Mindful Academy
Mindful Academy
4.08 Equity, Justice, and Yoga in the Academy with Dr. Raquel Wright-Mair
How do you bring your whole self into the academy?
In this episode, Dr. Raquel Wright-Mair—associate professor, scholar of higher ed equity, and yoga teacher—joins Jennifer to talk about the intersections of justice, leadership, and embodied wellness in academic spaces.
They discuss:
- The realities of navigating higher education as a racially minoritized scholar
- Why burnout, grief, and stress must be addressed somatically—not just intellectually
- How Raquel integrates yoga philosophy into her teaching, research, and service
- What "retreat" can really mean for academics looking to reclaim themselves
Plus, hear the story of how one Instagram post led to a transformative yoga retreat in Costa Rica—and what’s next in Belize 2026.
Listen in to explore a new model of heart-centered leadership and healing in higher education.
Show Notes:
The Slow Professor, by Maggie Berg & Barbara Seeberg
The Caring University, by Kevin McClure
Equity, Justice, and Yoga in the Academy with Dr. Raquel Wright-Mair
Hello, and welcome back to The Mindful Academy. I am Jennifer Askey, your coach and host, and today I'm continuing my series of fascinating conversations with academics, former academics and para academics who do things that support. Faculty. Faculty in some way, shape or form. And today I am so looking forward to a conversation with my friend and yoga teacher, Raquel Wright.
Meyer. It's Wright Meyer, right? I wanna say mayor, but it's Meyer Mayor. It is mayor. It's mayor. Oh my goodness. Okay. Wright Mayor I should know this. I've only heard you say it a thousand times. It's the German thing, right? My brain goes with.
Here we are. Raquel and I are on Zoom. She is in Philly. I am in Edmonton. But we're gonna have a conversation about supporting yourself as a working faculty member, as [00:01:00] a whole person. And so Raquel, I'm gonna turn it over to you. Ask you to talk a little bit about like the research you do and your role.
We'll start with you as the professor and then we'll let the circles ripple out from there. So start with that. Absolutely. It's so great to be here, Jennifer. So I am an associate professor of Higher Education and have spent most of my professional life in higher ed first on the administrative side now for the last decade on the faculty.
And I like to describe myself as a professor whose research sits at the intersection of higher education equity, and. Justice. My work centers, the lived experiences of those who have been historically marginalized in academ with a focus specifically on how systems of power, for example, white supremacy, patriarchy cis heteronormativity are embedded in, [00:02:00] or institutions.
To that end, my sort of niche area, is looking at the experiences of racially minoritized faculty in higher ed. What's ironic about that is when I started my PhD I never thought I would actually become a faculty member at the time. I know, right? I would lie on earth. I know I was so focused on the admin route and then fell in love with research and had an opportunity to co-teach with one of my professors, and I had.
As an administrator actually taught, like a first year experience class. But my doctoral experience really gave me this newfound love for something that I didn't know I could love, because I had no clue what it meant to be a faculty member on the tenure track, oh. So that's how I got here.
I think for me, my doctoral program was set [00:03:00] up in a way that, was really geared towards developing you as a faculty member. Research experience. Teach and experience. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, there are probably more of them now than there were when I was in graduate school or when you were in graduate school.
More grad programs that realize that a PhD might lead down multiple pathways. Too was just super traditional. You teach, you publish, you teach, you publish. Yeah. And service work on committees, and then you go back to teaching and publishing. And I will say I had amazing mentors. So I, when you asked that question about how did you end up here?
I had a amazing mentors, amazing faculty members who I think role modeled to me the possibilities. I saw a lot of myself in them. And became very curious. So I would ask questions, okay, what does it mean to be on the tenure track? What do you actually have to do? They were kind and patient and really excited that I was curious.
Yeah. And so for me, I think that's what really was the [00:04:00] impetus for that. And I didn't realize that you had been in administration before you got your PhD. What kind of administrative work did you do? It varied. I worked in multicultural services programs. I worked at one point in a career services office for a long time.
And so I very student affairs. Based. At the time when I moved into my doctoral work, I was convinced that I wanted to be a vice president of student affairs. That was my younger trajectory, yeah. That, that, that is what I. Was fixated on until I recognized that there were so many other possibilities and potential opportunities within higher education.
That is so interesting. And one thing that it makes me think of is the fact that regardless of whether you're faculty or staff the vast majority of people who work at a college or university get [00:05:00] quite. Attached to or fall in love with the atmosphere of being on a campus. And so I can imagine that you deciding to get a PhD is, oh, okay.
