I loved this book. I am a white woman who has some very positive experiences with yoga (primarily the physical poses, as made distinct in this book) and an interest to better understand and go deeper in yoga. It has long been important to me in my yoga journey to better understand the full scope of yoga and its origins and its true cultural roots, but I have known that those are often obscured in white Western society and their so-called yoga practices and communities. It has also been difficult for me to really know where to start learning more about yoga. White supremacist and colonial culture has so deeply diluted and simplified yoga and divested it from its origins and flooded media and information with this white Western idea of yoga that it makes it difficult to find the information I've been looking for. That's not an excuse, it's still something I've attempted and should and could have also kept at more diligently, but I am very happy to have come across this book as another point in my learning journey. My previous learning has primarily consisted of two things: one, at a time when I was more Christian/religious but getting into yoga and finding it very beneficial for anxiety and my literal breathing, I had fellow Christians telling me that it was problematic to engage in yoga as it according to them conflicts with Christian religion. I did some slight research and was confused at the complexity of yoga's intersection with religion(s). (This was one of the things I'm grateful to have learned more about now from this book.) Later, as I became less Christian and deconstructed much of my identity, and continued to have positive experiences with yoga, I did a little more research, trying to understand how to engage in yoga in a way that was culturally appreciative and not appropriative. I absolutely will not claim to have achieved that or to expect to ever achieve that (but I appreciate this book for providing more learning for me on that journey). At that time, in my small bit of more research, I again was confused to learn about all the other aspects beyond physical poses that would authentically be involved in yoga. I have still not often had the privilege of a yoga instructor acknowledging much of the full richness of yoga, and it is difficult to have positive experiences in yoga classes but recognize that they are quite culturally appropriative and removed from a complete, authentic representation of yoga. This book was very helpful in addressing some of those things I've previously been confused by, helping me understand more of what yoga is, and how rich and complex it is. I also particularly appreciate this book's solution-oriented thinking; it presents reflection questions, action steps, and a framework for more liberatory yoga practice(s) and teaching and community(ies). It will continue to be difficult to find ways to engage with more liberatory yoga and find those communities in our white Western society with its very overrepresented portrayal of yoga, but I'm happy to be continuing and deepening my learning journey thanks to this book.

NetGalley review

OMG a must have add to your yogi TBR now. Packed with everything and things you didn’t know you wanted to know. Love every page of this.

As a recently certified teacher from a training program that emphasized the history, philosophy and practice of the eight limbs of yoga, as well as the respectful appreciation -- and avoidance of any appropriation of these by students and teachers, particularly white teachers, this book came along at the perfect time. I seek a yoga practice much like the author's -- less emphasis on the "gym-ification" of the practice and more on the multi-faceted ways we can integrate it into our life and path, with a big emphasis on spiritual development. I'm at the very beginning of building my experience as a teacher who is a forever student of yoga, and it's important to me that I understand how to do so through the appropriate lenses and seek to do no harm. This was a thoughtful, reverent look at the author's own experience as yoga student and teacher, and I'll purchase my own copy to keep as a reference in the months and years to come. I'll also recommend to anyone seeking to understand more about yoga's rich traditions.

This is a great dive into the roots of Yoga vs what is mainstreamed as Yoga. I recommend this for all students and teachers to deepen your relationship with the practice.

A mix of personal narrative and learning from leaders and texts, this book educates on the colonist history of South Asian yoga and what it has become in the modern West while addressing ways we can create more accessibility and authenticity into the practice. If you are looking on a checklist on how to be a better white person in your yoga fitness routine - this is not that book. The author gives you the background, the tools, and some considerations and expects you to do the work, as you should. Thank you for this offering.

Harpinder Kaur Mann's Liberating Yoga From Appropriation to Healing reads like a gentle rant from a very impassioned best friend, and yet, Mann isn't wrong. Liberating Yoga walks us through the many and varied ways that the art and science of yoga as been appropriated for greed, fashion, convenience, and ego, losing sight of the cultural and spirituality that is yoga. Mann does not espouse that there shouldn't be a voluntary cultural exchange of ideas, practices, or beliefs, she seems more to say, "If you are going to do the thing, understand the thing."

Yoga is not fancy or expensive outfits, nor is it flying off to exotic locales for weekend retreats. Through Liberating Yoga, the reader begins to understand what yoga truly is, what it means to the Indian culture, how the divine sacred of yoga is more than poses and the chanting of OM. Liberating Yoga asks for the understanding, acknowledgement and appreciation of a centuries old spiritual practice, and that it be practiced respectfully,

While the delivery may leave some readers feeling a bit beaten and chastised for their ignorance of the historical and cultural aspects of yoga, and instead knowing it only as a daily/weekly/monthly practice of movement and breathing in order to stay in shape or to relax, the book offers those readers, a look into the controversies behind appropriation and the harm that it does. Those who may not be interested in globalization and appropriation and historical context may find themselves interested in the many ways that yoga is commodified, how companies subtly lean in to grasp every dollar from a practice that requires nothing more than your body, brain and spirit.

