Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life

by Judith Hanson Lasater

Book Overview

If you think that you have to retreat to a cave in the Himalayas to find the enlightenment that yoga promises, think again. In this second edition of Living Your Yoga, Judith Hanson Lasater stretches... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0962713880
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Rodmell Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent read.

I found this book to be a great opening of the mind type of book. The examples were relatable to some degree. More for women then men imo but still good and relevant.

Excellent research, grounded in sound principles and beautiful thoughts

I decided I liked Judith Lasater after reading her articles in Yoga Journal. She explained in one article the pathological process of sciatica nerve pain in very concrete, medical and scientific terms, enabling me to understand it completely and therefore help myself and bring this VERY common problem under control. Yoga Journal also recommended this book; "Living Your Yoga..." as another good read for her so I purchased it, like many of us, wanting to know how to bring this beautiful practice of Yoga that we love sooo much into our everyday lives! I could not put this book down, fellow readers, what I found was sometimes overwhelming, especially since most of us in Western society are taught to think "from the neck up" and not from our hearts. Some of it could only be assimilated by much contemplation, like the statement that all of us humans have our reality defined by our beliefs and practices. Reading the chapter on suffering, that was a tough one, especially since I see so much of it in nursing and it is difficult to cultivate "detachment". In other ways, this book is almost like a workbook, giving practices for the reader to participate in and mantras to chant at the end of each chapter. Then there is the last chapter on love...Well, I wont spoil the surprise but I am sure that no one will be disappointed!

Wonderful book about Yoga (not asana but the other limbs)

A quiet thoughtful book about "the rest of yoga" ... the non physical side that is all to often forgotten. There is alot of meat to the book and it's presented in a non-pretentius way. I have read her book a few times and either pick up something new or allow myself to see something new with each chapter. It's not about the physical (asana) branch of yoga but about working to become a better person. I respectfully disagree with the reviewer that felt the book was more suited to people with children ... read it again without judgement and you may have a very different take. A must own in any yoga library and highly recommended for anyone alive, breathing and thinking!

Making It Real

Here in Manhattan it's not unusual to go to one of the yoga studios that now seem almost as prevalent as McDonald's, only to get overpowered by the stench not of sweat but of ego and one-upsmanship (up-yogiship?). It's like "Any pose you can hold, I can hold better." Worse, I've left class, or home practice, only to wait for the train or bus in a fit of impatience. I've meditated only to find myself procrastinating over doing something that needs to be done--six months ago. In short, I've practiced a lot of hatha yoga and meditation, and benefited from it, but there was no carry over into my life. Which is what it's supposed to be about, not an end in itself. And the Sutra's of Patanjali are nice, poetic semi-haikus but forget about applying them on the A train. Here comes Iyengar veteran Lasater with a book on integrating yoga into everyday life so you don't leave it all on the sticky mat. Every chapter deals with handling different emotional qualities, from developing courage to conquering fear and impatience. Lasater gives examples from her life. It's reassuring to read how an accomplished yogi and teacher struggles with the same issues. And the yogic methods she's found to overcome them. This book is an excellent complement to the standard books on the technique of yoga. Don't let the title fool you. This isn't a soft-headed New Age primer full of platitudes. This is a how-to manual full of practical guidance. So good it should come with a karma-back guarantee.

Simply inspiring!

This book speaks volumes with a quiet simplicity that is the essence of yoga. It is very easy to read and understand, yet tackles many issues we face in our everyday lives. I find that yoga, although it appears easy from the outside, is a complex practice that gently sinks in every day and subtly changes us from the center outward. I feel this book does the same. I intend to refer to it often. Namaste.

Finding the Spiritual in Your Everyday Life

Though she holds a doctorate in East-West psychology, there's nothing academic or abstract about Judith Lasater's approach to "living your yoga." She writes in down-to-earth language we can all understand, her points illustrated with homespun anecdotes drawn from her life as a student and teacher, wife and parent. The book is divided into three parts, that grapple with an ever-widening circle of contexts and issues, from the intrapersonal ("Yoga within Yourself") to the interpersonal ("Yoga and Relationships") to the broadly social ("Yoga in the World"). Each part has seven chapters, with subjects ranging from self-judgment, fear, suffering, impermanence, and greed, to faith, courage, compassion, truth, nonviolence, and love. Each chapter has five sections: an opening quote from either the Yoga Sutra or the Bhagavad Gita, which sets the theme for the chapter as a whole; a pithy essay which expands upon this theme; a simple guided practice that helps us to integrate the theme in our everyday life and so experience its enlightening effects; brief suggestions for further practice; and a list of affirmations, called "mantras for daily living," that keep us centered, compassionate toward our self and others, and committed to our spiritual work. The English philosopher Francis Bacon once wrote, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Living Your Yoga is a feast for the soul that will nourish us again and again with its wisdom.