Courageous Yoga Champions Mind, Body, Spirit, and Community
At its core, yoga is a practice meant to strengthen all aspects of a person; from learning the power of your breath to finding peace in meditation, it provides innumerable benefits. But like many practices in the health and wellness space, yoga still has work to do when it comes to honoring its roots and providing safe and affirming spaces for all people. Denver’s own Courageous Yoga is putting in the hours and energy to do so.
Jordan Smiley, co-director, teacher, and lead of yoga teacher training at Courageous Yoga, found his way into yoga via meditation. Finding it difficult to sit still, Smiley was advised to do sun salutations, a core movement of Ashtanga yoga. He didn’t know it at the time, but this advice would introduce him to a world he’s become immersed in as a practitioner but also a leader in his own right. “I started to notice more emotional and mental stability and more joy and freedom in my life and mind,” Smiley says. “I took the study really seriously, and it led naturally to where I am today.
Smiley describes yoga as “a holistic practice to bring balance to the mind, body, and spirit to draw us into greater intimacy with our inner and outer world.” He points out that while many folks begin with the physical practice of yoga (which is entirely OK), it doesn’t traditionally “begin” that way.
“Many people in the introductory experience of coming into contact with yoga start with the physical practice,” Smiley says. “Especially in the West, which has been systemically disconnected with our bodies, and especally so for those in the LGBTQ space.”
He goes on to say that, tradition aside, whichever aspect of yoga a newcomer feels called to is right, whether that’s restorative yoga, a meditation class, reading about the practice, or watching a YouTube video.
“I advocate for any method,” he says, chuckling that Courageous is always a good place to start. “All of the doors lead in and the practice, and at a certain point it begins to do this work on us—like surgery on the heart. It doesn’t matter which door you come through.”
When asked his opinion if yoga has been traditonally welcoming and affirming to the LGBTQ community, Smiley says it depends on who you ask and their experience.
“What I’ve witnessed and experienced is that the surface-level acceptance is certainly there in yoga communities for queer folks, especially in the post-2020 landscape,” he says. “However, I feel like white wellness in general is an industry that relies heavily on white, cultural-dominant norms—a part of history that remains very much alive. One of the things the queer community is facing is our own intersectionality, and because we’re not taught about it in our education system, we learn to compartmentalize gender and race. The type of yoga we teach and promote at Courageous tries to interrupt, confront, and disrupt that method of thinking because it’s toxic.”
Also toxic, Smiley mentions, is how a yoga studio can say it accepts everyone, but many of the yoga communities in Denver aren’t doing the work under the surface to “pry apart the biases that are operating below and how gender is reinforced.”
A simple example is the “norm” that, for people assigned male at birth, it’s acceptable to take their shirts off during practice. But Courageous implements a “nipple-neutral” policy, asking patrons to think more deeply about what gives one person the right to take their shirt off over another.
Smiley notes that being in community is one way to ensure support and reflection when approaching the practice. And for Courageous in particular, community is a huge pillar for all who walk through its doors.
“I’ve experienced what I might call microaggressions but also pretty explicit discimination in wellness spaces for being a trans person,” Smiley says, explaining that the wellness space in general has a lot to improve upon when it comes to acceptance beyond performative allyship.
Essentially, while Smiley encourages anyone interested in practicing yoga to do so, he advises folks in the queer community to continue asking themselves if they’re “accepting acceptance” or, on the contrary, looking to align with people actively trying to break down the barriers that have systemically held back and harmed the community. For allies (and “co-conspirators,” as Smiley puts it), that process will probably require folks to get uncomfortable.
And for those yoga newcomers, it’s about looking for the signs that a studio or community is not just performative.
“If you’re willing, call the space or check its (social media) and see how proactive people are about doing some of that work and speaking to their mistakes,” Smiley says. “How much do they lift up queer voices and teachers and educators? Is there representation in the space?”
The studio runs a queer group the second Friday of each month called Queerageous, accessible through the studio’s Instagram.
“That group is doing the work of exploring what it means to be queer and waking up, especially in Denver where we do battle a lot of racism. Everyone is invited to that space, and it’s very beginner- and all-levels-friendly and is a neat introduction to the community, as well as the practice of yoga and meditation and movement and breath,” Smiley says.
At the end of the day, Smiley wants folks to know how powerful and transformative yoga can be, especially when you find the right space for you.
“I think one of the things I realized was how parallel queer embodiment and the yoga practice really are. Queerness takes something, turns it upside-down, and shakes it out to find an authentic center; anything we might call our identity is very fluid—Yoga practice is exactly that.”
Courageous Yoga is located at 1280 Sherman St. in Denver and is always looking for opportunities to scholarship queer and BIPOC folks for its Yoga Teacher Training.
From Jordan: If readers wish to donate to our nonprofit (which goes to scholarship opportunities), they can do so through the Pay it Forward Fund.
Photo courtesy of Courageous Yoga
