#yogangster

[theoneandonlyember]

Reality will break your heart Survival will not be the hardest part, It's keeping all your hopes alive When all the rest of you has died.. So let it break your heart... Hold onto hope if you got it, Don't let it go for nobody, And they say that dreaming is free... But I wouldn't care what it cost me... -paramore, 26 #yoga #yoga things #yogawitch #meditation #asana #yogangster #spiritualgangster https://www.instagram.com/p/CDfj7pvjepP/?igshid=1v5srbpd0x9j0

[wesleyoga-wesleyqigong]

Gettin' Zen #Tofino #northchesterman 🙏🏻😍⚡️#TuffCity #qigongisawesome #vancouverisland #tofinotime #rainforest #yin #yinyoga #yogangster #TofinoBC #BIGQi #vancouverisland #explorebc #nature #natureza #Tofino #beautifulBC #britishcolumbia #yogaworkshop #doepicshit #surf #coastalblissyoga #surflife #surfistas #letshitgo #tofinoyoga #goodvibes #shaka #BIGQI big 🙏🏻 #dragon #gameofthrones 1-800-MindChill🏄

[themindchillcollective]

3 weeks & counting TOFINO Jedi Yogis... 'Close your eyes and be MESMERIZED' 🌟 Bring your Jedi blindfold & join @magneticfield + @wesleyoga on April 20th from 6.30-8.30pm @coastalblissyoga 4 • MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU..... • A 1-of-a-kind yogic 'Jedi Journey' where we embark on a playful and deep exploration of a BLINDFOLDED practice sourced from sensation..... Click on the Coastal Bliss link above for Details & Registration in profile link ☄️💥⚡#TuffCity #qigongisawesome #vancouverisland #tofinotime #rainforest #yin #yinyoga #yogangster #TofinoBC #BIGQi #vancouverisland #explorebc #yogaeveryday #nature #natureza #Tofino #beautifulBC #britishcolumbia #yogaworkshop #doepicshit #surf #coastalblissyoga #surflife #surfistas #letshitgo #tofinoyoga #goodvibes #shaka #BIGQI big 🙏🏻❤️ #jedilife #maytheforcebewithyou 1-800-MindChill🏄 (at Coastal Bliss Yoga)

[mauipop]

[issarayoga]

Will you yoga with me😂Summer LA better than you know🌵 . . #yogalosangeles #summeryoga#summeryogachallenge #yogaplay #playfulpractice #yogiclifestyle #yogiinspiration #yogadude #yoga4growth #yogaforeveryone #yogamen #yogangster (at Harvest Fun)

[visionarylifehakz-blog]

Making delicious treats is always the way to go! Simple fruit purée with added goodness! Apple~Berries~🍏🍓🍏🍓 Essential oils therapeutic grade Wild orange🍊 Ginger💥 Grapefruit 🍊 Lemon🍋 Some fresh vine dates! Yummy⭐️✨⭐️ Dehydrate until dry! Then... We get to dip in chocolate & play with making some truffles. 💞 #visionarylifehakz #lifefood #consciousliving #livingfoods #rawvegan #rawcacao #superfoods #organicfood #eattherainbow #crazysexydiet #surthrival #spiritualgangster #yogangster #christmasgifts #christmasstory #waldorfeducation #homeed #homemade #chocolate @countrylifemagazine @supermodelyou @crazysexykris @gwynethpaltrow #nourishingtraditions #realfood #gratitude #kidapproved #biodynamic (at Lampeter)

[streetknwldg]

It works! #retreat #yogangster #streetart #chiangmai #rip #coffin http://bit.ly/2FvncDD

[diedrak]

Plastic Fantastic is pleased to team up with Hot Yoga Philadelphia's Sweat for a Cause to present its first foray into fundraising with a Yoga, Art and Music Benefit for Standing Rock on Friday, February 10th, 2017. The funds raised will go to Standing Rock's Water Protector Legal Collective, the on-the-ground legal support team for Standing Rock. This will be a ludic night of community support for the water protectors, featuring artists: Angel McQuillan, Brujo de la Mancha, Corey Bechelli, Gina Rubinetti, Justin Duerr, Mandy Katz, Orkan Telhan, Robyn King, Shawn Beeks, Us and We Art, musicians: Jonagold, The Late Saints, The Invasive Species and Mambisa, trunk show by Yogangster and hot yoga class with Gerardo Candolino. Table by Philly with Standing Rock, a coalition of Natives and non-Natives in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Defenders to STOP the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

[otaku-douchebag-ponytail]

How Jessamyn Stanley fights being ‘deeply afraid of’ her body

(CNN)At first glance, Jessamyn Stanley’s Instagram account is irreverent, at a minimum. She’s a self-proclaimed “large-bodied” and “queer” woman doing difficult yoga poses in her skivvies. And at a glance, her new book, “Every Body Yoga,” may look like a how-to guide for people to start practicing yoga. But spending time with Stanley reveals a deeper side to the 29-year-old yoga teacher and her message.

