This is not Tea

In this episode of This Is Not Tea Tamika and Ashley sit down with Oneika Mays (meditation teacher, former mindfulness coach at Rikers Island, and author of Sit With Me: A No BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation) and Pamela Stokes Eggleston (yoga therapist, former director of the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy, and author of You Are the Pendulum: Poems and Practices for an Unsettling World) for a wide-ranging, deeply honest conversation.
Together they name the difference between performative wellness and the real work, unpack why the "wellness industrial complex" is tangled up with white supremacy and late stage capitalism, talk about what it actually takes to hold space for stillness in Black and marginalized bodies, and get into the ethics of teaching and lineage. Tamika also shares a first look at her forthcoming book (currently known as Yogalandia), and the four of them dream up a joint yoga festival.
Grab Sit With Me and You Are the Pendulum, follow Oneika and Pamela's work, and — as always — like, subscribe, and share so more people can find us.
 
Follow Oneika MaysWebsite: oneikamays.com · Instagram: @oneikamays · Facebook: @omays · X/Twitter: @oneikamays · LinkedIn: oneika-mays · YouTube: oneikamays · Substack: oneika.substack.com
Pamela Stokes EgglestonWebsite: yoga2sleep.com · Instagram: @bewellwithpamela · LinkedIn: pamelastokeseggleston-mba-eryt500 · YouTube: Be Well with Pamela · Substack: pamstokeseggleston.substack.com
Follow and listen to Oneika & Pam's pod "You Good?" on YouTube and Spotify

Tamika and Ashley sit down with Jivana Heyman — yoga teacher, author, and founder of Accessible Yoga — for a conversation that traces his path from AIDS activism with ACT UP in the late 1980s and early '90s to becoming one of the leading voices in accessible, trauma-informed yoga.
Jivana opens up about learning yoga from his grandmother, taking initiation under Swami Satchidananda, getting arrested with ACT UP San Francisco, and the moment he walked away from confrontational activism to start teaching community-centered yoga to gay men living with AIDS at a Castro hospital. The conversation moves through service and non-attachment, the difference between yoga as exercise and yoga as community medicine, and Ashley and Tamika's own stories of reparative-based teaching work.
"Many people think [accessible yoga] is about adapting poses, but I would say it's much bigger than that for me. It's about trying to bring people together and share something deeper that I think yoga does really well, which is try to give answers to life's questions like, who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?" — Jivana Heyman
People & Books Mentioned
Swami Satchidananda — Jivana's teacher in the Integral Yoga lineage
Kazuko — teacher who brought Jivana back to yoga practice as an adult
J. Krishnamurti — teacher studied by Jivana's grandmother
Sarah Ezrin — strong ally and earlier pod guest
Lama Rod Owens — referenced regarding socially engaged dharma (previous podcast guest)
Dr. Gail Parker — referenced regarding yoga in Black communities and nervous system regulation
Jivana's books:
Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body
Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion
The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body
Connect with Jivana Heyman
Website: jivanaheyman.com
Accessible Yoga School: accessibleyogaschool.com
Podcast: Accessible Yoga Podcast
Books: available via Shambhala Publications and Bookshop.org

Tracee Stanley — post-lineage teacher, former Hollywood film producer, and bestselling author of Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self — joins Tamika and Ashley again, this time to talk about her new book, Living Ritual : Infuse Each Day with Purpose and Spirit (Sounds True, August 2026). The conversation moves from grief and devotion into the difference between habit and ritual, why AI can imitate wisdom but never the soul, and what it takes to walk away from a life that no longer fits.
 
Tracee traces her own path from Hollywood producer to ritual teacher — including a formative trip to Bali in 1994, the moment devotion became distinguishable from discipline, and the example she had of walking away from a secure career to build something of one's own. Ashley and Tamika bring their own recent thresholds into the conversation, reflecting on grief, self-parenting, and the rituals we build (often without naming them) to hold ourselves through change.
 
Topics Discussed
Grief , sadness and gratitude in loss
Ritual as the antidote to disconnection, distraction, and the illusion of separateness
What separates a mindless habit from a devotional, sacred ritual
Devotion as an "open hand," not subservience — and why culture resists softness
Losing someone you were devoted to, and learning to self-parent afterward
Micro-rituals: how five minutes a day builds a felt sense of certainty
Why pandemic-era ritual (sourdough, slow mornings) didn't carry over — and how to reclaim it in small ways
Friction as a signal of an approaching threshold
The question Tracee always asks: "What in me is dying, and what in me is waiting to be born?"
The power and permission of saying "I don't know"
Tracee's journey out of Hollywood: trying to marry spiritual and commercial filmmaking, and why it didn't work; and the example she remembers she had to pivot with audacious belief
Titrating change: how to leave a misaligned path without cutting everything at once
The disappearance of elder wisdom and AI's attempt at soul work
Shared ritual, belonging, and the modern epidemic of loneliness
The Purusharthas (four aims of life) as a framework for Tracee's book
The prominence of spiritual bankruptcy and inner poverty
Reclaiming rites of passage — menopause, grief, the ceremonies and family rituals that quietly disappear after loss
About Tracee Stanley
Tracee Stanley is a post-lineage teacher with over 30 years of studentship in Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan masters. Before turning to this work, she had a career as a Hollywood film producer. She is the founder of the Empowered Life Circle and the bestselling author of Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self. Her new book, Living Ritual, publishes in August 2026 from Sounds True.
 
