Melanie C. Klein - Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body 2018 by Melanie C. Klein.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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First e-book edition 2018

E-book ISBN: 9780738755939

Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

Cover Photograph of Dianne Bondy by Sarit Z Rogers

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Klein, Melanie, author.

Title: Yoga rising : 30 empowering stories from yoga renegades for every body

/ Melanie C. Klein.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury, Minnesota : Llewellyn Publications,

2018. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017043219 (print) | LCCN 2017048159 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738755939 (ebook) | ISBN 9780738750828 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: YogaPsychological aspects. | Body image. | YogisBiography.

Classification: LCC RA781.67 (ebook) | LCC RA781.67 .K55 2018 (print) | DDC

613.7/046dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043219

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dedication

This book is dedicated to everyone and every body who has struggled with self-acceptance, self-doubt , or shame. I see you. Your story matters. Heres to our personal and collective liberation!

Disclaimer

This book is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice and treatment from your personal physician. Readers are advised to consult their doctors or other qualified healthcare professionals regarding the treatment of their medical problems. The publisher and the author recommend common sense when contemplating the practices described in this work.

Contents

by Dianne Bondy

:
YOGA, BODY IMAGE, AND SELF-WORTH

Rediscover,
Reconnect, and Repair:
A Lifelong Commitment

Lisa Diers

Perfectionism and My
Pathway to Yoga

Pia Guerrero

Robyn Baker

Saying Good-Bye
to the Inner Critic

Dr. Melissa Mercedes

Jivana Heyman

On Living Bold
and Discovering Your Power

Dr. Jenny Copeland

:
HEALING THE BODY AND MIND THROUGH PRACTICE

Finding the Right Fit:
A Journey to Self-Acceptance

Tiina Veer

Dr. Beth Berila

Kimber Simpkins

Elena Brower

Rebirth & Reconnection:
My Journey with Cancer

Dana Byerlee

Jodi Strock

:
YOGA FOR EVERY BODY AND EVERY ONE

Gwen Soffer

Jacoby Ballard

Instagram, Yoga, and Learning
to Love My Big, Black Body

Jessamyn Stanley

Whose Yoga Is It Anyway?:
An Indian Americans
Adventures in YogaLand

Lakshmi Nair

Dr. Sabrina Strings

Chanelle John

:
CHALLENGING EXCLUSIVITY AND CREATING SPACE

Suzannah Neufeld

Dana A. Smith

How I (Didnt) Get a
Yoga Body in 21 Days

Roseanne Harvey

Privilege Makes
the World Go Round

Lauren Eckstrom

Focusing on Ability
in Dis-Ability of Yoga

Elizabeth Wojtowicz

:
IGNITING YOUR INNER YOGA RENEGADE

Finding Refuge on the Yoga Mat:
How Modern Practitioners
Need to Say No To Our Culture
and Yes to Ourselves

Dr. Judith Hanson Lasater

Cyndi Lee

Combating Weapons
of Mass Perfection

Sarit Z Rogers

Yoga Girl: Living Authentically
in the Social Media World,
an Interview with
Rachel Brathen

Melanie Klein

Pranidhi Varshney

Zubin Shroff

Lessons Learned,
Lessons Taught

Dr. Gail Parker

Foreword

by Dianne Bondy

Despite decades of personal practice, as a person of color Ive often felt like yoga practice was not for me. More than four years ago I was compelled to share my experience in the groundbreaking anthology Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery & Loving Your Body. My hope was that I might connect with yoga practitioners (or those considering a yoga practice) who were struggling with similar feelings of inadequacy, shame, and fear, as well as those who felt excluded from the practice and/or those not represented in yoga media. Frankly, this is most of us.

As the Yoga and Body Image Coalitionan organization that works tirelessly to advocate for accessible, body positive yogaand I constantly proclaim, Representation matters. This representation includes the stories that are told, the images that are created, and the work that is shared. Representation matters because diversity is what gives us all a broader and more well-rounded perspective on what it means to be alive and human, as well as how we can coexist together and reach our fullest potential individually and collectively. It matters because together we rise. Together we uplift one another, as well as society as a whole.

Yoga and Body Image , the first book in this important series of personal narratives, was offered as a healing balm filled with inspiring stories about lives transformed by mindfulness practices, specifically yoga practice in all its diverse forms. It provided a glimpse into the lives and experiences of yoga practitioners that exist outside the conventional perspectives of what a yogi looks like, challenged the notion of a yoga body, and expanded our definition of what yoga is while inviting readers to connect, become introspective, and step on the mat.