Way before 280,000-plus people followed her on Instagram, before a book deal or speaking appearances or awards, Stanley was a simply a little girl.

Never have I ever encountered a pose so deliciously satisfying as #kapotasana. I am still working toward gripping both of my ankles, but grabbing my feet today felt INSANE. I will pursue this pose until I literally can not bend backward any longer. It is extremely restorative in so many ways. I plan to focus a lot of my energy on my #backbends this month, ESPECIALLY because of #backbendmadness2014 w/ @beachyogagirl @fitqueenirene & @kinoyoga (Kino's YouTube videos are a HUGE part of how I've progressed this far with #kingpigeonpose- if you're struggling w/ any pose, check out her channel!) #yogafamily #yogabums #yogalife #yogapractice #yogajournal #yogahigh #yogratitude #yogalove #yoganation #yogaeverydamnday #yoga #yogangsters #fitfluential #fatyoga #flexibility #backbend #feeltheyogahigh #curvyyoga #curvyfit #curvygirl #curvespo #honormycurves #honoryourcurves #effyourbeautystandards #aimtrue #pspfit

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Feb 26, 2014 at 5:30pm PST

She writes in her book that she struggled from an early age with image and identity issues. Her mother worked hard to teach her kids about healthy eating habits but was bedridden with an illness for three years while Stanley was young, and Stanley turned to food for comfort. Her devoted reading of Teen and Seventeen magazines taught Stanley about society’s idea of beauty — and, as she writes, “I knew for sure the accepted image of beauty didn’t have jack shit to do with me.”

At the time, images in teen magazines didn’t include her dreadlocked hair, Harry Potter glasses and expanding waistline. It led to a host of body image issues that Stanley says took decades to unravel. But, she writes, it was the difficult times in her life that formedthe building blocks of her yoga practice.

Fast-forward two decades: While struggling with a bad breakup, grieving over the death of a favorite aunt, dropping out of graduate school and in the depths of depression that followed a life crisis, Stanley looked toward yoga for clarity. Yoga wasn’t a journey only toward physical health but toward mental salvation, even if she says didn’t know it at the time.

For many, that’s what yoga is at its core: not only an exercise routine embodied by the physical practice but a life path that asks its students to look inward, shun desire, move toward contentment and be truthful and nonviolent. These ideals are known among yogi — among other key points — as the eight limbs of yoga that lead to enlightenment.

Students do not have to pursue the spiritual experience in yoga, but as Stanley writes, “Any yoga that ‘eliminates,’ ‘avoids,’ or ‘ignores’ yoga’s spiritual side is not actually yoga; it’s a fitness routine in yoga clothing.”

Instagram star Jessamyn Stanley’s guide to Durham, NC

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

At her time of personal turmoil, yoga’s challenges, both inward and outward, became cathartic and necessary.

“I didn’t really know” that yoga was pulling her out of depression at the time, Stanley said. “I was just in the camp of, ‘this feels good, so I’m going to keep going.’ It helped me in this place of depression.”

As her practice grew, she moved from Winston-Salem to Durham, North Carolina. In her new town, it became too expensive to pursue yoga through classes. She also felt alienated in them; she was a larger-bodied, black practitioner surrounded by thin white people. Instead, she started practicing at home and turned to Instagram to get feedback from other practitioners on her asanas, or static poses.

For anyone who practices asanas, “there’s a deep obsession with having the pose be perfect, because that’s your proof of having a worthwhile yoga practice,” Stanley explained. In her Instagram yoga community, she found the feedback she was looking for.

But the first time she put a yoga pose on the Internet, it wasn’t easy.

“I remember the very first picture, it was of standing bow pulling pose,” balancing on one foot while lifting and holding the other foot high,Stanley said. “I was paranoid about the camera angles because I didn’t know anything about photography or anything about portraiture, and I was just trying to get my good side because as a larger-bodied person, you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not going to look good in photos. I have to turn my body to be a certain way,’ so I would take photos from very specific angles.”

I had a wonderful moment in this posture during #bikram this morning and I had to share. #dandayamanadhanurasana #standingbowpullingpose #yogaforbreakfast #yoga #poseforme #yogaeverydamnday #stretch #summer #health #healthhappiness #fitness #fitfluential #exercise #happy

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Aug 23, 2013 at 8:58am PDT

The journey from that moment to the photos now on her Instagram page, where Stanley seems to exalt in her body, happened over time. She says it came from taking pictures from angles she wouldn’t have otherwise used, in order to get feedback. The new angles forced her to examine the body she says she was “deeply afraid of.” And as she progressed, seeing her body more clearly meant fewer clothes.

“The whole interaction between my ego and the camera is, I believe, a huge part of how I was able to start to have a different conversation with myself about my body,” she said.

Although yoga behaved as the spark for that conversation, Stanley is careful to point out that it wasn’t the only reason she has moved toward self-love.

