Mandi King
LightNews LightNews
mandiking.bsky.social
Mandi King
@mandiking.bsky.social
110 followers 110 following 65 posts
Yoga Philosophy student, 200 hr Level 2 Cert
E-RYT 200, YACEP
MA Eng Literature
Amateur wordsmith
Indie music enthusiast
Plant based cooking

https://linktr.ee/mandikingyoga
Posts Replies Media Videos
mandiking.bsky.social
New essay, "Oppressive Ideology and Yoga's Process of Self-Reclamation" is up on Medium.

Follow the Linktree in my bio to read.

#liberation
White background with black text that reads: “A crucial ethical and psychological truth: participation in oppressive ideology often stems not from freedom, but from prior conditioning where people are bound by ignorance, fear, and unresolved wounds. Yoga is a process of self-reclamation that offers true freedom.” Below the text is a tan, green, and blue colored drawing of earth, wrapped in a chain that has broken.
July 23, 2025 at 5:38 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
Let's act in devotion to sovereignty, free from the systems that limit us and our wellbeing, in solidarity with those who share this best interest— other humans, non-human animals, and the earth.

#Freedom #BeTheChange
A purple flower with green stem and leaves rising from a crack in the concrete with a white text box to the right that reads: “We are experiencing the inevitable result of a broken system-not the collapse of one that was functioning properly. Today I celebrate the freedom I have created— and continue to create-for myself (and others from myself) from the limitations of that system in my thinking and acting. celebrate the space others are creating for themselves and others, as well.” A purple flower with green stem and leaves rising from a crack in the concrete with a white text box to the right that reads: “As an alternative to this broken system... ... may we create a place that disrupts harm and makes space for difference. .. may we create space for choice. ... may we create a space where everyone can thrive as they see fit.”
July 4, 2025 at 4:33 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
To read my full essay, "The Misinterpretation of Yoga and the Rise of Authoritarian Apathy," follow the Linktree in my bio and navigate to writings.

#Yoga
#YogaPhilosophy
#Dharma
#Ethics
A half rolled-up sage green yoga mat with a white background that reads above it: “The Misinterpretation of Yoga and the Rise of Authoritarian Apathy.” White background with black text containing a portion of the aforementioned essay, which reads: The United States is in a moral crisis. Under the second Trump administration, authoritarian policies have tightened-isolating people under the illusion of self-reliance, cloaking cruelty in the language of liberty, and making abandonment of one another look like freedom. In response, many Americans have not resisted but withdrawn. The steady erosion of rights, the normalization of violence both state and interpersonal-and the collapse of personal and collective responsibility have been met, disturbingly often, with silence. That silence has roots. And one of those roots leads directly through the commodified, colonized version of Yoga many people have come to accept as authentic. A continuation of the essay that says, Edwin Bryant's interpretation of Yoga Sutra 1.2, is commonly (unfortunately) cited. He claims: "Yoga is the stilling of the mind." This is not wrong-but it is dangerously incomplete. As my teacher, Dr. Shyam Ranganathan translates, the verse is more accurately understood as: "Yoga is the control of the (moral) character of thought." What's missing from the simplified version is the entire point of the practice...
July 3, 2025 at 6:36 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
I watch out for bugs and itty-bitty toads like this when I walk so I don’t step on them.

While some are out here celebrating putting people in cages, alligators potentially eating them, and proudly wearing merch to promote it.

The disparity is heart-jolting.
July 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
The More You Know. 💫
June 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
"Yoga is not just about what we think—it's about how we perceive. And how we perceive is shaped by the state of our nervous system.

If I am in a reactive, stressed state-fight, flight, freeze, or fawn-my view of the world narrows. I see enemies where..."

Full essay link in bio.

#Yoga #Ethics
A black background with an image of a body, outlined in neon blue, with the brain and central nervous system in hot pink and the nervous in bright yellow with hot pink text above that reads, “Your nervous system is not separate from your ethics."
June 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
#NotAKing
February 20, 2025 at 2:22 PM
mandiking.bsky.social
The whirlpool is called samsãra in Yoga philosophy. It's about being ignorant of who we are as people (responsible agents).
January 22, 2025 at 5:30 PM