Download or read book Decolonizing Yoga in Academia written by Ragini Singh Sharma and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inquiry explores the experiences of thirteen Canadian yoga-exemplars, ages 25-40, who use traditional Yoga knowledge and practices to handle lifes stresses and strains. The young adults describe Yoga as a holistic and spiritual practice as a way of life, a philosophy, and not merely a physical exercise. Their stories about how they cope with the challenges of life such as school, relationships or existential angst, demonstrate how Yoga has helped them effectively cope with stress. Their discussion of Yoga is important because of concerns that unmanaged stress leads to negative impacts, such as anxiety, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. Researchers have concluded that, due to the heterogeneity of Yoga, it is difficult to compare Yoga programs to know their quality or content. Also, these programs are usually limited to practice of asanas, or physical postures, along with some mindfulness. Yet, as the Patanjali Yoga Sutras explain, Yoga teaches the complete psychology of the mind and provides a holistic, spirituality-based, embodied and experiential approach to wellness and increased-self-awareness. Using the Art of Living programs as a case study, this inquiry provides an example of a program that teaches all eight limbs of Yoga which is a Yoga-based theoretical framework researchers can use to study programs that are based on Yoga. Purva paksh, or critical review, of western scholarship on Yoga has led Indigenous scholar-practitioners to conclude that Yoga has been, and continues to be, studied through colonial lenses. This study proposes and demonstrates how Yoga may be better understood and analysed using Yogas own theories and Sanskrit terminology. This study uses decolonizing methodologies to theorize Yoga as indigenous knowledge, similar to other indigenous knowledges of the world which are based on the oral tradition. Indigenous scholars have asserted that the authority to speak for or teach the knowledge belongs to its own knowledge keepers and scholars, and not to outsiders. The study further decolonizes western studies on Yoga to show that the significant contributions made by Yoga to western psychology, mind sciences, and philosophy remain mostly unacknowledged. A review of the many threats faced by Yoga from western Indology provides the backdrop to the yoga-exemplars' narratives.
Download or read book Decolonizing Yoga from Critical to Cosmic Consciousness written by Punam Mehta Ph.D. and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written for diasporic South Asian women who have experienced microaggression or discrimination in modern yoga spaces in Canada or abroad. Punam Mehta, Ph.D. reveals how the yoga movement in Canada has been harmful to yoga’s grounding in Jain history, to South Asian social and cultural development, and to Jain diasporic women born and raised in Canada. She argues that marginalized women could recenter themselves by practicing yoga to overcome discrimination based on their race, gender, sexuality, class, and/or abilities within the context of today’s culture. The author seeks to answer questions such as: • What is the theoretical foundation of feminist-informed yoga in contemporary culture? • How can a feminist-informed yoga be applied as a healing approach to marginalized women? • How can contemporary yoga offer simple ways for marginalized women to feel good about themselves? The author highlights the removal of Canadian-born Jain mothers and more generally, South Asian mothers who face systemic racism in yoga studios. She also reveals how yoga, practiced in the Jain way of life, offers a holistic approach to well-being and spiritual health.
Download or read book Decolonizing Academia written by Clelia O. Rodríguez and published by Fernwood Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetic, confrontational and radical, Decolonizing Academia speaks to those who have been taught to doubt themselves because of the politics of censorship, violence and silence that sustain the Ivory Tower. Clelia O. Rodríguez illustrates how academia is a racialized structure that erases the voices of people of colour, particularly women. She offers readers a gleam of hope through the voice of an inquisitorial thinker and methods of decolonial expression, including poetry, art and reflections that encompass much more than theory. In Decolonizing Academia, Rodríguez passes the torch to her Latinx offspring to use as a tool to not only survive academic spaces but also dismantle systems of oppression. Through personal anecdotes, creative non-fiction and unflinching bravery, Rodríguez reveals how people of colour are ignored, erased and consumed in the name of research and tenured academic positions. Her work is a survival guide for people of colour entering academia.
Download or read book Decolonizing yoga written by Cristina Renee Sajovich and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Practicing Yoga as Resistance written by Cara Hagan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together a diverse chorus of voices and experiences in the pursuit of collective bodily, emotional, and spiritual liberation, Practicing Yoga as Resistance examines yoga as it is experienced across the Western cultural landscape through an intersectional, feminist lens. Naming the systems of oppression that permeate our lived experiences, this collection and its contributors shine a light on the ways yoga practice is intertwined with these systems while offering insight into how people challenge and creatively subvert, mitigate, and reframe them through their efforts. From the disciplines of yoga studies, embodiment studies, women’s and gender studies, performance studies, educational studies, social sciences, and social justice, the self-identified women, queer, BIPOC, and White allies represented in this book present an interdisciplinary tapestry of scholarship that serves to add depth to a growing assemblage of yoga literature for the 21st century.
