About Us
We're trying to do things a little differently here at Kind... a little less striving for perfection and instagram-worthy poses, a little more uncovering your authentic self and coming together in community. We encourage you to listen to your body and invite you to participate in the way that works best for you, moment to moment, during your practice.
Our mission is to make yoga accessible to every body, and to help you feel comfortable in our yoga-based community gathering space. Our teachers are all trained to teach in a trauma-informed way, and we strive to make our classes fully accessible and inclusive. Our class passes, memberships, and drop-in rates are all offered on a sliding scale so you can pick the price that works for you.
Please scroll down to read our Land Acknowledgement, Values, and Commitments to learn more about our philosophy and practices.
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Our Values
As an organization founded by a white, heterosexual, able-bodied woman, we recognize that we are starting from a place of much privilege. Our goal is to spend our privilege in ways that benefit our community.
First and foremost, we acknowledge that we are uninvited settlers on the traditional and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. We are aware of the negative history of colonialism in settler societies, including in our own city, and that colonialism, generational trauma, and systemic racism continue to negatively affect Indigenous people, and other people of colour in our communities. We recognize the need to change these systems in order to move forward justly and equitably, and the principles of yoga, including Ahimsa (non-harming) and Aparigraha (non-hoarding) that call us to do the work, in harmony with the Snuneymuxw People and all Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island to steward in a new era of respect for the natural world and preservation of this beautiful land for future generations.
Above all at Kind, we value accessibility, inclusivity, and kindness. We endeavour to create a space that feels welcoming and safe for anyone who is interested in joining us. We recognize that we are unable to ever unequivocally say that Kind Community Yoga is a safe space for all, but and as such our goal is to create a safer space for all individuals who are looking to practice yoga in community.
See below for our specific commitments to doing this work.
Our Commitments
On Accessibility and Inclusivity
As we strive to serve all members of our community, we acknowledge that the population here in Nanaimo is overwhelmingly white, and that the predominant culture attending yoga classes tends to be white cis-gendered women. Our goal is to allow everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, socio-economic status, physical ability, and personal history, to feel welcome and comfortable in our classes. In order to do this, we plan to liaise and build relationships with community groups across Nanaimo in order to determine how we’re able to serve these populations in ways that are dictated by the people within them.
Our classes will always remain financially accessible, with all pricing options offered on a sliding scale, with the additional option of attending “by donation” so that all practitioners are able to pay what they can afford for yoga classes. In that vein, we invite our practitioners that possess privileged identities to interrogate within themselves whether they are able to pay our supporter rate, to help us continue to function as we offer discounted rates to those who truly need them. (Please see this illustration of privilege which may be helpful - the more qualities at the centre of the circle that you identify with, the higher your level of privilege. This illustration with scenarios and examples might be helpful as well.)
Our Commitments:
All our staff members commit to inclusivity and accessibility in their teaching, including receiving training in accessibility and trauma-informed teaching within one year of beginning their professional relationship with Kind Society.
We commit to offering all our teachers a fair and equitable percentage revenue share, and endeavour to ensure that share recognizes the ongoing training and invisible labour that goes into teaching yoga classes. As we are a growing organization that is still working on becoming sustainable, this currently takes the form of a collective pay model, where the studio covers its overhead costs and splits the net class revenue between the teachers based on the number of classes they teach each month.
We commit to ongoing learning about what makes a space accessible and inclusive, and will always welcome feedback and criticism through a lens of learning and striving to improve our experience for all community members.
On Cultural Appropriation
We acknowledge that yoga in the west has historically been (and continues to be) a practice that is rife with cultural appropriation. Our understanding of cultural appropriation is when a dominant culture takes a practice from an oppressed, marginalized, or aggrieved culture, without understanding or honouring the larger cultural significance of that practice. In yoga, this has primarily occurred when white people practice yoga asana (postures) without understanding the significant and ancient context of yogic philosophy - primarily that asana is but one of yoga’s 8 limbs. We commit to ongoing study and practice of all the limbs of yoga and other aspects of yoga philosophy, and share those with our students through regular sessions, as well as informally in our everyday interactions, our social media content, and within our classes. We strive to live our yoga practice, off and on our mats.
Our Commitments:
We will strive to offer sessions on a continual basis where we will explore the other limbs of yoga and what it means to "take yoga off your mat and into your life"
All teachers will incorporate the other limbs of yoga into our movement classes
We strive to encourage our community to be more openhearted, willing to make changes in our deep-rooted societal racism, and kind to everyone and everything around us
As our learning is continuous and ongoing, we invite our practitioners and community members to offer us any comments or feedback. Feedback from people with a yogic lineage is especially welcome, as we are dedicated to learning from those who possess the knowledge and have a history of oppression.
On Systemic Oppression and Marginalization
We intend to make an ongoing effort to connect with diverse yoga teachers and workshop-offering practitioners. Acknowledging the history of oppression in our community of Indigenous peoples, Black folk, LGBTQIA+ people, and other marginalized minorities, we commit to contributing reparations by partnering with and donating to local organizations as we are able and on an ongoing basis.
Our Commitments:
We will work towards inviting Indigenous community members to teach us more about their culture and lived experiences. We will compensate them fairly for sharing their time and knowledge.
We will form ongoing partnerships with local organizations that promotes the physical and mental wellbeing of Indigenous communities and support them where we can, and we commit to finding other local organizations doing anti-oppression work to support as well.
All our staff members commit to learning about anti-racism and anti-oppression on an ongoing basis, and Kind Society will make arrangements for anti-racism and LGBTQIA+ inclusive trainings to be provided to staff.