Tejal (she/they) is a first-generation Indian American yoga teacher, writer, podcaster, community organizer.
"On this path, no gain is ever reversed, no effort is ever wasted."
Tejal lives, works, teaches and organizes on Tongva and Chumash Land, Los Angeles, California.
They’re available to travel for workshops, events, and retreats throughout the US and abroad.
You can contact them here.
Tejal’s Bio:
My name is Tejal (she/they). I’m a first-generation Indian American yoga teacher, writer, podcaster, and community organizer. I advocate for yoga through a social justice lens and educate and empower individuals and groups around the world to do the same. I accomplish this through the Tejal Yoga online studio, a revolutionary all South Asian teacher-led yoga community focused on social justice actions and authentic, culturally-rooted spiritual practices, the abcdyogi global community led by South Asian yoga and mindfulness teachers, and the Yoga is Dead Podcast, offering education through podcast, e-book, and webinar trainings.
My teaching priority:
Through deep listening, I work with individuals to bolster their knowledge, history, and understanding of their body with my practice of yoga, yoga philosophy, and anatomy to foster a space of healing, intention and connection. I have explored the yogic elements of devotion and spirituality my entire life and have continued education in vinyasa, hatha, restorative, trauma-informed and prenatal yoga movement, guided meditation, and functional anatomy to offer practices that are highly customized to every yoga student.
My aim is to offer curious, open and questioning spaces that utilize yoga to raise the power and increase belonging of all individuals and communities.
Learn more about Tejal:
Hello and Welcome! Over a decade ago, I quit my consumer finance job just a year after my first teacher training. I looked at my future in two ways, in a job I liked in finance or pursuing a life I loved building yoga and social justice spaces. Based on that calculation, the answer was easy. The execution of that vision, has been the whole spectrum of emotion.
In 2014, after returning from six months of travel and yoga study, I felt confident in my abilities to budget on way lower pay (thanks to 10 years of spreadsheet work!) and pursue my passion. During my first year of yoga studio life, I worked at countless studios while creating and growing my own yoga offerings at tejalyoga.com.
Over time, I grew more aware of a yoga industry seemingly centered on peace and love, that held a pervasive culture of spiritual bypassing, greed, racism, narcissism, and abuse of power and privilege. I used my newfound knowledge to empower myself and combat this toxic culture by offering authentic, culturally-rooted, and spiritual practices of yoga.
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My name, Tejal, means radiance in Sanskrit. I offer radiant yoga through my online yoga community, Tejal Yoga, a revolutionary South Asian teacher-led yoga community focused on educating and empowering every yoga student in the world about social justice and decolonizing wellness actions.
Reserve your next class here.
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As a co-creator of Yoga is Dead, I can bring critical conversations about race, power, privilege, body politics, harassment, fair pay, veganism, ahimsa, and gatekeeping to the forefront through our podcast and signature training on cultural appropriation: Act Against Appropriation, and e-book: The Original Godmothers of Yoga, an homage to the women and femmes that have paved the way for the yoga we practice today.
Learn more at yogaisdeadpodcast.com
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With abcdyogi, I created a thriving, inclusive community of 10,000+ facilitating healing and connection through storytelling, conversation, performance, art, song, dance, writing, and retreat led by South Asian yoga and mindfulness teachers.
This platform increases the visibility for South Asian yoga & mindfulness teachers while standing against colorism, casteism, religious intolerance, Islamophobia, white supremacy culture, anti-Blackness, racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia and all forms of intolerance.
Learn more at abcdyogi.com
Work with Tejal
I cultivate unique, groundbreaking discussions and learning spaces through:
trainings on the topics of perfectionism, race-based and ethnic-based stress and trauma, building your values and vision, authentifying your yoga, appropriately using sanskrit chants like Om and Namaste for yoga students and teachers
mentoring sessions for students and teachers seeking to go deeper into anti-racism, equity, inclusivity, accessibility and belonging through 1-1 conversations, roadmapping and resource sharing
customized offerings for companies, non-profits, colleges and universities i.e. chair-based yoga, mindfulness sessions, presentations and practices focused around cultural appropriation, dismantling white supremacy culture and the authentic roots of yoga
Reach out to me about your next event here.
I am passionate about:
uplifting and increasing opportunity for South Asian yoga and mindfulness teachers
creating lasting and meaningful connections within the BIPOC community
eradicating injustice, harm and toxic elitism in wellness spaces
A few interesting facts about me:
Favorite foods: Watermelon! Lettuce! Mint! Dark Chocolate! Chai! Chaat! Nachos! Pancakes!
Favorite places: Mountains in India, in the sunshine
Favorite book: You Are Here, Thich Nhat Hanh and Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur
I’m left-handed and a Sagittarius!
My Values & Commitments
I am committed to dismantling white supremacy culture/dominant culture narratives within wellness. Beyond wellness spaces, I fundamentally believe that yoga is inherently trauma-informed and a tool for personal and collective liberation.
I seek to build curious, questioning spaces that center social justice for our collective good.
I believe that yoga can be practiced mindfully while acknowledging that yoga has caused harm to caste-oppressed, non-hindu people and that yoga has been the vehicle to cause harm (sexual, emotional, verbal, ethnic) in other forms.
I strive to build and participate in spaces that alleviate these harms.
I honor yoga as a spiritual practice that comes from the people of South Asia, currently identified as India.
I practice the 8-limbs of yoga which cannot be reduced to exercise or elitist wellness postures and offered via the English language only.
I see neither sex nor gender as binary categories. I seek to not reduce ‘womanhood’ to a mere matter of biology – as indeed women’s struggles for gender equality around the world take place beyond this biological limit. I believe that feminist spaces operate beyond the gender binary and affirm non-binary, trans, and gender expansive experience and wisdom. I envision the practice of feminism as one which seeks to dismantle the gender binary and makes space for those who do not sit within the categories of ‘men’ and ‘women’.
I recognize the way in which patriarchy does not simply disadvantage women but also erases the experiences of those outside the gender binary. In making these acknowledgements, I ask that your participation in my platforms and your event invitations be inclusive of non-binary and trans identities in any feminist spaces that you organize, cultivate, and lead.
I stand against diet culture in all forms.
I am aware of the high volumes of misinformation and disinformation spread on social media, and how this can be harmful to marginalized groups. I work to ensure that my platform does not foster these, while also leaving room for discussions and nuance.
I incorporate land acknowledgement in my offerings. One resource to facilitate understanding of the meaning of indigenous land acknowledgments: https://nativegov.org/news/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/
I borrow much of this language from abcdyogi.
Click here to inquire about events and bookings.