Like I wanna build a career here. What helps me do that? And before we hit record I was telling you a little bit about some analysis work that I'm doing for a company where I get to look at engagement survey data and results. One thing I see a lot, especially from university staff is, gosh, I wish there was a way to advance my career here.
And while that's a huge problem that you and I aren't gonna tackle. I think what it speaks to is the fact that you and I both share this gosh, universities can be such great places to work. All of them are, and not every office is great, but like this commitment that I have to how do we as individuals create careers and lives [00:06:00] where we work at institutions and we are we are whole, the institution sees us as whole and cares about our wellbeing. And I think that universities and colleges are uniquely placed to do that because even though they follow corporate structures and neoliberalism is real. Like they're not bottom line, profit driven pure profit driven organization.
So there is like this utopian dream of working in a university where I. Where we can be well and be whole people. And and I'm imagining that's part of what drew you to try to build your career and then it sent you down a different pathway, but the, does that motivation ring a bell with you?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Jennifer. And I think for me and you know this as a recovering academic, right? I loved that you coined that phrase. I loved it when you first said it. I said yes. The institution that we operate in today looks significantly different, right? Though there are many things that remain the [00:07:00] same.
To your point, neoliberalism was not necessarily the driver 40 years ago, right? Look different. I think for me, I believe higher education. Can be a space for liberation but only if we're willing to do the deep hard. Dirty work of reimagining how we lead, how we teach, and how we engage. And it is deep hard work both individually and institutionally, right? Of course for all constituents, faculty, staff, right? And so for me, when I think about higher ed and I think about leadership too, for me it's about. This sort of radical, honesty, heart-centered, accountable. Yeah.
This unwavering commitment to equity, not just in theory, but how we show up every day. So in my work, I talk a lot about this checklist mentality, right? It sounds good to say these things. It also [00:08:00] sounds good to say, Hey, I've checked. These things often list. Yeah. In actuality, what does that look like?
Yeah. Yeah. So from your perspective as a former administrator and current associate professor who researches higher ed, what is if you could pull a group of presidents and provosts aside. What? What do you think that leaders in higher ed need to hear or need to know? I think if you, that's a loaded question.
It's a great question. It's a great question. Yep. It's a great question, but it's a loaded one, and I think depending on the context, depending on the landscape, that ansa can change. Okay. I think higher ed leaders today. Need to understand that. And I think many of them do. I think there are a lot of them who don't though.
I think they have to understand that this moment calls for more than just policy shifts or performative, DEI [00:09:00] statements. We're in a time of chaos in collective grief burnout, and quite frankly, a reckoning. I think institutional leaders must have the courage to slow down, to listen deeply and to really be willing to challenge the systems they've inherited even when it feels uncomfortable.
It's so interesting that you say slow down. In the analysis work that I was doing yesterday there, there was a real call on the part of the university employees. It's can you stop and listen? Can you come by and have a conversation? Can you be in dialogue as opposed to just right. Policy rules.
No. Yeah. I'm looking here [00:10:00] for a book that I'll have to send you that one of my professors sent me you might have heard of it. It's called The Slow Professor. Yes. Yeah. Actually by a Canadian author. Yes. I will send that to you. But a absolutely right I think that there has to be, a commitment as well to create cultures that center wellbeing and collective care. So that's the other thing. It's be, and I'm really intentional here with you, using words such as checklist, trendy. I know some of these words like wellbeing, wellness, have become very trendy, right? Yep. I'm not talking about the trendy version of these words.
I'm talking about deep. Commitment to institutionalizing these practices. In my opinion I believe that without those we're just replicating harm in new packaging. From where I stand, leadership is not just strategic. Yeah. It's sematic, it's emotional, it's spiritual, and I think the [00:11:00] kind of embodied leadership is what is most needed at higher ed.
Institutions right now, and it's really interesting that we don't, many of us don't take this seriously. We see it as fru and something that we do in addition to occupying these professions within ade. I find that fascinating. So the slow professor, and I'll put it is interesting, some of my episodes do wind up with bibliographies attached and this is looking like it's going to be one because of course you've mentioned the slow professor and then you said universities as places of caring.
And that reminds me of our colleague Kevin McClure, who is just promoted to full professor at UNC. Oh, it's either Greensboro or Wilmington. Sorry, Kevin. I'll make sure to link it properly. I think it's Wilmington, but I did see that pop up on my LinkedIn. And congrats Kevin we're, yeah, so his book, the Caring University, is I believe out for [00:12:00] pre-order, and he did a ton of the early stages of research on that.
On LinkedIn by reaching out to faculty and staff across North America saying, tell me what's going on at your university that works or that is broken. And I'm really excited to read that I have pre-ordered it. And one more smaller bibliographic item. Let's see here. He is leaving the University of Alberta to go to Simon Frazier University, as I believe.
