Amazon.com Review
As the physical practice of yoga has become popular in the West, many of the spiritual aspects have been lost. There is much more to yoga than reducing stress, increasing flexibility, looking great, and remaining youthful. Yoga is an ancient, integrated system designed to educate and unite body, mind, and spirit and teach the practitioner how to be present both on and off the mat.
In Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, Donna Farhi, Yoga Journal columnist, author of The Breathing Book, and internationally recognized yoga teacher, shows yoga students of all levels and traditions how to use yoga as spiritual practice and a vehicle to connect body and mind.
Most of Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit is devoted to the asanas (yoga postures) and the practices of breathing and meditation. More than 240 photographs and line drawings show how to do the various poses and exercises. Postures are accompanied by benefits and effects, cautions, tips, and prenatal suggestions. Numerous inquiries are spread through the text to help the reader explore the body-mind-spirit connection. Farhi also explains what yoga is, summarizes the living principles (wise characteristics and codes for living soulfully), discusses the seven moving principles of yoga, and explores the body's organ systems. If you are ready to take your yoga practice to the next level, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit is an excellent guide to help you connect with everything yoga has to offer. --Ellen Albertson
From Library Journal
At first glance, this book's photos and illustrations, which are just as important as the text in an exercise book, seem dated and bland. But a reading of the text and a closer examination of the illustrations reveal that what makes this yoga text different and worthwhile is the author's commitment to tying yoga's spiritual aspects to its physical components. Farhi (The Breathing Book) discusses the "Ten Living Principles," or the yamas ("wise characteristics") and the niyamas ("codes for living soulfully"), and also considers the importance of the asanas ("postures") in grounding spirituality in the body. However, Farhi does far more than provide descriptions and illustrations of postures. At the beginning of each new section, she has readers move through one or two core poses. She then asks them to focus on the way they feel physically while performing the pose. Using these core poses, she moves on to postures of greater complexity while allowing for different levels of ability. One possible problem for beginners is her use of posture names to describe poses that involve movement from one posture to the next (e.g., the sun salutation or the downward dog). Recommended for public libraries as well as academic libraries where yoga is a part of the curriculum, this may also be a worthwhile purchase for hospital or health sciences libraries.
-Debra Mitts, Glenview P.L., IL Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.