Download or read book Pop Culture Yoga written by Kristen C. Blinne and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pop Culture Yoga: A Communication Remix was born out of a series of questions about the paradoxical nature of yoga: How do individuals and groups define yoga? What does it mean to “practice yoga,” and what does this practice involve? What are some of the most important principles, guidelines, or philosophical tenets of yoga that shape people’s definitions and practices? Who has the power and authority to define yoga? What are the limits, if any, of shared definitions of yoga? Kristen C. Blinne explores the myriad ways “yoga” is communicatively constructed and defined in and through popular culture in the United States. In doing so, Blinne offers insight into the many identity work processes in play in the construction of yoga categories, illuminating how individuals’ and groups’ words and actions represent practices of claiming—part of a complex communicative process centered around membership categorization—based on a range of authenticity discourses. Employing popular culture writing styles, Blinne ultimately contends that the majority of yoga styles practiced in the United States are remixes that can be classified as pop culture yoga, a distinct way of understanding this complex phenomenon.
Download or read book Black Women s Yoga History written by Stephanie Y. Evans and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have Black women elders managed stress? In Black Women's Yoga History, Stephanie Y. Evans uses primary sources to answer that question and to show how meditation and yoga from eras of enslavement, segregation, and migration to the Civil Rights, Black Power, and New Age movements have been in existence all along. Life writings by Harriet Jacobs, Sadie and Bessie Delany, Eartha Kitt, Rosa Parks, Jan Willis, and Tina Turner are only a few examples of personal case studies that are included here, illustrating how these women managed traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. In more than fifty yoga memoirs, Black women discuss practices of reflection, exercise, movement, stretching, visualization, and chanting for self-care. By unveiling the depth of a struggle for wellness, memoirs offer lessons for those who also struggle to heal from personal, cultural, and structural violence. This intellectual history expands conceptions of yoga and defines inner peace as mental health, healing, and wellness that is both compassionate and political.
Download or read book Liberating Yoga written by Harpinder Kaur Mann and published by Broadleaf Books. This book was released on 2025-06-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the West, the practice of yoga is weighed down by years of cultural appropriation. But yoga is more than a one-hour fitness class aimed at flexibility. In Liberating Yoga, yoga teacher Harpinder Kaur Mann shows yogis a path to reclaim yoga from appropriation and recenter the ancient spiritual practice where it belongs.
Download or read book Surviving Modern Yoga written by Matthew Remski and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2024-05-14 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grounded in investigative research and real survivor stories, Surviving Modern Yoga uncovers the physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by Ashtanga yoga leader Pattabhi Jois—and reckons with the culture, structures, and mythos that enabled it. The revised edition of Practice and All is Coming from Conspirituality co-host Matthew Remski Yoga culture sells well-meaning westerners the full package: physical health, good vibes, and spiritual growth. Here, investigative journalist Matthew Remski explores how cultic dynamics, institutional self-interest, and spiritualized indifference collude to obscure the truth: Harm happens in plain sight. Through in-depth interviews, insider analysis, and Remski’s own history with high-demand groups, Surviving Modern Yoga brings to light how we’re each susceptible to cult abuse and exploitation. He shows how, with the right kind of situational vulnerability and the wrong kind of guru, the ideas we hold close about ourselves—like It wouldn’t happen to me or I’d speak up for victims—fail to protect us. Remski reckons with his own complicity in spiritual power dynamics, and shares how a process of disillusionment allowed him to recognize harm. He does the same for readers, peeling back the veneer of yoga marketing to reveal the abuse, assault, and silencing perpetrated against seekers who trusted Jois as a mentor, their guruji—even a father figure. Each survivor speaks in their own words, on their own terms, reclaiming agency against an insular, in-group culture that enabled a charismatic leader’s devastating harm—and positioned him as its only remedy. Surviving Modern Yoga also includes practical tools to help readers: Understand how high-demand groups trap would-be targets Evaluate their own situational vulnerabilities Learn to listen for loaded, red-flag language Cultivate their literacy of cult tactics
Download or read book Sharing Breath written by Sheila Batacharya and published by Athabasca University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-31 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating bodies as more than discursive in social research can feel out of place in academia. As a result, embodiment studies remain on the outside of academic knowledge construction and critical scholarship. However, embodiment scholars suggest that investigations into the profound division created by privileging the mind-intellect over the body-spirit are integral to the project of decolonization. The field of embodiment theorizes bodies as knowledgeable in ways that include but are not solely cognitive. The contributors to this collection suggest developing embodied ways of teaching, learning, and knowing through embodied experiences such as yoga, mindfulness, illness, and trauma. Although the contributors challenge Western educational frameworks from within and beyond academic settings, they also acknowledge and draw attention to the incommensurability between decolonization and aspects of social justice projects in education. By addressing this tension ethically and deliberately, the contributors engage thoughtfully with decolonization and make a substantial, and sometimes unsettling, contribution to critical studies in education.
