"If we don’t begin to work collectively and in solidarity with one another, we will perish. The journey of discovering that our dharma is connected to the greater good is challenging and we must do it anyway. We must skillfully take collective and radical action to create a world that allows all of us to breathe, be, live, be seen and validated."
– Michelle C. Johnson; Skill in Action
"I've attended three Skill in Action workshops and in all of them, Skill in Action taught me the skill to disrupt. Before Skill in Action, I understood disruption only as an act of confrontation and that limited perspective on confrontation was a disempowering point of view for someone who was introverted like me. I thought I had no place in shifting the culture of yoga. The Skill in Action workshops helped me navigate that view through the lessons on social location accompanied by conversations and reflections on rituals, practices, and yoga philosophy. I learned that Skill in Action is inquiry in practice and that will always be a part of my practice, teaching and being."
- Raudhah Rahman
About Michelle Cassandra Johnson
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher and practitioner, racial equity consultant and trainer, and intuitive healer. She has led transformative work in the form of dismantling racism and systems of oppression, disrupting the wellness industry to make it more inclusive and accessible, creating space for healing in a myriad of ways, and through her over two decades of work as a clinical social worker. Michelle’s work centers on healing from individual and collective trauma, coming back into wholeness, and aligning the mind, body, spirit, and heart.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of William and Mary and a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She has worked in several non-profits and served as an elected official in North Carolina from 2011 to 2016. She has led Dismantling Racism Trainings with large corporations, small non-profits, and community groups, including the ACLU-WA, Duke University, Google, This American Life, The Center for Equity and Inclusion, Mercedes, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Auburn Seminary, Kripalu, Yoga Alliance, and Lululemon, and many others. She published the first edition of Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017 and the second edition of Skill in Action published by Shambhala Publications in 2021. Her second book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, was published by Shambhala Publications in 2021. Her newest book, We Heal Together: Rituals and Practice for Building Community and Connection, was published by Shambhala Publications in 2023 and her upcoming book, A Space For Us: A Guide For Leading Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Affinity Groups, published by Beacon Press in August 2023. Michelle has a fifth book, Illuminating Our True Nature: Yogic Practices for Personal and Collective Healing, published by Shambhala Publications, coming out in June 2024.
She teaches workshops, immersion, and transformative experiences in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide. She was a Tedx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019 and has been interviewed on several podcasts in which she explores the premise and foundation of Skill in Action, along with embodied approaches to racial equity work, creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal. In 2020 she created her own podcast, Finding Refuge, which explores collective grief and liberation and serves as a reminder about all the ways we can find refuge during unsettling and uncertain times and of the resilience and joy that comes from allowing ourselves to find refuge.
