The Book of Yoga [Hardcover]

The Book of Yoga by Christina Brown is good for insights and revelations about getting the most out of your yoga practice. It has brief but in-depth readings on the philosophy, breath techniques, healing practices within hatha yoga or the yoga where you do asanas/positions. It also has excellent, clear pictures of asanas. The visualizations and healing yoga techniques are also very good.

Beginners who started out yoga as a physical exercise for stress relief and improving health can use this as a handbook to help them better comprehend what yoga is. It will expand the meaning of yoga and help them get more out of their practice.

Intermediate yoga practitioners can get some review and also new insights in this book. Again, quite excellent for those who practice yoga asanas and are really into the form and beauty of it, but now want to get more into the esoteric aspects of yoga practice.

For Yoga Teachers, especially those in Western civilizations, I recommend this book as a tool for words of wisdom, tips, insights to help your students better understand yoga philosophy and to help them get the most of their practice.

One thing, this book is not useful if you want more history on yoga and the many different types of yoga traditions there are. But it certainly gives a background on the yoga philosophy by explaining briefly the 8 Limbs of Yoga.

This is a book written and published in the United Kingdom and thus it has a different and newly enlightening way of interpreting, in english, the meanings of the 8 limbs of Yoga as interpreted in the USA.

In the back of the book are some visualization practices for meditation and some healing practices of yoga. All very good for beginners who want to get explore their practice of yoga further.

There is a chart in the back of the book that suggests a sequence of breath techniques and asanas for various ailments. This is great for teachers who want to customize a private class or for a targeted class. See the bottom of the contents brief for a peek at the chart contents.

Contents:

Part 1 Intro to Yoga

Intro

[History and] Philosophy

Part 2 Practice

Starting the Journey

Yoga Relaxation

Building Awareness

Standing Postures

Forward Bends

Backbends

Twists

Balances

Inversions

Dynamic Yoga

Restorative Yoga

Yoga on a Chair

Structuring Your Practice

Part 3 Pranayama

Pranayama

About Breathing

Part 4 Meditation

Meditation

Mantras and Chanting

Part 5 The Kundalini Path

Chakras

Part 6 Therapeutic Yoga

Therapeutic Yoga

(chart in back gives recommended sequences for practitioners who have: AIDs, Anxiety, Arthritis, Asthma, Back Pain, Cancer, Constipation, Depression, Diabetes, Elderly People, Enlarged Prostate, Fatigue, Fever, Herniated (Slipped) Spinal Disc, Hypertension, Immune Support, Insomnia, Menstrual Disorders, Menstruation, Neck Pain, Obesity, Pregnancy, Stress, Varicose Veins

Index

I have been going through quite a large stack of books covering yoga and I must tell you that this one has been one of the more helpful and informative ones of the lot. I will tell you right now that I am in the category of a complete beginner and really do not have enough data yet to be able to objectively compare this work with the hundreds of other books on the subject. But that being said, hey...you have to start some where. At this time my primary reason for investigating and beginning this practice is for health reasons. It is being intergraded into an overall exercise and diet program. I am getting sort of long in the tooth; need to change my ways, and upon the advice of several physicians and close friends whose advice I respect, have decided to include this practice into my personal regimen.

I must tell you that this book has been most helpful. There is a review already posted here that goes into detail as to the contents of this book so I will refer you to that rather than do the repetitive thing here. This review is spot on and the information found in it is very accurate.

The sections of this work that I have been most interested in are the ones concerning breathing and Part 6, which covers therapeutic yoga. The detailed and clear pictures in this work are very well done and very instructive in nature. The text is quite easy to understand and the author goes to great lengths to describe the benefits of each exercise or position, always giving the logic behind it.

From the format point of view, I did find that certain sections of this work use a very small and light colored font which is a bit difficult for older eyes to read. But hey, that is my problem and that is why I have magnifying glasses available in each and every room of the house where reading is done.

Now make no mistake here...I did read the sections dedicated to meditation and other aspect of this ancient practice and found them to be absolutely fascinating. I also enjoyed the author's explanation of the of the various terms; something I was completely unfamiliar with, to be quite enlightening. I could quite well see myself getting deeper and deeper into this stuff.

All in all this is a VERY helpful book for someone in my situation; someone who has no access to a professional instructor.

If I could give this work more than five stars I would.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

this book is great to carry along on trips. it is small & light enough to fit in any travel bag.

the pictures are vivid in color and gives you an idea what the poses are suppose to be like. the last chapter of the book is a list of therapeutic poses to help those who like the idea of alternative medicine.

i do have one complaint. the print is very, very small and one needs to use a magnifing glass to be able to read it.