Are you ready to practice yoga with all the heart and soul that it originally had? Recently a roundtable of America's top yoga teachers agreed that those who fail to understand the true spirit of yoga, using it only for striving, was the greatest challenge faced by the practice today. What is the cost to women using yoga to try and achieve an ideal? What are the benefits of embracing heart-centered yoga and self-acceptance? How can you return yoga to its original spirit?

Inside Out and Upside Down offers a personal journey into the heart of yoga through the eyes of longtime student and teacher Claudia Cummins. This collection of essays - written throughout more than 25 years of practice and study - shares a taste of the many gifts of yoga, and offers clear-minded guidance for anyone seeking health and happiness in body, mind and spirit. Essay topics range from explorations of yoga postures to strategies for starting a meditation practice all way to cultivating loving presence in the world. This rich exploration of ancient wisdom brought to modern life offers insight and inspiration for those who yearn for greater vitality and ease, both on the yoga mat and beyond.

A notebook-style description of the yoga teaching of Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten, in words and pictures.

Teenage sisters Affy and Di look out for each other. Dying to escape their violent life, they move from dreams to betrayal - with devastating results.Inside Out, a Clean Break commission, is the provocative and funny story of how the sisters fight for a better future.

Build an integrated, deeply personal practice to cultivate transformation, self-trust, and awakening with insights and techniques from beloved teacher Sarah Powers. More than just physical poses on a mat, yoga can be a profound path of self-realization. Lit from Within encourages readers to pursue yoga in its fullness, examining conscious and unconscious habits, connecting to our inner landscapes, and freeing us to relate to ourselves and our world with a sacred outlook. Sarah Powers helps readers relate to five levels of our human experience--physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and interpersonal. Each section offers an opportunity for self-inquiry and practices to fuel our growth, including yin yoga, meditation, emotional intelligence exercises like creating connection with an inner critic, and interpersonal dynamics drawn from the Internal Family Systems approach. Learning to recognize, reflect on, and at times re-direct these different levels of experience adds a vital dimension to the practice. The book draws on Sarah's many years of practice and teaching, influenced by the rich tapestries of yin yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, and psychology. In these challenging times, Lit from Within offers a path to health, wholeness, and connection--from the inside out.

Christina Sell knows the difference between a surface buzz in the yoga business (for a better, more beautiful “ME”), and its roots as an ancient practice of ethical life and spiritual transformation. With over twenty-five years “on the mat,” her voice of courage and sanity has never stopped urging yoga students and teachers alike to take a deeper dive: to confront media hype about body-image and the promise of any quick-fix in favor of a lifelong commitment to wholeness and freedom. This book is both an epitome of that call, and a practical guide to ongoing self-discovery. As the author of two previous books: Yoga From the Inside Out (2003) and My Body Is a Temple (2013), Christina Sell holds an international reputation as a gifted and compassionate teacher and trainer of yoga. As a former gymnast who dealt with eating disorders and addictions in her early years, Christina knows how to redirect thoughts and habits of negative body image toward spiritual practice and inner-awakening. A Deeper Yoga is for any practitioner or teacher who wants tools and support in finding a loving, expanded relationship with his or her body, mind, emotions and spirit. Her book is for anyone on the path of yoga. Newer yoga students will benefit from the compassionate explanations of the inner journey and find direction in building a stronger foundation of practice. Experienced yoga practitioners will find a refreshing and honest exploration of both the hype and the heart of the work. Teachers of all traditions will benefit from the ongoing reminder that yoga is not only for the body, but for transformation of consciousness and spiritual unfolding. This is a book for the long haul! A Deeper Yoga is uniquely aimed at practitioners who initially found help from yoga, but who are now experiencing impatience, discouragement or even disillusionment. It leads the reader to yoga’s more esoteric teachings, using language without jargon or unnecessary details. The tone is compassionate, yet strong and authoritative?inviting us to empower our own deeper knowing, yet without watering down the traditional teachings. Topics of body image, self-hatred, eating disorders, addiction and emotional imbalance are considered throughout. Christina skillfully dismantles the illusions and early conditionings that lead to unrealistic norms of perfection and empower a media-driven standard of beauty. A Deeper Yoga offers an alternative view of genuine beauty.