Oh Lord, provost, vice President of something. I'm not quite sure what his new role is. His name is Marvin Washington and he has an article that I really like that he co-wrote on spiritual intelligence and leadership, right? We know like iq and then EQ is emotional intelligence. What is spiritual intelligence?
So this notion of. The fact that leadership isn't just actions. It is embodiment. It is who you are. It is how you show up. And if it all happens in your [00:13:00] head and on a pad of paper, you're missing out on. A bunch of dimensions of your leadership and a bunch of the impact you're having because you're not tapping into that.
You're not tapping into, how our bodies mirror neurons respond to one another. We're not, you're not tapping into your embodied presence. There are all of these things that you miss out on. If leadership is just a head and paper game and not a whole body game. Interesting that you should bring up spirituality.
About an hour ago I received an email from a wonderful student about to graduate from the Master's program. From the first day I met this student two years ago. I was just, I had her on my recruit list for doctoral programs and anyway. She sent me, she would always say, no, Dr. Wrighter, I can't I can't do a doctorate.
I'm like, where have I seen this before? All right, I'm gonna give her some time to realize and process. So she sent me an email about an [00:14:00] hour ago, and I want to just read to you the last two sentences that for me, of this email really just affirm to me that. I am where I need to be and I am showing up as a whole person and probably without even being conscious of it fully.
My students are also. Benefited from that. Excellent. Let's hear it. And so she says, I appreciate all you've done to help me grow and learn. It was in your class by far that I grew the most personally, intellectually and spiritually. You somehow managed to make it all click for me. Let me tell you, if I never hear anything again in my life, and I get these emails very regularly from students.
Especially at the end of a program or end of a semester. Yeah. That communicates to me, Jennifer, that I am doing exactly. [00:15:00] Something, right? Yeah. And I've been, this, I've been starting to push a lot of things out on Instagram about that integration of both ADE and yoga, right?
I don't, which is exactly where we're headed, right? Yeah. Thinking about embodied leadership and yes. And being that whole person, like I know that for you. Yes and maybe to a slightly lesser extent for me, but it's certainly part of my life and practice as well, like what brought you from, I'm researching.
The experiences and opportunities of racialized and marginalized folks in higher education to, I'm gonna be a yoga teacher while I do, while I also get tenure and publish. And you all need other things. Yes. And are married and have two kids and Right. And live in a urban center where you're driving all the time.
What pulled you in that direction? How did that all happen? So great question. For a long time I saw working [00:16:00] out my yoga practice, anything that was external to ade. I saw that as a hobby. I filed it to the coroner. It was something I did separate and a part of academia. Absolutely.
Yoga became a lifeline for me during one of the most. Challenging periods of my life both personally and professionally. I was holding on to so much in my body grief, stress, imposter syndrome and the emotional weight of doing justice centered work in Acade. You take all those things out and you just put the tenure track and that's enough, right?
Absolutely. Then you add all those other things. What's, what I find really fascinating about my journey, Jennifer, is I started to recognize through the studies that I would conduct nationally with faculty members, that there was a collective cry at the end [00:17:00] of every manuscript that I have ever published for.
An ethic of care for love, for community, for rest. And it took me a while, but I think I started to very slowly. I. Put those pieces together. What if I did this? What if I combined these two? What if I shared some of my experiences and how yoga helped me get through some of the toughest moments of my life, how it continues to be an anchor in my life, and how it is in many ways the foundation from which I am actually able to be an amazing academic, right?
What if. I started to write about and research those things. I think for me, over time I realized that yoga in particular, 'cause I see it, I see yoga very differently than I do working out. It's [00:18:00] different than going to the gym and lifting weight. Exactly. Exactly. And so for me, I realized that yoga wasn't just about movement, it was about coming back home to myself.
And becoming a yoga teacher wasn't part of this long calculated master plan that I had. And as an academic, you can appreciate that every single detail of our life is carefully curated. So like I figured there was a master plan, but no, no master plan. No. This was the plot twist.
This was the plot twist. But all jokes aside, I think it was a natural extension of my healing. I found, this deep desire to share this with others, especially those who rarely see themselves reflected in wellness spaces. And so here I am occupying my faculty role interviewing racially minoritized faculty on their experiences across higher education, but specifically in these predominantly white [00:19:00] spaces.
And I'm hearing things that. Ring true to my own experiences. So that's how it all came together. And then here we are, the opportunities that have come from the synergy of both. I said to my doctoral advisor who I saw last week in Denver, I said to him. Were you ready for this plot twist?
