By Michelle Talsma Everson | Digital Free Press
Tempe resident Elisha Thompson wears multiple hats.
She’s a master’s degree student at Arizona State University, where she also works full-time as an undergraduate academic advisor. Her favorite classes though happen outside of the university—she avidly studies and teaches yoga. And now, she just published her first book on the topic, too—with a unique twist.
Thompson’s new book is called “Yoga for Kink.”
As someone who is openly part of the polyamorous, kink and BDSM communities, she shares that when she would attend kink/BDSM classes and conferences she would notice the similarities between yoga poses and the flexibility needed for rope, bondage and kink play and activities.
An academic and natural researcher, she spent over a year researching what yoga poses help with certain types of kink play and began to write down her findings in her book.
“’Yoga for Kink’ is an instructional yoga book. It is broken into three sections: upper body bondage, lower body bondage, and full body bondage,” Ms. Thompson explains.
“Within each section, there are photos of models tied into various bondage positions. Following that, I provide a list of yoga poses that will help prepare the body to get into those bondage positions — or positions similar to it, along with step-by-step instructions on getting into the yoga pose. There are photos of each yoga pose, including modifications for bodies that are not yet able to get into the full pose.”
There are two key things that sets “Yoga for Kink” apart, Ms. Thompson shares.
“First, there are no other yoga manuals on the market that directly address how to use yoga to safely prepare the body for bondage. Second, and this is a point of pride, throughout the book, we have a diverse set of body types and ethnicities represented in the poses,” she explains.
“I wanted to make sure that a variety of body types were represented in the book. All body types can do yoga, but that is not what you generally see in the media and on social media. You mostly see thin white women, but anyone can do yoga and anyone can do bondage. So, I wanted a book that represented that. Really, it was just us getting a bunch of our friends together and the diversity became as intentional as it was accidental.”
Editor’s Note: Ms. Everson is a freelance journalist.
