What is Yoga Really Like in America?

Yoga in America, published in early 2009, was a book ahead of its time.  Long before the debate about what is and isn’t yoga heated up in the blogosphere, and all the narrow stereotypes that resulted, this book celebrated the actual wide diversity of Yoga in America, as told by passionate yoga teachers themselves.

There are 46 articles chosen out of over 500 submitted in an open competition, the brainstorm of publisher Deborah Bernstein.  I had the honor and pleasure of co-editing the book with Deborah.  This was the experience that led me a few months later to elephant journal and the development of elephant yoga, which follows in the same tradition of wide (some might say “wild”) diversity.

Today the entire book is available free online, and we have started publishing it article by article with illustrations and writer photos on elephant journal.  Here is an ongoing index of those articles so far for easy reference:

The Downside to Down Dog ~ Kelly Grey

Hot Yoga in America ~ Peter Sklivas

Boiler Room Yoga ~ Richard Wall

The One & Only Reason I Sought Out Yoga ~Halli Bourne

Yoga Demystified: The Six Big Ideas ~ Bob Weisenberg

Firm Buttocks or Self-Realization? ~ Laura Sachs

Reflections: “Yoga in America” While Congress
Holds America Hostage ~Hilary Lindsay

Peace is but a Breath Away. {Poem} ~ Cynthia Overgaag

The Art & Science of Happiness ~ Gyandev McCord

You are Divine and Perfect ~ Karen Pierce

Yoga Is Whatever You Want To Make Of It ~ Adrienne Reed

My Dawn Musings ~ Bridget Boland

The Ancient Roots of Modern Yoga ~ Tony Criscuolo

I Am Never Doing Yoga Again. ~ Danielle Hope Hier

A Rose by Any Other Name: Indian Yoga & American Yoga ~ Nina Moliver

The Melting Pot of American Yoga ~ Hannah Schoen Caratti

The Ancient Wisdom of Kriya Yoga is Alive & Well in America ~ Camella Nair

The Path of Urban Mystic ~ Darren Main

Not Just a T-Shirt Slogan ~ Shana Meyerson

Denying, Buying, Trying, Applying:
The Four Stages of Getting into Yoga ~ Donna Brown

The following Yoga in America co-authors have also published on elephant, although their Yoga in America articles are not on elephant yet (Click to see their work. Let me know if I missed anyone):

Amy Nobles Dolan,  Deborah Bernstein,

Kino MacGregor,  Tracey L. Ulshafer

I love being able to share these writers with the elephant audience.

Enjoy.

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