May I Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Yoga, and Changing My Mind

by Cyndi Lee

Overview

For all her wisdom as a teacher, Cyndi Lee understood intuitively that she still had a lot to learn. In spite of her success in physically demanding professions - dancer, choreographer, and yoga teacher - Lee was caught in a lifelong cycle of repetitive self-judgment about her body. Instead of the radical contentment expected in international yoga teachers, she realised that hating her body was a form of suffering, which was infecting her closest relationships - including her relationship to herself. Inspired by the honesty and vulnerability of her students, Lee embarked on a journey of self-discovery that led her outward - from the sacred sites of the parched Indian countryside to the center of the 2011 earthquake in Japan - and inward, to seek the counsel of wise women, friends and strangers both. Applying the ancient Buddhist practice of loving-kindness meditation to herself, Lee learned that compassion is the only antidote to hatred, thereby healing her heart and changing her mind. With prose as agile as the yoga sequences she creates, May I Be Happy gives voice to Lee's belief that every life arises, abides, and ultimately dissolves. By becoming her own best student, Lee internalizes the strength, stability, and clarity she imparts in her Buddhist-inspired yoga classes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142180426
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/28/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Cyndi Lee is the founder of New York City's OM yoga center and provides OM yoga teacher training worldwide. A regular columnist for Yoga Journal, she lives in Columbus, Ohio.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“May I Be Happy is bold, revealing and thoughtful, exploring the complex relationship we have with our bodies, self esteem, and the journey to find self-acceptance, happiness and love—spirit, mind AND body. It is a deeply intimate memoir.” –Seane Corn, yoga teacher, co-founder Off the Mat, Into the World

“I am crazy about this book! Not only is it well written, humorous and engaging, it is thought provoking. Ms. Lee. reveals her humanness with such courage, one cannot but help but be drawn in and learn, not only about Ms. Lee, but also about ourselves.” —Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., PT, yoga teacher and author of YogaBody: Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Asana

“Instantly relatable . . . Lee’s journey reels readers in. Yogis will devour the insightful dharma talks, but the book transcends its New Age genre.” –Publishers Weekly

“Lee beautifully describes the yin and yang of an all-encompassing yogic lifestyle. . . . [A] distinctively Zen autobiography.” – Kirkus Reviews

"Cyndi Lee’s new memoir is absolutely riveting. It is a real, and beautifully-written account of the authentic effects of contemplative practice on the vicissitudes of life with which we all struggle: relationships, career, and the meaning and purpose of this finite life. Lee’s profound self-inquiry will be of great benefit to all who read it." —Stephen Cope, Director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living, and author of The Great Work of Your LIfe

Editorial Reviews

Whether or not you do yoga, this memoir is riveting.” –Fitness

“Lee’s candor in her healing process will likely resonate with self-help fans... For the millions of people — especially women — who fight the fat talk in their heads, her words will be familiar and comforting. In talking about her students, Lee says, ‘The honesty and vulnerability of each person touches me deeply.’ With this book, Lee has returned the gift.” –Associated Press

“Lee has the ability to look at her self-inflicted suffering with honesty, humor, and open-heartedness. . . . her challenges become part of every woman’story.” –Yoga International

“With candor and curiosity, Lee describes her battle with self-criticism and share how yoga and lovingkindness helped her make the shift from shame to acceptance.” –Yoga Journal

From the Publisher

Renowned yoga instructor Lee (Yoga Body, Buddha Mind) juxtaposes her expertise in mindfulness and fitness with her lifelong hatred of her body. Instantly relatable to almost every woman, Lee’s journey reels readers in. Though she danced and choreographed with Cyndi Lauper in the 1980s, she writes, “I just felt like an un-cool person with a wrong-shaped body.” In the present, Lee struggles about letting her hair go gray and feels empowered when she goes for it. With skill, Lee weaves together the story of her personal hardships—her dying mother, her marriage heartbreak—with yogic wisdom and sage advice from experts, gurus, and friends (including Jamie Lee Curtis). Determined to stop feeling bad about herself, she has several breakthroughs, one while she teaches yoga in Japan during the recent devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. Yogis will devour the insightful dharma talks, but the book transcends its New Age genre. Lee takes the familiar body image subject and makes it fresh—and better yet—manageable. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Despite international renown as a Buddhist-inspired yoga teacher, Lee (Yoga Body, Buddha Mind) experiences suffering just as we all do. In this heartfelt memoir, she reflects on hating her body—an all too common problem. Lee examines how her dance career, her relationship with her mother, and other life events affected her body image and in turn how it impacted her marriage. Honestly, and at times provocatively, she describes her journey toward remembering her basic goodness and finding contentment with her physical appearance. Woven into the narrative are first-person vignettes of Lee teaching her students. Her style is a beautifully accessible blend of Buddhist mindfulness practices and yoga asana. Guided by wise women (actress Jamie Lee Curtis, Christiane Northrup, self-help guru Louise Hay, various Buddhist teachers, friends, and herself), Lee remembers the truth: that we are all perfect and there is nothing wrong with us.

Verdict Lee’s writing matches her teaching style: patient, melodic, and straightforward. Yoga students of all levels and abilities will learn from the simple, profound lessons in this book.—Julia A. Watson, Marywood Univ. Lib., Scranton, PA

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Library Journal

Helped by conversational writing that flows into the most relaxed places of consciousness, renowned yoga teacher Cyndi Lee’s down-to-earth teaching describes the powerful connections between how we move our bodies, what we allow ourselves to think and say, and how we express kindness to ourselves and others. Her performance may lack the sparkle and polish you’d hear if it were handled by a voice pro, but what dominates the listening experience is less her reading style than her willingness to be vulnerable with her listeners. With her chatty, self-effacing stories and soft-serve Buddhist-inspired advice (she shares instead of teaches), this is an audio that will help women of all ages accept support from other enlightened women, embrace their own bodies and appearance, and find enduring emotional contentment. T.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2014 - AudioFile

A yoga expert charts her path to centered serenity. From the opening pages of her memoir, the founder of Manhattan's renowned OM yoga center is outspokenly quick to correct misconceptions about yoga instructors, who are assumed to be "always chill and never grumpy." Lee's (Yoga Body, Buddha Mind, 2004, etc.) life has been a mix of long-sought-after wellness and the trials of caring for an increasingly frail mother fraught with a merciless diagnosis of Lewy body disease, "which presents as a cruel combination of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's." She reminisces about an upbringing greatly influenced by her father, a Protestant minister, and momentous visits from Gloria Steinem at her high school in the 1960s. Dancing and a steady interest in yoga buoyed Lee through an obsession with her physical image, which bloomed into a dogged "body grudge" and chronic low self-esteem that plagued her into adulthood. Several trips to India helped her comprehend that it wasn't her body being "the real troublemaker," but her mindset. Lee beautifully describes the yin and yang of an all-encompassing yogic lifestyle. Sprinkled throughout are short (but sweetly sage) anecdotes from the veteran yoga instructor's classes. The author writes that her beloved mother's firm direction on "how to be ladylike and strong at the same time" still resonates with her today and pretty much sums up the tone of this distinctively Zen autobiography. A reassuring treat for the yoga set and inspiration for flexible newcomers.

Kirkus Reviews