20 MINUTES TO MASTER ... YOGA

IN THE SAME SERIES

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cheryl Isaacson is an experienced yoga practitioner and teacher. She has written extensively on health, fitness and alternative medicine and is also the author of Yoga Step by Step.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is split into two parts. The first part, First Directions: Yoga, is an original, previously published work from an expert in the field. It’s a comprehensive and insightful introduction to the subject, explaining the ideas and techniques that will allow you to develop a true understanding and practise it every day.

The second part is 20 Minutes to Master Yoga, which you’ll find here. This is your Yoga cheat-sheet – a short and lucid look at the ideas and techniques covered in the first section, which will only take you 20 minutes to read. It’s a powerful and invaluable resource that you’ll return to again and again.

If you want to truly master Yoga – in both the short term and the long term – look no further. The answers are here.

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

In the Same Series

About the Author

About this Book

FIRST DIRECTIONS: YOGA

YOGA

1 What is Yoga?

2 The Origins of Yoga

3 What Can Yoga Do for Me?

4 Finding a Teacher and Class

5 Getting Physical – Doing the Postures

6 Yoga and Meditation

7 Yoga and Diet

8 Yoga for Specific Problems

Resource Guide

20 MINUTES TO MASTER YOGA

1 What is Yoga?

2 Getting Physical – Doing the Postures

Copyright

About the Publisher

YOGA

Yoga is a time-honoured system of balancing mind, body and spirit.

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS YOGA?

NOT JUST KNOTS …

What do you think of when someone mentions yoga? People bending and stretching, balancing and twisting, in the classic poses now familiar to the health scene? Deep relaxation and mind control? Chanting and meditating and staring into candle flames? If so, then you are right on all counts – but you are only seeing part of the whole. The practices that we call ‘yoga’ today are just one small part of what is actually a many-sided, practical, life-enhancing discipline.

Yoga was originally part of the mystical wisdom of Indian philosophy, but today we mostly concentrate on the body postures, or asanas, with perhaps some breath control and a little meditation thrown in. The postures certainly help you to become fit and supple, but they are only one aspect of the complete way of life that yoga can bring.

Yoga also offers:

 practical techniques for living life healthily and holistically, from following the correct diet to deep breathing and body strengthening

 a complete code of ethics for daily life

 simple methods for relaxing and meditating

 postures for a toned, supple, healthy, strong body

 tried and tested ways to find profound personal peace and stability.

Yoga can affect your whole life and there are many different ways of applying it. It is not just for the young and fit, and – most importantly – you can start at any time. Yoga has something for a truly wide range of people, whatever the state of their mind and body.

YOGA’S SPIRITUAL PATH

The desire for spiritual experience has led many to look to the religious systems of the East. Yoga is, at heart, a spiritual path that offers powerful rituals and meditation techniques to help us enter other states of consciousness. People call this many different things: a spiritual sense, a connection with a greater power, a higher consciousness, even God. Whatever form it takes, it seems to be as important to human satisfaction now as it was 3,000 years ago.

Mystics and sages show us that spiritual bliss and extraordinary peace are possible. However, the closest most of us get to this is a flash of feeling ‘at one with the universe’. While this feeling may not last, it does open us up to a different state of being. If you want to achieve some peace of mind, or connect with a more spiritual part of yourself, then this is possible through yoga.

Yoga is the mystical religious philosophy of India.

CREATING BALANCE

Yoga creates a sense of balance – from offering practical advice on following the right diet to allowing you to calm the mind by consciously detaching from the stresses of everyday life. Even though it is thousands of years old, yoga can work wonders in present times.

YOGA’S PHILOSOPHICAL PATH

The ideas behind yoga are very closely linked to Indian philosophy. This is made up of many highly complex ideas, which are so much part of India’s hugely diverse religious tradition that the two are inseparable. There are six main branches of Indian philosophy, and yoga is one of these branches. Yoga represents the mystical tradition, and aims to bring about a union between the individual being and the universal consciousness. In fact, the word ‘yoga’ is most commonly translated as ‘union’.