I Rise Up

This week’s affirmation, I Rise Up, is inspired by themes from Alok Vaid-Menon’s book: Beyond the Gender Binary. Jump straight to my meditation using this affirmation.

To stay well, my daily yoga practice focuses on grounding. I learned (the hard way) that I can only rise up if I’m truly rooted.

‘Root to rise’ is the mantra I live by these days because I come to yoga through a mental health lens, specifically bipolar disorder.

Yoga quite literally saved my life.

On two separate occasions, I was hospitalised with terrifying episodes of mania. Both times, I gradually rebuilt my life thanks to a combination of yoga and medication. I was also lucky enough to benefit from talk therapy, as well as support from family and friends. Yoga plays a key role in my mental health, which is linked to my identity as a trans / non-binary person.

Yoga has also helped me to understand my queer identity. 

That’s what drives my desire to teach Queer Yoga, to share with others the tools that have helped me through dark times.

I set up Queer Yoga classes specifically aimed at LGBTQIA+ people in the North East of England because our community is disproportionately impacted by mental health issues. These Queer Yoga classes grew and in time, a group of directors applied for funding to set up a social enterprise called Queer Yoga North C.I.C. 

This meant we could offer free access to Queer Yoga classes – it was a dream come true! But it was also extremely hard work. Burnout rates are high among activists. Our social enterprise was no different, even though we set it up specifically to focus on wellbeing and mental health. 

We offered free access to yoga, but it did come at a cost – at a human cost, and my own mental health took a hit. 

When we made the difficult decision to close the organisation, I was absolutely gutted. I’d put my heart and soul into Queer Yoga North C.I.C., and was left with an immense sense of shame and failure. I came off social media and even retreated from in-person events. 

But anger dragged me out of that dark cave, when a new attack on trans rights sparked the urge to rise up again.  

I was woken up by pure queer rage.

It was the power of protest that reminded me we can’t hide away from the world forever. 

In April 2025, the Supreme Court in the UK ruled that the term “woman” means “biological woman”, sparking protests across the country in support of trans women, who suddenly faced a massive increase in transphobic abuse. 

I joined the protest in my hometown of Middlesbrough (I’m the one in the non-binary flag in the photo above). We gathered just after the ruling and it was a protest full of raw disbelief and despair. A week later, I travelled to York to join a bigger protest where the community’s rage had grown in the time since the ruling was announced.

In a crowd of more than 600 strangers, I felt less alone than the whole time I’d been running away from the world since Queer Yoga North C.I.C. closed. 

When I returned home from York, I desperately wanted to do something, to play a part in this uprising, to use these skills of yoga again to make a difference for our community. I started questioning my own yoga practice.

How do we make our yoga mean more? How do we turn our yoga practice into an uprising? 

Since I first stepped onto a yoga mat, it was always about rooting to rise. Now there is even more fire in my belly – I want my yoga to matter, to be of service in the world. 

This call to rise up reminds me of one of the ancient Indian texts which is considered sacred to many yogis: The Bhagavad Gita.

At the beginning, Arjuna is in a state of despair and is refusing to fight in battle, although he is a respected warrior. Arjuna is counselled by Krishna, who says:

“Arjuna, where does all this despair come from? This egoistic self-indulgence at a time of crisis is shameful and unworthy of you.” 

The Bhagavad gita. a walkthrough for westerners, by jack hawley (p11)

Reading these words again was exactly the call to action that I personally needed at a time when I was still tending to my wounds about the closure of Queer Yoga North C.I.C. It’s healthy to take time to process big changes, reflect on mistakes, and to grieve what has been lost. But it can be easy to get lost in that grief. 

Belong | Be | Love is about finding a new way forward and looking for hope. It’s about sharing the tools of Queer Yoga with people in places where there might not be easy or safe access to queer community. As Krishna goes on to say:

“Not doing the right thing when it is required is worse than doing the wrong thing.” 

The Bhagavad gita. a walkthrough for westerners, by jack hawley (p17)

This quote from The Bhagavad Gita reminds me of the Stonewall Riots, when the LGBTQIA+ community rose up against police oppression at the Stonewall Inn in New York City on 28th June, 1969. They had to do something to stop the relentless tide of brutality. And what they did was the start of the Pride movement.

My understanding of Krishna’s words in The Bhagavad Gita is that we each have to find our own path to contribute, because inaction is worse than making mistakes.  

This blog is born out of a desire to do something, however small, to explore what healthful activism could look like. It’s an attempt to find equanimity: to find joy, to avoid burnout and stay well, whilst still engaging in protest. 

Doing something is better than nothing. But doing something might look like doing nothing, because rest is radical. We need to fuel our activism with rest.

Our whole lives can be an act of protest. After all, queer joy is resistance. Let’s make our activism sustainable, to make space for ourselves and others to shine bright. Krishna instructs Arjuna on how to go into battle: 

“Do not worry about results. Be even tempered in success or failure. […] Indeed, equanimity is yoga!”

The Bhagavad gita. a walkthrough for westerners, by jack hawley (p21)

Are you here for the journey? Then let’s get started with a meditation which works with the affirmation, ‘I Rise Up’.

Favourite quote from the book:

“Sometimes when I am facilitating creative-writing workshops, I give a prompt to my participants: “What part of yourself did you have to destroy in order to survive in this world?” (p62) 

Why I love this book:

Alok is such a role model for me as a non-binary person. I went to see them live in Leeds on their BIOLOGY! tour and it was so emotional to actually be in the same room and feel their energy. It felt like a collective rising up in the room, as Alok brought the audience together and took us with them on their journey.

Buy the book:

Alok Vaid-Menon’s book, Beyond the Gender Binary

(N.B: I don’t receive anything for sharing the link – I just think it’s great to support queer bookshops and authors!)

What does ‘i rise up’ mean to you as a queer person?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Join the conversation on Instagram or Bluesky.