“It’s very easy to draw this link of bad self-esteem plus yoga equals good self-esteem, but I don’t necessarily think the yoga was the thing that made that happen. I think that the photographing and the having to look at my body in ways that maybe I never had” led to that change, she said.

Still, she thinks that the path she is on because of yoga helps her deal with the terrible things that will continue to happen throughout life.

“Instead of trying to micromanage my emotional journey,” Stanley wrote, “I use yoga to pull off of the gas and help me see my life objectively and without judgment. It may not be foolproof, but it’s the best tool I’ve found so far.”

She also believes that yoga can build tools like that for others — not to be like her but to be the best versions of themselves. She uses the analogy that her experience with her eight-fold path was like finding an instrument inside herself, dusting it off and starting to play.

“I don’t want people to say, ‘Jessamyn is playing her instrument; I need to go get the exact same instrument she’s playing.’ That’s not the point. The point is you find out your instrument, and then we can all play together,” Stanley said.

How exactly do you start? Stanley’s book is devoted to that question. Writing it was a chance to respond in depth to the thousands of people who she says have stopped her in the grocery store, emailed her, messaged her or tweeted her.

The outreach surprised her because, she says, “fat black women have been doing yoga forever.” But she also said that at a closer look, when she Googled how to start practicing yoga, she found the results confusing.

“I want to answer this question thoroughly so that no one ever has to ask it again and also so that we can get beyond this place of who’s allowed to practice yoga. So that we can dispel the myth that anyone — except everyone — is supposed to practice,” Stanley said. So for everyone who fits into that category, Stanley suggests in her book, “just get on the mat.”

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

For Stanley, it was never about a larger message to the universe. And her journey isn’t remotely over. In a recent Instagram post, she shared a looping video of herself in a sports bra and underwear with the caption, “Do I feel better about myself than I did at the start of my twenties? Obviously. But that doesn’t mean I’m not susceptible to the same mind F***ERY I’ve been battling since childhood. I think of self-hate as an addiction. I’m in a permanent state of recovery….I’m not trying to be a bastion of body positivity. I’m just trying to survive.”

Instead, Stanley told CNN, she is just about being herself, “I’m really not trying to embody anything other than me standing with two feet on the ground, trying to be the truest, most honest, authentic version of myself that I can.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/health/jessamyn-stanley-yoga-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/13/how-jessamyn-stanley-fights-being-deeply-afraid-of-her-body/

[txny-archxr]

How Jessamyn Stanley fights being ‘deeply afraid of’ her body

(CNN)At first glance, Jessamyn Stanley’s Instagram account is irreverent, at a minimum. She’s a self-proclaimed “large-bodied” and “queer” woman doing difficult yoga poses in her skivvies. And at a glance, her new book, “Every Body Yoga,” may look like a how-to guide for people to start practicing yoga. But spending time with Stanley reveals a deeper side to the 29-year-old yoga teacher and her message.

Way before 280,000-plus people followed her on Instagram, before a book deal or speaking appearances or awards, Stanley was a simply a little girl.

Never have I ever encountered a pose so deliciously satisfying as #kapotasana. I am still working toward gripping both of my ankles, but grabbing my feet today felt INSANE. I will pursue this pose until I literally can not bend backward any longer. It is extremely restorative in so many ways. I plan to focus a lot of my energy on my #backbends this month, ESPECIALLY because of #backbendmadness2014 w/ @beachyogagirl @fitqueenirene & @kinoyoga (Kino's YouTube videos are a HUGE part of how I've progressed this far with #kingpigeonpose- if you're struggling w/ any pose, check out her channel!) #yogafamily #yogabums #yogalife #yogapractice #yogajournal #yogahigh #yogratitude #yogalove #yoganation #yogaeverydamnday #yoga #yogangsters #fitfluential #fatyoga #flexibility #backbend #feeltheyogahigh #curvyyoga #curvyfit #curvygirl #curvespo #honormycurves #honoryourcurves #effyourbeautystandards #aimtrue #pspfit

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Feb 26, 2014 at 5:30pm PST

She writes in her book that she struggled from an early age with image and identity issues. Her mother worked hard to teach her kids about healthy eating habits but was bedridden with an illness for three years while Stanley was young, and Stanley turned to food for comfort. Her devoted reading of Teen and Seventeen magazines taught Stanley about society’s idea of beauty — and, as she writes, “I knew for sure the accepted image of beauty didn’t have jack shit to do with me.”

At the time, images in teen magazines didn’t include her dreadlocked hair, Harry Potter glasses and expanding waistline. It led to a host of body image issues that Stanley says took decades to unravel. But, she writes, it was the difficult times in her life that formedthe building blocks of her yoga practice.

Fast-forward two decades: While struggling with a bad breakup, grieving over the death of a favorite aunt, dropping out of graduate school and in the depths of depression that followed a life crisis, Stanley looked toward yoga for clarity. Yoga wasn’t a journey only toward physical health but toward mental salvation, even if she says didn’t know it at the time.