Because I sure wasn't. And his response to me was, I'm so proud of you and I'm so proud of how you brought this together, because all of us need this. We are all burnt out suffering, and none of us know or feel like we can take care of ourselves. In in, in feel like we can. I think that notion of not just.
Not just permission, you have permission to take care of yourself, but the reordering and reprioritization of taking care of yourself. Yes, because if we had a dollar for every time somebody said, put your oxygen mask on first we'd be rich, but what the [00:20:00] heck does that mean? What does that mean?
Put your oxygen mask on first. And what are you doing to support that? Because that sounds great, doesn't it though? But then when the 10,000 requests come after that, you're invalidating, your very sentiment of prioritizing wellbeing, but at what cost? Yeah. So what you said something that I wanted to circle back to.
So your academic research. Focuses on racially minoritized folks who historically and still today, don't often see themselves represented or welcomed or supported in institutions of higher education. And then like you take up yoga, it becomes an anchor for you. You start talking about it and you realize, oh, these same people also don't see themselves in the local yoga studio.
So what's, yeah, I would just, I would love to hear what you have to say. Yeah. And I overlap. So [00:21:00] again, in that coming together, those were the things that stood out to me that, wait, there's a commonality here. Okay. I'm researching and work in community with these folks who feel, like they're alone in this space and then we're in this other space here where the same thing is happening and so it.
Really forced me to go a little bit deeper and I started reading and researching about wellness and wellbeing. And then, I started to look at the intersections of justice and wellness spaces and how some of these ancient practices and spaces have been co-opted. And. That's to me how it started to come together.
Ooh. There seems to be some common denominators here, some common experiences. But I'm also thinking through and have been thinking [00:22:00] through how we can use. Our agency in these spaces. And so for me, I think this is a call in, I said this in my yoga class yesterday. I believe that this was a call in for me.
It's been in my bone marrow to teach. I like to say research came after I fell in love with research after, I've always been a natural teacher. And I use teacher over instructor because. For me, teaching is an experience. It is how you guide and facilitate and create and help to co-construct with others.
When I hear instructing, I hear someone just shouting out directives. And you've been in my yoga classes, so you know, that is completely polar opposite. To, to how I hold space. And so I think for me, really being able to not just understand the experience of being in these very [00:23:00] isolating spaces as a faculty member, but also over here. Being in these spaces where you're not necessarily seeing yourself reflected, but it's still an opportunity for you to take a holistic, sacred, ancient practices and fill your cup. And so for me, the invitation that this opportunity gave me was to bridge the gap and bring wellbeing, bring yoga in particular, into faculty spaces.
And how has that changed? Your practice as a professor or your view on your role as a professor? Oh, that, I love that question. I'll start by saying, Jennifer Yoga has softened me and simultaneously strengthened me. It's. Taught me to pause to notice where I'm holding intention to be present with discomfort rather than rush to [00:24:00] fix it.
And that's very much my personality. All right. I gotta fix it right now. Right now. Yesterday, urgency it yoga has transformed how I show up, how I show up in meetings. In classrooms in my writing when I'm researching, I'm no longer driven by urgency culture, just for the sake of productivity.
Instead I find myself asking what's aligned, what's sustainable, what honors both the work and my body. I'd also add that yoga has made me a more grounded, compassionate scholar and ultimately a better leader. I think that's how I'm wired anyway. I care, I log deeply.
I'm interested in the human first before anything else. The accolades, anything else comes after for me. And I think that yoga has gifted me [00:25:00] this incredible opportunity to be present and hold space for others. Yeah. And remind them that we occupy this space, but we are not this space. Oh that's a lovely metaphor actually.
We occupy the space, but we are not this space. Yeah. And I, I think that, okay, so to fill in people who are listening, Raquel and I met through a super interesting kismet situation where both of us have done work for the Denver based organization, academic impressions that offers professional development, training and coaching for university faculty, staff, and administrators.
And as luck would have it, we had the same handler, I'll call her Jenna worked at Academic Impressions, and she was the contact person for both of us. So last fall when Raquel decided that she was going to host her very first. In-person yoga retreat in a fabulous [00:26:00] locale. Jenna encouraged her to put it out there on LinkedIn and advertise it.
And Raquel, you can talk to me about how you felt about that. But Jenna shared a link to your yoga retreat. Now we're gonna talk a little bit about self-care and my own gremlins around that. I care a lot about my physical wellbeing. I care a lot about my mindfulness practice, right? And I had wanted to do something like this, a yoga retreat in a warm place.
