Harpinder Mann Yoga

Harpinder Mann Yoga 🤸‍♂️ Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher, Mindfulness Educator, & Published Author
🌞 Helping BIWOC reclaim their power & intuition to be free
📕 Order my book now!

Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Yoga

What happens when 13 liberation centered, queer-aligned, and yoga embodying South Asians gather?You get a community of f...
05/01/2026

What happens when 13 liberation centered, queer-aligned, and yoga embodying South Asians gather?

You get a community of folks who intentionally love up on one another, practice mutual uplift, collaborate, and build a sangha. We met one another with such depth and tenderness. 

Shared values became lived practice: trauma-informed care, collaboration over competition, generosity, attunement, sensitivity. A space where we could soften and sharpen at the same time. Rooted in justice: anti-caste, pro-Palestine, committed to collective liberation, and making the world a better place for the children.

We built sangha through intention. Through laughter, rest, art, yoga practice, shared meals, long conversations and quiet presence. Through honoring land and lineage - spiritual, ancestral, blood, chosen. Naming both who was in the room and who wasn’t. Holding homeland loss, grief, and joy all at once. 

There was time in nature, singing to the Grandmother tree, communion in the sauna and tons of game play! Undiscovered talents emerging like small revelations. Sensuality, not as performance, but as aliveness. As permission.

And most of all, there was support, the kind that sees you, holds you, and expands you. 

This is what becomes possible when we gather with intention. When we trust each other enough to go there. More of this, please. 

We bow to the Indigenous peoples of this land, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans, for cradling us into the earth.

Deep gratitude to everyone at and to for hosting our stay and deep bows to the facilities and kitchen staff for making the place and food feel a bit like home.

What do love, rage, and grief have to do with liberation Everything.During times of collective upheaval, most of us are ...
04/17/2026

What do love, rage, and grief have to do with liberation Everything.

During times of collective upheaval, most of us are either numbing out or burning out. But what if your emotions were actually portals for deeper clarity and action?

That's exactly what Lama Rod Owens and I explore in this episode of Liberating Yoga and it might just change how you move through these times.

We get into:

- Why love AND rage are both necessary for healing

- How spiritual practice can help us confront — not escape — oppression

- Why grieving should be a daily practice

- What it means to stay in integrity when everything feels apocalyptic

- How lineage and ancestry shape the way we show up in the world

Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist author, Harvard Divinity School graduate, and one of the most important voices at the intersection of spirituality and liberation. His books Love and Rage and The New Saints genuinely changed me, so having him on this podcast was a dream.

🎙️ Link to listen is in my bio and stories.

What emotion feels hardest for you to sit with right now? Drop it below 👇

When I was at  a few months ago, a man I was speaking to deduced I was Sikhi through my name. He said, “My parents alway...
04/16/2026

When I was at a few months ago, a man I was speaking to deduced I was Sikhi through my name.

He said, “My parents always taught me, if you ever need help, find a Sikh.”

And he’s not wrong.

Vaisakhi represents the day Guru Gobind Singh Ji established the Khalsa, a casteless, saint-warrior community dedicated to equality, justice, and service to all humanity.

As Sikhs, we are called to live the principle of Ik Onkār (Oneness) not just as a belief, but as a practice of resisting oppression and offering seva as a way of serving all people, no matter what race, religion, class, color, or status.

From my bibiji and dadaji, I learned about Sikh gurus who believed in practicing gender equality, eliminating caste, being of selfless service (seva), working honestly (kirat karo), sharing with all beings for the highest good (vand chakko), and treating all people well, no matter their position in the world.

Within Sikhi, there is the concept of the sant-sipahi, the warrior-saint. The warrior who fights and stands up for justice. And the saint who is wise and loves.

That left an impact on me and informs my worldview.

The formation of the Khalsa is about committing to justice and liberation of all beings. It’s never been about becoming a religion only serving those that are in it.

May we continue their legacy. Collective liberation for all.

To honor this day, I share with you an excerpt from my book, Liberating Yoga, about the story of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He is the revolutionary who founded Sikhi, and one of the many Sikhi warriors, gurus, and saints who spoke truth to power and stood up for what they believed in.

Happy Vaisakhi!

Such an honor to share about appropriation with  for her The Great Yoga Unlearning event! If you want to hear my convers...
03/30/2026

Such an honor to share about appropriation with for her The Great Yoga Unlearning event!

