Rather than stating she has worked to create comfortable environments for Black men, working with other yoga instructors to create men's yoga days or men's yoga events or anything else to help solve this issue, she just complains about resenting that her own yoga studio seems to mainly cater to White women. For example, A) the author complains that Black men don't have a comfortable and friendly environment in yoga studios (something that I myself have witnessed and that can be real problem in my opinion) and then instead of the author saying she (someone with influence, clout and resources in the yoga world) has done something about it, she just seems to imply someone ELSE should do something about this issue. Cons: There is so much hypocracy and negativity in this book. Also, it provides insight into the inner workings of a resentful person, something one would not normally have access to in 'self-help' books. Where she documents how working out yoga poses helps her work out her personal issues, the book is worthwhile.

Pros: The author does a decent job of emoting.

And reveals what she calls her own “whole-ass problematic”: growing up Baháí, loving astrology, learning to meditate, finding prana in music.Īnd in the end, Jessamyn invites every listener to find the authentic spirit of yoke-linking that good and that bad, that light and that dark.Īngry Hypocritical Author Emoting: Hard to Finish She questions why the Western take on yoga so often misses-or misuses-the tradition’s spiritual dimension. 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.

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. 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 Sanskrit, yoga means to “yoke.” To yoke mind and body, movement and breath, light and dark, the good and the bad. Finding self-acceptance both on and off the mat.

Yoke by Jessamyn Stanley