Keep in mind, I live in Edmonton, right? I'd wanted to, I live in Canada. I'd wanted to go someplace warm and do yoga on the beach for a very long time. And I had given myself 40,000 reasons why it was impossible. And then somebody I knew and trusted said, I know an academic who is also a yoga teacher who's gonna be doing this thing in Costa Rica and you should go.
And I was like, okay. So the universe has told me this is what I'm going to do now. I barely I looked at the dates, I put them in my calendar, I paid some money, and I just, and I was just going, that was the deal. And so Raquel was this [00:27:00] yoga teacher. And I will say that I have, I've done yoga on and off, more on than off for almost 25 years.
I started it when I was pregnant with my first child. And I remember coming home from my first yoga class ever, and my husband asked me, how is that? I was like, dude, this house could burn down around my ears and I would not care. Like I had just found like this very calm inner peace for a hot second, right?
And it was gone the next day because I live in the real world. But I also know having taken yoga from dozens of teachers, that not every yoga class is an invitation to come home to yourself. Not every yoga class is an invitation to say, Hey, if it hurts, back off, stop where it feels steady.
See what you need to let go of in order to hold on. Not every class is an invitation to work [00:28:00] on the inner and outer you aligning. And if for anybody who is aware of yoga as an eight limbed practice, I talk about mindfulness and meditation, that's one of those eight limbs.
And so yoga as like the physical manifestation or the physical practice that helps us do all of these other things that are supposed to. Help one live well and live an aligned and right life. So I'm curious for you, like what, did you just have amazing teachers that invited that for you? Or did it just click?
'cause you're, you've been an athlete for a long time. You were a swimmer. So did it just click in your body in a way like Yeah, I think it just. Clicked in my body. I think because my innate gift from the universe is to teach. I think everything, passions, credentials, sematic practice, grief, healing, all came together.
To make me the yoga, teach the yoga [00:29:00] teacher I am today. What you experienced isn't something. Almost everybody who comes into my yoga classes says the same thing. Wow. Raquel. This is, I've never quite experienced yoga in, and I think it's because of that not just the passion, but there, there is this very, embodied presence, this spiritual connection aligning, as you said, that comes together when I teach that allows me to hold space in a very unique way For others. I've been broken. I could see others who are broken. And even if I don't know what your grief looks like, yeah. I feel it deep in my body and I can hold space and remind you that it is okay.
You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to heal in the way that society says. This is what healing looks like. I've also, again, [00:30:00] and this is why I don't see my work as an academic, as separate from being a yoga teacher, the fact that I love to read and research then sent me on a whole nother spiral.
And I read about the yoga philosophies, right? I read about ancient yogis and gurus and how they taught. And so for me it's this mashup of all those things, right? What I feel spiritually was, I feel in my body, as you rightly said, an athlete I swam for many years. And noticing. Okay. Wow.
When I go to the gym, I feel great, but then when I do yoga, I feel great in an entirely different weight. Yeah. 'cause I was a runner. Not a good one. I was not an athlete. Don't identify as an athlete. I identify as an awkward child. Yes. But. I did take up running in my twenties and I've run several half marathons and a couple marathons, and while I did that, I did yoga and I remember telling a very influential yoga teacher of mine in Manhattan, Kansas that like I run [00:31:00] so that my body looks a certain way, I do yoga so that I feel good.
And I love that analogy and it's, I actually just said something very similar in one of my classes this week, and I said, the asana, right? The pose, the movement the Asana. Is one piece of yoga, right? There's so many other components and the physical body is not the be all and end all. And that's a whole nother podcast about corrupt, right?
But me, in my twenties, let me tell you, I was running because the physical body was gonna be all that. But I knew that being on the mat was. Like it was honoring my body. Exactly. And there's been an uptick in fitness yoga and Okay. I enjoy a power class, but then call it fitness yoga, right?
Yeah. Call it what it is. Yeah. And so yeah, for me, I think it's this opportunity. I'm very creative in my research, as I am not a linear, traditional type of scholar, [00:32:00] and so it's not, put it this way, anybody who knows me, Jennifer. This makes sense too, right? I think at first it probably was like, huh, but if you really sit down and look at my trajectory, I was a very creative child.
I did things off the beaten path as a researcher, as a teacher. I do very radically different things that are innovative, that connect folks that allow them to see themselves in this, and I think that's why I started integrating yoga into my academic work when I realized and came face to face with the disconnect between what I was researching.
So liberation, equity, healing, and then how I was living and teaching. Because the university is not set up for liberation, equity and healing, it is set up to be a productivity machine that would gladly grind you to a little tiny nubbin. Correct. And to me it felt. Disingenuous to advocate for radical change in higher ed [00:33:00] while neglecting my own wellbeing or refor, reinforcing this grind culture.
