Yoga Beyond Fitness: Getting More than Exercise from an Ancient Spiritual Practice by Tom Pilarzyk

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Synopsis

Yoga instructor Tom Pilarzyk explores yoga as a social phenomenon and assesses its widespread popularity in America, detailing the history of yoga since its arrival here in the mid-seventies. He describes how yoga first emerged as a spiritual path and how it has since been subsumed by popular culture to become more of a fitness craze and even a form of complementary health practice or stress reduction. With $3 billion spent annually on classes, products, and services, yoga has become an unusual blend of ancient spiritual path from India and American commercialism, argues Pilarzyk. He asks, Is America's yoga subculture in crisis? Is yoga morphing into something totally different? His goal is to help us restore the transformative center at the heart of yoga by showing how to bring greater intention, open-heartedness, and peace into our practice both on and off the mat.