One day Melanie Klein said “I am no longer going to the gym,” and it was one of the best decisions she could have made for her health. Melanie used to believe that something was wrong with her body and no amount of running or gym visits made that better. Then she tried yoga and learned how to love herself, inside and out. Now she wants to help you to see the beautiful potential of yoga to CONNECT you to your body, build self-compassion, and body kindness.
Listen to us discuss our personal experiences with exercise and how yoga helped us reframe the purpose and value of movement in our lives, essentially “deprogramming ourselves” by opting out of diet culture’s negative messages — from calorie counting to body comparisons, and self-judgments. Even if you’ve never tried a single asana (that’s a pose), I think you’ll be breathing and “downward-dogging” your way toward a better body image in no time after listening to our conversation.
Listen here to Episode 48 here:
About Melanie
Melanie Klein, M.A., is a writer, speaker, and professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Moorpark College in Ventura County, CA. Her areas of interest and specialty include media literacy education, body image, and the intersectional analysis of systems of power and privilege.
She is the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery + Loving Your Body (Llewellyn, 2014) with Anna Guest-Jelley, a contributor in 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics and Practice (Horton & Harvey, 2012), is featured in Conversations with Modern Yogis (Shroff, 2014), a featured writer in Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Mindful Living (Llewellyn, 2016) and co-editor of the new anthology, Yoga, the Body and Embodied Social Change: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis with Dr. Beth Berila and Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016).
Melanie co-founded the Yoga and Body Image Coalition in 2014 and is a member of the advisory circle for the Yoga and Social Justice Collaborative. She has been practicing yoga and meditation since 1996 and currently lives in Santa Monica, CA. Her latest work, Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body is forthcoming.
Follow Melanie
Yoga and Body Image Coalition | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter @FeministFatale & @ybicoalition | Melanie & Anna-Guest Jelley’s Book, Yoga and Body Image | Melanie’s forthcoming book, Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body
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