This book is great for anyone who is looking for a way to deepen the meaning of their yoga. Read this one and you can better your practice of the art.

A powerful and inspiring book on liberating yoga that is a must-read for anyone in the yoga space, including teachers, companies, students, or those interested in trying yoga. A lot of care was taken in creating this, and it comes through. As a yoga teacher, this is one that I will absolutely be buying and adding to my physical collection to study further. It's a great intro text, offering explanations to the philosophy and history of yoga, but it's also good for those looking to deepen their understanding, especially in this modern age of capitalism and colonialism.

I enjoyed this book and learned a lot - always a great combination. The blend of research/history/philosophy and personal experience is done really well, and it's a tremendous resource for yoga practitioners who are interested in the spiritual aspect of the practice that often gets left out in modern/Western yoga studios.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title for my honest review.

This book is definitely not going to appeal to everyone. It was more of a personal perspective approach to the topic than I was expecting. As a practitioner for over 15 years, I have personally researched and looked into many of the aspects and history of yoga that is presented in the book. I did like the fact there was history in here that I had not known yet and was able to learn. However, this book I think will appeal more to people who already think the way that the author does about yoga.

First, I want to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest review. 

This book is deeply personal for the author and certainly reflects in the very heartfelt, emotional writing.
It's much more a memoir and love letter to yoga than a nonfiction book focused on teaching you objective yoga facts.
I can see and appreciate all the thought and especially love that was put into this book. However, I fear this is a book for people that already feel the same about yoga as the auhtor does. It's not really a book for people that wanna get into yoga or are simply interested to learn some yoga facts. Atleast that was my experience with the book.

If there was one glorious thing that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was my entry into the world of yoga. I'd long been both intrigued and intimidated by yoga, a spiritual practice that in my mind was primarily for the able-bodied hipster able to twist themselves into the variety of positions and practices called for in the yoga I had in my mind.

Of course, this is NOT actually yoga. It's the American commodification of yoga. Harpinder Kaur Mann is a yoga, meditation, and mindfulness teacher who also has become quite the decolonizing activist. She is an Indian-American who grounds her practice within her spiritual roots of Sikhism and Buddhism. Her practice primarily focuses on women of color seeking to reclaim their power and intuition "through the lens of a spiritual, joyful, and sustainable path."

Throughout "Liberating Yoga," that's precisely what Mann does - she liberates yoga from its commodification and from its utilization solely as a fitness practice. I first attended a virtual class, a result of the largely shut down society that happened when the pandemic hit. I was struck by how the instructor, realizing I was a wheelchair user with physical limits, gently worked to adapt her teaching to my own physical situation. It was a remarkable act of compassion and tenderness.

I began attending other classes, sometimes virtual and other times in person. Of course, I did not always find that compassion nor that inclusion. At times, I found instructors who seemed frustrated by my presence. I was clearly different from the others in attendance.

I persevered.

While I couldn't put words to it, I also found myself frustrated by the obvious appropriation of what is clearly a spiritual practice. Yoga IS a spiritual practice. While it may have physical benefits, it was never intended as a fitness practice and yet, as we Americans so often do, it became appropriated because it was easier to commodify within the world of fitness. People don't typically pay high prices and where fancy outfits for spiritual practices.

Okay, maybe the Pope.

"Liberating Yoga" is a joy-filled, disciplined reading experience in which Mann gently yet courageously calls out this commodification - especially her own experiences of exploring yoga centers, both as student and as teacher, where she would often be the sole woman of color and often the only one truly seeking to get to the spiritual core of yoga. Beyond catchphrases, "Namaste" or "OM" anyone, these classes were often offering little more than a tightening of the glutes or any other part of the body.

Again, Mann reminds us, that's simply not yoga.

Mann often writes about the accessibility of yoga for all bodies (I will confess I wish disability had been mentioned specifically) and how she now very intentionally teaches from a place of both addressing wellness and spiritual needs. In both practice and here in writing, Mann teaches from a place of offering a safe place to feel grounded, connected, and loved.

While "Liberating Yoga" won't likely appeal to everyone, especially those who embrace its commodification, for those who long for the more spiritual and healing core of yoga this will be a marvelous experience filled with refreshing spirit, immense hope, much love, and absolute connection.