Anti-Oppression Work in Wellness: An Interview with Constanza Eliana Chinea of Embody Inclusivity

Constanza Eliana Chinea focuses on Decolonial Education and Journalism in her work at Embody Inclusivity. I've been working with Constanza Eliana for a few years now as she has been mentoring and facilitating the journey I've been taking surrounding anti-oppression work. I am really looking forward to sharing this interview we recorded on International Women's Day about the importance of Anti-Oppression Work in the spiritual community and wellness industry. This is SO important for practitioners, wellness-based business owners, and people of all identities to incorporate as part of their practice. Ashley Leavy: Hello and welcome. Today I am so excited and honored to have the pleasure of speaking with Constanza Eliana Chinea of Embody Inclusivity whose work focuses on Decolonial Education and Journalism. So Constanza Eliana, thank you so much for being here. Constanza Eliana Chinea: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Ashley: So we've been working together for a long time now. I've been working with you for a long time now, and I'm really excited to have you on video and on the podcast because this has been something that I've been digging into a little bit more and more in my personal life, in my business. You've been a huge part kind of helping to shape that journey for me and educate me on the things that I need to look at within myself, within my business, within the way that I kind of operate in the world. And I think that this is such an important thing for us to be talking about in the spiritual community and The Wellness Community, and you have a background and wellness as well as the decolonial work that you do. So I'm wondering if you could just start by telling us a little bit about yourself so that everyone can get to know you a little bit. Constanza Eliana: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so I had been in the wellness industry, specifically the yoga industry for about 11 years. So I started off just like many people do just start it off practicing, gradually started thinking about teacher training, and starting to kind of teaching yoga to other people. Graduated from teacher training, and that was about two years after I first started practicing. And then I taught for about nine years, almost 10.  So it's been a long journey right now towards being more on the decolonization side of things. I think a lot of the experiences that I had in the world of the wellness industry and outside of it, kind of led me towards just being really passionate about anti-oppressive work, anti-racist work, and how decolonization theory and activism can kind of push that forward. I've learned a lot along the way. I feel right now having made the shift more towards journalism, I feel like I kind of come full circle in a way where not only am I retelling my own experiences with racism and colonization and all of that. But I'm also able now to tell other people's stories around marginalization, racism, oppression, and how that affects a person's lived experience.  So I'm just really grateful for everything that I've been through, at the same time, I don't necessarily want everyone behind me to experience the same things. And so I think a lot of my work is rooted in that foundation of trying to pave a better path for the people that come behind us.  Ashley: So yeah, I think a lot of the terms that you threw out just in that introduction will probably be new to some of our viewers and some of our listeners. They certainly, quite a few of those terms would have been new to me a couple of years ago. I'm wondering if you can just give us a really quick explanation or description of what anti-oppression work is or means to you because I think it ca...