So little by little I started to weave yoga and sematic practices into my teaching, into my service. And ultimately into my scholarship. Not just as tools for stress relief or Right. Which makes it transactional and not ational. Exactly. Exactly. And, nervous system regulation, but as methods of inquiry resistance and reconnection.
And that for me, I have been astonished at the feedback I've received. Yeah. It's shocking. It shouldn't be because I do this work, so I know, but how people have responded to it, Jennifer has been remarkable. And I think I'll just say from where I sit that the, to return to the notion of permission I think we.
A, a common [00:34:00] framework that I hear or fe feel or sense is this notion of permission to take care of yourself. And that is something very different from having somebody with a, an authoritative, authentic voice saying. This is what we're doing right here in order to take care of ourselves in this space where we also teach and research and hold committee meetings and vote on tenure cases that it's not something that we leave and do privately.
And so the notion of. That which affects us personally. I think that for women for, and you, we talked about this a lot at the yoga retreat. We were ha half and half split between Gen X and millennials. And I think maybe millennials have a bit of an edge over me. The Gen X type with this notion that oh, I can claim a certain kind of space here.
I don't have to take my private. [00:35:00] Grief, worry, concern, and hide it back here in my office, behind my bookshelf. But if I voice that as part of my methodology and say, Hey, if I believe in liberation, if I believe in feminism, if I believe in healing, if I believe in the power of education to literally transform us, my private version of transformation can also be something that people can take public inspiration and learning from.
Exactly. And that is. That's maybe the permission slip that I need more of, that. It's not just my own private transformation, but that my private transformation can be part of a larger constellation of people who want to be gainfully employed, do research, build careers in institutions, and also heal and honor themselves and not contribute more harm that systems can perpetuate if we aren't attentive.
And I think it normalizes. So I am very symbolic of, wow, you can do. [00:36:00] These things. And you probably saw my Instagram post about the both and I posted it on yes. That has gotten so many, what do they call it? What do the kids call it? Oh my goodness. Not likes insights. Sorry, I'm trying to get with the, okay.
Yeah. Yes there is. Gen Z comes next, right? And we're all lost compared to, but I think what has really pleasantly surprised me. Is how many people send me emails, dms, text messages. A mentor of mine just a couple days ago sent me I left her a voicemail telling her how much I love her and just how she role models sisterhood and mentorship in a way that I've never quite seen happen.
And she responded saying, thank you for modeling. Wellbeing to me, and I was like, wait, what? But I have received so much of this over the last couple months in particular, and it warms my heart, it [00:37:00] reminds me that, okay, I am, I'm stepping forward with a purpose that I probably didn't know. Of but sometimes you find it until the path will rise to meet you.
That's a saying for a good reason I think. There you go. Absolutely. So I want, the last thing that I want to draw our attention to in this conversation is both the reality of, and the notion of retreat. As I said, like I have long longed for. This concept of retreat and and not in the two day faculty leadership retreat sense of the word, but in the don't get me started on that one.
Do we have space and resources and support to spend time for ourselves? However you wanna define that. Shortly before the pandemic, I did a 10 day [00:38:00] silent meditation retreat. It was February in southern Alberta. It was cold, and we were it's the ANA retreat, which it's a worldwide movement.
They tend to be, pay what you can. But there, there are rules. There are no journals and pens. There are no books, there are no cell phones. You are discouraged from doing any physical practice other than a midday walk around the frozen yard. It was like being in prison a little bit, but you got to meditate for 10 hours a day.
So it got me retreat from the world, but it didn't give me much in the way of care because it was a rugged, it was a rugged rustic setup. And so like the notion of retreat can be very, especially like what I did with you, a yoga retreat in Costa Rica, Uhhuh. It can be very much like aspirational female empowerment brand.
Let's go to the beach and be well, right? Or it can be something else. And between the [00:39:00] intention that you set and the nine of us who showed up it was very much not like we were not there for Instagram, although Raquel has very strict rules about how you take a good selfie and how you don't, and I'm learning it's an art.
It's an art. It's an art that I do not have mastered at all. But So what prompted you to do retreat? What does it mean to you and where are you going next? Ooh. All right. It's funny in one of my classes a couple years ago, someone came out the class and she said, oh, your classes are just so amazing.
Have you thought about hosting yoga retreats? I. I looked at her, I was like, girl, bye. No, I already have a job. Thank you. I have a full-time gig and my side hustle that I love and adore, but no. Yeah. But I, I say that now and I laugh because that [00:40:00] lived with me and it was this nagging knock that would surface.
