Community Resiliency Team

Cultivate Compassion & Inspire Collaboration

ABOUT THE COMMUNITY RESILIENCY TEAM

The Community Resiliency (CR) team helps to ensure harmonious relationships throughout the School’s five global regions by ensuring that it’s global community has the support and skills needed to foster compassionate communication at all levels of interaction.

Members of the CR team have experience in community support and working with others to find equitable solutions to situations that present the all too common difficulties of being in collaborative relationships. Involvement in the team is a powerful way to participate in our Anusara community and contribute your skills in the growth and development of the School and its international kula (family) of students and teachers.

The School is now accepting applications for those wishing to serve Asia, Canada, Europe, and Latin America by being on the School’s Community Resiliency Team. Please note: Members of the CR Team are highly encouraged to read and implement the skills of mediation in the Mediate Your Life manual by mediation and conflict resolution experts John Kinyon and Ike Lasater.

The Community Resiliency Team Members:

Team Leader: Cat McCarthy, New York City, USA

Sitting in the gap between what is happening and what I think “should” be happening can be challenging, if not painful.  When I feel disappointed, it’s usually that I am hoping things to be a certain way, and life isn’t panning out as expected.  But rather than trying to make anything wrong, what if I can be curious about what is arising in me?  Yoga for me is a practice of learning to become comfortable with discomfort, which over time expands my comfort zone.

In Anusara Yoga, we teach principles of alignment.  People have alignment.  Poses do not.  Within a tantric perspective, we always are always practicing choice.  To what can I choose to align?  How do I choose?  And how can I respond to people, situations, or even other parts of myself that seem out of alignment to myself?  As we learn to navigate an ever-changing pandemic environment, we have the continual opportunity to accept what is indeed happening around us, while choosing how to respond in a way that keeps connection.

Allow me to introduce myself.  I was part of the Anusara Yoga kula from 2002-2012.  I held Affiliation status in 2004 and earned my Certification in 2008.  Although based in New York City, I spent a decade of my life helping rebuild the yoga communities post-Hurricane Katrina in my hometown of New Orleans, as well as the Gulf Coast and SE region.  Originally a filmmaker, my yoga wings gradually spread to teach nationally and internationally.  Since 2013, I have been integrating Compassionate Communication (NVC) into my yoga trainings, exploring how to align ourselves both inside and out.  I am honored to guide physical, mental, and emotional asana, which requires both curiosity and humor, as we excavate deeper within.

Compassionate Communication has been the most clear, practical, and effective way of applying my yoga off of the mat and into my life.  Not only has it changed my relationships with others, it has fostered more self-compassion.  However, not unlike doing handstand in the middle of the room, it’s not easy and might take some time to accomplish.  When I am able to see from different angles in asana (even when scary), I can view the world from the benefit of multiple perspectives.  This is abhyasa.  This takes skill in action.

As the Community Resiliency Team Leader, I am excited to be sharing with the Anusara kula all that I have learned on my path.  I am happy to be back in the fold and honored to be taking up the reigns from Tiffany Wood, collaborating with an established stellar team.  It is within a safe and attuned community that we can all learn from one another while cultivating more understanding, connection, and most of all compassion.  I look forward to sharing this practice with my fellow teachers, as we all hold the space for healing in the world.

In gratitude, Cat

Will Doran, Seattle, WA, USA

Will is a Certified Anusara yoga teacher who began his yoga journey in 1998.  He has extensive experience in business management, customer support, and interpersonal relationship guidance.  Will has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies (with a major in Latin American studies),  is certified as a Professional Life Coach, has seven years of computer retail sales management, and has served for over twenty five years as a board of directors member for his family’s corporate business.  His life philosophy aligns and resonates with ASHY’s core values of recognizing the sacred in the heart of all beings.

Debbi J. Payne

“Anger and resentment can be powerful Self-care tools. Through NVC, I’ve learned that these feelings are messages from universal needs that I’m ignoring.” DJP

Debbi J. Payne is a retired Town Justice, former School Board Member, Mediation Educator, and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer. She was attracted to dispute resolution early in life while observing her parent’s arguments. As a single mother, she gave up a career of cleaning bathrooms in the middle of the night to return to school, acquired a Paralegal AAS, History BA and a Masters in Adult Ed. Her faith in the connection of everything is regularly tested and affirmed.  The most significant affirmation occurred during her on going experience with Chronic Lyme.

Debbi has practiced Anusara Yoga for 9 years and studied NVC for almost 2 decades. She lives with the love of her life Jerry, her son, Shane and rescued dog, Amber.

Community Resiliency Team Member Job Description.

Apply to join the Community Resiliency Team: Community Resiliency Team Member application

Learn more or Request Support

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