“When you get these jobs that you so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” —Toni Morrison
To know Ryan is a privilege. He’s a good listener, a strategic thinker, is generous with his energy, and spends most of his spare time in service of others or dreaming of ways we can all be, at scale. His ability to do exquisite boots-on-the-ground work while holding a higher vision not only for himself, but for the collective, is as rare as it is impressive.
Ryan is a freelance designer, brand strategist, yoga teacher, reiki master, artist, creative director—a true multi-hyphenate, like many Well Aware guests—who has done work for Wanderlust, Daybreaker, adidas, The Numinous, Lululemon, and more. He’s also the founder of Aligned, a media company disrupting the way we think of well-being that’s focused on the collective.
Our conversation took place about year ago (if you want to know what happened between now and then, listen to The Big Update). It was fun to listen again and see how much had evolved and what still resonates. I met Ryan in the spring of 2018, right after he’d completed his first self-directed zine, Her Ferocities, which is perhaps the most beautiful and thoughtful zine I’ve had the pleasure of reading. He sent a cold email to my mindbodygreen address (yes, editors do read cold emails!) and after following the link to his work I knew we had to meet. It was a time when politics were grim, in the wake of #metoo, #timesup and #blacklivesmatter, that this beautiful booklet emerged.
In this episode, Ryan and I cover a lot of ground:
- Privilege, empowerment, and responsibility in wellness and media
- The capital W why behind self-care
- Wellness outside of its own industry
- What the future of media could look like
- Representation in wellness and media
- How he created a cohesive body of work, from seemingly disparate pieces
- What it’s like to teach yoga in a jail
- How he comes back to his personal practice after falling off the wagon
- And of course, his personal approach to well-being
I hope you enjoy the episode! As always, let me know what you think. If you’re here reading the blog, leave a note in the comments, shoot me an email (I share my email address on each episode), leave a review on iTunes, or send me a DM on Insta. Find Ryan on Instagram at @ryan_lemere or through his personal website, ryanlemere.com
SHOW NOTES
- ALIGNED
- Ryan’s instagram @ryan_lemere
- Aligned’s instagram @alignedmag
- Third Eye Society cap
- Her Ferocities zine
- Ryan Lemere
- Anti Social Social Club
- Folk Rebellion – the dispatch – all about finding freedom IRL, living freely without the shackles of technology
- Moment app
- Open Up Resources – a not for profit that provides teachers with free curricula ideas or entire curricula
- Wanderlust
- Tushy
- Daybreaker
- Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life by Radha Agrawal, illustrated by Ryan Lemere
- Liberated Prison Yoga – trauma-sensitive yoga teacher training for those who wish to teach in jails
- Summer Rayne Oaks – proud chicken mama
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