Lightening Up: The Yoga of Self-Acceptance offers an antidote to the striving for performance and achievement so common in modern yoga. Yoga has become another sport, a way to perform, to always improve and as such leads to much self-criticism and doubt. With great respect for the teachings of TKV Desikachar, a nod to Buddhism, a healthy dose of mindfulness practices, a guide to how anatomy and neurophysiology can influence a more balanced practice, and more than a dash of humor and common sense, the book offers a new view of progress, one built not on learning to put your foot behind your ear, but rather on your ability to recognize and cultivate your own inner teacher. If yoga were about maximizing your physical flexibility, then any circus contortionist could start an ashram.

You can find it at Henry Miller Library or the Phoenix Shop at Nepenthe in Big Sur, Bookshop Santa Cruz, on the West Coast, or Malaprops Boodstore and Cafe and Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, or buy the book at Amazon, or download a free pdf version here.

(Download Adobe PDF, 20 MB)

“Yoga is not (attained) through the lotus posture and not by gazing at the tip of your nose. Yoga, say the experts of yoga, is the identity of the psyche (jiva) with the (transcendental) Self.” — Kula-Arnava-Tantra,
Translated by Georg Feuerstein in The Yoga Tradition