Guest-Jelley Anna - Yoga and body image : 25 personal stories about beauty, bravery & loving your body

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery & Loving Your Body 2014 by Melanie Klein and Anna Guest-Jelley.

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First e-book edition 2014

E-book ISBN: 9780738741772

Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

Cover photo: Sarit Z. Rogers/Sarit Photography; Model: Courtney Sauls

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Melanie Klein

: MAKING CHOICES AND CREATING CHANGE

Linda Sparrowe

Dr. Sara Gottfried

Marianne Elliott

Dr. Melody Moore

Anna Guest-Jelley

: ON THE MARGINS

Vytas Baskauskas

Dianne Bondy

Carrie Barrepski

Teo Drake

Joni Yung

: CULTURE AND MEDIA

Melanie Klein

Rolf Gates

Nita Rubio

Seane Corn

Chelsea Jackson

Alanis Morissette

: PARENTING AND CHILDREN

Kate McIntyre Clere

Claire Mysko

Dr. Dawn M. Dalili

Shana Meyerson

: GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Rosie Molinary

The Athletic Yogi: Sexuality and Identity
Through the Body

Dr. Kerrie Kauer

Bryan Kest

Ryan McGraw

Dr. Audrey Bilger

Anna Guest-Jelley

Why Yoga and Body Image

Melanie Klein

I first met my coeditor, Anna Guest-Jelley, in 2010. I was introduced to her work through her blog post Welcoming the Curvy Yogini, which was about how to make space for bigger-bodied students in yoga. I was instantly enthralled. Not only did Annas words and experience speak to me, but I was taken by her bio wherein she described herself as an advocate for womens rights by day, a yoga teacher by night. Given my experience as a sociology and womens studies professor paired with my activist work and a yoga practice reaching back to the mid-nineties, I knew I had stumbled upon a kindred spirit. I was compelled to collaborate with her.

As an academic with a background and continued interest in a variety of healing modalities, I often felt out of place in both worlds. I had been regularly practicing yoga since 1996, became a certified massage therapist in 2000 through the Institute of Psycho-Structural Balancing, completed my advanced training as a Thai Yoga Therapy practitioner with Saul David Raye in 2001, took a yoga teacher training with Ganga White and Tracy Rich at the White Lotus Foundation in 2002, and had developed a consistent meditation practice after two ten-day Vipassana meditation retreats as taught by S. N. Goenka. During all this, though, it often appeared my rigorous academic training and critical thinking skills were seen as a deterrent or hindrance in this realm. Based on several experiences writing for the yoga community, it became evident to me that critical thinking was not necessarily welcomed or encouraged.

Simultaneously, I was actively involved in feminist politics, social justice movements, media literacy education, advocacy work, and the completion of two degrees in sociology with an emphasis on the intersection of gender, race, and class. To many in those arenas, yoga, meditation, and holistic healing seemed new-agey, trivial, and empty navel-gazing. In fact, my academic mentors could never figure out what my yoga practice had to do with my educational and professional goals.

But the connections between my sociological imagination, feminist consciousness, and advocacy work with yoga have always been obvious to methey all represent opportunities to raise our consciousness, take a holistic perspective on our individual problems, become our best selves, and create a more equitable and balanced world.

Blended Worlds

I began merging these backgrounds and areas of interest by applying my sociological imagination to a newly burgeoning yoga culture. In 2004 and 2005, I presented on yoga, popular culture, and commodification at four different academic conferences: The McDonaldization and Commodification of Yoga: Standing at the Intersection of Spiritual Tradition and Consumer Culture at the Pacific Sociological Association, Consuming Spirituality and Spiritual Consuming: Capitalizing on Yoga at the California Sociological Association, McYoga: The Spiritual Diet for a Consumer America at the Far West Popular Culture and American Culture Association, and Yoga and Popular Culture at the California Sociological Association. Anna was the first person I had come across who shared a similar background. She had earned several degrees and had a professional background in which she worked as an English professor, ran a renowned domestic violence prevention program, comanaged a university womens center, published papers, and created workshops and coordinated community programs on universal health care, reproductive rights, adult literacy, wellness, and emotional resilience. When it came to eating disorders, abuse, self-neglect, and anxietyyou name it, Anna had written the curriculum, xeroxed the worksheets, and hung the Welcome sign on the door.

I needed to connect with this woman. In my gut, I knew we were destined to collaborate and merge our efforts, talents, and skills into a broader conversation that bridged these seemingly disparate worlds. These two spheres of influence had so much to teach each other, and that marriage would only benefit and, hopefully, connect the members of each population.

Anna and I eventually had our first phone conversation in the spring of 2011 and the synergy was immediately palpable. We realized that a joint endeavor was undeniable. After a few months of percolating, we realized it only made sense to collaborate on a book focusing on yoga and body image.