Episode Summary: We're delighted to be in conversations with Mei Lai Swan and Dr Lee Watson for the final episode of our first season. Mei Lai and Lee have come together in collaboration to create a powerful project called Circles of Connection. We talk about sustaining online community, creating containers for authentic conversation and the importance of connection.
Links to work: Fierce Calm/Yoga for Humankind/Circles of Connection
Mei Lai Swan: Falling in love with the path of self-inquiry and personal evolution in her teens, Mei Lai has been studying eastern philosophies and meditation for over 20 years, and yoga for 18 years. A senior yoga teacher, Mei Lai is a certified Embodied Flow™ and trauma-informed yoga facilitator, with years of study and practice in Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Anusara yoga, meditation and yoga nidra.
Mei Lai is deeply interested in creating authentic spaces for fostering conversation, building community and sharing practices around embodied social justice and collective wellbeing.
With a BA in International Development/Environmental Studies and a Master of Social Work, Mei Lai spent many years working in remote Aboriginal communities running community development programs, before returning to Melbourne to run psychosocial programs with people seeking asylum. She has trained broadly in somatic-based trauma therapy, counselling, and Trauma Centre Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY-F) and combines these skills to deliver individual counselling, group work programs, and specially-tailored yoga programs for asylum seekers, refugees, disadvantaged youth, and people experiencing chronic pain and trauma.
Yoga for Humankind is where her passions for yoga, social justice and embodied social change unite, for a more just, awake and compassionate world for all.
Dr Lee Watson: After spending a large part of my professional life as an academic, consultant and in the media, I somehow found my way onto a yoga mat several years ago after using exercise as way to combat the kinds of mental health issues that affect more of us than many would readily admit.
With a background in the Humanities and a Cultural Studies PhD, my area of expertise is based upon narratives of identity. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. The more time I spent amongst the yoga community, the more I became aware of the incredible stories of transformation and recovery that stem from this ancient practice and it's incredible capacity for healing.
And in sharing those stories I've been introduced to the most incredible community of people doing great work helping and healing others - including themselves - through yoga. Connecting the healers and the healing. I am passionate about working for the greater good, about social justice and equity: simply, supporting and empowering others. Fierce Calm was created as a space for us to unite behind our individual stories and is evolving into a global movement committed to making a difference.
Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
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