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Ignite Your Yoga: How to Live, Practice, and Teach as an Authentic Yoga Steward
An essential guide for all yoga practitioners to delve deeply into the tradition and practice authentically with appreciation, not appropriation.
Includes practical advice for embracing yogic values—such as service, non-harm, and truthfulness—in your daily life and relationships and for the well-being of others.
Popular yoga educator and advocate Susanna Barkataki invites yoga practitioners to become stewards of the tradition—bold and effective trailblazers for embodying the roots of yoga. She gives you the knowledge, tools, and language to respectfully and responsibly hold and participate in class and more effectively embody yogic values. Each chapter is full of step-by-step instructions, stories, practical advice, practices, and contemplations and covers the following:
• The issues with modern yoga in the West today
• Best practices for yoga leadership
• Learning what equity is in yoga
• How and when to use Sanskrit
• Integrating yoga ethics into your yoga practice, relationships, and work
While mainstream yoga culture explodes, the teachings have often strayed far from yoga’s traditional roots. The result is a watered-down, often inaccurate or incomplete practice that doesn’t responsibly reflect the rich and powerful tradition. Ignite Your Yoga is an essential guide for all yoga practitioners to delve deeply into the tradition and practice and teach authentically with appreciation, not appropriation.
Includes practical advice for embracing yogic values—such as service, non-harm, and truthfulness—in your daily life and relationships and for the well-being of others.
Popular yoga educator and advocate Susanna Barkataki invites yoga practitioners to become stewards of the tradition—bold and effective trailblazers for embodying the roots of yoga. She gives you the knowledge, tools, and language to respectfully and responsibly hold and participate in class and more effectively embody yogic values. Each chapter is full of step-by-step instructions, stories, practical advice, practices, and contemplations and covers the following:
• The issues with modern yoga in the West today
• Best practices for yoga leadership
• Learning what equity is in yoga
• How and when to use Sanskrit
• Integrating yoga ethics into your yoga practice, relationships, and work
While mainstream yoga culture explodes, the teachings have often strayed far from yoga’s traditional roots. The result is a watered-down, often inaccurate or incomplete practice that doesn’t responsibly reflect the rich and powerful tradition. Ignite Your Yoga is an essential guide for all yoga practitioners to delve deeply into the tradition and practice and teach authentically with appreciation, not appropriation.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
Published April 29, 2025
40 people are currently reading
2188 people want to read
About the author
Susanna Barkataki
4 books88 followersSusanna Barkataki is a yoga diversity and unity educator and the founder of Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute. Her identity as a refugee to the U.S. fleeing violence as a mixed Indian and British Desi, fuels her passion for bridging cultural connections with yoga.
She believes in a world where yoga and mindfulness support us in dissolving the illusion of separation to create unity and interconnection. This is unity that doesn’t erase difference, but invites connection with the broken or shameful parts of ourselves, with those we think of as other, and harmonizes relationships with culture, land, earth and all life.
Her work explores how we can decolonize, reclaim and honor our yoga practice for healing personally and socially.
Susanna has an Honors degree in Philosophy from UC Berkeley, a Masters in Education from Cambridge College, is an E-RYT 500 hour Master Teacher, a 500-Hour Certified Ayurvedic practitioner and a Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT).
She created the ground-breaking Honor {Don’t Appropriate} Yoga Summit with more than 12,000 participants. She is the Creator of Embrace Yoga’s Roots online course, is a diversity, accessibility, inclusivity, and equity (DAIE) yoga unity educator and runs 200 and 500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training programs in person and online.
An inspiring educator who makes yogic wisdom easy to apply in everyday life, Susanna consults, speaks, teaches and runs trainings on yoga philosophy, culture, history, yoga leadership, social justice and cultural change, curriculum, diversity and inclusion with colleges, schools, businesses and non-profit organizations.
She is honored to call Shankarji, Thich Nhat Hanh, Satish Kumar, Vandana Shiva and her own family her root teachers along with other masters who she studied with in India and the United States in the Hatha Yoga tradition.
Programs:
Ignite Be Well
She believes in a world where yoga and mindfulness support us in dissolving the illusion of separation to create unity and interconnection. This is unity that doesn’t erase difference, but invites connection with the broken or shameful parts of ourselves, with those we think of as other, and harmonizes relationships with culture, land, earth and all life.
Her work explores how we can decolonize, reclaim and honor our yoga practice for healing personally and socially.
Susanna has an Honors degree in Philosophy from UC Berkeley, a Masters in Education from Cambridge College, is an E-RYT 500 hour Master Teacher, a 500-Hour Certified Ayurvedic practitioner and a Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT).
She created the ground-breaking Honor {Don’t Appropriate} Yoga Summit with more than 12,000 participants. She is the Creator of Embrace Yoga’s Roots online course, is a diversity, accessibility, inclusivity, and equity (DAIE) yoga unity educator and runs 200 and 500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training programs in person and online.
An inspiring educator who makes yogic wisdom easy to apply in everyday life, Susanna consults, speaks, teaches and runs trainings on yoga philosophy, culture, history, yoga leadership, social justice and cultural change, curriculum, diversity and inclusion with colleges, schools, businesses and non-profit organizations.
