Read This Book…

Full-disclosure: I am not a yoga practitioner. Historically, I am very yoga-averse. Specifically I have a strong aversion to American yoga from the cultural appropriation to the connection to the wellness industry. It’s been really hard to imagine a place for someone like me in a yoga practice; however, after reading this book, which was both an informative and cathartic experience, I was inspired to give yoga another try. That is how remarkable this book is.

According to Stanley, Yoga means “to yoke,” as in to join together. Lightness and darkness, good and bad. She says, “to yoke is to marry breath, though, and movement, to connect the body, mind, and spirit.” It’s about balance. She makes this connection in writing about her imposter syndrome and the necessity of embracing those fears. As is often said, you can’t have lightness without darkness. She talks about giving herself permission to take up space and giving herself permission to not know everything.

The way Jessamyn Stanley writes about poses and breathwork really connected with me in a way it hasn’t in the past. She talks about the yoga of everyday life. Yoga as a thing that you don’t only do in a studio or on a mat. Yoga as the daily project of living. The author’s teachings in this book are connected to stories of her own learning. It is both educational and memoir. I want to mention that she talks about fasting so if that is a trigger for you, know that it is discussed in this book.

My favorite parts of this book are her examinations of the American yoga industrial complex, the whiteness of American yoga, and the cultural appropriation which is so prevalent in American yoga. She gets very real about her own participation in capitalism and cultural appropriation and I think that’s finally what convinced me to take down some of my walls I had up that were keeping yoga at bay.

I enjoyed this book way more than I expected and as I mentioned, it has compelled me to integrate yoga into my own life.