Yoga For Americans


Book Description

Originally from Riga, Latvia, Yoga practitioner, author and teacher Indra Devi (born Eugenie Peterson) lived to 102 years! She became fascinated with India at age 15 and set out to India in 1927 to become a disciple of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, after which time she moved to different parts of the world and taught Yoga. She comes from the renowned tradition of Mysore. For thousands of years the culture of Yoga has existed in India, bringing to its practitioners remarkable health and spiritual well-being. In YOGA FOR AMERICANS Indra Devi has brought this ancient art to those who need it most: Americans, victims of a driving, competitive, tension-ridden society which suffers from its own superabundance. Here, in the richest country in the world, an alarming number of people still die from malnutrition and allied diseases; obesity, underactivity, and psychosomatic illness are commonplace; tension-inspired heart attacks are the worst killers of all. Here is an invaluable book, packed with sound, proven advice, including many extras such as an introductory question-and-answer session, lavish illustrations, special diets, and constructive advice for those suffering from arthritis, asthma, and overweight.




American Veda


Book Description

A fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture, this eye-opening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mind-body methods of Yoga have profoundly affected the worldview of millions of Americans and radically altered the religious landscape. What exploded in the 1960s, following the Beatles trip to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, actually began more than two hundred years earlier, when the United States started importing knowledge--as well as tangy spices and colorful fabrics--from Asia. The first translations of Hindu texts found their way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson. From there the ideas spread to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and succeeding generations of receptive Americans, who absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of their lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists such as Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact has been enormous, enlarging our current understanding of the mind and body and dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it accelerated through the decades and eventually moved from the counterculture into our laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbuckses. The insights of India’s sages permeate so much of what we think, believe, and do that they have redefined the meaning of life for millions of Americans—and continue to do so every day. Rich in detail and expansive in scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.”




An American Yoga


Book Description

In 1960, Amrit Desai traveled from India to the United States to study art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. A decade later, he reunited with his family, founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania, and established a spiritual community (Ashram) and Yoga Retreat. The "Yoga Journal" called the Kripalu Center, "The standard bearer for integrity and professionalism in programs and services." In 1994, under a cloud of controversy, Desai was asked to resign as the center's spiritual director.




Yoga for Cancer


Book Description

Using yoga to manage the challenges of cancer and its treatment • Explains how to create a safe home yoga practice that addresses the specific physical needs, risks, and emotions of cancer patients and survivors • Includes 53 yoga poses and 9 practice sequences that use movement and breathing to reduce and manage treatment side effects • Reveals how current research supports the physical and psychological benefits of yoga to aid recovery and reduce risk of recurrence • Written by a cancer survivor and certified yoga teacher For those faced with a cancer diagnosis and the journey of doctor-led surgery and treatments, yoga offers a way to regain control of your body and take an active part in your recovery and long-term health. In this easy-to-follow illustrated guide, yoga teacher and cancer survivor Tari Prinster presents 53 traditional yoga poses that are adapted for all levels of ability and cancer challenges. She then applies the movements and breathwork of these poses to address 10 common side effects and offers 9 practice sequences for varying stages of treatment and recovery. Sharing her own story as well as those of cancer survivors and yoga teachers with whom she has worked, Prinster explores how yoga can be used to strengthen the immune system, rebuild bone density, avoid and manage lymphedema, decrease anxiety, detoxify the body, reduce pain, and help the body repair damage caused by the cancer and conventional treatments. She reveals the research that supports the physical and psychological benefits of yoga as an aid to recovery and in reducing the risk of recurrence. Explaining how yoga must be tailored to each survivor, Prinster gives you the tools to create a safe home yoga practice, one that addresses your abilities, energy level, and overall health goals. Through personal stories, well-illustrated poses, and sample practices for beginners as well as experienced yoga practitioners, Prinster empowers survivors to create their own wellness plan in order to regain their independence and their physical and emotional well-being.




Yoga for All of Us


Book Description

At last, a yoga program anyone can do! An accessible guide to gentle yoga stretches, based on the popular video and PBS television program of the same name. You can enjoy the benefits of yoga – whatever your age, ability, or level of activity, even if you have never been able to participate in traditional yoga classes. This accessible guide to gentle yoga stretches and poses will help ease you into the world of this beneficial exercise. Experienced yoga instructor Peggy Cappy will help you gain energy, flexibility, and focus, through modified poses that will help strengthen and stretch your muscles and bring you peace of mind. "Peggy Cappy makes it clear that you are never 'too old', 'too overweight' or 'too out of shape' to do yoga. Thank you, Peggy for sharing your love of yoga with all of us!" - Suza Francina, yoga teacher and author of The New Yoga for People over 50




