Product Description

The author of Yoga Journal's most-read column presents the first holistic guide to yoga

A user-friendly guide illustrated with 240 two-color photographs and illustrations, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit sets forth the tenets of this gentle yet rigorous exercise as no other book has. Integrating the teachings of every tradition, internationally renowned yoga instructor Donna Farhi reveals how yoga enhances the connections between the mind, body, and spirit. She outlines the seven simple movement principles that underlie all human motion and provides exercises to help readers understand how they can achieve all yoga postures. She also discusses the ten ethical precepts that are the foundation of all yoga teachings and explains how to incorporate them into a spiritually and emotionally rewarding inner practice.

At the heart of Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit are more than seventy-five yoga asanas or postures. Each is one pictured and described in detail, and they are arranged into related groups--including standing postures, sitting postures, arm balances, and breathing practices--or easy reference. A selection of yoga practices of varying lengths and levels of difficulty provides challenges and inspiration for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students.

A huge resurgence of interest in yoga is sweeping the country. With its broad scope and holistic approach, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit is the ideal book for today's mainstream audience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14260 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
As the physical practice of yoga has become popular in the West, many of the spiritual aspects have been lost. There is much more to yoga than reducing stress, increasing flexibility, looking great, and remaining youthful. Yoga is an ancient, integrated system designed to educate and unite body, mind, and spirit and teach the practitioner how to be present both on and off the mat.

In Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, Donna Farhi, Yoga Journal columnist, author of The Breathing Book, and internationally recognized yoga teacher, shows yoga students of all levels and traditions how to use yoga as spiritual practice and a vehicle to connect body and mind.

Most of Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit is devoted to the asanas (yoga postures) and the practices of breathing and meditation. More than 240 photographs and line drawings show how to do the various poses and exercises. Postures are accompanied by benefits and effects, cautions, tips, and prenatal suggestions. Numerous inquiries are spread through the text to help the reader explore the body-mind-spirit connection. Farhi also explains what yoga is, summarizes the living principles (wise characteristics and codes for living soulfully), discusses the seven moving principles of yoga, and explores the body's organ systems. If you are ready to take your yoga practice to the next level, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit is an excellent guide to help you connect with everything yoga has to offer. --Ellen Albertson

From Library Journal
At first glance, this book's photos and illustrations, which are just as important as the text in an exercise book, seem dated and bland. But a reading of the text and a closer examination of the illustrations reveal that what makes this yoga text different and worthwhile is the author's commitment to tying yoga's spiritual aspects to its physical components. Farhi (The Breathing Book) discusses the "Ten Living Principles," or the yamas ("wise characteristics") and the niyamas ("codes for living soulfully"), and also considers the importance of the asanas ("postures") in grounding spirituality in the body. However, Farhi does far more than provide descriptions and illustrations of postures. At the beginning of each new section, she has readers move through one or two core poses. She then asks them to focus on the way they feel physically while performing the pose. Using these core poses, she moves on to postures of greater complexity while allowing for different levels of ability. One possible problem for beginners is her use of posture names to describe poses that involve movement from one posture to the next (e.g., the sun salutation or the downward dog). Recommended for public libraries as well as academic libraries where yoga is a part of the curriculum, this may also be a worthwhile purchase for hospital or health sciences libraries.
-Debra Mitts, Glenview P.L., IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A groundbreaking presentation...This is...an offering on how to be radiantly alive and happy..." -- Robert C. Miller, PhD.

"There is a wealth of distilled experience contained within these pages, presented in a clear, friendly manner..." -- Erich Schiffmann, author of Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

Customer Reviews

Best book to learn everything about Yoga!
I had now idea how far my journey was going to go! This book takes me further than I ever imagined!

Enligtening and refreshing way to experience asana/movement
I've read and really enjoyed Donna's other books, but never bothered to read this one because of my almost 10 years of practicing asana and having read tons of asana books I thought that all of the books said the same thing. I recently took one of her week long trainings and practically filled my notebook with all of this new and great information. Later I bought this book and lo and behold most of it is in this book and her Breathing Book with pictures to boot. This was really a turning point for my practice as before I was more focused on getting the "ideal" yoga pose and not going with my bone structure. Also instead of forcing something to happen I learned to go with gravity, the breath and my natural structure so I can have 'effortless movement'. This concept opened me up to lots of other books that explore this in more detail.

One thing that really stuck with me (and what I think will help you understand where she's coming from) was in her introduction:
"Increasingly doing "good" yoga has come to mean having a beautiful body, remaining forever youthful, and being able to show one's adeptness through the seemingly solid evidence of advanced postures. But as we stretch our muscles deeply or strengthen our abdominals, are we coming closer to feeling a deep peacefulness within ourselves and an inner equanimity that can meet the challenges of life in a compassionate and skillful way? Like the botanist who finally breeds the perfect rose only to discover that in the process he has lost the fragrance of the bloom, when we strip yoga to its mechanics, we also loose something essential.
I have been as guilty as any of both practicing and teaching yoga in a way that made the postures and practices more important than the spirit of the person practicing them. My early obsession with perfecting the forms of yoga brought with it a greater and greater sense of unease and dissatisfaction. The realization that I had bought into dictum of a culture obsessed with achievement and the unhappiness wrought by such striving led me to a long period of deep experimentation in my own practice....I have slowly uncovered a more natural way of discovering the essence of the practice through form. The forms then become vehicles for experiencing one's essential nature rather than goals in and of themselves. Then whether you attain any particular posture becomes irrelevant. The shift from dominating, controlling, or ignoring nature to listening and working with nature's wisdom marks the beginning of this change of mind....
I am convinced that there is nothing new about this approach and that it can best be described as a neoclassical revival of the original way of working first explored by yogis centuries ago..."

In regards to the inquiry parts of the book, they are a much better way for you to learn and understand your body instead of being told what this is doing and what you should be feeling. It also helps you build your kinesthetic awareness. In the workshop Donna came up to me and asked where I was feeling pain in my spine while practicing cobra pose. At first I was baffled b/c I hadn't requested help and didn't notice anything off the top. But she sat their patiently so I took a moment to inquire within and found "hmmm I do have this little tiny twinge". That was my aha moment. She didn't rush me, accuse me, or tell me anything. I felt as if she had given my power back. My power to listen and to know the truth within my body. It was truly amazing and I will always recommend her if you are looking for a more awakened style of practicing asana.

Good Book
I've not finished reading this book yet, but it has a lot of good information on yoga. So far I enjoyed it.