The body of modern yoga is a body of longing, possibility, and revelation. But it’s also a body of shame, confusion, and suffering. Injury can mark the place where these two bodies wrestle on the mat.
The following reflection is featured in the full prospectus for WAWADIA, released Nov 1 in support of the IGG campaign to help fund publication. In the eventual book, this piece […]
Year by year, hundreds of thousands of women around the world who are committed to modern postural yoga are also negotiating childbirth, effectively bringing two forms of spiritual practice into contact. The lived reality of these practices collides with the social narratives of how they are supposed to be in the world, throwing off stories of pain, bravery and learning like so many sparks.
At the age of 30, I went to a yoga class in Manhattan, trying to pull myself out of depression. It was at Alan Finger’s old place. The instructor was a woman my age who seemed charmed in a way that both irritated and attracted me. Like she had some pleasurable secret. Smiling, she said: “Today we’ll try to see if we can join the small self to the larger self.” The words jostled some memory of the Arjuna story, but they didn’t help my mood.