A Woman's Book of Yoga: Embracing Our Natural Life Cycles

"Simple practices to help you stay healthy, calm, and strong, and to carry you forward in a natural progression toward wisdom, real beauty, and the strength of realized grace that belongs to all women," promise Machelle M. Seibel, M.D., and Hari Kaur Khalsa, authors of A Woman's Book of Yoga.

The authors, a gynecologist and a yoga instructor, offer prescriptions for the transitions in women's lives. They teach the health and stress-reduction benefits of breathing, postural, and meditation exercises, including particular activities for menstruation, pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause, sexuality, and digestion. Spiritual as well as physical health benefits are stressed: "The goal of yoga is to reveal the connection between the human being and the Divine Self."

This is not a simple self-help book, but a serious, mindful guide for a beginning study of kundalini yoga: philosophy, spirituality, postures (illustrated), meditations, and health advantages are addressed. "The yoga itself is not the goal, but it is the key to opening the door to health, self-love, and self-realization," write the authors. --Joan Price