If you want to hear my conversation and many other wonderful teachers (some of them pictured), you can still sign up.

what a powerful gathering. There is so much for us to unlearn and embody as yoga practitioners, seekers, and teachers.

I’m holding tenderly getting to be in community in this way 💓💓

The team is growing! I will be welcoming 1 or 2 folks to support my work with operations and marketing tasks. These are ...
03/28/2026

The team is growing! I will be welcoming 1 or 2 folks to support my work with operations and marketing tasks.

These are the current needs:

🔸 Basic Squarespace website updates and page creation
🔸 General administrative support and tasks as-needed
🔸 Values alignment and basic understanding of trauma-informed care, yoga, and movements toward collective liberation
🔸 Content creation and editing for Instagram, Linkedin, Substack, and a MailChimp newsletter

Bonus points if you:
🔸 Are local to Los Angeles and can provide in-person content creation support
🔸 Can bring a strategic lens to marketing, project planning, and timeline management

If you resonate with any or all of these duties, I highly encourage you to apply! I would love to have a conversation.

Please fill out the application by Sunday 4/12 to be considered.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScgq8ccTcNg3LpkPvBj4mCPMcbq2XmUsbA6Ofcxc0Jmqq6AjQ/viewform

Lately I’ve been asking myself what it really means to teach yoga at this moment.Students are carrying so much grief, te...
03/10/2026

Lately I’ve been asking myself what it really means to teach yoga at this moment.

Students are carrying so much grief, tension and confusion. It’s a bewildering and heartbreaking time to be living through right now if you’re paying attention.

We’re being asking to hold more and more complexity. To take in, process, and digest SO MUCH.

And many of us were never trained for that, and our nervous systems were never meant to hold all of it alone.

That’s why I said yes to speaking at The Great Yoga Unlearning. It’s a free live gathering for yoga lovers navigating trauma, ethics, and responsibility.

If you are feeling curiosity too, let’s talk about it.

March 27–29. Join the conversation at YogaUnlearn.com

What a gift to lead my Liberating Yoga workshop with the community and 300hr Yoga in Context teacher trainees at  🤲🏽Talk...
02/25/2026

What a gift to lead my Liberating Yoga workshop with the community and 300hr Yoga in Context teacher trainees at 🤲🏽

Talking about cultural appropriation, yoga’s roots, and how to honor these sacred teachings isn’t easy! I find it shakes us up - asks us to question our identities and how we operate.

This group was open. My heart is full with how inquisitive, kind, and sincere everyone was.

Deeply grateful for this YTT having my book as the only required text for their training! Whew I was floored when I learned that.

Here are kind words from them:

“Much gratitude to this bright, graceful woman, Harpinder Mann whose book, Liberating Yoga, and workshop with our Yoga in Context trainees and wider community brought us into deeper knowledge and discussion of yoga’s roots, its modernization and how we can honor these sacred ancient teachings in our present studios, classes and practice. We feel better informed, equipped, opened and shook up and in general, enlightened by your presence.”

Thank you to for being such a supportive teacher and for making cha for everyone! And then getting to eat delicious homemade Indian food and singing kirtan together.

This day still gives me so such joy!

If you or your studio is offering a yoga training and wants to bring me in to lead a workshop, or order my books, please message me.

We need a real and embodied commitment to nonviolence, truthfulness, non-hoarding, non-stealing, and non-coveting, and i...
02/06/2026

We need a real and embodied commitment to nonviolence, truthfulness, non-hoarding, non-stealing, and non-coveting, and it’s clear what happens when these are violated.

On:
- Deepak Chopra and the Epstein files
- CorePower

You can read more at my Substack. Link in my bio.

A spiritual practice doesn’t ask us to turn away or to numb. It never has.It invites us to meet life fully, respond cons...
02/02/2026

A spiritual practice doesn’t ask us to turn away or to numb. It never has.

It invites us to meet life fully, respond consciously, and turn inner work into outward actions.

I believe that the true heart of yoga teaches revolutionary love, a caring for the suffering of others, our inherent interconnectedness, and about liberation.

I would be lying if I said that staying updated on the constant onslaught of horrific news wasn’t deeply affecting me, as it is so many others.

I have felt myself freezing, unsure what to do or to say. A sense of helplessness crept in.