Yoga for Everyone


Book Description

Yoga can benefit every body, including yours! Discover how to take advantage of all yoga has to offer with this all-encompassing yoga guide. No matter who you are or what your abilities are, Yoga for Everyone includes a fabulous 50 poses proving something for everyone to love. From plus size yoga and pregnancy yoga, to yoga for the elderly or disabled, you can explore variations and modifications to much-loved yoga poses, from the comfort of your own home. Every exercise utilizes the essential elements of yoga to ensure you can gain all the physical and mental benefits, and will also allow you to perform all 10 sequences, which combine different poses into one singular experience and focus on specific health benefits each pose has on your body. Dive straight in to discover: - A visually illustrated yoga guide showcasing diversity in people and their mixed fitness abilities - 50 yoga exercises with a minimum of 3 modifications for varying body types - 10 sequences that combine the above-mentioned exercise - Expert information in Yoga and how to incorporate these exercises into everyday life For years, books on yoga have asked readers to bend over backward (literally!) to conform to their physical demands. At DK, we believe it’s time to change that! Why not allow for readers to demand that yoga conform to their individual needs instead? This is yoga for real people! Once you familiarise yourself with the yoga exercises that best suit you and your abilities, you’ll begin to notice the benefits of yoga and positive changes they have on your body, whether it’s your enhanced flexibility, your improved posture or your stronger core. What a rewarding experience for readers! Yoga for Everyone aims to teach readers that with a little modification, anyone can practice Yoga, perfect their poses and become stronger and more confident as you go. Whether you want to structure your sun salutation or demand more from your downward dog, this all-encompassing yoga book will be your one-stop guide to achieving perfection with each pose no matter your physical ability, and learn some top tips on yoga anatomy and yoga science along the way. A must-have volume for those who want to take up yoga but don’t know where to begin, or simply those seeking to start a low-impact exercise, Yoga for Everyone can be tailored to your individual fitness needs, so you make the most out of your poses! Why not stretch yourself, literally, this New Year and try something new? Your mind, body and soul will thank you!




Yoga for Transformation


Book Description

Go beyond the physical exercise of yoga with the founder of the American Viniyoga Institute While there is no denying yoga's popularity as a form of physical exercise, the other life-enhancing aspects of this tradition remain obscure to many Westerners. In Yoga for Transformation, Gary Kraftsow introduces techniques that treat not only the physical body but also the emotions, mind, heart, and soul of the practitioner-the places where real transformation can take place. There are breathing techniques to control energy levels, exercises to train and sharpen the intellect, and meditative practices to help increase self-awareness. With more than 350 black and white photographs throughout, this unique and accessible book is dedicated to strengthening the whole self-body, mind, and spirit.




The Subtle Body


Book Description

In The Subtle Body, Stefanie Syman tells the surprising story of yoga's transformation from a centuries-old spiritual discipline to a multibillion-dollar American industry. Yoga's history in America is longer and richer than even its most devoted practitioners realize. It was present in Emerson's New England, and by the turn of the twentieth century it was fashionable among the leisure class. And yet when Americans first learned about yoga, what they learned was that it was a dangerous, alien practice that would corrupt body and soul. A century later, you can find yoga in gyms, malls, and even hospitals, and the arrival of a yoga studio in a neighborhood is a signal of cosmopolitanism. How did it happen? It did so, Stefanie Syman explains, through a succession of charismatic yoga teachers, who risked charges of charlatanism as they promoted yoga in America, and through generations of yoga students, who were deemed unbalanced or even insane for their efforts. The Subtle Body tells the stories of these people, including Henry David Thoreau, Pierre A. Bernard, Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Christopher Isherwood, Sally Kempton, and Indra Devi. From New England, the book moves to New York City and its new suburbs between the wars, to colonial India, to postwar Los Angeles, to Haight-Ashbury in its heyday, and back to New York City post-9/11. In vivid chapters, it takes in celebrities from Gloria Swanson and George Harrison to Christy Turlington and Madonna. And it offers a fresh view of American society, showing how a seemingly arcane and foreign practice is as deeply rooted here as baseball or ballet. This epic account of yoga's rise is absorbing and often inspiring—a major contribution to our understanding of our society.







Yoga for You


Book Description

Orginally published in 1948 as Yoga for Americans, this book was one of the first to be issued in America that provided a program for the practice of the then relatively unknown science of yoga. This new edition is completely revised for the American market--in which yoga currently enjoys an unprecedented popularity--yet retains the honest simplicity that makes Indra Devi one of the great instructors to span two centuries. With simple, easy-to-learn techniques and a down-to-earth approach, the return to print of Yoga for You in English has been long overdue.