Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Judith Hanson Lasater (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

If you think that you have to escape to a cave in the Himalayas to find the enlightenment that yoga promises, think again. In Living Your Yoga, Judith Lasater stretches the meaning of yoga beyond its familiar poses and breathing techniques to include the events of daily life—all of them—as practice. Using the time-honored wisdom of the Yoga Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita to steer the course, the author serves up off-the-mat practices to guide you in deepening your relationships with yourself, your family and friends, and the world around you. Inspiring and practical, she blends her heartfelt knowledge of an ancient tradition with her life experiences as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, and yoga practitioner and teacher. The result is a new yoga that beckons you to find the spiritual in everyday life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . a book well worth keeping by your reading chair for inspiration and thoughtful contemplation." -- Yoga International, June-July 2000

". . . the real value in this book stems from the fact that its author is a yoga student . . ." -- Yoga Journal, January-February 2000

"With humorous and endearing anecdotes . . . , Judith shares openly how she deals with the everday situations we all face." -- Yoga Chicago, December 2000

From the Inside Flap

"In this easy-to-read, inspiring book, Judith Lasater generously shares delightfully funny and poignant stories from her very American life, to show how we all can use the simple problems of daily living as a springboard for spiritual practice. Reading Living Your Yoga is like moving in with Lasater and her family for awhile. I enjoyed my visit immensely. She reminds us that yoga practice is primarily about mindfulness and is a twenty-four-hour-a-day activity. Take this book to bed, every night for a couple of months. Open it anywhere. Read a few pages. Reflect. Relax. Breathe. Smile. And have a good night1s sleep." --Beryl Bender Birch, author of Power Yoga

"Judith Lasater's new book is a down-to-earth discussion of how we can use the age-old wisdom of yoga in order to reconnect with the sacred in everyday life." --Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., Founder-Director of the Yoga Research and Education Center and author of The Yoga Tradition

"Yes! Living Your Yoga is what it1s all about. Here is a clear and friendly book that will help anyone embody the wisdom of yoga by consciously bringing it into daily life. The exercises are fun. They can help you learn how to do yoga all the time--now and now and now--when you are in the yoga room and when you are not. Take this book to heart." --Erich Schiffmann, author of Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

"In her heartfelt and gently humorous manner, Judith Lasater shares her profound understanding of ancient yoga teachings, and translates the Yoga Sutra and Bhagavad Gita into a simple prescription for daily living. Whether you're a yoga student, yoga teacher, or yoga scholar, you'll be informed and inspired by Living Your Yoga." --Kathryn Arnold, editor in chief of Yoga Journal

"In this delightful and practical book on yoga philosophy, Judith Lasater presents timeless wisdom with clarity and insight. She is a well-seasoned yogini, who writes from personal experience on how to use the events of daily life as yoga poses for the mind and the heart." --Patricia Walden, featured in Yoga Journal's Yoga Practice for Beginners

"Judith Lasater explains how her practice has helped her to sort through life's tangles, clarify her values, and renew her commitment to her ideals. She bares her soul so that we can see our own." --Suza Francina, author of The New Yoga for People Over 50

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Rodmell Press (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962713880
• ISBN-13: 978-0962713880
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.4 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Eastern Religions & Sacred Texts
  • #78 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Yoga

More About the Author

Judith Lasater has taught yoga since 1971. She holds a doctorate in East-West psychology and is a physical therapist. Dr. Lasater is the president of the California Yoga Teachers Association, and serves on the advisory boards of Yoga Journal and the Yoga Research and Education Center.

Her yoga training includes study with B.K.S. Iyengar in India and the United States. She teaches ongoing yoga classes and trains yoga teachers in kinesiology, yoga therapeutics, and the Yoga Sutra at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. In addition, she leads workshops and retreats throughout the United States and abroad.

Dr. Lasater writes extensively about yoga. Her feature articles, columns, and essays appear in numerous books, magazines, and anthologies. She is the author of Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times (Rodmell Press), the first book devoted to the supported yoga poses and breathing techniques called restorative yoga.

Judith Lasater lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 129 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Making It Real May 21, 2003

By louienapoli

Format:Paperback

Here in Manhattan it's not unusual to go to one of the yoga studios that now seem almost as prevalent as McDonald's, only to get overpowered by the stench not of sweat but of ego and one-upsmanship (up-yogiship?). It's like "Any pose you can hold, I can hold better." Worse, I've left class, or home practice, only to wait for the train or bus in a fit of impatience. I've meditated only to find myself procrastinating over doing something that needs to be done--six months ago. In short, I've practiced a lot of hatha yoga and meditation, and benefited from it, but there was no carry over into my life. Which is what it's supposed to be about, not an end in itself. And the Sutra's of Patanjali are nice, poetic semi-haikus but forget about applying them on the A train. Here comes Iyengar veteran Lasater with a book on integrating yoga into everyday life so you don't leave it all on the sticky mat. Every chapter deals with handling different emotional qualities, from developing courage to conquering fear and impatience. Lasater gives examples from her life. It's reassuring to read how an accomplished yogi and teacher struggles with the same issues. And the yogic methods she's found to overcome them. This book is an excellent complement to the standard books on the technique of yoga. Don't let the title fool you. This isn't a soft-headed New Age primer full of platitudes. This is a how-to manual full of practical guidance. So good it should come with a karma-back guarantee.

161 of 167 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding the Spiritual in Your Everyday Life January 27, 2000

By Richard Rosen, deputy director, Yoga Research and Education Center

Format:Paperback

Though she holds a doctorate in East-West psychology, there's nothing academic or abstract about Judith Lasater's approach to "living your yoga." She writes in down-to-earth language we can all understand, her points illustrated with homespun anecdotes drawn from her life as a student and teacher, wife and parent. The book is divided into three parts, that grapple with an ever-widening circle of contexts and issues, from the intrapersonal ("Yoga within Yourself") to the interpersonal ("Yoga and Relationships") to the broadly social ("Yoga in the World"). Each part has seven chapters, with subjects ranging from self-judgment, fear, suffering, impermanence, and greed, to faith, courage, compassion, truth, nonviolence, and love. Each chapter has five sections: an opening quote from either the Yoga Sutra or the Bhagavad Gita, which sets the theme for the chapter as a whole; a pithy essay which expands upon this theme; a simple guided practice that helps us to integrate the theme in our everyday life and so experience its enlightening effects; brief suggestions for further practice; and a list of affirmations, called "mantras for daily living," that keep us centered, compassionate toward our self and others, and committed to our spiritual work. The English philosopher Francis Bacon once wrote, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Living Your Yoga is a feast for the soul that will nourish us again and again with its wisdom.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply inspiring! August 31, 2000

By L. Furbush

Format:Paperback

This book speaks volumes with a quiet simplicity that is the essence of yoga. It is very easy to read and understand, yet tackles many issues we face in our everyday lives. I find that yoga, although it appears easy from the outside, is a complex practice that gently sinks in every day and subtly changes us from the center outward. I feel this book does the same. I intend to refer to it often. Namaste.