» Books Adventures in Yoga – Notes from a Humble Yogini

Each month on my U Can Yoga website I have been featuring yoga related books that I’ve really enjoyed and want to share with you guys reading out there. For anyone who has missed the titles featured so far, I am including some my previous ‘Books of the Month’ here. I hope you enjoy:

A Life Worth Breathing by Max Strom

An inspiring and deeply insightful read. And you do not need to have ever stepped onto a yoga mat to appreciate this book. Max Strom eloquently writes not only about how to breathe properly (not as obvious as we may think – so many of us breathe incorrectly) and the healing capacity of our breath, he manages to share teachings rooted in yoga, Eastern philosophy and Sufism in a very accessible way. Described as a guidebook for living, I feel Max Strom’s words in A Life Worth Breathing remind us of what we all instinctively know but can so easily forget when feeling ground down by life – of the power we all have to elevate ourselves and silence the inner critic that can stop us in our tracks, of the importance of forgiveness and gratitude, and how breathing and yoga practices can help us on the path to empowerment, fulfilment and living a life where we stay true to ourselves.

Yoga Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery & Loving Your Body by Melanie Klein and Anna Guest-Jelley

“Our intention is to inspire people who have an interest in developing a practice to begin exploring their options, especially those who thought yoga wasn’t for them. We also want current practitioners to begin or expand inquiry into how yoga and body image intersect in their communities.” – Melanie Klein, Yoga Body Image

For all of us who practise yoga this is an essential read.

Body image is something that many of us struggle with at some point in (or even, much of) our lives regardless of our background, gender, appearance or experience. Yoga has the huge capacity to heal, though with the dominant images presented in modern yoga culture, one could be forgiven for thinking that if they don’t fit these images that yoga may not be for them.

In this inspiring collection of personal stories, twenty-five authors share how yoga has impacted their lives. From Vytas Baskauskas who found a profound connection with yoga after a battle with addiction landed him in jail, to Melody Moore, now a clinical psychologist specialising in recovery from eating disorders, who after several years of practice found that through yoga she was gaining emotional freedom, spiritual clarity and body acceptance. In Melody’s essay I was particularly struck by her admission that, “There were moments of poignancy after about a five-year gestation process of what I now can refer to as striving for perfection in the pose.” And in Dianne Bondy’s ‘Confessions of a Fat, Black Yoga Teacher’, I was reminded of some of my own past experiences including one particular class where I was told by the teacher to sit a pose out because I was “a bit big”.

There is value to be gleaned from every single one of the twenty-five essays in the book. I really could go on and on, but then this would become an essay in itself! I am so grateful to Melanie Klein, Anna Guest-Jelley and Everyone who shared their stories. I am grateful for this book.

Yoga Body Image reminds us that yoga truly is for everyone. And this is a book I look forward to returning to again and again.