Amanda Parr - Soul Roots Yoga & Healing Arts

Final sessions for the 2026 Indiana season!

Friday October 2nd.

Book: https://Soulroots.as.me/bebalanced
Link in bio

The Rooted Vegan 🌿 My go-to for lunch and treats when I am in Angola, Indiana.

Today I had the protein bowl, mushroom autumn harvest "coffee", and pumpkin spice doughnut. All 100% vegan.

I am so happy this place exists and that they continue to thrive. Be sure to bless up small businesses, they are the Soul of our community.

The Rooted Vegan

May you have a relaxing and therapeutic weekend 🙏

If you feel tired, overworked, stressed, stiff, achey, or imbalanced, I can help.

Yoga is not cool anymore…and I am totally here for it.

When my Yoga journey began 28 years ago, the practice was growing in popularity, but it was not quite mainstream. Classes could be found in New York City, where I was living at the time, but when I visited home in rural Indiana, Yoga was virtually unknown…not a class or teacher to be found. Eager for others to experience the ancient practice that was transforming me, I felt inspired to train to become a Yoga teacher. That was in 2005.

Around this same time there was a Yoga explosion, and everywhere felt the ripples…even rural Indiana. Studios and trainings started popping up. Suddenly it seemed like everyone was practicing Yoga…and a few months later, everyone was teaching it. Fashionable yoga clothes bombarded the market. Yoga was trendy…hip…in many cases with an air of snobby exclusivity.

Like anything in fashion, the market quickly became commercialized, saturated…stretched in a million different directions. The population leaned into the philosophy with curiosity, but it was ultimately the wellness and fitness aspects (a relatively small sliver of the entirety of Yoga) that the masses latched on to. 5,000+ years of sacred wisdom was gradually reduced to a superficial workout routine.

Then came the gimmicks…beer yoga, goat yoga, yoga for a sexy booty…you name it. Take anything (anything!) and attach the word Yoga and it was sure to sell. Attractive model-esque influencers doing impressive things with their seemingly perfect bodies became the face of the Yoga revolution. Yoga Teacher training factories churned out overnight “experts” trained to instruct cookie cutter poses and choreographed flows, with little regard for the world beneath the surface.

Somewhere in all this noise and regurgitation, the depth and meaning of Yoga was lost. The vast majority of the population may not have understood what Yoga was about, but the Yoga industry didn’t seem to care. Yoga was cool, and everyone was getting in on the action.

As a growing teacher with a profound reverence for the tradition of Yoga, I went through several identity crises over those years. On a few occasions, I temporarily gave up teaching. It was a confusing and conflicting time. Fashionable fitness gurus dominated the market. Modern yoga had a distinct image, and I didn’t fit into that image (nor did I want to). On a number of occasions it was implied that I was not a quality teacher because I didn’t make people sweat. I was once was turned down for a job because I was told that what I was teaching was more “meditation” and not really “Yoga”. I’ll admit, there was temptation to give in and provide what the masses demanded, even though it was at odds with the tradition that I had studied.

It took some growth as a person, a Yogi, and a professional, but ultimately I returned to the Yoga world determined to continue to share Yoga, detached from the labels and expectations of pop culture. I understood that my role as a teacher was not to be popular, but to simply carry these ancient threads of wisdom forward - guided by my own personal perspectives and experiences - and to pass them on to anyone who felt them resonate. I had to remind myself time and again…what I have to share is not for everyone. I am not meant to be everyone’s teacher.

Once I was able to embrace my svadharma (personal path) as a teacher, and detach from the outcome, things began to flow a little more easily. Being a Yoga teacher by trade is tricky, because just like everyone in the world, I need to earn a livelihood doing what I do. At times, the need for income can create tension in my pursuits to share Yoga. This has become even more amplified in recent years because interest in Yoga appears to be waning.

Someone recently said to me, “Yoga is soo 10 years ago!” Which struck me as kind of funny, considering that Yoga has been around for (at least) 5,000 years. But there is sort of a law to these things. Anything that comes into fashion, will eventually go out of fashion.

Perhaps the oversaturation of influencers, the trends, the gimmicks, finally took their toll. Yoga gradually became a dime-a-dozen product that was over-used, misunderstood, and eventually under-valued. The mainstream has moved onto new wellness trends and gimmicks, leaving Yoga in the dust. Studios are shutting down. The fashion savvy fitness gurus have moved on to more lucrative horizons.

Yoga is not cool anymore…and I am totally here for it.

Of course, I have always been a bit of a counter-culturalist. There is something really boring about pursuing something simply because everyone else is doing it.

Maybe this is the beginning of a new revolution in Yoga.

