Living Yoga: Creating a Life Practice [Paperback]

Christy Turlington (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 9, 2002

ccording to a recent Time magazine cover story, 15 million Americans include some form of yoga in their fitness regimes-nearly twice as many as five years ago. This healing art balances the mind with the body, incorporating physical strength with mental fitness to reach a place of deep, lasting peace, harmony, and happiness. Christy Turlington discovered yoga at the age of 18 and has been a serious practitioner for 15 years. Lavishly illustrated and suited for practitioners of all levels, Living Yoga explores the eight tenets of yoga, including the various postures. Christy shows readers how to meditate and how to plan one's home according to vastu principles, and provides the names of yoga schools across the country. The book also includes beautiful photos of Christy in positions from basic to advanced. She discusses how to incorporate yoga into your everyday life-no matter how busy you are-and how yoga has made her own life more peaceful through stressful times and events.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Supermodel Turlington, whose angelic face has graced the pages of Vogue, Elle and other fashion glossies since the 1980s, has lately been lending her image to a more profound pursuit: yoga. The 33-year-old has been practicing yoga for 15 years, has her own yoga clothing line, is a Yoga Journal contributing editor, and-with the publication of this book-becomes the first mainstream celebrity to write a book about yoga and how it's affected her life. There's a lot to digest here, between the historical and technical explanations about yoga and Eastern philosophy and the anecdotal asides from Turlington's life, but the book's clean, Zen-like layout and simple prose help make it accessible. Turlington's aim is to help students who may be overwhelmed by the unlimited information available on yoga and to emphasize reasons to practice that go beyond getting a nice butt. She attempts to understand yoga's universal spiritual appeal, examining the basics of Hinduism (Turlington is a practicing Catholic), and draws parallels between chanting and saying the rosary. She shares a bit of personal information about her modeling career, her father's death from lung cancer and her relationship with her sisters, and includes the obligatory photographs of her scantily clad self doing salamba sirsasana (headstand) and bakasana (crow pose). The combination of serious yoga talk with memoir-like reminiscences make for an engrossing and inspiring overview of yoga.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Elegantly illustrated book." -- Bookpage

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (October 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786868066
• ISBN-13: 978-0786886883
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars informative and user-friendly November 17, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

i have been practicing yoga for over a year now and find it very rewarding and rigorous. lately i've wanted to learn more about the history of yoga and how to integrate it into my life, rather than just as class at the gym, and this book hit the spot. it is very informative and easy to read. it didn't talk over my head or assume that i was going to overhaul my entire life (e.g., change my religion, become a vegetarian, quit my corporate day job). it's the practical guide to yoga. it's also a beautiful book, printed on quality paper with great color photographs. i recommend it to those who want to see how a working woman (or career person) has been able to benefit from yoga... there are some minor downsides though, which might be inevitable with this being an introductory book. ms. turlington speaks much about yoga and how it has helped her through tough times. she also briefly mentions other aspects of yoga, or more accurately indian philosophy, as it relates to arranging your home (the indian equivalent of feng shui, it seems) and beauty/health. these chapters were very cursory, to the point where they aren't helpful other than to let you know that these things exist. it seemed like she was trying to cover all the bases, but ended up overextending and losing some focus.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Living Yoga: An Inspiring Book October 15, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I found Christy Turlington's book to be inspiring and thought provoking.
She seamlessly weaves together the mental, physical, and spiritual
benefits of yoga for the beginning to the advanced student.

She also talks about how the practice of yoga enriches her everyday
life. It was particularly interesting to read about how she encompasses
her Catholic faith with her yoga practice. As a fellow Catholic, I found
this aspect of the book to be thought provoking and fascinating.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about becoming
a yoga student. It provided me with inspiration and gave me a better
understanding of the benefits of yoga beyond the physical.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Introduction January 5, 2003

By Michelle L. Britt

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a newcomer to the world of Yoga and this book was easy to follow and informative. It furthered my interest in Yoga and gave helpful suggestions on how to pursue this interest. Great for beginners!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exploding the air head model myth October 10, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is a serious, touching, well written book. The author, while displaying a keen knowledge of her subject matter, allows the reader access to her personal life that is intimate without being at all uncomfortable. There are. of course, the expected pictures of a gorgeous woman in some, at least to the uninitiated, startling poses. They do not, however, distract the reader from her serious message regarding the value of yoga.
If you want an interesting read that effectively exposes the very real intelligence of, at least, this super-model, you should buy this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A personal book April 3, 2004

By Thomas Bonar

Format:Paperback

Christy shows herself to be a person of great depth. To share something that has changed her life so positively comes across in her book as an act of love. There are more important things in life than the money and fame of being a supermodel. She has shown the world that she knows it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Turlington really does live yoga November 12, 2002

By Toni book maven

Format:Paperback

I was presently suprised to find that this book contains lots of information about the yoga tradation, timeline, information on various dietys. Even about her two pilgrmages to India. Her asana is truly beautiful. My mother was a balerina who taught me yoga as a child. I own a lot of yoga books. This book is as informative as any other book I own on yoga, and it has a fresh modern approach. I highly reccomend this book.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good ideas but too much about her... January 2, 2003

By Samantha

Format:Paperback

I wasn't expecting this to be a painfully in-depth account of Turlington's spiritual awakenings. While it had SOME good points, unless you are an avid Turlington fan you would do better with a different book like The Spirit of Yoga.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Model offers sincere insight into yoga January 17, 2005

By Civee

Format:Paperback

Dont dismiss this book simply because of the author is a famous model. Christy interweaves her personal journey with her yoga practice. I especially appreciated reading about how she incorporated her practice with her faith.She offers a brief synopsis of the main yoga methods. AT times I felt like she cut and paste theology term papers into the text but I appeciate the clarity she gave me on the very confusing differences in yoga from reasoned voice.