The Complete Illustrated Guide to Yoga: A Practical Approach to Achieving Optimum Health for Mind, Body, and Spirit [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Howard Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Written by a world-renowned yoga expert, the book offers a complete program for beginners as well as current practitioners. With specially-commissioned step-by-step photographs.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Howard Kent is founder and director of the Yoga for Health organization, which has a residential center in England, plus branches and representatives in 23 countries around the world. His book, 'Yoga for Health', supported a TV series, which was broadcast in 20 countries and sold over one million copies. His other books include 'Breathe Better, Feel Better' and 'Yoga Made Easy: A Personal Yoga Program That Will Transform Your Daily Life'.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Yoga and the Body: The overwhelming dominance of modern scientific ideas and medical advances makes us forget that human existence is totally integrated with the life force, or prana. This is the catalyst that drives the body to function as a purposive, cooperative whole, one that is so sophisticated that we have not yet begun to understand it. Yoga works holistically with body and mind to reinforce the prana. Through breathing, stretching and exercise, relaxation , and meditation yoga stimulates the immune system and the other maintenance systems, and tries to create a state of harmony between body, mind, and the external world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Element Books Ltd. (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862044554
• ISBN-13: 978-1862044555
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,571,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Medicine for my Mind and Body, October 28, 2000

By 

Stewart A. Cole (Terre Haute, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Yoga: A Practical Approach to Achieving Optimum Health for Mind, Body, and Spirit (Paperback)

I checked this book out of my local library out of curiosity and because I had been having aches and pains. I felt there must be something more I can do than take aspirin all the time. I started reading this book and doing some of the exercises and immediately began to feel better. I decided to purchase this book from Amazon so I would always have it as a reference. The simplicity and illustrations in the book are well received. I recommend Mr. Kent's book to anyone who wants to get a handle on their health, spirit and mind.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reference for beginners, September 27, 2011

By 

Adam R. Chawansky "IcyHotStunta" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Yoga: A Practical Approach to Achieving Optimum Health for Mind, Body, and Spirit (Paperback)

I checked out The Complete Illustrated Guide to Yoga from the main library. This book by Howard Kent would be a good supplement to a book that is heavy on yoga routines but slim on history and theory of yoga. As I read through I found it to be full of interesting information on the origins of yoga, notable yogis, and different schools of yoga such as Hatha, Raja, Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, and Mantra. Then Kent presented what felt like a lengthy sales pitch for why yoga is sweet: thirty pages or so extolling the virtues of proper breathing, meditation, flexibility, focused energy, and so on. Not that it wasn't interesting, but mainly I think that people will either be sold or not after ten or fifteen pages. Then there was a brief section showing how to perform different poses and, of course, the obligatory sun salute. I had hoped for more sequences, but alas.

I found this book enjoyable, as it alternated between passive reading and exercises one could stop and perform to keep things interesting. I especially enjoyed the pictures of the middle-aged woman in purple spandex. She had this calm confident look that made me feel like she was well on her way to enlightenment.

This book would be an excellent introduction to yoga for the thinking person: someone who wants to know more than just how to contort his body and call that yoga. It has a significant amount of material focused on proper yogic breathing and on how to retrain the breath. For that virtue alone I think it could be a recommended read. On the other hand, yoga is something that I don't think should be learned solely from a book when competent yoga teachers are available.