For many, that’s what yoga is at its core: not only an exercise routine embodied by the physical practice but a life path that asks its students to look inward, shun desire, move toward contentment and be truthful and nonviolent. These ideals are known among yogi — among other key points — as the eight limbs of yoga that lead to enlightenment.

Students do not have to pursue the spiritual experience in yoga, but as Stanley writes, “Any yoga that ‘eliminates,’ ‘avoids,’ or ‘ignores’ yoga’s spiritual side is not actually yoga; it’s a fitness routine in yoga clothing.”

Instagram star Jessamyn Stanley’s guide to Durham, NC

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

At her time of personal turmoil, yoga’s challenges, both inward and outward, became cathartic and necessary.

“I didn’t really know” that yoga was pulling her out of depression at the time, Stanley said. “I was just in the camp of, ‘this feels good, so I’m going to keep going.’ It helped me in this place of depression.”

As her practice grew, she moved from Winston-Salem to Durham, North Carolina. In her new town, it became too expensive to pursue yoga through classes. She also felt alienated in them; she was a larger-bodied, black practitioner surrounded by thin white people. Instead, she started practicing at home and turned to Instagram to get feedback from other practitioners on her asanas, or static poses.

For anyone who practices asanas, “there’s a deep obsession with having the pose be perfect, because that’s your proof of having a worthwhile yoga practice,” Stanley explained. In her Instagram yoga community, she found the feedback she was looking for.

But the first time she put a yoga pose on the Internet, it wasn’t easy.

“I remember the very first picture, it was of standing bow pulling pose,” balancing on one foot while lifting and holding the other foot high,Stanley said. “I was paranoid about the camera angles because I didn’t know anything about photography or anything about portraiture, and I was just trying to get my good side because as a larger-bodied person, you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not going to look good in photos. I have to turn my body to be a certain way,’ so I would take photos from very specific angles.”

I had a wonderful moment in this posture during #bikram this morning and I had to share. #dandayamanadhanurasana #standingbowpullingpose #yogaforbreakfast #yoga #poseforme #yogaeverydamnday #stretch #summer #health #healthhappiness #fitness #fitfluential #exercise #happy

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Aug 23, 2013 at 8:58am PDT

The journey from that moment to the photos now on her Instagram page, where Stanley seems to exalt in her body, happened over time. She says it came from taking pictures from angles she wouldn’t have otherwise used, in order to get feedback. The new angles forced her to examine the body she says she was “deeply afraid of.” And as she progressed, seeing her body more clearly meant fewer clothes.

“The whole interaction between my ego and the camera is, I believe, a huge part of how I was able to start to have a different conversation with myself about my body,” she said.

Although yoga behaved as the spark for that conversation, Stanley is careful to point out that it wasn’t the only reason she has moved toward self-love.

“It’s very easy to draw this link of bad self-esteem plus yoga equals good self-esteem, but I don’t necessarily think the yoga was the thing that made that happen. I think that the photographing and the having to look at my body in ways that maybe I never had” led to that change, she said.

Still, she thinks that the path she is on because of yoga helps her deal with the terrible things that will continue to happen throughout life.

“Instead of trying to micromanage my emotional journey,” Stanley wrote, “I use yoga to pull off of the gas and help me see my life objectively and without judgment. It may not be foolproof, but it’s the best tool I’ve found so far.”

She also believes that yoga can build tools like that for others — not to be like her but to be the best versions of themselves. She uses the analogy that her experience with her eight-fold path was like finding an instrument inside herself, dusting it off and starting to play.

“I don’t want people to say, ‘Jessamyn is playing her instrument; I need to go get the exact same instrument she’s playing.’ That’s not the point. The point is you find out your instrument, and then we can all play together,” Stanley said.

How exactly do you start? Stanley’s book is devoted to that question. Writing it was a chance to respond in depth to the thousands of people who she says have stopped her in the grocery store, emailed her, messaged her or tweeted her.

The outreach surprised her because, she says, “fat black women have been doing yoga forever.” But she also said that at a closer look, when she Googled how to start practicing yoga, she found the results confusing.

“I want to answer this question thoroughly so that no one ever has to ask it again and also so that we can get beyond this place of who’s allowed to practice yoga. So that we can dispel the myth that anyone — except everyone — is supposed to practice,” Stanley said. So for everyone who fits into that category, Stanley suggests in her book, “just get on the mat.”

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

For Stanley, it was never about a larger message to the universe. And her journey isn’t remotely over. In a recent Instagram post, she shared a looping video of herself in a sports bra and underwear with the caption, “Do I feel better about myself than I did at the start of my twenties? Obviously. But that doesn’t mean I’m not susceptible to the same mind F***ERY I’ve been battling since childhood. I think of self-hate as an addiction. I’m in a permanent state of recovery….I’m not trying to be a bastion of body positivity. I’m just trying to survive.”