She is honored to call Shankarji, Thich Nhat Hanh, Satish Kumar, Vandana Shiva and her own family her root teachers along with other masters who she studied with in India and the United States in the Hatha Yoga tradition.
Programs:
Ignite Be Well
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 30, 2025
Susanna Barkataki’s Ignite Your Yoga is a powerful, eye-opening guide for anyone who wants to move beyond the surface of yoga and into the heart of its true purpose. With clarity, compassion, and deep-rooted knowledge, Barkataki invites readers to explore what it really means to honor yoga as a sacred tradition—not just a fitness trend.
This book couldn’t be more timely or necessary. As yoga continues to grow in popularity, there’s an increasing need for honest conversations about cultural appropriation, equity, and authenticity in practice. Barkataki doesn’t shy away from these hard truths, yet her tone is never accusatory. Instead, she meets readers where they are and offers a clear path forward, rooted in respect, self-reflection, and the ethical foundations of yoga.
This book couldn’t be more timely or necessary. As yoga continues to grow in popularity, there’s an increasing need for honest conversations about cultural appropriation, equity, and authenticity in practice. Barkataki doesn’t shy away from these hard truths, yet her tone is never accusatory. Instead, she meets readers where they are and offers a clear path forward, rooted in respect, self-reflection, and the ethical foundations of yoga.
May 5, 2025
Ignite Your Yoga is a timely and deeply inspiring guide that reclaims yoga as a living, spiritual practice rooted in connection, compassion, and justice. Susanna Barkataki offers more than just a call to deepen your personal practice, she invites us to become stewards of yoga’s true essence, bridging ancient wisdom with modern purpose. With clarity, humility, and powerful storytelling, she explores how we can move beyond performative wellness into practices that heal not just the self, but our communities and world. Whether you're a lifelong practitioner or new to yoga, this book will challenge and awaken you in the most beautiful ways. A must-read for anyone who believes that yoga is about more than poses, it’s about how we live, relate, and lead with love.
April 30, 2025
This is such a powerful read! It is more than a book, it is an invitation into a community of yoga stewards.
Susanna does an incredible job of bringing complex concepts from yoga's historical roots into our modern every day life. She weaves together vital information from core yoga texts with her own reflections and insights from other yoga practitioners. I love how she has organized the chapters around the 8 limbs of yoga to give practical and concrete steps in deepening and embodying yoga beyond the asana practice popular in the US.
I know this is one I will return to throughout the years to dig deeper and reflect on where my yoga practice has been and where it is going.
Susanna does an incredible job of bringing complex concepts from yoga's historical roots into our modern every day life. She weaves together vital information from core yoga texts with her own reflections and insights from other yoga practitioners. I love how she has organized the chapters around the 8 limbs of yoga to give practical and concrete steps in deepening and embodying yoga beyond the asana practice popular in the US.
I know this is one I will return to throughout the years to dig deeper and reflect on where my yoga practice has been and where it is going.
May 18, 2025
Susanna Barkataki is a visionary leader whose guidance is timeless and has much to give us. Ignite Your Yoga is an offering and a call to action to live yoga off the mat and honor its roots and true meaning. This book is a brave, intelligent, vulnerable, and honest look at how to live our lives with more intention, how to practice social justice, and be in community with others. Ignite Your Yoga will build compassion for yourself and others. It will challenge you to reconcile your beliefs with your actions. This is a necessary read for all; it is guaranteed to shift your perspective.
April 29, 2025
This text breaks down how to take yogic philosophy off your mat and integrate practices into your daily life with ease. There are exercises, journal prompts, and easy to follow real life experiences that guide the reader through both Susanna’s journey as well as their own. As a practitioner it is useful to remind me of how all the threads connect, and as a teacher, it provides concise support in sharing the depth and richness of yogic practices.
April 30, 2025
Susanna Barkataki writes yet another insightful, thought-provoking, and soul-stirring book about yoga. "Ignite Your Yoga" is a comprehensive guide to the Eightfold Path, offering both wisdom and practical tools to embody yoga in its most authentic form—on and off the mat. Her passion for decolonizing yoga and honouring its roots shines through every chapter, inspiring readers to delve deeper and practice with purpose.
April 22, 2025
This book is a journey in and of itself. Barkataki exemplifies clearly many if the concepts she is presenting. Many examples are given and the book is written in an organized way that is easy to follow, just like a journey. This book is great for anyone curious of the yoga path or even long time followers of yoga.
An eye opening, informative, and delighftful read.
An eye opening, informative, and delighftful read.
July 1, 2025
As with her previous book the author doesn't know what she's talking about, has multiple citational and linguistic errors, and remains in the midst of the fake it part of fake it till you make it. This is a great book for bs'ers and as such will discourage the sincere from deepening or starting a yoga practice.
April 29, 2025
This book is PHENOMENAL. Susanna has a way of teaching that makes everything just fall into place. Things began to shift for me immediately applying what I read in the first few pages. As a Yoga Teacher & Leader this is a MUST read and MUST apply! I will read it again and again.
May 19, 2025
Susana Barkataki always shows us how to express what you’ve probably always have had inside. Be true to yourself and your yoga. Using yoga in social justice is just natural and a way of being, but this brings it all into perspective!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews