Book picks similar to
Yoga for Transformation: Ancient Teachings and Practices for Healing the Body, Mind, and Heart by Gary Kraftsow
yoga
non-fiction
spirituality
health
Mudras: Yoga in Your Hands
Gertrud Hirschi - 2000
They can be practiced sitting, lying down, standing, or walking, at any time and place. Schooled in the traditional knowledge of this eastern art of healing, well-known Swiss yoga teacher, Gertrud Hirschi, shows how these easy techniques can recharge personal energy reserves and improve quality of life. These mysterious healing gestures can calm the stress, aggravations, and frustrations of everyday life. Readers will learn how to: Apply these simple exercises to prevent illness and support the healing of a great variety of physical and emotional problems.Use mudras to promote spiritual development.Additionally intensify the effect with breathing exercises, a affirmations, visualizations, herbs, nutrition, music, and colors.Also included are several full-body mudras and exercises to enhance any meditation and yoga practice.
Moola Bandha: The Master Key
Buddhananda - 1998
This book looks at all aspects of the practice - physical, mental, pranic, therapeutic, scriptural - and is an important work for serious students of Tantra and Kundalini Yoga.
The Seat of the Soul
Gary Zukav - 1989
Argues that humans are evolving from a species that seeks power based on the perception of the senses to one seeking power based on spiritual values.
Yoga for Healthy Aging: A Guide to Lifelong Well-Being
Baxter Bell - 2017
Everyone would like to age as heathfully as possible and now numerous studies confirm what many yoga preactitioners have known for a long time: yoga practice has a remarkable impact on physical and mental health--and spiritual well-being--as you grow older. Yoga for Healthy Aging is the most accessible and usable guide available on to how yoga can address concerns realted to strength, flexibility, balance, agility, cardiovascular health, brain health, and stress management, among other issues. The authors--both popular and respected yoga teachers (one of whom is a family physician) provide readers with a yoga toolbox for healthy aging that includes poses, breathing practices, meditation, and yoga philosophy. They then offer you a safe, real-world yoga program to suit your particular needs. These short yoga practices were developed in consultation with scientific and medical experts on aging, and allow you to focus on maintaining overall physical health and/or addressing target problem areas, such as digestion, cardiovascular health, or anxiety. The authors conclude with instructions for practicing several different forms of conscious relaxation and meditation, all of which will set you up for a lifetime of emotional and spiritual well-being. This book includes over 200 instructional photos.
Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life On and Off the Yoga Mat
Kimberly Wilson - 2006
The book is divided into two major sections that cover all bases for the style-minded seeker. "On the Mat" shares seven must-have modern-girl yoga sequences, such as "Healing Hip Openers" and "Negativity Releasing Heart Openers,” and explains yoga philosophy in hip chick language. "Off the Mat" showcases nine ways to become more fabulous and balanced by incorporating yogic qualities like introspection, strength, and flexibility into daily life. The nine lifestyle chapters reveal how to turn on-the-mat wear into on-the-town style, how to create soulful surroundings at home and work, mindful money management, finding a passion-filled career, how strategic soiree-throwing creates community, tips for practicing social consciousness, and more. Each chapter is accompanied by helpful "OMwork" to translate these concepts into reality. Abundant illustrations accentuate the text, and a "savvy sources" section encourages further exploration.
Conversations with Yogananda: Stories, Sayings, and Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda
Kriyananda - 2003
Yogananda is one of the world's most widely known and universally respected spiritual masters. His Autobiography of a Yogi has helped stimulate a spiritual awakening in the West and a spiritual renaissance in his native land of India.More than half a century ago, in a hilltop ashram in Los Angeles, California, an American disciple sat at the feet of his Master, faithfully recording his words as his teacher had asked him to do. Paramhansa Yogananda knew this disciple would carry his message to people everywhere.Kriyananda was often present when Yogananda spoke privately with other close disciples; when he received visitors and answered their questions; when he was dictating and discussing his important writings. Yogananda put Kriyananda in charge of the other monks, and gave him advice for their spiritual development. In all these situations, Kriyananda recorded the words and guidance of Yogananda, preserving for the ages wisdom that would otherwise have been lost, and giving us an intimate glimpse of life with Yogananda never before shared by any other student.These Conversations include not only Yogananda's words as he first spoke them, but also the added insight of an intimate disciple who has spent more than 50 years reflecting on and practicing the teachings of Yogananda. Through these Conversations, Yogananda comes alive. Time and space dissolve. We sit at the feet of the Master, listen to his words, receive his wisdom, delight in his humor, and are transformed by his love.
Buddhism for Beginners
Thubten Chodron - 2001
It will be of much benefit to its readers." —The Dalai LamaThis user’s guide to Buddhist basics takes the most commonly asked questions—beginning with “What is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings?”—and provides simple answers in plain English. Thubten Chodron’s responses to the questions that always seem to arise among people approaching Buddhism make this an exceptionally complete and accessible introduction—as well as a manual for living a more peaceful, mindful, and satisfying Life. Buddhism for Beginners is an ideal first book on the subject for anyone, but it’s also a wonderful resource for seasoned students, since the question-and-answer format makes it easy to find just the topic you’re looking for, such as: • What is the goal of the Buddhist path? • What is karma? • If all phenomena are empty, does that mean nothing exists? • How can we deal with fear? • How do I establish a regular meditation practice? • What are the qualities I should look for in a teacher? • What is Buddha-nature? • Why can't we remember our past lives?
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Shunryu Suzuki - 1970
Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it’s all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that’s just the beginning.In the forty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern Zen classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics—from the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality—in a way that is not only remarkably clear, but that also resonates with the joy of insight from the first to the last page. It’s a book to come back to time and time again as an inspiration to practice, and it is now available to a new generation of seekers in this fortieth anniversary edition, with a new afterword by Shunryu Suzuki’s biographer, David Chadwick.
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
Sharon Salzberg - 1995
Our fear of intimacy—both with others and with ourselves—creates feelings of pain and longing. But these feelings can also awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up the spiritual path. In this inspiring book, Sharon Salzberg, one of America's leading spiritual teachers, shows us how the Buddhist path of lovingkindness ( metta in Pali), can help us discover the radiant, joyful heart within each of us. This practice of lovingkindness is revolutionary because it has the power to radically change our lives, helping us create true happiness in ourselves and genuine compassion for others. The Buddha described the nature of such a spiritual path as "the liberation of the heart, which is love." The author draws on simple Buddhist teachings, wisdom stories from various traditions, guided meditation practices, and her own experience from twenty-five years of practice and teaching to illustrate how each one of us can cultivate love, compassion, joy, and equanimity—the four "heavenly abodes" of traditional Buddhism.
The Desire Map
Danielle LaPorte - 2012
Which is valuable. Getting results is what moves your life forward. Except that most goal-setting systems fail to harness the most powerful driver behind any aspiration: your preferred feelings; and they foster an uptight determination that can keep us from the vitality we crave.The Desire Map program is changing all of that. You could call it holistic life-planning. The inner meets the outer. The spirit drives the material.The purpose of The Desire Map is: - Ultimately, to help you remember your light, your true nature, your source. - To show you your heart’s longing — your core desired - feelings. - To help you use your core desired feelings as a guidance system for making choices. - To help you use your desired feelings as a way to access comfort and clarity during painful times. - To help you accentuate the positive aspects of your life, while still honouring, and not invalidating, the negative parts that you want to change. - To help you regard your feelings as road signs to your Soul.So that you can: - Plan your day, your week, your month, your year and… - Feel great, making a lot of awesome things happen in every area your life.
Your Word Is Your Wand: A Sequel to the Game of Life and How to Play It
Florence Scovel Shinn - 1978
Her books are remarkable and revolutionary in her times. They are profound, full of wisdom and have inspired thousands of people for several decades. She taught that life is a game and in order to play it well, one must learn to understand the universal laws that govern it. She showed her students and readers how to win health, prosperity and happiness by mastering the game. By sharing real-life stories, she illustrates how positive attitudes and affirmations invariably succeed in making one a winner in life - able to control life‘s conditions and release abundance through knowledge of spiritual law. Florence Scovel Shinn had the ability to explain her success principles and how they work in an entertaining and easy-to-read style. She can be considered one of last century‘s most popular success teachers and in 1925, Florence decided to publish her first book —The Game of Life and How to Play It“. After unsuccessfully finding a publisher for her work, she published it herself. Her second book, —Your Word is Your Wand“ followed in 1928 and her final book —The Secret Door to Success“ was published in 1940 shortly before her death on October 17, 1940. A fourth book, —The Power of the Spoken Word“ is a compendium of her notes, gathered by one of her students and published posthumously in 1945.
The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
Elaine N. Aron - 1996
In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Elaine Aron, a clinical psychologist, workshop leader, and an HSP herself, shows you how to identify this trait in yourself and make the most of it in everyday situations. Drawing on her many years of research and hundreds of interviews, she shows how you can better understand yourself and your trait to create a fuller, richer life.
Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally
Patti Digh - 2008
He died 37 days later. The timeframe made an impression on her. What emerged was a commitment to ask herself every morning: What would I be doing today if I had only 37 days left to live? The answers changed her life and led to this new kind of book. Part meditation, part how-to guide, part memoir, Life is a Verb is all heart.Within these pages, Digh identifies six core practices to jump-start a meaningful life: Say Yes, Trust Yourself, Slow Down, Be Generous, Speak Up, and Love More. Within this framework she supplies 37 edgy, funny, and literary life stories, each followed by a 'do it now' 10-minute exercise as well as a practice to try for 37 days - and perhaps the rest of your life.
Empowerment Through Reiki: The Path to Personal and Global Transformation
Paula Horan - 1990
the energy that lives in all creation, that is inherent to all living beings and that nourishes them and keeps them alive. This book describes exactly how Reiki energy works, the way it can be used and the effects that can be achieved with its help.
Buddhist Boot Camp
Timber Hawkeye - 2012
Buddhism is all about training the mind, and boot camp is an ideal training method for this generation's short attention span. The chapters in this small book can be read in any order, and are simple and easy to understand. Each story, inspirational quote, and teaching offers mindfulness-enhancing techniques that anyone can relate to. You don't need to be a Buddhist to find the Buddha's teachings motivational. As the Dalai Lama says, "Don't try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are."So whether it's Mother Teresa's acts of charity, Gandhi's perseverance, or your aunt Betty's calm demeanor, as long as you're motivated to be better today than you were yesterday, it doesn't matter who inspires you. Regardless of religion, geographical region, race, ethnicity, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, flexibility, or vulnerability, if you do good you feel good, and if you do bad you feel bad.Buddhism isn't just about meditating. It's about rolling up your sleeves to relieve some of the suffering in the world. If you are ready to be a soldier of peace in the army of love, welcome to Buddhist Boot Camp!