Instead, Stanley told CNN, she is just about being herself, “I’m really not trying to embody anything other than me standing with two feet on the ground, trying to be the truest, most honest, authentic version of myself that I can.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/health/jessamyn-stanley-yoga-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/13/how-jessamyn-stanley-fights-being-deeply-afraid-of-her-body/

[theoneandonlyember]

"You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks." -Ludwig Wittgenstein #yoga #yogi #yogaeverydamnday #bendsoyoudontbreak #ayogathingwithember #theoneandonlyember #getsome #yogainspiration #yogamom #yogagirl #yogapose #asana #yogajunkie #addictedtoyoga #yogavibes #yogawitch #meditation #yogangster https://www.instagram.com/p/CCqeG3xDypq/?igshid=1r4snq6j8kput

[wesleyoga-wesleyqigong]

sunrise.....contentment #BigQi 🙏🏻 💗🌊 #yogaoffthemat #getoutstayout #TuffCity #vancouverisland #tofinotime #tuffcity #rainforest #yogangster #TofinoBC #Hellyes #vancouverisland #explorebc #Tofino #beautifulBC #britishcolumbia #movingmeditation #doepicshit #surf #beachlife #surflife #surfistas #letshitgo #tofinoyoga #goodvibes #shaka #santosha #fuckyeah #natureappreciation #nature #natureza 1-800-MindChill🏄

[themindchillcollective]

Calling all #TOFINO Jedi Yogis...... 'Close your eyes and be MESMERIZED' 🌟 Bring your Jedi blindfold & join @magneticfield + @wesleyoga on April 20th from 6.30-8.30pm @coastalblissyoga 4 • MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU..... • A 1-of-a-kind yogic 'Jedi Journey' where we embark on a playful and deep exploration of a BLINDFOLDED practice sourced from sensation..... Click on the Coastal Bliss link above for Details & Registration⚡✨#TuffCity #qigongisawesome #vancouverisland #tofinotime #rainforest #yin #yinyoga #yogangster #TofinoBC #vancouverisland #explorebc #yogaeveryday #nature #natureza #Tofino #beautifulBC #britishcolumbia #yogaworkshop #doepicshit #surf #coastalblissyoga #surflife #surfistas #letshitgo #tofinoyoga #goodvibes #shaka #BIGQI big 🙏🏻❤️ #jedilife #maytheforcebewithyou 1-800-MindChill🏄 (at Coastal Bliss Yoga)

[yua-shizuka]

How Jessamyn Stanley fights being ‘deeply afraid of’ her body

(CNN)At first glance, Jessamyn Stanley’s Instagram account is irreverent, at a minimum. She’s a self-proclaimed “large-bodied” and “queer” woman doing difficult yoga poses in her skivvies. And at a glance, her new book, “Every Body Yoga,” may look like a how-to guide for people to start practicing yoga. But spending time with Stanley reveals a deeper side to the 29-year-old yoga teacher and her message.

Way before 280,000-plus people followed her on Instagram, before a book deal or speaking appearances or awards, Stanley was a simply a little girl.

Never have I ever encountered a pose so deliciously satisfying as #kapotasana. I am still working toward gripping both of my ankles, but grabbing my feet today felt INSANE. I will pursue this pose until I literally can not bend backward any longer. It is extremely restorative in so many ways. I plan to focus a lot of my energy on my #backbends this month, ESPECIALLY because of #backbendmadness2014 w/ @beachyogagirl @fitqueenirene & @kinoyoga (Kino's YouTube videos are a HUGE part of how I've progressed this far with #kingpigeonpose- if you're struggling w/ any pose, check out her channel!) #yogafamily #yogabums #yogalife #yogapractice #yogajournal #yogahigh #yogratitude #yogalove #yoganation #yogaeverydamnday #yoga #yogangsters #fitfluential #fatyoga #flexibility #backbend #feeltheyogahigh #curvyyoga #curvyfit #curvygirl #curvespo #honormycurves #honoryourcurves #effyourbeautystandards #aimtrue #pspfit

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Feb 26, 2014 at 5:30pm PST

She writes in her book that she struggled from an early age with image and identity issues. Her mother worked hard to teach her kids about healthy eating habits but was bedridden with an illness for three years while Stanley was young, and Stanley turned to food for comfort. Her devoted reading of Teen and Seventeen magazines taught Stanley about society’s idea of beauty — and, as she writes, “I knew for sure the accepted image of beauty didn’t have jack shit to do with me.”

At the time, images in teen magazines didn’t include her dreadlocked hair, Harry Potter glasses and expanding waistline. It led to a host of body image issues that Stanley says took decades to unravel. But, she writes, it was the difficult times in her life that formedthe building blocks of her yoga practice.

Fast-forward two decades: While struggling with a bad breakup, grieving over the death of a favorite aunt, dropping out of graduate school and in the depths of depression that followed a life crisis, Stanley looked toward yoga for clarity. Yoga wasn’t a journey only toward physical health but toward mental salvation, even if she says didn’t know it at the time.