From time to time, I never repeated that to anybody. But I found myself as the weeks and months and years went by, should I do this? What else can I do? People always ask me, are you gonna open your own studio? You're meant to do this. Have you thought about this? And now I've never thought about, and you and I have talked about this, I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur, any sort of business person.
No, not me. But this one comment at the end of my class haunted me. And every good story there starts my yoga business in a Satya and, the idea to answer your question about retreat the idea of retreat for me is not about escape, it's about an intentional return. Returning to self to purpose. Yeah. Coming back home. Yep. Coming back home to purpose, to clarity. I recognize that yoga for me, [00:41:00] provided that vehicle, so in my retreats, we create space to slow down. If you've ever taken a yoga class with me, my favorite thing to say is come back to your breath.
We reconnect with parts of ourselves that get lost in the noise of achievement, responsibility, expectations. And I wanted to create an experience that would be wholesome. Based on all the folks who showed up in Costa Rica, I was able to successfully create that. I think everyone felt as if they had experienced themselves in a very unique way.
Within 72 hours of post in my upcoming retreat, which I'll talk about Belize we are almost sold out. We have three rooms left and I keep saying we, but me. It's you, it's me, it's you. And I imagine that some of the people who've already [00:42:00] booked are people who I met in Costa Rica, and there are nine, nine perfect strangers.
And the container that. We created together and that Raquel really set the mood and intention for it was lovely. It was super connected and also solo and actually had a conversation with one of the attendees yesterday. And yeah, so this. It was a really good container to both work a little bit on your body, think a little bit about, moving in different ways and then like hammock and beach and a few of us tried surfing.
Spoiler. Do not take up surfing in your fifties, but if you're a yoga teacher, go for it. 'cause you'll probably be good at it. And you'll fall in love with it. Like I know, oh gosh, you guys, it was the worst. Here I am dragging myself up off the floor, the Pacific and Raquel's oh my gosh, that was so much fun.
I know. Now I'm obsessed with surfing, like I need [00:43:00] another water sport or another, anything to add to my plate. But or yeah. So the upcoming retreat in Belize in May. 2026 is a continuation of that vision that I had. It's designed for folks who are ready to recalibrate from the inside out.
Nestled in luxury jungle, nature of beliefs, monkeys. Have you seen those pictures? I, they hurt to look at. They are so gorgeous. I cannot I cannot wait. And we'll be there with nature. Movement, mindfulness, lots of yoga. And I would say most importantly, community at the core retreat for me is an invitation to not just rest, but to rise differently.
Yeah. I will say so as I mentioned earlier, I hit the button on Costa Rica because I decided it was time to [00:44:00] stop giving myself excuses to not just take care of myself, but treat myself. This notion of deserving a treat. Again, like I think there's some weird. Female acculturation, gen X issues around like worthiness and what do I have to do to deserve a treat?
Like I should probably take that vision. It's how we've all been socialized, right? So I should probably take that to the therapist, but I will say that like the difference between being at the. Meditation retreat, which is, it's replicating a monastery, right? Where it really is about austerity and asceticism, and there's something about that 'cause you strip away all sorts of creature comforts and find out like who are you when you are in deep discomfort for a very long time.
That was my big insight from 10 days of meditation. I was like, hold on. Is this all about. Working through pain, and the teacher just looked at me and cocked her head and was like isn't that an interesting insight? I was like, oh, so [00:45:00] concept, right? I was like, oh no. Oh no. It is crap.
Pain is gonna happen. Suffering is optional. But the retreat, this coming home to self in the sense of also being a treat, I just wanna say that as making the decision to treat myself by going to Costa Rica was, it was pretty empowering. And what I can see about Belize is. It's luxurious and I know that a lot of academics will say oh, I can't afford that.
Or, oh, that's too, but also if you're out there thinking I'm tired of pasting together. Little snippets of things that may or may not work for me. I'm tired of taking care of my parents and my partner and my kids and my pets and my students and my colleagues, [00:46:00] and nobody saying, Hey, why don't you just like.
Go to the beach for a weekend. If you're tired of that. Man, I have to say, treating myself was a bit of a transformational decision. Oh, I can do this. And I will say that nobody had told me I couldn't, it was all inside my head. All inside. My partner was like, finally, geez.
Yeah. So I I will in the show notes. To this, and when we, when I put this out on Instagram and LinkedIn and all that, I'm going to link to the registration page for the Belize retreat, but also to your Instagram, Raquel, because as you mentioned, like the way that you are using Instagram to show like, here's me.
Given a talk in my work clothes, be in the professional academic, and here's me doing a headstand. And I will also say that if you can't do a headstand, you can still go take a class with Raquel. I still can't do a headstand, but she's not, she's [00:47:00] gonna make you do the wheel. It's fine. Yeah. Listen, and that's one of the things that I'm trying to dismantle, right?
