"Yoga Meditations presents a wide variety of mind-body practices for personal use or for teaching others. It is an invaluable resource for people interested in techniques for stress management, self-awareness, spiritual development, health, and well being. It's perfect for teachers, students and helping professionals. Provides a wide variety of mind-body practices, such as: guided relaxation techniques, breathing practices, meditations and guided imagery, affirmations, yoga postures for each chakra, and yoga wisdom for contemplation."--Publisher.
Many of us face daily demands and overwhelming difficulties that cause seemingly uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear. When you feel this way, it's healing to calm yourself and to reclaim your sense of innate goodness and well-being. For centuries, yoga has offered a quiet retreat away from life's pressures and has enabled us to reconnect to our inner wisdom and peace. Regular yoga practice has been proven to calm stress, enhance concentration, and reduce the symptoms of anxiety. This book offers meditations, mindfulness practices, self-inquiry exercises, and yoga poses that soothe anxious feelings and develop mental clarity. Before long, you'll free yourself from the anxiety and fears that hold you back and learn to live with a more open heart and resilient mind. Just as yoga helps you feel more at home in your body, the mental and physical practices in Yoga for Anxiety help you increase your sense of contentment in life.
365 daily reflections offering a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life, from the acclaimed yoga teacher, Rolf Gates who offers "a healthy way to find peace and a sense of coming home, day by day” (USA Today). As more and more people in the West pursue yoga in its various forms, whether at traditional centers, in the high-powered atmosphere of sports clubs, or on their own, they begin to realize that far from being just another exercise routine, yoga is a discipline of the body and the mind. Whether used in the morning to set the tone for the day, during yoga exercise itself, or at the end of the day, during evening reflection, the daily reflections in Meditations from the Mat will support and enhance anyone’s yoga journey.
Take the mindfulness of yoga off the mat and integrate it into every aspect of life with 365 inspirational daily reflections from acclaimed yoga teacher Rolf Gates. Gates draws on twenty years of teaching experience to help readers—from experienced yogis to novices seeking a little tranquility—fundamentally reconsider their relationships with their minds, bodies, and the universe around them through self-reflection. Over the course of seven chapters, he explores Effortlessness, Nonviolence, The Spirit of Practice, Mindfulness, Compassion and Loving-kindness, Equanimity and Joy, and Intention and Being, giving readers the tools they need to effect positive changes in their lives.
Many of us have experienced a traumatic event in our lives, whether in childhood or adulthood. This trauma may be emotional, or it may cause intense physical pain. In some cases, it can cause both. Studies have shown that compassion and mindfulness based interventions can help people suffering from trauma to experience less physical and emotional pain in their daily lives. What’s more, many long-time yoga and meditation teachers have a history of teaching these practices to their clients with successful outcomes. In Yoga for Emotional Trauma, a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher present a yogic approach to emotional trauma by instructing you to apply mindful awareness, breathing, yoga postures, and mantras to their emotional and physical pain. In the book, you’ll learn why yoga is so effective for dealing with emotional trauma. Yoga and mindfulness can transform trauma into joy. It has done so for countless millions. The practices outlined in this book will teach you how to use and adapt the ancient practices and meditations of yoga for your own healing. Drawing upon practices and philosophy from eastern wisdom traditions, and texts such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Bagavad Gita, and the Buddhist Sutras, this book will take you on a journey into wholeness, one that embraces body, mind and spirit. Inside, you will discover the lasting effect that trauma has on physiology and how yoga resets the nervous system. Combining yogic principles, gentle yoga postures, and mindfulness practices, this book filled with sustenance and practical support that will move you along your own healing path.
Deepen and enliven your yoga practice with 30 themes based on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that can inspire on and off the mat. Yoga draws many practitioners because of its physical benefits, but it is often the experience of peace that people return for. Threads of Yoga supports those seeking to learn more about yoga’s deeper spiritual teachings. Each short chapter introduces a foundational yogic theme, such as letting go, the breath, the yamas and the niyamas, and the chakra system. Each theme is accompanied by practices, including meditation, complementary poses, breath work, or quotes to contemplate. It is an ideal guide for both practitioners and teachers who want to connect with the spiritual wisdom of yoga, deepen their personal practice, or develop and support a theme for yoga class.
