Yoga Books - Where to Start

Anastasia Stalchinskaya

Hatha Yoga Teacher

When a person gets acquainted with yoga, a whole new world opens up to him, in which at first nothing is clear. The question arises, what should I read to understand the topic? I offer several books that will be useful and will clarify many things. There will be no ancient texts and complex matters, but there will be practical and clear instructions for action that will help to understand the teacher in the studio and will be a good help for home practice.

1. Yoga of a Business Person - Igor Poltavtsev

This is an old Soviet-era book that I found on my mother's shelf many years ago, and have been referring to it regularly ever since. Today, it will probably be difficult to get hold of it in paper form, but you can easily find it online on the author's website. It is quite interesting to know that yoga existed in the USSR and how. The author practiced and taught yoga in Minsk for a long time, and was one of the first to promote its development in the city. The book ""Yoga for a Business Person"" is a detailed guide with recommendations for people in our climate. It covers the main goals of yoga, cleansing practices, nutrition (with recipes!), asanas, and more.

Training rules

Conduct the training in a quiet place. Sharp knocking, noise, the appearance of strangers are unfavorable factors. Over time, meditation becomes possible in any conditions:
It is best to do meditation in the morning, between 4 and 8 o’clock, in the evening between 7 and 8 p.m., and immediately before going to bed.

Train on an empty stomach or no earlier than an hour after eating. If you are very physically tired, emotionally overexcited or ill, it is better to refrain from meditation.

Create a ritual of study (interior, lighting, music, aroma, clothing).

Exercise 3-5 times a week for 15 to 40 minutes.

Excessive variety of meditation topics is not always beneficial. It is better to limit yourself to a small number of them, but update them periodically.

Assess the effect of meditations, choosing the ones that best suit your psychological makeup and temperament. The criteria are freshness, joy, and calm.

2. How Yoga Works: The Philosophy of Physical and Spiritual Self-Improvement - Michael Roach

A modern story about how yoga ""saves"" a person and everyone around him. The main character - a girl who studied yoga with a teacher - gets into a difficult life situation, but believes in the yoga method and does not refuse to follow this path. By her example, she makes the lives of people around her better and happier.

This is a very light, fascinating fiction book in which the author conveys the main ideas of yoga philosophy in his own words. It does not contain instructions on how to do asanas, but there are much more important topics - the value of a teacher, modesty, helping others.

– And what about everything else? – the captain continued to insist. – You are supposed to be treating me! And I get up in the morning and can barely walk to the station, hobbling like a duck, because everything hurts!

I laughed again. Just think, I also pestered the Teacher with the same nonsense, I even said almost the same thing!

– You hurt everything, – I said, – because you are waking up muscles that have been asleep for a long time, but if you do not wake them up, your back will never go away. You can only keep your back straight thanks to your muscles. When you are slightly aching, I want you to remember something else that the Guru says in the Little Book of Yoga. It says:

Learn to maintain a balance of feelings,
When you experience pleasure or pain.
I.33D

– The point of these words is that there will be days when everything will hurt, and there will be days when you suddenly make a breakthrough and feel great, that’s life, that’s how everything in the world works. You must try not to despair, but also not to rejoice excessively, because for now everything will go exactly like this – up and down. Don’t let yourself be distracted from the goal. You have a goal – two people for whom you are responsible.