Download or read book Be the Refuge written by Chenxing Han and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A must-read for modern sanghas--Asian American Buddhists in their own words, on their own terms. Despite the fact that two thirds of U.S. Buddhists identify as Asian American, mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often whitewash and invisibilize the diverse, inclusive, and intersectional communities that lie at the heart of American Buddhism. Be the Refuge is both critique and celebration, calling out the erasure of Asian American Buddhists while uplifting the complexity and nuance of their authentic stories and vital, thriving communities. Drawn from in-depth interviews with a pan-ethnic, pan-Buddhist group, Be the Refuge is the first book to center young Asian American Buddhists' own voices. With insights from multi-generational, second-generation, convert, and socially engaged Asian American Buddhists, Be the Refuge includes the stories of trailblazers, bridge-builders, integrators, and refuge-makers who hail from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds. Championing nuanced representation over stale stereotypes, Han and the 89 interviewees in Be the Refuge push back against false narratives like the Oriental monk, the superstitious immigrant, and the banana Buddhist--typecasting that collapses the multivocality of Asian American Buddhists into tired, essentialized tropes. Encouraging frank conversations about race, representation, and inclusivity among Buddhists of all backgrounds, Be the Refuge embodies the spirit of interconnection that glows at the heart of American Buddhism.
Download or read book Teaching with Tenderness written by Becky Thompson and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2017-08-03 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a classroom that explores the twinned ideas of embodied teaching and a pedagogy of tenderness. Becky Thompson envisions such a curriculum--and a way of being--that promises to bring about a sea change in education. Teaching with Tenderness follows in the tradition of bell hooks's Teaching to Transgress and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, inviting us to draw upon contemplative practices (yoga, meditation, free writing, mindfulness, ritual) to keep our hearts open as we reckon with multiple injustices. Teaching with tenderness makes room for emotion, offers a witness for experiences people have buried, welcomes silence, breath and movement, and sees justice as key to our survival. It allows us to rethink our relationship to grading, office hours, desks, and faculty meetings, sees paradox as a constant companion, moves us beyond binaries; and praises self and community care. Tenderness examines contemporary challenges to teaching about race, gender, class, nationality, sexuality, religion, and other hierarchies. It examines the ethical, emotional, political, and spiritual challenges of teaching power-laden, charged issues and the consequences of shifting power relations in the classroom and in the community. Attention to current contributions in the areas of contemplative practices, trauma theory, multiracial feminist pedagogy, and activism enable us to envision steps toward a pedagogy of liberation. The book encourages active engagement and makes room for self-reflective learning, teaching, and scholarship.
Download or read book The Philosophy of the Yogasutra written by Karen O'Brien-Kop and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-04-20 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karen O'Brien-Kop's introduction to the Yogasutra highlights its status as a significant work of philosophy. Approaching the Yogasutra as living philosophy, this book elucidates philosophical conceptions of yoga, recognises the logical structure the sutras follow and explains the rules and principles that have sustained Patañjali's system of thought for centuries. Moving beyond standard interpretations of Patañjali's text and commentary as an aphoristic practice manual, O'Brien-Kop uses branches of philosophy to read the Yogasutra. Covering reality, self, ethics, language and knowledge, Patañjali's philosophies come to the fore. The book introduces his reasoned positions on dual and nondual metaphysics, the relationship between mind and body, the qualities of consciousness, the nature of freedom, and how to live ethically. Carefully-selected extracts from the primary text are translated for those unfamiliar with Sanskrit and commentaries run throughout. A glossary provides definitions of key concepts with useful translations. Accessible and up-to-date, this introduction broadens our understanding of Indian philosophical thought and explains why the Yogasutra deserves to be read alongside Parmenides' 'On Nature' and Plato's Phaedo as a classic of world philosophy.