Now that Yoga isn’t in fashion anymore, maybe now we can pause in the stillness and reunite with the essence of it. Now that we don’t have to contend with all the noise and labels associated with it, perhaps we can get back to the roots of Yoga - a curious exploration of our inner world.

And maybe, now that Yoga is no longer cool, we finally have a little more space to discover what Yoga really has to offer. Perhaps it is time for a new phase in our evolution.

Great start to Hippie Magic Festival. Perfect weather. Groovy vibes.

Story time 🙌

Last month at the Yoga Festival in Proud Lake, MI there was a red (yes, red!) dragonfly that hung out at my booth all through the fest. Yesterday when I was setting up at Hippie Magic another (!) red dragonfly showed up on my table and hung out all afternoon with me. I talked to it and told it to come back today. It did...and flew over and sat on my hand while I told the tale to my friend. It came and went today, perching in different spots on the Bling table. Spiritual allies show up in all forms ❤️

Who's coming to the fest this weekend?

I'll be guiding Soulful Yoga and Peace meditation tomorrow and Sunday starting at 9am. Musical performances follow and continue all day.

Find me in the vendor village 11:00am-7:00pm. Thai Yoga Bodywork sessions are filling up fast, be sure to reserve your spot!

🙏✌️☮️

People are already booking their sessions for this weekend!

My advice based on past years: Book in advance! People who wait until Saturday or Sunday often miss out.

Book here: https://Soulroots.as.me/festival

Appointments:
Friday: 11:00 am - 7:00pm
Saturday: 11:30 am - 7:00 pm
Sunday: 11:30 am - 4:00 pm
Thursday: Contact me directly

☮️✌️

Did you know that Yoga was part of the original Woodstock festival?

It wasn't planned.

Before the festival even began, the crowd size had become unexpectedly huge and stifling. Michael Lang, Woodstock's organizer was panicking... worried that things would get out of control. He called his friend, artist Peter Max and asked if he had any ideas for how to keep the crowd calm. Peter said, "you need Swami Satchidananda".

Swami Satchidananda was an Indian teacher that came to the USA in the 1960's to teach Americans how to find inner peace through the ancient practice of Yoga.

Woodstock organizers flew him in by chopper and put him on stage. He opened Woodstock with the sacred Sanskrit "Hari Om" chant, used to facilitate an elevation in consciousness. He then invoked a profound meditative silence amongst the sea of revelers and instructed the crowd, "Let us not fight for peace, but find peace within ourselves".

And that is how half a million young Americans were introduced to Yoga.

Yoga teaches us how to quiet the restlessness, discomfort, and chatter in the body and mind so that we can explore the deeper realms of consciousness and discover inner peace.

Coincidentally, my Yoga journey started in 1999 at Swami Satchidananda's school of Integral Yoga in Greenwich Village, New York City. Then I did a residential teacher training at the Satchidananda Ashram in Virginia, a sacred space in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains that was donated to Swami Satchidananda by musician/songwriter Carole King.

It is an honor for me to be able to continue this legacy and share Yoga with you at the Hippie Magic Festival Buck Lake Ranch this Saturday and Sunday morning from 9:00-10:30 am.

This will kick off an awesome lineup of musical performances that will transport you back to the free-spirited magic of the summer of love.

Let us dedicate a sliver of our weekend to cultivating inner peace together.

Om Shanti (Peace)
🙏✌️☮️

Soulful Yoga & Peace Meditation @ Hippie Magic Festival - Sept. 12 &13

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Me and this box of tissues had a great time out on the lake, despite me having a bit of a cold 🤧

We come into contact with viruses and other pathogens daily. But why do we sometimes get sick and other times go unfazed? From an ancient healing perspective, it comes down to the integrity of our energetic system. Lack of awareness, physical tension, bad eating habits, poor sleep, and psychological stress disrupts the natural flow of vital energy through the system, hindering our body's intelligence and weakening our immunity.

Over the weekend I customized my Yoga practice and adapted my patterns to strengthen my vitality and promote healing. I am happy to say I am feeling normal again. It was a good wake up call to be more mindful and vigilant with my well-being. As the saying goes, "If you don't make the time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness".

This evening at 6:00 pm I will be hosting another Restore and Reconnect - Therapeutic Yoga @ Pretty Lake. Our practice will be dedicated to cultivating awareness, crafting an influential mindset, and promoting a healthy energetic system, including some practices that strengthen our immunity and respiratory health.

If you haven't already signed up, please use the link https://Soulroots.as.me/prettylake to reserve your spot.

🙏✌️

Tomorrow at 10:00am EST

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