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A Necessary Joy : Yoga and the Quest for Transformation - PhD Mark Gardett

A Necessary Joy

Yoga and the Quest for Transformation

By: PhD Mark Gardett

Paperback | 29 January 2026

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Beneath everything you think defines you is a self that cannot be lost. 

This is the central tenet of the ancient practice of yoga. It is also the profound discovery at the heart of transness. 

Transgender is a term that describes a person who experiences a gender mismatch. Transness is something else entirely. It is the experience of discovering that abiding self, the one that remains when everything else falls away. Different as they may appear, transness and yoga are parallel practices on the path to liberation. 

A Necessary Joy follows Mark Gardett's own complicated quest toward self-realization and offers a new approach to understanding yoga philosophy. Through personal narrative and accessible teaching, this book illuminates:

  • How transformation is itself a practice by which we find out who we are 
  • The yogic concept of the unchanging self and what it reveals about identity 
  • Why we practice in order to be transformed-and what that means 
  • How to live in a world of change without losing touch with your divine inner light 

That is freedom.

Whether you're transgender, a yoga practitioner, going through major life transition, or seeking spiritual depth beyond dogma, this book offers a map toward authentic selfhood and liberation.

---

A Necessary Joy: Yoga and the Quest for Transformation is published by Tehom Center Publishing, an independent press elevating marginalized voices. Learn more at www.tehomcenter.org.

Industry Reviews

"This book is a revelation-a sacred weaving of transness and yoga as parallel paths toward truth, liberation, and embodiment. A courageous practice of aligning one's inner and outer selves in a world that so often demands conformity."

-Rev. Sam Houser, author of No Longer Keeping the Peace and Queering the Psalms 

"Mark Gardett's A Necessary Joy is a welcoming, accessible, informed journey in which the trans experience and the yogic experience shine light on each other. At times heartbreaking and often joyful, it is a story about and a guide to authenticity and wisdom." 

-Amy Vaugh, author of From the Vedas to Vinyasa 

"One of the most beautiful and enlightening books I've ever read. Mark's raw, fierce, and tenderly told story dissolves boundaries between gender, body, and soul."

-Mike Taigman, author of Super-Charge Your Stress Management in the Age of COVID-19

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