Download or read book Best Practices for Yoga in Schools written by Yoga Service Council and published by Ysc-Omega Publications. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you interested in offering students in your school the most effective, sustainable and inclusive yoga programming possible? Would you like to teach yoga in schools and have the support and advice of those with many years of successful experience? Have you been interested in sharing yoga with your students, but wondering how to do so safely? Best Practices for Yoga in Schools is a guide for yoga teachers, classroom teachers, school administrators, social workers, and anyone else interested in bringing yoga to children safely, and in a just and inclusive way. By outlining suggestions and considerations across a wide variety of topics, this book will help you effectively and sustainably offer high-quality yoga programming for all children. Based on the collective wisdom and experience of 23 contributors and four reviewers, this Best Practices Guide will support your capacity to implement meaningful school-based yoga programs, with the potential to transform the educational environment and help students thrive in a wide variety of situations. Praise For Best Practices for Yoga in Schools "The Yoga Service Best Practices Guide is an invaluable resource for educators bringing yoga into school settings to promote positive student outcomes. Drawing upon what we know about child development and developmentally appropriate practice, the book offers clear guidance on how best to teach yoga to children and teens in school settings. I highly recommend this book." - Patricia Jennings, Professor at UVA Curry School of Education, author of Mindfulness for Teachers "This is a remarkable effort; a sage, inspiring, pragmatic and well presented manual of best practices for every one seeking to provide "safe, effective, inclusive, and sustainable" yoga classes in schools. The collective wisdom and experience is immediately apparent." - John Kepner, Executive Director: International Association of Yoga Therapists "This is a thoughtful, well researched guide that should be an essential read for anyone wanting to bring yoga to schools. I'm so excited that the Yoga Service Council has been able to create a resource of this caliber using a collaborative model that leaves room for individual styles and philosophies. This is exactly what the field of yoga service needs- agreed upon best practices that unify all the great work already being done." - Hala Khouri, M.A. E-RYT, Co-founder Off the Mat, Into the World, Somatic Counselor, Yoga Teacher and Mother "As a principal and superintendent I have implemented yoga programs in urban and suburban schools and have witnessed the success with students of all ages. Academics increase and off task behavior decreases with every yoga breath students take. Best Practices for Yoga in Schools is a great resource to start a yoga program in your school." - Cynthia Zurchin, Superintendent of Schools, author of The Whale Done School
Download or read book Ethical Research Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge Education written by Mthembu, Ntokozo and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Africa’s recent higher education protests around fees and decolonizing institutions have shone a spotlight on important issues and inspired global discussion. The educational space was the most affected by clashes between languages and ideas, the prioritizing of English and Afrikaans over indigenous African languages, and the prioritizing of Western medicine, literature, arts, culture, and science over African ones. Ethical Research Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge Education is a cutting-edge scholarly resource that examines forthcoming methodologies and strategies on educational reform and the updating of curricula to accurately reflect cultural shifts. The book examines the bias and problems that bias creates in educational systems around the world that have been dominated by Western forms of knowledge and scientific processes. Featuring a range of topics such as andragogy, indigenous knowledge, and marginalized students, this book is ideal for education professionals, practitioners, curriculum designers, academicians, researchers, administrators, and students.
Download or read book Yoga and Body Image written by Melanie C. Klein and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2014-10-08 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this remarkable, first-of-its-kind book, twenty-five contributors—including musician Alanis Morissette, celebrity yoga instructor Seane Corn, and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Sara Gottfried—discuss how yoga and body image intersect. Through inspiring personal stories you'll discover how yoga not only affects your physical health, but also how you feel about your body. Offering unique perspectives on yoga and how it has shaped their lives, the writers provide tips for using yoga to find self-empowerment and improved body image. This anthology unites a diverse collection of voices that address topics across the spectrum of human experience, from culture and media to gender and sexuality. Yoga and Body Image will help you learn to connect with and love your beautiful body. 2015 IPPY Award Bonze Medal Winner in Inspirational/Spiritual 2014 ForeWord IndieFab Bronze Winner for Body, Mind & Spirit
Download or read book Yoga and Science in Pain Care written by Neil Pearson and published by Singing Dragon. This book was released on 2019-08-21 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book takes an integrated approach to pain rehabilitation and combines pain science, rehabilitation and yoga with evidence-based approaches from respected contributors. They demonstrate how to integrate the concepts, philosophies and practices of yoga and pain science in working with people in pain. An essential and often overlooked part of pain rehabilitation is listening to, working with, learning from, and validating the person in pain's lived experience. The book expounds on the movement to a more patient-valued, partnership-based biopsychosocial-spiritual model of healthcare where the patient is an active and empowered participant, as opposed to a model where the healthcare provider is 'fixing' the passive patient. It also explains how practitioners can address the entire human being in pain, and how to include the person as an expert for more effective and self-empowered care.
