Yoke Quotes

“I think meditation should be the most normalized and basic practice on Earth. Just think about what it means. It really just means extended thought, reflection, contemplation. What's the opposite of meditation? Overlooking, disregarding, ignoring.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“There’s nothing you can learn from another person that you couldn’t understand more clearly from within yourself. Your truest connection with the god of your own understanding happens inside yourself, not with someone else.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“Gradually, for one reason or another, your body is gonna stop working the way it once did. And as your skin wrinkles and sags, you'll be forced to reckon with what lies underneath it all. And the wisdom you've gained from that inevitable reckoning will always trump the naive glory of your physicality.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“But the art of aging is life's great crescendo. Your aging is your loudest moment, your greatest depth. You exist to age. I think the art of aging is to age with humility and grace. To age and enjoy the process. To welcome age with open arms. Obsessing over the human body's physical condition and postures is another way of trying not to age.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“I don’t know where all of this leaves us, but I do know that cultural appropriation is not a requirement of practicing American yoga. Yoga will lead you back to your own native culture every time. If you’re really reckoning with the light and dark within yourself, if you’re really doing the work of yoking, you will always end up reckoning with the White supremacy that lives inside of you. It’s impossible to hide from the truth forever.
There’s no easy solution to any of this conflict, and I think that’s okay. I don’t think you need to find a solution. I think you just have to observe everything that’s here, even the parts you don’t like. I don’t think there’s an answer that’s not gonna piss off somebody. But I think that’s where Acceptance comes in. Your only real option is to just accept the reality of all this. Don’t try to change it. Don’t try to rationalize it. Don’t try to fix it. Just accept it. Then we can all move forward together.
[...]Don’t waste time on self-flagellation - learn from your mistakes and move forward. (p.108-9)”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“I thought smoking weed would tranquilize my senses and distort my connection to reality. But capitalism tranquilizes your senses in a way that weed can't. Capitalism makes you cling to the belief that you're fundamentally unworthy and that the right product is out there, somewhere, to bring about evolution. It makes you hungry for something other than what's happening inside yourself. But cannabis unlocks a world beyond capitalistic greed in which you're able to enjoy right now, today. A world in which you're allowed to be yourself.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“Meditation looks more peaceful than it feels.... You're supposed to have thoughts, and they're chaotic by nature. The point is to accept your chaos. When you accept your chaos, it gets a lot easier to put shit in order.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“Capitalism thrives when you hate yourself and there'll always be a cuter dress, a more impressive house, or a better pair of shoes. Nothing you buy will ever be enough, and it's set up that way by design. But while capitalism is all about looking outside your Self, yoga says the exact opposite. Yoga and capitalism are like oil and water. They just don't go together.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“It's really that my expectations of what I'm capable of are holding me back from accepting who I am.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“But the yogic path is just preparation for Death, the final stage in your inevitable decay. It’s not a preventive measure, but it’s a way of showing up fully for both the voyage and the destination of the infinite.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“Ultimately, mastering postures is a moot point. Postures aren’t about getting shit perfect. After all, you were already perfect before the postures, and being able to practice them isn’t gonna shift that truth.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

“notice the difference between who I am in the privacy of my own identity and who I choose to be in front of other people.”
― Jessamyn Stanley, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance