“Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life” by Judith Hanson Lasater is the book for bringing Yoga off the mat with you. Lasater has such a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on all things yoga. She breaks each chapter down to principles of Yoga such as courage, fear, suffering, empathy, love, truth, and many more. While she connects each principle to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, there are other spiritual associations as well.
Each chapter makes understanding the principle accessible, connects it to real life situations, and includes suggestions on how to practice it as well as mantras to accompany the practice.
“Perhaps it means that we are, in every moment, to remember the whole, to remember the gift of life, to remember the preciousness of every second. When we do this remembering, something shifts inside us. When we do this remembering, we talk differently, we act differently, and we treat self and others differently.”
What I like about this book, is that you can read it cover to cover, or pick a chapter that resonates with where you are. Each chapter is something that should be taken in slowly. I find myself reading the chapters multiple times. Lasater says that the last chapter on “Worship”(only in 2nd edition) is the best passage she has ever written.
Do yourself a favor and pick up this book, I promise you won’t regret it.
Read this book if:
- You are a Yogi and interested in how to carry the principles off the mat
- You are interested in a more spiritual and compassionate life
Lasater, J. H. (2015). Living your yoga: finding the spiritual in everyday life. Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press.