-profits and universities to serve military families, children who have been through trauma and historically disenfranchised neighborhoods. I then worked in the private sector to help connect and grow my local yoga and wellness community. I shared yoga with veterans for several years before becoming a military spouse, and have been collaborating with Wounded Warrior Project for 5 years. I am both an ongoing student of—and devoted advocate for—collective trauma awareness, anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusivity and body positivity and acceptance.

h o n o r i n g m y r o o t s & e l d e r s

My young life emphasized the idea that everything is sacred. Reverence, devotion, kindness, respect, integrity, justice and wisdom were principles I learned to embody through immersion in Bharātanāṭyam (classical Indian dance), the Mahābharāta, Rāmāyaṇa and Upaniṣads (yogic texts), Bhakti Yoga (bhajans), mantra and the lifestyle and culinary practices of Āyurveda. I still hold these practices close to my heart and these principles as my core values and the basis for who I am today.

Growing up in the South as “other”—neither black, white or of any dominant religion—was challenging. As an immigrant child, raised in the Hindu tradition, often I felt invisible, bullied and under pressure to assimilate and erase my identity. Immersed in a traumatic environment at home, over time I watched myself become very small on the outside. However, on the inside I held fiercely to a deep sense of belonging to something bigger. It’s as if I always knew I was being held up by a loving intelligence that was far more vast than I. I tried to reflect this knowing out to others, regardless of the pain I felt. As I did, my spirit became more resilient.

Then came my 20’s, dedicated to digging deep into all of the light and dark corners of the heart. In stark contrast to the South, city life in New York brought so much stimulation. My creativity and ambition ran wild. In an effort to find belonging, a home away from home, I joined a South Asian dance collective at NYU which ended up becoming an impetus for huge transformation in my life. Dance was always my refuge, but it soon became a space for exploration and ultimately freedom — a place where I could untangle my intricate identity and help bring voice to complex social issues. In 2004, I began a haṭha yoga practice to balance the intensity of being a college student and dancer.

Post-college, I began working at Duke University in the field of child trauma, and that’s when I learned that trauma was stored in our tissues. As I deepened my relationship with yoga āsana, prāṇāyāma and meditation, I remembered how to be in my body again, to be present and to listen to what was really going on, especially when discomfort, injury or illness arose. I started teaching classes in 2009. As I entered my 30’s, I met the love of my life, got married and moved away.

This event turned my life completely topsy turvy.

My sense of non-attachment was really tested as my web of safety—family, friends, students, clients and community—was fully dismantled. This breaking of ties forced me to dig deeper into my own trauma (C-PTSD), biases, beliefs and reactions. As I entered motherhood, I recognized that my inner child still needed tending to in order for me to fully embody this new role. This deep self-work is an ongoing process that has revealed many truths, created space for compassion and acceptance, and carved out a path toward wholeness, which I know allows space for others to become whole too.

In honoring the richness of my culture, I call in my elders & ancestors, the lineage of teachers and educators of which I am a part, and ask for their blessings. I am grateful to my paternal grandparents who bravely immigrated from India to Africa; and for my dad who left Africa for Germany, then Australia and ultimately to the US. I honor the fierceness of my maternal great-grandmother who started a school for girls in her village and was an activist and a freedom fighter who participated in resistance movements such as the Salt March; the gentleness of my maternal great-grandfather, who lived his life as a yogi, and who taught my mum the wisdom tradition of Āyurveda and served as the mayor of his village. I honor my paternal grandmother (Baa) who was a loving Bhakta, a model of devotion, who along with my mum, taught me mantra via oral tradition. I am grateful to my mum for believing in me and calling me a trail-blazer, something I endeavor to live into every day.