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This might be the single best book for any aspiring yogi to read. Offering the reader daily practices, questions for self-inquiry, and inspiring affirmations, Jennie Lee explains the 8 limbs of yoga as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in a modern, relevant context. She gives examples of how each limb can be practiced at work, in relationships, while parenting, or even while at the grocery store -- helping the reader to see that one need not live in solitude in a cave in order to reach the ultimate goal of yoga: self-realization. The Sutras themselves are a sacred text of yoga (I recommend the version translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda), but True Yoga helps the reader to contextualize and integrate the sutras into their daily life.
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If you’ve practiced yoga for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of The Bhagavad Gita -- another sacred text in the yogic tradition. That is a text worth reading in and of itself. If you are reading the Gita without guidance of a teacher, however, it can quickly become overwhelming in its poetic density. This is where An Ordinary Life Transformed comes in. In this text, Rev. Stephanie Rutt breaks down and offers a commentary on each of the slokas (sections) of the Gita, showing the reader how to apply it to modern life. One thing I loved about this book is that it still contains the Gita, so you walk away from it having read the Gita AND having received a scholarly perspective on how to actually apply the message.
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Of all the books on my yoga bookshelf, this is the one I refer to most often. Anodea Judith, both a psychologist and yogi, explains the chakra system in terms of western psychology -- connecting, for example, Erik Erikson’s stages of development to yoga’s chakra system. You’ll find helpful charts, detailed, understandable descriptions, and incredibly relevant real-world examples all throughout this text. I promise that you will walk away from this book understanding chakras, psychology, and people (including yourself) on a new level. This book brought the chakras from the abstract world into the conceptual world for me. A great follow-up read is Judith’s Chakra Yoga which details how the chakras are impacted by asana (postures) in yoga practice.
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