This book provides a rigorously researched, critically comparative introduction to yoga. Is This Yoga? Concepts, Histories, and the Complexities of Contemporary Practice recognizes the importance of contemporary understandings of yoga and, at the same time, provides historical context and complexity to modern and pre-modern definitions of yogic ideas and practices. Approaching yoga as a vast web of concepts, traditions, social interests, and embodied practices, it raises questions of knowledge, identity, and power across time and space, including the dynamics of "East" and "West." The text is divided into three main sections: thematic concepts; histories; and topics in modern practice. This accessible guide is essential reading for undergraduate students approaching the topic for the first time, as well as yoga teachers, teacher training programs, casual and devoted practitioners, and interested non-practitioners.

From Women's Health contributor and yoga expert Kathryn Budig-the essential, authoritative guide to yoga, for beginners and beyond. Approximately 16 millions Americans now practice yoga on a regular basis. Devotees can't rave enough about this ancient art of meditation, breathing, and physical postures that calms the mind and slims the body. Unlike fitness fads, yoga is worth the hype. The postures stretch and tone lean muscle mass and sculpt a strong and slender physique-burning up to 400 calories in a 90-minute session. But yoga does something even better. It's proven to reduce the biggest cause of weight gain-stress-which 43% of Americans say makes them overeat. This definitive volume features: - every essential pose to help readers lose weight and transform their bodies - Total Body Yoga: targeted workouts in 15 minutes or less - core-strengthening routines for hotter, more satisfying sex - a healthy, mindful eating plan centered around calming, cleansing foods Covering everything from basic postures to relaxation techniques to avoiding common injuries, The Women's Health Big Book of Yoga is the only guide readers need to achieve their fittest, healthiest, happiest selves.

Are you ready to practice yoga with all the heart and soul that it originally had? Recently a roundtable of America's top yoga teachers agreed that those who fail to understand the true spirit of yoga, using it only for striving, was the greatest challenge faced by the practice today. What is the cost to women using yoga to try and achieve an ideal? What are the benefits of embracing heart-centered yoga and self-acceptance? How can you return yoga to its original spirit?

Yoga helps children learn how to focus, relax, and both self-monitor and self-soothe Good Morning Yoga instills these four skills and more, enabling children to jumpstart the day with energy and excitement-and meet the adventures that come with mindfulness and perspective. Good Night Yoga tells the story of the world retiring for the evening-and a new generation of readers has fallen in love with the relaxing sequences and beautiful pictures that lead them to dreamland. Good Morning Yoga weaves gentle exercises with a heartwarming narrative and wonderful illustrations to empower children to manage the energies that visit throughout the day-from the "fiery volcano" to the "mountain quiet and still. Good Morning Yoga concludes with a visualization for kids to set intentions for the day.

An encyclopedia of yoga practice and practical yoga as well as of the philosophy and background of yoga.

For more than 30 years, Yoga Journal has been helping readers achieve the balance and well-being they seek in their everyday lives. With every issue,Yoga Journal strives to inform and empower readers to make lifestyle choices that are healthy for their bodies and minds. We are dedicated to providing in-depth, thoughtful editorial on topics such as yoga, food, nutrition, fitness, wellness, travel, and fashion and beauty.

For more than 30 years, Yoga Journal has been helping readers achieve the balance and well-being they seek in their everyday lives. With every issue,Yoga Journal strives to inform and empower readers to make lifestyle choices that are healthy for their bodies and minds. We are dedicated to providing in-depth, thoughtful editorial on topics such as yoga, food, nutrition, fitness, wellness, travel, and fashion and beauty.

Truth is not something we have to seek out. It is not something that is absent and far away, requiring great effort to find. Truth is present within you as the Life that is you. In Yoga of Heart, Los Angeles-based yoga instructor Mark Whitwell takes us back to the time when yoga was first developed--to the shamanic past of the Upanishads, when yoga was practiced as a means of acknowledging, enjoying, and participating in the very source of Life. Whitwell explores the deeper tantric dimensions of hatha yoga--how yoga's purpose is to link the mind to the wonder of our own condition. He shows how hatha yoga is participation in life's polarities already in union--through the male surrender to the female principle. Yoga of Heart shows how we can forge that union of polarities within our body: above and below, front and back, left and right, male and female. Yoga of Heart focuses especially on clearing the energy centers and meridians, fostering dynamic health and allowing practitioners to create a deeper intimacy with both their partners and the energetic life forces in the universe.

For more than 30 years, Yoga Journal has been helping readers achieve the balance and well-being they seek in their everyday lives. With every issue,Yoga Journal strives to inform and empower readers to make lifestyle choices that are healthy for their bodies and minds. We are dedicated to providing in-depth, thoughtful editorial on topics such as yoga, food, nutrition, fitness, wellness, travel, and fashion and beauty.