Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

The author of Every Body Yoga invites readers to find their own authentic “yoga of the everyday,” and learn to handle life’s toughest moments with the same flexibility, strength, grounding energy, and core awareness found in a headstand or Tadasana or cobra pose. Original. 40,000 first printing. Illustrations.
"Remember Jessamyn Stanley? How could you not? She's the proudly fat, Black, queer yoga teacher and charismatic author of Every Body Yoga, who drops a lot more f-bombs than namastes and refuses to pray at the church of Lululemon. Now she's back, here to take us even further on a personal and provocative journey into what it means to "practice yoga." Where Every Body Yoga, with 59,000 copies in print, taught us how to do yoga, Yoke tells us why. In Yoke, which draws its name from a literal translation of the Sanskrit root "yuj," from which the word "yoga" derives, Jessamyn writes about what she calls the yoga of the everyday-a yoga that is not just about poses but about applying the hard lessons we learn on the mat to the even harder daily project of living. This yoga of the everyday is about finding within life's toughest moments the same flexibility, strength, grounding energy, and core awareness found in a headstand or Tadasana or cobra pose. In a series of deeply honest, funny, gritty, thoughtful, andlargely autobiographical essays, Yoke explores issues of self-love, body-positivity, race, sex and sexuality, cannabis, and more, all through the lens of an authentic yoga practice. Every reader is invited to find this authentic spirit of yoga in their own lives and practice. To yoke"--

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.
Funny, thoughtful, inspiring, and deeply personal essays about yoga, wellness, and life from author of EVERY BODY YOGA, Jessamyn Stanley. Stanley explores her relationship (and ours) to yoga (including why we practice, rather than how); wrestles with issues like cultural appropriation, materialism, and racism; and explores the ways we can all use yoga as a tool for self-love. 
Funny, thoughtful, inspiring, and deeply personal essays about yoga, wellness, and life from author of EVERY BODY YOGA, Jessamyn Stanley. Stanley explores her relationship (and ours) to yoga (including why we practice, rather than how); wrestles with issues like cultural appropriation, materialism, and racism; and explores the ways we can all use yoga as a tool for self-love.