~ Gravity : Power : Yoga ~

Posts Tagged ‘Books’

What a great collection of stories and responses to the one simple question “What is Yoga?”.  I read this book as part of my teacher training requirement “to do a book report on a book that is not part of the required reading”.  Instead of repeating myself, again  I’d like to include an excerpt from the report I turned in…  The short response is that this is a great collection of stories and information from all over the world of yoga.

“Yoga in America” is an experiment in building the overall view of yoga through a collective response to the simple yet complex question of: “what is yoga”.  

As you read the different answers, it becomes evident that much like each of our own personal journeys, everyone else’s journey is equally unique.  That no matter how you feel about yoga, or how you would answer the question “what is yoga” there are probably a myriad of others out there that would include some or all of your same answers.

But I found myself wondering why I was reading the book and more importantly, why it was worth the time to collect the answers and write the book in the first place.  The more I read the more I realized that I could relate to each and every story in some way.  The various pieces of my personality, my being, could relate to each and every one of the authors at some level.  And it dawned on me, the union of people, the union of struggles, and the union of experiences is what brings us all together and ultimately why we practice yoga.

….  That’s all you get, the rest is for my teacher   But get the book, it’s a great read. 

My current read for teacher training is “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hahn, what a great book. I don’t know if it is just the timing of reading this at the exact same time as I deal with the loss of a friend, or that I’m just ready to open up, but this is a message I really needed right now.

More than just meditating, more than just living the “yogi life”, it’s about learning to live life and enjoy every moment. It talks about focusing on the moment and the task at hand and gives the example of washing dishes… “Wash the dishes to wash the dishes, not to get them done so you can move on”. It seem so simple, but I’ve never done a task to just do the task… well, maybe a few But in all reality, I spend most of my life doing tasks to get them done so I can move on to the next (at the time of this writing I’m thinking about all the things I have to do today and that I need to get done with this article… AH, lesson learned!).

I’ve taken just one thing from his book to use for the next couple weeks, the process of eating.   I am consciously making an effort to only be eating, not stuffing food in my pie hole while I work thru the evenings conversation, etc.   I’ve already noticed an amazing difference in the quality of my mental state, the calmness of my mind, and the process of enjoying food as nourishment and substance to sustain life.

Try it, you’ll like it.  Definitely a great easy read that will force you to focus on the task at hand and help simplify your life.

As I searched for other yoga books to read, I realize there are a lot of people doing the same… So to add my .02 worth… I decided to put up a few that I’ve come to love reading, and re-reading, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

My all time “Top Book recommendation” is: Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

I also have really dug reading: The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice

And I have to include my all time favorite picture book (If you can find an old hard cover copy it is truly a great coffee table book): Yoga (Yoga Journal Books)