Purchase Living Ritual and follow Tracee's work at traceestanley.com. Follow Tracee:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracee_stanley @tracee_stanleyFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/traceeyogaSubstack: https://traceestanley.substack.com/ As Above, So Below

In this very special episode, we’re going back in time to May of this year where Tamika and Ashley sit down in beautiful Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, to chat about their experience as co-instructors and co-hosts of The Teacher’s Lab, Ashe Yoga Collective’s 300 hour Advanced Teacher Training. They also welcome for the very first time their co-lead trainer, Elena Cheung to the pod to share her retreat reflections. Fair warning y’all–this little snack of an episode gets very silly, very fast. Enjoy! 
We love you all, Happy Holidays. 
Learn more about The Teacher’s Lab Advanced Teacher Training here: asheyoga.com/300-hr-ytt

In this conversation, Tamika and Ashley dive into discourse with author, yoga educator and practitioner, Anjali Rao who delves into yoga as a form of embodied resistance, the intersection of academia and practice, and the importance of feminist history in yoga. This conversation traverses the historical and cultural contexts of yoga, exploring the roles of caste, gender, and colonialism in shaping yoga practices and narratives. Tamika, Ashley, and Anjali discuss the importance of feminist perspectives in understanding yoga history, the need for authentic relationships in yoga communities, and the complexities of cultural appropriation versus appreciation. They emphasize the significance of trust and solidarity in addressing these issues and the necessity of acknowledging the contributions of marginalized voices in yoga.
Buy Anjali's new book -- Yoga as Embodied Resistance-- a must read for any yoga practitioner and curious human.
Listen to The Love of Yoga Podcast
Connect with Anjali: Instagram | Facebook | Website

In this conversation, Tamika and Ashley discuss the importance of Self-care, boundaries, and the work involved in collective liberation with Lama Rod Owens. The dialogue explores the intersection of activism and spirituality, the significance of ancestral connections, and the complexities of freedom. Tamika, Ashley, and Lama Rod reflect on the labor involved in healing and the necessity of setting boundaries to create conditions for growth and collective liberation.
 
Subscribe to Lama Rod's newsletter for wisdom delivered to your inbox.
Lama Rod's Books:
Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through AngerRadical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and LiberationThe New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors

In this between the seasons episode, Ashley and Tamika chat about practical application of yoga philosophy and TCM to navigate today's challenges, the changing body, and knowing when to STFU and mind your business.
References: Ayurveda, Five Element Theory from Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Nelly Furtado / Serena Williams drama, Buddhist concept of empathetic joy vs. jealousy, and John Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go, There You Are.

Ashley and Tamika sit down with priest and friend, Rev. Ryan Hawthorne to discuss how to take care of oneself in extraordinary, challenging times, especially when you're in the business of spaceholding for others.
 
Although Ryan spent some time at a small school called Princeton to explore and obtain her divinity degree, ​The Rev. Ryan Hawthorne is a lifelong Texan that revels in the great joy of raising Noelle, a super cool middle schooler. Ryan loves exploring ministry and theology on the edge and at the intersections of race, class, and gender/sexuality. In her free time Ryan enjoys exploring Houston and any activity involving water. 
 
Books & authors mentioned: All About Love by Bell Hooks, the Parable series by Octavia E. Butler

**CONTENT WARNING** This episode of This Is Not Tea contains discussions of drug addiction, disordered eating and body dysmorphia. Please take care while listening. 
 
This week, Ashley and Tamika are thrilled to welcome long-time friend and ally, Sarah Ezrin to the podcast! Sarah is a prominent figure in the yoga and wellness community, and author of the book ‘The Yoga of Parenting’.
 
In this conversation, Tamika and Ashley sit down with Sarah to find out what fueled Sarah with the necessary audacity to come out and talk openly about her unpolished life and mental health realities.
 
They also unpack some of the unfair weighted (literally) expectations placed on yoga teachers, what happens when they decide to challenge that expectation and how they’re combating the toxic body image messages that are rampant in Yogalandia.
Find all things Sarah Ezrin at her website SarahEzrinYoga.com and on Instagram @sarahezrinyoga 
Buy her book The Yoga of Parenting 
And snag her FREE Yoga of Parenting Toolkit
 
Follow Ashley and Tamika, as well as the podcast on Instagram and YouTube.
Visit Yoga with Ashley 
Tamika's Substack: Soul Garden
 
High gratitude to Pixel Punisher for the intro beats.Outtro beats: Back in to the Toxic by Joint C Beat LaboratoryFree Music Archive Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0)

This week Tamika and Ashley are flying solo and exploring the complexities of the Ego, the value of learning from an experienced teacher, and the downsides to assuming that “all folk are kinfolk”. They also discuss the idea that Peace is resilient and doesn’t require us to be in a particular Place to achieve it — rather it’s a state of being.
 
Follow Ashley and Tamika, as well as the podcast on Instagram and YouTube.
Yoga with Ashley websiteTamika's Substack: Soul Garden
High gratitude to Pixel Punisher for the beats.