Finding self-acceptance both on and off the mat. In Sanskrit, yoga means to “yoke.” To yoke mind and body, movement and breath, light and dark, the good and the bad. This larger idea of “yoke” is what Jessamyn Stanley calls the yoga of the everyday—a yoga that is not just about perfecting your downward dog but about applying the hard lessons learned on the mat to the even harder daily project of living. In a series of deeply honest, funny autobiographical essays, Jessamyn explores everything from imposter syndrome to cannabis to why it’s a full-time job loving yourself, all through the lens of yoke. She calls out an American yoga complex that prefers debating the merits of cotton versus polyblend leggings rather than owning up to its overwhelming Whiteness. She questions why the Western take on yoga so often misses—or misuses—the tradition’s spiritual dimension. And reveals what she calls her own “whole-ass problematic”: Growing up Baháí, loving astrology, learning to meditate, finding prana in music. And in the end, Jessamyn invites every reader to find the authentic spirit of yoke—linking that good and that bad, that light and that dark.
JESSAMYN STANLEY is the author of Every Body Yoga and Yoke and an internationally acclaimed voice in wellness, highly sought after for her insights on 21st-century yoga and intersectional identity. She is the founder of The Underbelly, an inclusive wellness community and streaming app, cohost of the podcast Dear Jessamyn, and cofounder of We Go High, a North Carolina based cannabis justice initiative. She is a regular contributor to SELF magazine and has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and Sports Illustrated.
Table of Contents
Foreword vi
Yolk 1
I'm Not Me 18
The Hierophant 28
Poses 48
Wealth & Other American Values 64
Rituals 80
Cultural Appropriation Is More American Than Apple Pie 92
