Review: Everyday Yoga Meditation

Everyday Yoga Meditation by Stephen Sturgess
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Watkins Publishing and Stephen Sturgess for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

This is a comprehensive guide to yoga poses, yoga breathing and anything else you would need to complete your yoga practice. Really incredible!! It comes complete with descriptions and illustrations for everything that it discusses. The focus is on Raja Yoga or the yoga of meditation. We get a little theory that is relevant and makes the connection as to why it is important to make this part of every day. Once you understand the philosophy of the importance of quieting your mind and looking inside, the yoga poses make more sense and take on a higher purpose. He covers everything from the eight limbs, chakras, asanas, pranayama, and so much more. There is whole chapter on how to sit! He talks about the positioning of your hands (and other body parts), how to warm up and breaks down the sun salutation. There a couple of sequences that he lays out as well as a cool down. He also gives you the tools and recipes of how to create complete routines on your own. There is also chapters on meditation, chanting and so much more. What I found unique in his book, was the complete explanation of breathing techniques. Having taken yoga for a number of years now, I was a little confused about a certain technique and honestly, his explanation really cleared it up for me. Overall, I understood so much more about my practice and what my teachers have been doing all this time! This is something I will read again and keep on hand. The illustrations are clear and informative. Again, if you are a newbie, you must get into a class or find a teacher, because you can’t just learn yoga from a book. But it sure does help to have it explained in clear diagrams and easy to understand language. I appreciate that you can take what you have learned and put it into practice and build on it all on your own. Really great read, I learned so much.

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