Walking Yoga: Incorporate Yoga Principles into Dynamic Walking Routines for Physical Health, Mental Peace, and Spiritual Enrichment [Paperback]

Ila Sarley (Author), Garrett Sarley (Draft Writer)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2002

Improve your health, vitality, relationships, and self-awareness with this stimulating new exercise program

For centuries, Westerners and Easterners alike have embraced the discipline of yoga as a way to physical health and spiritual fulfillment. More recently, fitness experts everywhere have recognized walking as one of the most beneficial (and least injurious) aerobic exercises. Now Ila and Garrett Sarley teach you how to combine both activities for a routine that will rejuvenate your spirit and calm your mind, while improving your cardiovascular system.

You'll learn the basics of yoga -- the principles, postures, and breathing techniques -- and how to apply them to dynamic walking routines -- transforming a simple, natural activity into a centering, strengthening, and integrating experience. You'll also be taught:

- The five types of walking yoga

- Hatha yoga -- to stretch and strengthen the body

- Mantras (chants) to center and calm the spirit

- Chakra visualization to strengthen your body's seven centers of power

- An approach to exercise that will ensure lifelong regular practice

Filled with tips, techniques, and illustrative examples taken from the authors' own lives, "Walking Yoga" will show you how to live in the moment -- and how to get the most out of each moment you live.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Yoga and walking are two of the most popular fitness activities, and Walking Yoga combines them. Much of the book focuses on the principles of yoga, descriptions of poses to practice on the mat (not on the trail), and anecdotes about people whose lives have been enriched by walking yoga. About 44 pages (out of 197) describe walking routines that incorporate yoga. The routines start with a yoga warm-up (postures and breathing), and then move on to walking with awareness, rhythm, and integrated breathing. The five routines are as follows: full-on walking (aerobic), walking alone (thinking and sorting out), walking with loved ones (intimacy and connection), contemplative walking (slow, relaxed, inward-focused), and walking with gratitude (sensing and appreciating nature). Each is described in detail.

"The synthesis of walking and yoga happens in the moment when you are fully present: when you walk in time with the rhythm of the breath and your sensory awareness is so acute that you actually tingle with the electricity of life," write authors Ila and Garrett Sarley of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. The book includes a variety of clearly described and illustrated poses that you'll need to practice, with special instructions for beginners. --Joan Price

Review

A beautifully offered and ordered transmission of the means to bring vigor and heart to every part of the body. -- Stephan Levine, author of Who Dies and A Year to Live

This book is helpful and practical. A must for anyone committed to personal transformation. -- Baron Baptiste, author of Journey into Power

Walking Yoga answers every question about technique in a user-friendly way. -- Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder, Omega Institute, author of The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Atria (May 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743421973
• ISBN-13: 978-0743421973
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Walking

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walk This Way, May 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Walking Yoga: Incorporate Yoga Principles into Dynamic Walking Routines for Physical Health, Mental Peace, and Spiritual Enrichment (Paperback)

It's no secret that yoga has taken America by storm. But with yoga having been around for 5,000 years you have to wonder: Why yoga and why now? This book helps with the answer. Not because it offers an encyclopedic explanation. Rather, it shows us how yoga is a powerful antidote to the driven, unrelenting, stressful way we live our lives--and which just may be killing us at the same time. It is as if yoga has arrived on the scene to help us save us from ourselves. What I find refreshing and helpful about this book--being someone who knows very little about yoga and practices it even less--is that it combines both walking and yoga to make it something that can be done every day, every time you walk. Walking yoga is now about tying yourself up in knots and trying to walk. Walking yoga is, fundamentally, practicing the essence of yoga--being in the moment--while you walk. I learned breathing exercises to use while I walk (which I do a lot of) and got suggestions about what to think about--or what not think about--while walking. All kinds of walking exercises are described, including ways to walk with family members and friends, as well as the benefits of walking alone from time to time. Even if you're in a rotten mood, the Sarleys have walking yoga tips that can help you see what your rotten mood is all about and how you might be able to get out of it before you, say, start cooking dinner, yelling at the kids, or barking at your spouse. Yoga itself--the poses--is an integral part of this practice, as something to do before or after your walk, and the book contains helpful photos of the Sarleys themselves in several easy poses, with instructions on how to do them. The Sarley's approach to yoga is that it is not just a physical exercise; it also gets you to really think about your life, puts you in touch with what moves you--both physically and emotionally--and helps you feel good. To me, that alone is worth the price of admission. They also have written several anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book about how walking yoga has improved their own lives and the lives of people they know and have taught. If you hate gyms and pumping iron, think you never have time to exercise, and feel stiff, uncomfortable, and somehow unfulfilled with the way your life is going, this book--and the practices it teaches--is a small start to making some big changes.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Yoga Off the Mat, June 20, 2002

By 

"nicknameelena" (Red Hook, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walking Yoga: Incorporate Yoga Principles into Dynamic Walking Routines for Physical Health, Mental Peace, and Spiritual Enrichment (Paperback)

This book is an excellent guide if you are ready to take your yoga off the mat, both physically and psychologically. It outlines practical and realistic directions for doing this with clearly written descriptions of poses and stretches and well defined and reasonable plans and programs. It also offers inspiring insights into the deeper (nonphysical) benefits to be found in pursuing walking yoga as a path for growth. Thank you to the authors for illuminating a new trail on my life journey.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take a Moment for Yourself, August 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Walking Yoga: Incorporate Yoga Principles into Dynamic Walking Routines for Physical Health, Mental Peace, and Spiritual Enrichment (Paperback)

From the moment I picked up the book Yoga and Walking, I said to myself "I can do this!" As a women with a loving partner, four children, a full time job and all that goes with them, I have little time for myself. I have been searching for a way to incorporate fitness into my life for years. How could I do this between baseball games, homework and karate lessons, etc.? I have never tried yoga, let alone take the time to go for a walk. In order to tend to all of the details that I need to attend to, I sacrifice my time. When I began reading Yoga and Walking, I immediately felt the love and peace throughout the text. The loving guidance from the Sarleys, as they took the time to describe yoga, its postures and breath work in detail, is evident within each page. I journeyed with them on their walks, I breathed with them. Then I realized, I was reading a book about yoga, without feeling that it was completely foreign. I never felt that this was out of my league, or that I should already know all of the "yoga language". I found that this book had a human quality to it unlike any other; a sense of peace and tranquility. With the words from the Sarley's, "tell yourself that you only have to walk for five minutes", I began on my path to peace and serenity. Now I take a moment for myself. I have a sense of how to bring balance to my busy lifestyle. I take a few moments to breathe and I go for a yoga-walk. It clears my mind and gives me balance. This book is a gentle reminder that we all need to take a moment for ourselves in this busy world. This is not a "how to" book, but a book that brings forth a relaxed, unconditional path to personal, spiritual and emotional growth, one step at a time.