This. Notion that because we can get into these poses it's not accessible. The way I teach yoga is very, accessibility is at the forefront, always. So I appreciate you saying that, Jennifer. Those nine people included two of us with knee issues. Somebody who'd never done yoga before. Like we, we had the whole gamut.
'cause that was another story. I told myself, I can't go do this because I'm not fit out. And you would be. You would be surprised how many people feel the need to tell me, Hey, I'm not flexible. And my response usually is, I'm not either, you belong here. Whether you're flexible or not, whether you're in jammies or leggings, it doesn't matter.
This is a practice that is accessible and should be accessible, but has been co-opted and [00:48:00] westernized in a way that. Make many folks feel that it is in fact inaccessible. And that you need to have a certain kind of body or wardrobe or amount of money, or skin color or socioeconomic status or whatever to be a part of.
And I really found both the group of women who came together. And the way that you set up each class as a container of what are we gonna, what are you gonna do today? What are you gonna focus on? Let's think about this thing together and not just, set your some kpa and let's go, but like a few minutes just to get people grounded and moving into practice.
And I think returning to the university environment, the notion of. Your committee meeting, your office hours, your class being a container that you create where people have an experience. And we can, and I, a unique one. Yeah, a unique one Jennifer? Because, it's. One point of [00:49:00] feedback that seems to always surface on my teaching evaluations.
Dr. Meyer is incredible in how she forces us to engage in very different ways of thinking, right? I have students painting making playlists. Doing things that my colleagues, I have a really good colleague and anytime he sees me walk into class, it's always during week eight when I have easels and paintbrushes.
Oh boy, Dr. Wrighter is gonna have them in their feelings and crying tonight. Yes, and you know what? Dr. Meyer will never be forgotten. And so it's the same intentionality and innovation that I take into my yoga classes and these retreats, which I hope to host annually moving forward where, yes, we're setting our San Kapa, we're doing all these things, and also sit in with that and then maybe journaling or going through some guided meditation and figuring out, how we actually implement this in a way [00:50:00] that transcends this particular space. Yeah. And setting an intentional space for people to have a curated experience of learning. About the world or about themselves like that. It sounds like that's really important to you and very intentionally done by you.
And I just, I love it and all the respect and gratitude for for being there for people like me who wanted a space to do some intentional work and definitely got it. I appreciate that. So if you live in the South jersey slash Philly region, you can find Dr. Wright at a. Yoga studio. But I believe if you follow her on Instagram, you might also be able to find a yoga class online now and again, couple times a month at least, right?
Yes. Every Monday and Wednesday online we have I keep saying we, Jennifer. I know the royal we, yeah. Is this, you're [00:51:00] probably, you're manifesting manifestation.
Yeah. I love the manifesting your team, your minions, and I did just get your. Newsletter today, and I looked at it earlier, so I will I'll link some of that information too, because one of the nice things about our post covid world is that if you don't have what you need, where you live, you can get it online sometimes.
Fine. Yes. And I also, a lot of people ask are your classes as good online as they are in the studio? Studio? And my response is, as long as I'm teaching yoga, it's going to be a great class. The modality looks different. Of course the experience will be different, but it will still be a great class.
So I appreciate all your support, Jennifer, and my absolute pleasure and I really appreciate you having a conversation with me about at least one way it can look for a professor to not take. Their desire to be a whole human being focused on [00:52:00] healing and justice and leaving the world a better place and separate those things from their research and teaching.
To integrate those things and see wow, there's resonance with this, and people respond to this. So in the show notes, you will find all of the ways to follow Raquel on Instagram and get on her mailing list. And join her in Belize with the monkeys in the jungle and the trees and the food and the afternoon.
Restful Yin Yoga. Yoga, nira naps, man. The absolute best. Are the best and we will, something I'm looking forward to in Belize is going through the Mayan ruins. As a little girl growing up in Jamaica, we learned about the Mayans and that for me is just, I. So profoundly impactful and powerful, and I'm really looking forward to experiencing this wonderful country and everything.
[00:53:00] My, I've heard amazing things about Belize and I can't wait. I, this sounds super, super exciting. So for everybody listening, thank you for giving us your ears for an hour, and I will be back in a couple weeks I think perhaps with a solo episode. But more of my interviews with academics doing incredibly cool shit are coming up, including talking to Echo Rivera about how to create PowerPoints that don't suck, which I think is probably a superpower we all wish we had. So again, thank you so much Raquel and thank you to everybody tuning in.