I help people reclaim space in their bodies, their communities, and their practices through connection, self-inquiry, and radical care. My work lives at the intersection of embodiment and social justice, where personal healing and collective liberation are deeply intertwined.

I am a white settler currently living and working in what is colonially known as Toronto on Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee), Mississauga, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation land.

Hi, I'm Shannon.

My Story

My relationship with yoga started when I was six years old, practicing alongside my mom to Lilias! Yoga and You on PBS. Later, it was tapes, DVDs, and a few books from the library. I loved the quiet, the breath, the ritual of it. But I never saw myself reflected in the people on the screen, and yoga studios didn’t feel like spaces I could trust with my body. So I kept practicing in private, quietly unsure if what I was doing even counted.

It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I began to learn more about yoga as a holistic practice, not just asana, but a framework rooted in stillness, ethics, inquiry, and liberation. When I began my teacher training, I started to understand that the presence and self-connection I’d been cultivating for decades were part of a yoga practice. The issue wasn’t my body or my approach—it was the way capitalism and Western wellness culture had reduced yoga into something narrow, aesthetic, and exclusionary. That shift changed everything.

As I deepened my practice, I also began reconnecting with my body—not to fix it, but to listen. My sociology background gave me the language to name what I was experiencing: the ways that white supremacy, fatphobia, ableism, and patriarchy shape how we move through the world and how we’re allowed to exist in our bodies. Yoga gave me tools to notice those patterns—and begin the slow, intentional work of undoing them.

I realized that self-acceptance is just the beginning. The deeper work is collective. It’s about unlearning the systems that keep us small and building practices and communities where everyone has room to breathe, rest, and be.

That’s why I created Fringe(ish): for all of us who were told we didn’t belong. A space for reflection, resistance, and soft landings. A space to practice together—on and off the mat.

What I Do:

Accessible Yoga
Adaptive, invitational classes for fat, disabled, queer, and neurodivergent folks. Online and always options-first.

Mentorship & Education for Yoga Teachers
Support for instructors and training programs ready to teach from the margins, not the manual.

Body Liberation Work
Individual and group mentorship for folks ready to stop fighting their bodies and start reclaiming their space.

Positionality Statement

I am a white settler currently living and working in Tkaronto, on the traditional territories of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee), Mississauga, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

As a fat, queer, non-binary, neurodivergent person with an invisible disability, my work is shaped by navigating systems not built for my body, my mind, or my needs. I’m a parent, a formerly homeless person, and a first-generation graduate student with a Master’s degree in sociology. These experiences inform how I hold space, how I teach, and how I understand power.

I come to yoga as a lifelong practitioner and a white student of a tradition rooted in South Asian and African lineages. I do my best to teach with reverence, responsibility, and an ongoing commitment to unlearning the ways colonization and capitalism have distorted this practice in the West.

My work is rooted in the belief that personal healing and collective liberation are deeply interconnected—and that no one should have to perform, translate, or shrink themselves to belong.

Need my bio?

Shannon Kaneshige, MA, E-RYT 500 (they/them) is a fat, queer, non-binary yoga teacher, body liberation mentor, and sociologist. Their work centers accessible yoga, community care, and the belief that healing and liberation are collective processes—not individual achievements.

Rooted in anti-oppressive practice and shaped by lived experience, Shannon creates spaces where fat, disabled, neurodivergent, and queer folks can reconnect with their bodies on their own terms. Their teaching weaves together embodied practice and social theory, helping students notice not just what’s happening on the mat but also how systemic forces like fatphobia, ableism, and white supremacy shape our internalized stories, nervous systems, and access to care. Shannon offers yoga classes, mentorship, and teacher education grounded in equity, rest, and radical self-trust.

Shannon is the founder of Fringe(ish), a virtual space for softness, resistance, and reclaiming what’s been stolen by systems that tell us to shrink. They live in what is colonially known as Toronto with their partner and kiddo, and are probably sipping tea while planning a new offering that holds space for your whole self.

Education & Training

E-RYT® 500, YACEP®

Training (14 hours+)

Restorative Yoga for Long Covid, Monisha Raja
The Path to Yoga, Justice and Equity 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Dianne Bondy
Accessible Yoga Training with Jivana Heyman & Amber Karnes, Virtual
Yoga For All Training with Dianne Bondy & Amber Karnes, Virtual
Social Justice & Equity in Yoga with Tobias Wiggans, Yogaspace, Toronto
200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Kathryn Beet, Hali Schwartz, and Jessica Ullathorne, Yogaspace, Toronto