This Y2K Yoga Book Is Officially Your New Favorite

My 200-hour yoga teacher training came with an accompanying list of yoga books. I am a words person—a writer and avid reader. I also have a slight rebellious streak. This means that when I am told to read something, the chances of my actually cracking the spine are slim. This is compounded by the fact that, in my leisure time, I am drawn to escapist novels over nonfiction.

Still, I wanted to take this opportunity seriously…and I had book reports to write. When I finally opened Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope, I did so reluctantly. Within five minutes, I was completely enthralled.

Cope’s book uses the vehicle of memoir to explore the fundamentals of yogic philosophy and emphasize the power of self-inquiry. The story, originally published in 2000, follows a lost, late-90s Cope as he trades his life as a Boston psychotherapist for a retreat that becomes a months-long tenure at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts, a journey that would eventually turn into a new identity as a yoga teacher.

$20 at Barnes & Noble

The author and teacher tells his story with a balance of self-awareness and learned wisdom that makes it feel like you’re spending time with a friend. As I spent hours at a time with the book, I was reminded of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: a recent breakup, conventional life ditched for spiritual contemplation, the opinions of snarky city friends, charming self-deprication. It felt like discovering the best kind of source material, the sort that inspires us to look at our own lives, pause, and ponder the possibility that there’s more waiting at the edges.

An artful blend of philosophy and story highlight the fundamentals of yoga through a lens that appealed to my overloaded student brain. Rather than dense paragraphs outlining spiritual approaches and their benefits, Cope relays the importance of yoga and illustrates its value through stories and human experiences. The text felt honest and heart-led, and reminded me of the why of it all—including why yoga lit me up in the first place.

I have since recommended Yoga and the Quest for the True Self to several friends, one of whom has already texted an enthusiastic review of her own. The consensus is this: we already know the value of yoga deep down. We can feel it. It’s what gets us to our mat, to yoga teacher training, to an article like this one. But hearing stories about how the practice has peeled away the learned layers of so many strangers to reveal their true nature (or true self) offers evidence that the a-ha moments that we’ve experienced don’t exist in a vacuum.

And a welcome bonus? Cope still leads classes and workshops at Kripalu—and I will definitely be attending one.