For many, that’s what yoga is at its core: not only an exercise routine embodied by the physical practice but a life path that asks its students to look inward, shun desire, move toward contentment and be truthful and nonviolent. These ideals are known among yogi — among other key points — as the eight limbs of yoga that lead to enlightenment.

Students do not have to pursue the spiritual experience in yoga, but as Stanley writes, “Any yoga that ‘eliminates,’ ‘avoids,’ or ‘ignores’ yoga’s spiritual side is not actually yoga; it’s a fitness routine in yoga clothing.”

Instagram star Jessamyn Stanley’s guide to Durham, NC

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

At her time of personal turmoil, yoga’s challenges, both inward and outward, became cathartic and necessary.

“I didn’t really know” that yoga was pulling her out of depression at the time, Stanley said. “I was just in the camp of, ‘this feels good, so I’m going to keep going.’ It helped me in this place of depression.”

As her practice grew, she moved from Winston-Salem to Durham, North Carolina. In her new town, it became too expensive to pursue yoga through classes. She also felt alienated in them; she was a larger-bodied, black practitioner surrounded by thin white people. Instead, she started practicing at home and turned to Instagram to get feedback from other practitioners on her asanas, or static poses.

For anyone who practices asanas, “there’s a deep obsession with having the pose be perfect, because that’s your proof of having a worthwhile yoga practice,” Stanley explained. In her Instagram yoga community, she found the feedback she was looking for.

But the first time she put a yoga pose on the Internet, it wasn’t easy.

“I remember the very first picture, it was of standing bow pulling pose,” balancing on one foot while lifting and holding the other foot high,Stanley said. “I was paranoid about the camera angles because I didn’t know anything about photography or anything about portraiture, and I was just trying to get my good side because as a larger-bodied person, you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not going to look good in photos. I have to turn my body to be a certain way,’ so I would take photos from very specific angles.”

I had a wonderful moment in this posture during #bikram this morning and I had to share. #dandayamanadhanurasana #standingbowpullingpose #yogaforbreakfast #yoga #poseforme #yogaeverydamnday #stretch #summer #health #healthhappiness #fitness #fitfluential #exercise #happy

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Aug 23, 2013 at 8:58am PDT

The journey from that moment to the photos now on her Instagram page, where Stanley seems to exalt in her body, happened over time. She says it came from taking pictures from angles she wouldn’t have otherwise used, in order to get feedback. The new angles forced her to examine the body she says she was “deeply afraid of.” And as she progressed, seeing her body more clearly meant fewer clothes.

“The whole interaction between my ego and the camera is, I believe, a huge part of how I was able to start to have a different conversation with myself about my body,” she said.

Although yoga behaved as the spark for that conversation, Stanley is careful to point out that it wasn’t the only reason she has moved toward self-love.

“It’s very easy to draw this link of bad self-esteem plus yoga equals good self-esteem, but I don’t necessarily think the yoga was the thing that made that happen. I think that the photographing and the having to look at my body in ways that maybe I never had” led to that change, she said.

Still, she thinks that the path she is on because of yoga helps her deal with the terrible things that will continue to happen throughout life.

“Instead of trying to micromanage my emotional journey,” Stanley wrote, “I use yoga to pull off of the gas and help me see my life objectively and without judgment. It may not be foolproof, but it’s the best tool I’ve found so far.”

She also believes that yoga can build tools like that for others — not to be like her but to be the best versions of themselves. She uses the analogy that her experience with her eight-fold path was like finding an instrument inside herself, dusting it off and starting to play.

“I don’t want people to say, ‘Jessamyn is playing her instrument; I need to go get the exact same instrument she’s playing.’ That’s not the point. The point is you find out your instrument, and then we can all play together,” Stanley said.

How exactly do you start? Stanley’s book is devoted to that question. Writing it was a chance to respond in depth to the thousands of people who she says have stopped her in the grocery store, emailed her, messaged her or tweeted her.

The outreach surprised her because, she says, “fat black women have been doing yoga forever.” But she also said that at a closer look, when she Googled how to start practicing yoga, she found the results confusing.

“I want to answer this question thoroughly so that no one ever has to ask it again and also so that we can get beyond this place of who’s allowed to practice yoga. So that we can dispel the myth that anyone — except everyone — is supposed to practice,” Stanley said. So for everyone who fits into that category, Stanley suggests in her book, “just get on the mat.”

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

For Stanley, it was never about a larger message to the universe. And her journey isn’t remotely over. In a recent Instagram post, she shared a looping video of herself in a sports bra and underwear with the caption, “Do I feel better about myself than I did at the start of my twenties? Obviously. But that doesn’t mean I’m not susceptible to the same mind F***ERY I’ve been battling since childhood. I think of self-hate as an addiction. I’m in a permanent state of recovery….I’m not trying to be a bastion of body positivity. I’m just trying to survive.”

