Demystifying American Yoga

American yoga is often (mis)understood as elitist and exclusionary—as a pursuit of fitness practiced by bendable, beautiful bodies. It is commodified and marketed as a variety of expensive brands and disposable trends. The focus on the physical overshadows yoga’s elements of conscious breath, mindful meditation, deep philosophy, and transformative healing. Or, yoga is assumed to be a religious practice, or just a bunch of stretching, or unfettered appropriation. Despite its popularity in the U.S., we are mostly unaware of yoga’s ancient roots as well as its contemporary applications.
Drawing from her experience as a professor and yoga teacher, the author of this book explores the marginalized, feminist, queer, grassroots, underground, interconnected, creative, innovative, and somatic elements of yoga that engage so many of us. The author offers exploratory embodied practices, mines diverse sources, and asks critical questions about identity, culture, and power. She asks us to consider what American yoga has to offer our individual and collective future and how we can leverage embodied practices toward transformation, on and off of our yoga mats.

Sarah Hentges (RYT and YACEP) is a professor of transdisciplinary cultural studies at the University of Maine at Augusta and the founder and lead curator of The Spiral Goddess Collective, a center for mind/body movement in Bangor, Maine. She has taught fitness classes (and college classes) for over 25 years and yoga for 20 years.

Sarah Hentges
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 262
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9567-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5540-6
Imprint: McFarland

Gratitude ix

Deconstructed Land Acknowledgment and Invocation xii

Preface 1

Interlude: Building the Toolbox 4

Introduction 7

Interlude: Just Breathe 20

One. Discover and Practice 29

Interlude: Exploring Your Self and Embracing the “­Woo-Woo” 51

Two. Unpack 66

Interlude: Yoga Tools Off the Mat 123

Three. Imagine 144

Four. Play 199

Conclusions 233

EXPAND (Works Cited) 237

Index 243