The S@#t I’ve Heard at Yoga: What I Learned in Downward Dog

The S@#t I’ve Heard at Yoga is a collection of humorous, unexpected, and insightful essays that reveals how yoga helped a Type A cynic transform to a Type Y(oga) optimist.

Calm is the new superpower. This collection of eclectic anecdotes charts my reluctant evolution from cynic to optimist. Inspired by bits of random dialogue with fellow yogis, confessional phone calls from friends, loud-talkers in coffee shops, a stare down with a winter-skinny deer and salient nuggets from yoga instructors in various locales—including the Hamptons, Palm Springs, Upstate New York, Los Angeles, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard—the sharp-edged wisdom found in these pages is the ultimate DIY therapy. Rather than explore the spiritual core or physical practice of yoga, these stories capture how yoga can lighten the rest of your day by quieting the crazy squirrels that live in your head.

In the context of our social, political and cultural oddities, these essays surf the edge between outrage and “OM.” As a wisewoman said, “Yoga really begins when class ends.” Michael’s theory: if everyone was required to practice yoga we’d have a lot less s@#t to deal with in the world. Whether you’re twenty, thirty, or sixty, if you’re stuck—if you’re trying to navigate a shift in your personal, professional, or romantic identity—The S@#t I’ve Heard at Yoga may help you go from “Now what?” to “What’s next!”