Thinking Upside Down: Yoga Philosophy for Your Studio Practice

Yoga philosophy has a place in your studio practice. The series of brief meditations in this book can change how you experience the poses you take on your mat. Each short chapter offers a single concept from the Indian and Chinese philosophical traditions. The chapter shows how to use this concept in a pose drawn from the flowing styles of yoga practiced all over the world today. The core concepts are all here: attention and mindfulness, yin and yang, the sources of human suffering and the tools we use to suffer less. One chapter, one concept: profound enough to affect your entire practice but compact enough to read in the ten minutes before you start. Notes at the end of the book provide connections to contemporary philosophy of the body, suggestions for further reading, and technical commentary.