Instead, Stanley told CNN, she is just about being herself, “I’m really not trying to embody anything other than me standing with two feet on the ground, trying to be the truest, most honest, authentic version of myself that I can.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/health/jessamyn-stanley-yoga-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/13/how-jessamyn-stanley-fights-being-deeply-afraid-of-her-body/

[lavendermiilk]

How Jessamyn Stanley fights being ‘deeply afraid of’ her body

(CNN)At first glance, Jessamyn Stanley’s Instagram account is irreverent, at a minimum. She’s a self-proclaimed “large-bodied” and “queer” woman doing difficult yoga poses in her skivvies. And at a glance, her new book, “Every Body Yoga,” may look like a how-to guide for people to start practicing yoga. But spending time with Stanley reveals a deeper side to the 29-year-old yoga teacher and her message.

Way before 280,000-plus people followed her on Instagram, before a book deal or speaking appearances or awards, Stanley was a simply a little girl.

Never have I ever encountered a pose so deliciously satisfying as #kapotasana. I am still working toward gripping both of my ankles, but grabbing my feet today felt INSANE. I will pursue this pose until I literally can not bend backward any longer. It is extremely restorative in so many ways. I plan to focus a lot of my energy on my #backbends this month, ESPECIALLY because of #backbendmadness2014 w/ @beachyogagirl @fitqueenirene & @kinoyoga (Kino's YouTube videos are a HUGE part of how I've progressed this far with #kingpigeonpose- if you're struggling w/ any pose, check out her channel!) #yogafamily #yogabums #yogalife #yogapractice #yogajournal #yogahigh #yogratitude #yogalove #yoganation #yogaeverydamnday #yoga #yogangsters #fitfluential #fatyoga #flexibility #backbend #feeltheyogahigh #curvyyoga #curvyfit #curvygirl #curvespo #honormycurves #honoryourcurves #effyourbeautystandards #aimtrue #pspfit

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Feb 26, 2014 at 5:30pm PST

She writes in her book that she struggled from an early age with image and identity issues. Her mother worked hard to teach her kids about healthy eating habits but was bedridden with an illness for three years while Stanley was young, and Stanley turned to food for comfort. Her devoted reading of Teen and Seventeen magazines taught Stanley about society’s idea of beauty — and, as she writes, “I knew for sure the accepted image of beauty didn’t have jack shit to do with me.”

At the time, images in teen magazines didn’t include her dreadlocked hair, Harry Potter glasses and expanding waistline. It led to a host of body image issues that Stanley says took decades to unravel. But, she writes, it was the difficult times in her life that formedthe building blocks of her yoga practice.

Fast-forward two decades: While struggling with a bad breakup, grieving over the death of a favorite aunt, dropping out of graduate school and in the depths of depression that followed a life crisis, Stanley looked toward yoga for clarity. Yoga wasn’t a journey only toward physical health but toward mental salvation, even if she says didn’t know it at the time.

For many, that’s what yoga is at its core: not only an exercise routine embodied by the physical practice but a life path that asks its students to look inward, shun desire, move toward contentment and be truthful and nonviolent. These ideals are known among yogi — among other key points — as the eight limbs of yoga that lead to enlightenment.

Students do not have to pursue the spiritual experience in yoga, but as Stanley writes, “Any yoga that ‘eliminates,’ ‘avoids,’ or ‘ignores’ yoga’s spiritual side is not actually yoga; it’s a fitness routine in yoga clothing.”

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At her time of personal turmoil, yoga’s challenges, both inward and outward, became cathartic and necessary.

“I didn’t really know” that yoga was pulling her out of depression at the time, Stanley said. “I was just in the camp of, ‘this feels good, so I’m going to keep going.’ It helped me in this place of depression.”

As her practice grew, she moved from Winston-Salem to Durham, North Carolina. In her new town, it became too expensive to pursue yoga through classes. She also felt alienated in them; she was a larger-bodied, black practitioner surrounded by thin white people. Instead, she started practicing at home and turned to Instagram to get feedback from other practitioners on her asanas, or static poses.

For anyone who practices asanas, “there’s a deep obsession with having the pose be perfect, because that’s your proof of having a worthwhile yoga practice,” Stanley explained. In her Instagram yoga community, she found the feedback she was looking for.

But the first time she put a yoga pose on the Internet, it wasn’t easy.

“I remember the very first picture, it was of standing bow pulling pose,” balancing on one foot while lifting and holding the other foot high,Stanley said. “I was paranoid about the camera angles because I didn’t know anything about photography or anything about portraiture, and I was just trying to get my good side because as a larger-bodied person, you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not going to look good in photos. I have to turn my body to be a certain way,’ so I would take photos from very specific angles.”

I had a wonderful moment in this posture during #bikram this morning and I had to share. #dandayamanadhanurasana #standingbowpullingpose #yogaforbreakfast #yoga #poseforme #yogaeverydamnday #stretch #summer #health #healthhappiness #fitness #fitfluential #exercise #happy

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Aug 23, 2013 at 8:58am PDT

The journey from that moment to the photos now on her Instagram page, where Stanley seems to exalt in her body, happened over time. She says it came from taking pictures from angles she wouldn’t have otherwise used, in order to get feedback. The new angles forced her to examine the body she says she was “deeply afraid of.” And as she progressed, seeing her body more clearly meant fewer clothes.

