Product Description

This guide to yoga is based on the five principles synthesized by Swami Vishnu-Devananda: exercise; breathing; relaxation; diet; and meditation and thinking. The book offers a lifestyle strategy for health and happiness that anyone of any age or fitness level can practise.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221854 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The London Sivananda Yoga Centre's Yoga: Mind & Body is a comprehensive yet user-friendly guide for anyone interested in starting or expanding a yoga practice. All the essentials are covered, from the Sun Salutation and 12 basic asanas (the system of poses that make up hatha yoga) to relaxation, positive thinking, breathing, purification and meditation techniques. The book contains more than 500 beautiful illustrations demonstrating both basic and advanced poses. The detailed instructions will enable anyone, regardless of age, sex or physical ability, to start practising yoga at home. The physical, mental and pranic (energy) benefits of each pose are included, as well as a discussion of common alignment problems associated with each asana. The authors also give readers a taste of yoga philosophy and the yoga lifestyle, including a section on vegetarianism complete with dozens of recipes to refuel after completing those shoulder stands, forward bends and spinal twists. --Ellen Albertson

Customer Reviews

beautifully presented but a little too advanced for most
This is a very well presented and clearly illustrated yoga book, with all asanas (postures) explained in step by step detail. However, most of the postures and variations are for more advanced yoga practioners - I have been practising yoga for several years and could not even attempt some of the postures shown here! A little more information on relaxation and meditation would have been better, with less emphasis on physical practice. Many people think yoga is all about tying yourself in knots and beginners may have this impression reinforced by this book. If you are a beginner try 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga' - there is also a 'Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation' which is a wonderful introduction. However if you have been practising yoga for some time and want to improve or expand on your physical practice then Yoga Mind and Body is well worth a try - just don't attempt all the postures straight away!

Excellent - A new challenge!
Having started Yoga by learning from a video, I needed to progress. This book enables me to do just this. It starts off showing you the poses (similar to my video) but then provides descriptions of how to progress into more advanced poses from there - hence the challenge!

I also found the 'common mistakes' section for each exercise very helpful since I have no-one who can help me otherwise.

I really liked this book!
This book is great. It was one of the first books I ever bought on Yoga- I opened it and thought 'Wow'!
Yoga looks amazing! I was totally fascinated by all the exciting positions and poses and what practising yoga can do for your body. This book is very well presented, although I must agree with previous reviewers that some of the poses featured are rather advanced and not something that most of us could suddenly leap into! However, it certainly gives you a lot of things to aim for, and is enlightening also- I sat there thinking, can someone's body actually DO that?! Anyway, it spurred me on to start practising some of the easier moves, and I have to say, yoga is not actually difficult at all! It is very gentle, very easy, very relaxing and energising all at the same time! Unlike other fitness regimes where you might slog away for hours in the gym and see very little results- with yoga, you can see and feel the results almost immediately! This book helped kick-start me into something which I think I will be practising for a very long time to come. This book encorporates a good selection of yoga poses, as well as information on the background and types of yoga, plus a section on healthy foods and breathing exercises.

A very good buy!