What has helped thaw the freeze has been my practices, turning for guidance from Durga Mata, Guru Nanak, and Ganesha.

Guru Nanak challenged the injustices of the ruling class, directly protesting against the tyranny and corruption of his time. This has given me faith.

It’s been reading many books from folks who have lived through times like these before, from Frantz Fanon, Thich Nhat Hahn, Angela Davis, and nonfiction writers like RF Kuang. This has given me hope.

It has been sitting in conversation for hours with people and friends who I love and admire. Who are sitting in this messiness with me. Who aren’t avoiding it. This has given me relational understanding.

My book Liberating Yoga speaks to these systemic rots of colonialism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism.

Let’s sit in this messiness together and figure out what we can do. I invite you to my workshop this Saturday 2/7 from 2-4:30 pm in Ojai, CA.

More info at the link in my bio.

Healing your relationship with yourself isn’t just about changing or suppressing your thoughts.Yoga helps open your hear...
01/19/2026

Healing your relationship with yourself isn’t just about changing or suppressing your thoughts.

Yoga helps open your heart so that you can accept (and ultimately embrace) all the parts of Self.

I’m excited to share more in the upcoming Power of Meditation Summit, hosted by therapist and Dharma teacher Kelly Bl**er. I’m honored to join more than 50 wisdom teachers for a program on healing self-talk and freeing the mind through practice.

It begins on January 20, and it’s free.

Join us at the link in bio!

I will be away at  this week for a retreat.To dream.To reflect.To practice. To go deeper into myself.Here are some memes...
12/15/2025

I will be away at this week for a retreat.

To dream.
To reflect.
To practice.
To go deeper into myself.

Here are some memes that have been speaking to me as I disconnect from technology.

For me, going away into silence and stillness is an opportunity to align myself to what truly matters to me. Especially when the external world seems to be continuously on fire.

It’s a way to reflect on whether I’m living into my values. Values of embodied spirituality. Of service.

As I wrote in my book Liberating Yoga,

“Bhakti yoga practitioners emphasize the practice of selfless service (seva) and to serve others with love and compassion. There is an understanding that we are all interconnected beings, and by doing service, we acknowledge how this helps everybody in the process—including ourselves. Sikhism was influenced by the Bhakti movement, and I was raised to learn from teachings from Sikh gurus like Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. Within Sikhism, there is the concept of the sant- sipahi, the warrior-saint. The warrior who fights and stands up for justice. And the saint who is wise and loves.”

I wish to live as a sant-sipahi.

May we all be happy, healthy, safe and at ease.

(Last slides are of my kitty Alfy and wishing upon a dandelion.)

I know I bring up a lot of critique of the yoga industry — and it’s rooted in love and care (okay… and real annoyance an...
12/08/2025

I know I bring up a lot of critique of the yoga industry — and it’s rooted in love and care (okay… and real annoyance and rage).

Being a yoga teacher is not easy - holding space for so many different students, never knowing what someone might be walking in with, discerning when you can support them and when it’s time to refer out.

There is so much in yoga. So many lineages, philosophies, practices, and pathways. And I admire the teachers who are doing the work to figure it out with humility and heart.

We teach from who we are, from our own life experiences, from the truths we’ve realized.

I’m so grateful for the students and teachers I get to walk alongside—those who care deeply, those who show up with intention, those who make this path so meaningful.

I’ve had the deepest, greatest honor of supporting and guiding the most sincere, kindhearted, beautiful, introspective yoga students and teachers this year! You know who you are.

This post came to me on Thursday, on the day of the Guru, of Dattatreya Jayanti, who is the Guru principle. Some of my most beloveds have been my own yoga teachers who have guided me through confusion. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for holding my hand compassionately AND lighting the fire under my ass when it was needed.

Here’s to the sincere yoga teachers transforming their own lives and the lives of their students.

Which slide do you resonate with? And tag the yoga teachers who have changed your life! I’ll begin in the comments 💓

And for yoga teachers wanting to work with me, I have 1 mentorship spot open! Please message me for more info.

To gain more knowledge about my critique of the yoga industry and my recommendations, read Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Yoga.

Address

Santa Barbara, CA

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm
Saturday 8am - 8pm
Sunday 8am - 8pm

Website

https://www.harpindermann.com/book

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