The Healing Path of Yoga: Time-Honored Wisdom and Scientifically Proven Methods that Alleviate Stress, Open Your Heart, and Enrich your Life

It's not surprising that yoga has become a highly popular pastime in 21st-century America. "Recent medical research by well-known clinicians shows that stress is a major factor in causing heart disease, cancer, and a myriad of chronic and acute diseases of today's world," according to author and revered instructor Nischala Joy Devi, who has pioneered yoga programs for heart specialist Dean Ornish and cancer specialist Michael Lerner. "While the stressful events around us may not change, we can learn how to respond quickly to life's difficulties, maintaining our equilibrium and a sense of well-being."

Although the practice of yoga can create this well-being and has even been associated with reversing serious medical conditions such as hypertension and heart disease, Devi never makes grandiose promises. Instead, she shows readers how yoga can be realistically integrated into a contemporary lifestyle. Forget the contorted poses and mysterious religious overtones associated with yoga. Think "attitude adjustments" as Devi offers suggestions for opening the heart, achieving deeper rest and relaxation, breathing more effectively, and learning to meditate. Toward the end she addresses the physical plane with a well-illustrated routine of easy physical poses (asanas) as well as chapters on "Eating for Wholeness" and "Prelude to Sleep." Devi is indeed a masterful yoga teacher. Not only does she blend Eastern philosophy with Western living, she does it in a way that is grounded, approachable, and thoroughly welcoming for people from all walks of life. --Gail Hudson