The yoga expertise, Jessamyn Stanley and her focus on body positivity have driven her career to become an inspiration for women, especially people with big body size. She is a yoga teacher who is a mixture of African-Americans.
Although her size is bigger than the average woman who pursues yoga, it does not make her discouraged. She currently lives in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Her collaboration with The New York Times is a special achievement and difficult to ignore.
She said that her appearance in The Times could represent her. Looking at the standards of the yoga industry, this industry has not really include black colored people who also have large body size on the cover of their magazines or even big-bodied people in general.
Jessamyn Stanley and Yoga
When you think of yoga, the first picture that might come to your mind is a white and slim woman who says “Namaste” when wearing sporty clothes and tight leggings. While there are many women who do Sun Salutations at a yoga studio near you that is actually inhabited by people of various shapes and sizes.
The 30-year-old Stanley does not let anything different from yoga standards interfere with her, she is more busy thinking about how to become a good yogi.
Although yoga remains the focus of her attention, she actively expresses her views on everything, from the public’s acceptance of the mainstream from its large body to contemplation of its ongoing journey to find space and place in this world.
When she wasn’t busy starring in advertisements, Stanley also ran a blog holding a yoga and lifestyle podcast called Jessamyn Explains It All, and was also busy with reading all the Harry Potter books.
Jessamyn Stanley and Her Love for Yoga
She said the first meeting and introduction to yoga a few years ago was like hell on Earth, but she later became a yoga teacher and author of “Every Body Yoga.
When she was 16 years old, she was the youngest in the room, and certainly the largest. There were some colored people, but not many at the time. She found a challenging experience during the Bikram yoga class. This is a style of hot yoga and was totally hard especially for beginners like herself.
After undergoing a third of the entire class session, she left the class even though her teacher forbade to leave class. She promised herself not to do this again. But finally seven years later, she returned to yoga when she was in graduate school because she was experiencing a period of depression. Therefore, one of her friends recommended her to try the yoga Bikram.
Her yoga practice has evolved and progressed over the years. When she started practicing she told herself that she just wanted to do certain types of yoga and movement but eventually, she began to learn more about yoga. She learned about history, genealogy, meditation and the correct way of breathing.
Her body was increasingly athletic and supple because she focused on learning many poses. As time passed by, she began teaching because she thought that many yoga styles that she practices that she could teach to others.
More and more people are practicing and realizing that yoga is not only for slim white women. Most people are really surprised by this fact. She will continue to teach and practice to further improve her abilities. Jessamyn Stanley facing long struggle but she passionately deserves an example by all of us.
