Publishing 21st Century Yoga: Part I (to be continued ... )

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It’s been two weeks since I took a deep breath and hit the “submit” button on my online publishing account. With the new print-on-demand technology I’m using, this one flick of a finger meant that a year’s worth of work on 21^st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics, and Practice, had finally – finally! – materialized as a real book ready for sale.

Two hours later, I got an anxious call from my sister. My elderly mother had tripped over her cat and fallen down. She was with my sister in the ER.

Since then, life has been whizzing by in a blur.

c Vinith Raj

I want to write about what a great book 21st Century Yoga is and why you should buy it. But my mind is too scattered to sit down and write anything of coherent substance. It’s been nonstop rushing up and back to the hospital (and now, rehab facility) and intense family phone calls coupled with it's-got-to-get-done-today book-driven emailing, Skyping, press releasing, price setting, snafu unraveling, and administrative and marketing madness.

Thankfully, I’ve had my fantastic 21CY co-editor, Roseanne Harvey, to help me on the book front. And while it turned out that my mother had broken her hip and had to get through surgery, bad drug reactions, post-surgical complications, and other problems, she’s on the mend now. Plus, my husband, who had been overseas when all this happened, is back home. So things are finally slowing down a bit.

But I'm still not in the headspace to write about why you should read 21^st Century Yoga. I’m still digging out from my unexpected avalanche of family crisis- and book management-related responsibilities. I’m really missing my writing, but am not ready to get to it quite yet. 

c Sarit Z. Rogers

I have, however, kept practicing yoga, which I credit for giving me the resources needed to get through the past two weeks without any jagged outbursts of yelling at my kids, breaking down into over-stressed tears (at least in public), or otherwise kicking the proverbial dog. This has driven home the fact that it really is true that what matters is the process - not the product.

When the shit hits the fan, it doesn’t matter what I’ve done (e.g., the accomplishment of finally publishing the first of my two endlessly in-process yoga books). What matters is that I’ve practiced long enough to have built up the internal resources to keep practicing through the ups and downs, and fruitful and lean times of life. This is a valuable lesson.

But, back to the book. I do want to promote it. It’s really, really good. So please, visit our website and check it out for yourself. And if you think it looks cool (and believe me, it is), buy a copy.

Also: Don’t forget that I have yoga book #2 coming out in about 6 weeks. This one is called Yoga Ph.D.: Integrating the Life of the Mind and the Wisdom of the Body. I just got the cover mockup yesterday, which is another kickass collaboration between photographer Sarit Z. Rogers, model Keri-Anne Telford, and designer Drew Fansler. Check it out (note: this is only a screen shot, I'll be posting a better quality image soon):

You can learn more about that book and read an excerpt by visiting my newly designed website. Also, if you’d like to be notified when it’s published, please sign up for my email list.

Hopefully, the next time I hit that “publish” button, life will be a little calmer and I’ll be better able to enjoy the moment rather than feeling anxious and super-stressed by it. But we can never count on what the day will bring . . . or that there will necessarily be another day at all.

So, we keep practicing: Love to all.