Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice [Paperback]

Charlotte Bell (Author), Donna Farhi (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2007

A longtime yoga teacher and Buddhist meditation practitioner, Charlotte Bell describes in passionate detail how she applied the eightfold path of the Yoga Sutras and the Buddha’s heed for mindfulness to her hectic Western life. The path is often rough; she writes of self-doubt and struggles, of trying too hard and discouragement, of learning to accept the life she has, imperfections and all. But with grace and guts, she navigates the eight limbs of yoga, using the Yoga Sutras and insight meditation as her compass. She shows each limb at work in her relationships, music, asana, meditation, and even in writing this book. Her discussion of each limb includes practical ways that readers can bring mindfulness into asana itself, and in a section called “Reflections,” Bell encourages readers to experience even the most ordinary activity as extraordinary, whether it’s washing dishes, making tea, or rolling out their yoga mat.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Rodmell Press; First Edition edition (October 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930485204
• ISBN-13: 978-1930485204
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Basically a yoga workbook for beginning students of the Eight Limbed Path, July 24, 2008

By 

Jill Florio "Reuse, reduce, recycle!" (Verde Valley, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice (Paperback)

I am not clear who the audience for this book is intended to be. This is not an instructional book on asanas, not a memoir, nor a how-to for enlightenment.

My sense is the book is intended to gently introduce deeper yogic philosophies - the Eight Limbs, the idea of mindfulness, the establishment of your own practice. In this sense, the book succeeds.

Starting off each chapter with Charlotte Bell's personal experiences provides an accessible access point for jumping into, say, the Fourth Limb of Pranayama. Sutras are quoted, which Bell supports with her own insights. She breaks down complex concepts in a supportive, understandable manner.

Each chapter then closes with a small series of reflective questions for the reader's personal growth.

The book strikes me, most usefully, as a philosophy course textbook for beginning yoga students.

It's not a relaxing bedside read or a gripping story. It's the kind of book you want to read one chapter from after each yoga class, with a notebook to journal your reflective responses to questions asked.

I could readily see highlighting nuggets of wisdom to help better learn/understand the Eightfold Path, using the text as a reference book. I might pull out a chapter later, and then meditate on that theme in Savasana.

One could also possibly use this as focus for a book club, where readers discuss their own insights and anecdotes, relating them to Bell's experience.

Basically, although I at first thought this was to be a sit-down story, memoir-type book, I quickly realized this a workbook in disguise. Not that there is anything wrong with that! :-) It's just not what I was expecting from the Amazon book blurb.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Open Invitation to Bring Yoga into your Life, November 23, 2007

By 

Yael Calhoun (Sandy, Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice (Paperback)

Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life is an open invitation to bring yoga into your life. Drawing on many years of yoga study,the author presents its core teachings, artfully weaving in personal stories from her own journey. Part memoir,part instruction,the result is a warm and accessible guidebook to be sampled, savored, and shared. Receive the book as a gift, whether you are just beginning yoga or have been on the path for years.
Yael Calhoun, coauthor of Create a Yoga Practice for Kids
Executive Director of GreenTREE Yoga

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yoga into meditation, October 5, 2009

By 

Sacca7 (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice (Paperback)

Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life is about developing clarity of mind through a modern approach to the classic Eight Limbs of Yoga.

Charlotte Bell's book is filled with her own personal stories of depression, relationship difficulties, and the regular challenges of living a wholesome life. She goes deeply into the Eight Limbs of Yoga which includes such topics as: deepening personal integrity, healthy care of the body, breathing disciplines, and centering the mind in meditation.

This book is not really about physical yoga, it's about the mental qualities of peacefulness that are possible through physical yoga as well as everyday life.

This is a great book if you want to bring peace of mind into your life in a real way, and/or learn to meditate.

The foreword by Donna Farhi was less than inspiring and seemed off the mark.