“The whole interaction between my ego and the camera is, I believe, a huge part of how I was able to start to have a different conversation with myself about my body,” she said.

Although yoga behaved as the spark for that conversation, Stanley is careful to point out that it wasn’t the only reason she has moved toward self-love.

“It’s very easy to draw this link of bad self-esteem plus yoga equals good self-esteem, but I don’t necessarily think the yoga was the thing that made that happen. I think that the photographing and the having to look at my body in ways that maybe I never had” led to that change, she said.

Still, she thinks that the path she is on because of yoga helps her deal with the terrible things that will continue to happen throughout life.

“Instead of trying to micromanage my emotional journey,” Stanley wrote, “I use yoga to pull off of the gas and help me see my life objectively and without judgment. It may not be foolproof, but it’s the best tool I’ve found so far.”

She also believes that yoga can build tools like that for others — not to be like her but to be the best versions of themselves. She uses the analogy that her experience with her eight-fold path was like finding an instrument inside herself, dusting it off and starting to play.

“I don’t want people to say, ‘Jessamyn is playing her instrument; I need to go get the exact same instrument she’s playing.’ That’s not the point. The point is you find out your instrument, and then we can all play together,” Stanley said.

How exactly do you start? Stanley’s book is devoted to that question. Writing it was a chance to respond in depth to the thousands of people who she says have stopped her in the grocery store, emailed her, messaged her or tweeted her.

The outreach surprised her because, she says, “fat black women have been doing yoga forever.” But she also said that at a closer look, when she Googled how to start practicing yoga, she found the results confusing.

“I want to answer this question thoroughly so that no one ever has to ask it again and also so that we can get beyond this place of who’s allowed to practice yoga. So that we can dispel the myth that anyone — except everyone — is supposed to practice,” Stanley said. So for everyone who fits into that category, Stanley suggests in her book, “just get on the mat.”

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

For Stanley, it was never about a larger message to the universe. And her journey isn’t remotely over. In a recent Instagram post, she shared a looping video of herself in a sports bra and underwear with the caption, “Do I feel better about myself than I did at the start of my twenties? Obviously. But that doesn’t mean I’m not susceptible to the same mind F***ERY I’ve been battling since childhood. I think of self-hate as an addiction. I’m in a permanent state of recovery….I’m not trying to be a bastion of body positivity. I’m just trying to survive.”

Instead, Stanley told CNN, she is just about being herself, “I’m really not trying to embody anything other than me standing with two feet on the ground, trying to be the truest, most honest, authentic version of myself that I can.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/health/jessamyn-stanley-yoga-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/13/how-jessamyn-stanley-fights-being-deeply-afraid-of-her-body/

[visionarylifehakz-blog]

For all my geeky/nerdy friends, I'm proud to have the opportunity to talk aromatic science in a class I'm leading on Essential Oils next week. It's pretty amazballs how aromatic compounds can support our Limbic system aka the emotional/memory/learning "brain." Did you know the The limbic system is also the part of our brain which controls motivation and bodily functions like our appetite and sex drive? Our sense of smell is a powerful tool that's helped guide these behaviors since the dawn of time! Comforting Blend ╡╖ This blend contains floral and tree oils that can help soothe feelings of sorrow and grief and promote uplifting feelings of peace and hope. Single Oils in This Blend: Frankincense: is often used to help promote feelings of balance, to help with focus and meditation, and to help ease impatience and restlessness. Patchouli: has sedating, calming, and relaxing properties and is often used to help reduce anxious feelings. Ylang Ylang: has antidepressant and sedative properties. It is often used to help calm and relax. Labdanum: or cistus, was one of the first aromatic substances used anciently. It is stimulating to the senses and is often used to help elevate the emotions and soothe the nerves. Amyris: is similar to sandalwood in nature and is often called East Indies sandalwood. It is often used for its sedative properties and to help relieve tension and stress. Sandalwood: is often used to help soothe feelings of sadness and depression. It has calming and sedative properties and helps harmonize and balance the emotions. Rose: is stimulating and elevating to the mind, creating a sense of well-being. Osmanthus: is one of the 10 famous traditional flowers of China. The blossoms are highly aromatic and are used in the world’s rarest and most expensive perfumes. It is used in Chinese medicine to “reduce phlegm and remove blood stasis.” #visionarylifehakz #emotional #aromatherapy #healing #plantsmakepeoplehappy #fitforlife #aroma #herbology #naturalbeauty #tantra #rasayana #panchakarma #inhalation #biosphere #energetic #rare #epigenetics #spiritualgangster #yogangster #gemstones #chakras #chakra @britishvogue (at Wales)