Anyone who knows me, knows I am a huge book lover. I love the smell of books and I could easily drown myself in a bookstore for a few hours soaking everything up and searching for a new gem to dive in. I must also confess I tend to underline my favorite parts with pencil and tend to reread books from time to time. I truly treasure them and there have been a lot of them to accompany me on my life’s journey. Today I have picked a few books I truly love for their insights, inspiration and wisdom to share with you. Although limiting myself wasn’t an easy task I was able to control myself to share 6 of my favorite books on yoga. Hope you will find the same enjoyment out of these as I still do. Happy reading to you!

The Mirror of Yoga, Awakening the intelligence of Body and Mind by Richard Freeman

“Yoga is freedom. It is freedom from fear of not knowing who we are, from presenting a face to the world that is not truly representative of who we feel ourselves to be, and from pretending to believe in things that we do not really know to be true. This is the liberation we find in yoga as we return to the present moment: to our natural mind and to a state of complete happiness.” – Richard Freeman

There are a lot of books written about yoga philosophy, and I must say this is a real gem. Richard Freeman is a well known American Ashtanga Yogi, but he hasn’t written this book simply from an Ashtanga Yogi kind of view. This is filled with amazing knowledge, it is obvious he knows what he is talking about and there is so much wisdom to be gained from this book. For the beginning Yogi it can be a little intimidating, but non the less a real recommendation for diving in the true meaning of yoga and emerge in the philosophy of yoga, supporting and enhancing your physical practice.

Wanderlust: A Modern Yogi’s Guide to Discovering Your Best Self by Jeff Krasno 

“The wave is born, and all it sees are other waves and feels these other waves are separate. But things are not as they seem. The wave is simply the ocean in specific expression. Once the life of the wave is over, it goes back to being the ocean. It was always the ocean.” – Jeff Krasno

This one is truly a beautiful coffee table book as well as a book to dive in for massive inspiration. It touches everything and can transform your views of perhaps having only a physical practice of yoga into a full blown lifestyle, touching on the beauty and importance of living an engaged life. Although every part is a contribution of a different teacher it is really well put together as one whole experience.

 Do Your Om Thing by Rebecca Pacheco

“Think about the last time you were lost. Not emotionally, but geographically. Maybe you were driving or walking in a foreign city or another part of your town, attempting to read a street sign, looking for the number of a building, or searching for a house. You needed to focus, so you turned down the music, got off the phone, and squinted your eyes a little to sharpen your sight. You honed your attention toward one, crucial task: becoming un-lost. This is dharana, or cultivating the skill of concentration.” – Rebecca Pacheco

Rebecca easily translates yoga philosophy to our modern day to day life with great humor, bringing awareness to the not just physical realm of yoga but connection it with mental en spiritual liberation.

Awakening Shakti, The Transformative Powers of the Goddesses of Yoga by Sally Kempton 

“For women especially, tuning into the goddesses is a way of homing in on aspects of our own life-energy that we may never have understood or owned. Celebrating the goddesses has the potential not only to tune us to our own sacred capacities, but also to help us work with the hidden and secret forces at play in our lives. When we can do that, we can literally harness these forces for our own transformation.” – Sally Kempton

I absolutely adore this book. Sally has an amazing magical way to translate Indian Goddesses into archetypes and energy we as Western people can relate to without being Hindus or having a religious taste. She explains vividly how we can call upon these different shapes of Shakti to harness transformation in our life.

Yoga: Fascia, Anatomy and Movement by Joanne Avison

 

Perhaps we were not just born to run, or born to walk. Could it be that we were born to dance? – Joanne Avison

This book is a must have for every teacher and avant yogic practitioner, giving a very detailed explanation of this mystical connective tissue called fascia. It will firm your knowledge about the anatomy of the body and will give you insights to use as you convey the abilities of movement, protecting soft tissue and decreasing injury in the long term in your practice and teachings.

Yoni Shakti,  A Woman’s Guide to Power and Freedom through Yoga and Tantra by Uma Dinsmore Tuli 

Yoni Shakti is an integrated exploration of all these life cycles. It’s about how we can live our lives in freedom as we encounter the wisdom of each of these cycles through yoga and tantra. – Uma Dinsmore Tuli

I have grown up into a society as many alike where male dominance was prevailing, even though I was born long after feminism was in the uprise we still currently live in a male dominant world, where female energy is not celebrated and honored in it’s full sense and potential. This radical and comprehensive work is a breath of fresh, and very needed, air into a still male oriented practice of yoga, even though over 75% of current yogic practitioners are in fact female. This book will give women the strength and backbone to honor there true nature and will give men an insight and perhaps respectful notion of the female body and abilities beyond what is known today. I love, love, love this book. Also a lot practices explained that will bring the magic and ritual back into honoring your female body, mind and soul.