AVAILABLE NOW
Liberating Yoga:
FROM APPROPRIATION TO HEALING
BY HARPINDER KAUR MANN
LIBERATING YOGA PROVIDES A PATH TO RECLAIM YOGA FROM APPROPRIATION AND RECENTER IT WHERE IT BELONGS: AS A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICE.
In the West, the practice of yoga comes to us stripped of cultural context. Colonized and appropriated by capitalism, dominant culture, fitness trends, and body shaming, yoga in America today is associated with expensive classes, trendy athleisure products, Corepower, Lululemon, and white women. However, yoga is not a one-hour fitness class aimed at stretching and flexibility. Yoga is a spiritual practice from South Asia with the ultimate goal of connection, self-realization, and liberation.
In Liberating Yoga, yoga teacher Harpinder Kaur Mann draws from her own perspective as a Sikh-Punjabi woman who was alienated by the way yoga is practiced in the United States but found her way toward reclaiming the spiritual practice for herself. Mann demonstrates that moving away from appropriated forms of yoga and back to yoga's roots is the only true path to healing--both for yoga practitioners who desire to engage responsibly in the practice with cultural appreciation, and especially for folks who have been marginalized who wish to reconnect with their ancestral spiritual practices and reclaim their full identity.
The roots of yoga within South Asian spiritual traditions, and how colonialism and globalization reshaped its practice
Cultural appropriation, lineage, and what it means to practice yoga with integrity, accountability, and reverence
The intersections of yoga with race, caste, gender, and capitalism in contemporary wellness culture
Trauma-informed practice as a pathway toward safety, agency, and collective healing
Bhakti, Sikh teachings, and ancestral wisdom as tools for reclamation, devotion, and liberation
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TRAININGS THAT FEATURE LIBERATING YOGA
BOOK A DISMANTLING CULTURAL APPROPRIATION WORKSHOP WITH HARPINDER
In this workshop, guest teacher Harpinder Kaur Mann will discuss, from a Punjabi-American perspective, the subject of cultural appropriation in the modern yoga world—and the damage that this appropriation can perpetuate. This will be a contemplative space to explore the entanglement between cultural appropriation, colonization, and New Age Spirituality and understand how we, as conscious yoga teachers, can help to dismantle the cultural appropriation of yoga, and learn how to better honor yoga's roots. Harpinder will share observations and solutions from her own personal journey, offer space for deep reflection, and lead participants in a short trauma-informed meditation session. By working towards intentionally decolonizing yoga, we embody values of compassion, equanimity, and integrity, which help release patterns of oppression.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Harpinder KAUR MANN.
Namaste and Sat Sri Akaal! My name is Harpinder Mann RYT-500 (she/her) and I am a yoga asana and meditation teacher, mindfulness educator, and community builder currently living on unceded Tongva Land (LA). I am actively working to decolonize wellness by creating community and providing real accessibility to our ancestral practices for people of color.
My practice is rooted in my spiritual background of Sikhism and Buddhism and ancestral roots in Panjab, India - this informs my desire to teach yoga authentically as a spiritual practice. I approach my work through an interfaith and spiritually inclusive lens, honoring the wisdom of diverse traditions. My practice is guided by the belief that healing and liberation are universal, transcending religious boundaries and embracing the shared humanity in all of us.
Teaching since 2018 and practicing since 2013, I teach in a way to help people mindfully connect to their bodies with curious awareness, to bring a sense of healing peace and stillness, and create more meaning in their lives.
Yoga is a spiritual practice for me - one that takes me back to my True Self without the noise of the ego and society. This practice gave me the freedom and power to be seen and live authentically. To know that there is nothing wrong with me. Especially all while growing up feeling isolated and ostracized for being "different" and always one of the only Indian girls at school. It has healed parts of my Self I never even realized needed tending.
My work sits at the intersection between social justice and healing. I work 1:1 with folks on reclaiming their power & intuition to be free, am passionate about working with pregnant people, teach at recovery centers and to kids with autism, and have led events and speak at organizations such as Tulane University, Grindr, Ogden Museum, Decolonize Birth Conference, Lightning in a Bottle, and many more.
xoxo,
Harpinder Mann
PRAISE FOR LIBERATING YOGA
Liberating Yoga Podcast
Liberating Yoga Podcast
Hi! I’m Harpinder Kaur Mann, your host as well as trauma-informed yoga teacher and mindfulness educator for women of color and allies. I help students learn all aspects of yoga as a spiritual path as a pathway for powerful embodiment and healing. Together, we study diligently and with devotion in the efforts to bring forth clearer integration of our body-mind-spirit and be grounded in our faith and presence.
Welcome to Liberating Yoga, a space to explore yoga as a practice of healing, resistance, and deep connection. Here to dive into the roots of yoga, dismantle appropriation, and uplift practices that honor tradition while making yoga truly accessible.
All of these conversations were recorded two years ago as part of my research and interviews for my book, Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Healing. Now, I’m bringing them to you—unedited and in full—to continue the dialogue on how we can honor yoga’s past while shaping its future. Let’s move beyond the surface and into the heart of yoga. This is Liberating Yoga.
To fellow podcasters, if you want me to be a guest on your podcast, send me an email at harpinder@harpindermann.com.