This book shares the joy of a meditative practice. Meditation is a natural human state of being, and deliberately taking the seat to practice meditation elevates all your better qualities. Yoga is a practice that is meditative; over time, this practice brings you all your hearts desires. This book is the result of meditation and shares the beauty of the practice.
A beautiful colour, illustrated book of authentic Yoga Meditation techniques that encourage the practice of Yoga in its broadest sense – as a vehicle for calming the mind, enhancing awareness and contentment, and developing deep inner peace. Drawing mainly on the tradition of Kriya Yoga – the goal of which is to attune individual consciousness with the Divine, or Universal, Consciousness – yoga and meditation teacher Stephen Sturgess reveals in this book how to progress beyond the supple body to the vital, contented mind. After first explaining the deep value of Yoga Meditation, outlining the Eight Limbs of Yoga (as presented by ancient sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras text) and giving clear, comprehensive explanations of our internal energy system (including kundalini, chakras, nadis, the three bodies and the five sheaths), Stephen then goes on to present a wide range of yoga practices that can be used as a regular holistic health programme. If we were to view the body as a temple, the combination of asana, purification and pranayama practices first cleans the temple windows – building the physical body and mind – while the meditations then shine light into the inner sanctum – lighting up the Inner Self and enabling a deep sense of spirituality and peace. A section at the end is then devoted to helping readers develop their personal practice, including advice on living with increased awareness, how to make yoga meditation a daily reality and a range of specially designed morning and evening routines, from a 15-minute programme up to 1 hour 45. In summary, readers are guided on a practical and nurturing journey towards a sense of enhanced calm, joy, happiness, harmony and personal fulfilment in life, where they will experience their fullest potential for both creative thought and action.
What is a “yoga mind?” And how can it help calm anxiety, heal painful thoughts, soothe stress, and bring a lasting sense of well-being? If you’ve heard of the many health benefits of practicing yoga, but are unsure of the physical demands commonly associated with postures, this book is the perfect answer. In Yoga Mind, Peaceful Mind, two seasoned yoga teachers present gentle meditations to help you overcome anxiety and stress so you can live a more enjoyable life. Furthermore, the book’s emphasis on yoga’s contemplativetradition, rather than postures (or, asanas), makes it perfect for people from all walks of life, including those with physical disabilities. In the book, you’ll find 160 powerful, daily meditations that are filled with thoughtful, touching insights. Each of the meditations provides an inspirational quote, a discussion of teachings and instructions from the yoga tradition, and affirmations to remember and live by every day. If you are ready to overcome anxiety and stress and take back your life, the simple practices in this book will help you achieve true peace of mind.
World-renowned restorative yoga teacher Jillian Pransky came to the practice of yoga to heal herself. For much of her life, she subscribed to a relentless work hard/play hard mentality, burying parts of herself beneath the pursuit of busy-ness and accomplishment. It wasn’t until a devastating personal loss and health crisis thrust her into suffocating anxiety that she stopped racing around. As she began to pause and examine her actions and emotions, she found herself able to unlock deeply seated tension in her mind and body. Since then, Pransky has been devoted to studying and teaching mindfulness practices, deep relaxation, and compassionate listening. In Deep Listening, Pransky presents her signature Calm Body, Clear Mind, Open Heart program―a 10-step journey of self-exploration that she’s taught around the world. Derived from the techniques that healed her, the practice of Deep Listening invites you to pay close attention to your body, mind, and heart. You’re taught how to tune inward and relax into a state of openness, ease, and clarity. This is the new frontier in integrative wellness—mindfulness designed for healing. Pransky doesn’t ask you to “be your best self,” or “do more!” She asks you to “be here” and “do less.” She guides you gently through the stages of Deep Listening, from being present and noticing your tension to welcoming what you discover with softness and compassion. She integrates tools like guided meditations, journaling prompts, and restorative yoga poses to help you regard yourself with kindness and curiosity. Immersing yourself in the practice of Deep Listening will allow you to nurture your own well-being.