Guiding Yogas Light or How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food Medicine and Crafts

Guiding Yoga's Light: Lessons for Yoga Teachers

Author: Nancy Gerstein

Guiding Yoga's Light: Lessons for Yoga Teachers moves beyond the anatomical aspects of asanas to help instructors present the deeper concepts of yogic philosophy to their students and offer insight into the integration of yogic teachings into everyday life.

Now in an updated, expanded edition, Guiding Yoga's Light presents 74 easy-to-follow, succinct lesson plans offering instruction in hatha yoga, including asana, pranayama, the yamas and niyamas, the chakras, creating mindfulness, and understanding emotions. The text also includes three new, teacher-requested chapters: Salutations in Motion, Lessons of the Heart Center, and Relaxation. For convenient reference, teachers and students can also refer to the vocabulary of Sanskrit pronunciations included in the glossary.

Lesson plans progress from basic yogic concepts important for beginning students to more advanced material. Each lesson plan offers a written script for use in class. For beginning teachers, these scripts provide a helpful structure and set the stage for mindful yoga instruction. More advanced teachers may use these lessons and scripts as a creative departure point for expanding on the wellness effects of asana or focusing the day's practice. For ease of planning and organization, each lesson follows a six-part outline:

The intention provides the focus for the day's yoga class.

Approximate time offers the length of each lesson script to help yoga teachers manage class time.

The lesson embodies the essence of the day's teaching, which is expanded on in the following three sections.

Asanas for deepening illustrate and incoporate the lessonthroughbody stretch, movement, and sensation.

Practice off the mat helps students integrate the lesson into their daily lives by providing an assignment, a reminder, or a discussion topic.

To end each lesson, wise words offer selected quotes, suggestions, or proverbs to remind students of the lesson as they engage in their practice outside the class.

The text takes beginning students and teachers on a journey through the various aspects of yoga to understand the foundations of hatha practice. Beginning with basics of breathing, Guiding Yoga's Light progresses to the physical and spiritual philosophy of the asanas and salutations and ends with lessons to bring clarity, calmness, and relaxation into daily life.

Guiding Yoga's Light: Lessons for Yoga Teachers interprets yoga's 5,000-year-old philosophy in an effort to inspire, delight, and empower yoga students to enrich their physical, emotional, and spiritual lives both on and off the mat. With each lesson, Guiding Yoga's Light demonstrates how the strength, balance, and stretching of the physical practice can inspire a healthy, complete, and joyous existence.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Tips From the Front of the Room
Eight Limbs of Raja Yoga

Chapter 1: Beginning Lessons
First Class Facts
Learning Diaphragmatic Breathing
Benefits of Yoga
Softening the Edges
Body Tension
Lengthening the Exhalation
Defining Ha and Tha

Chapter 2: Breathing Practices
Two-to-One Breathing
Three-Part Exhalation
Ujjayi Breath
Nadi Shodhana
Opening the Left Channel

Chapter 3: Asana
Feet
Forward Bends
Backbends
Twists
Headstand
Asana and Acceptance
Asana and Peace

Chapter 4: Salutations in Motion
Surya Namaskara
Chandra Namaskara
Star Salutation
Earth Salutation
Self Salutation

Chapter 5: Prana
Holding on to Prana
Feeling the Flame
Prana and the Focused Mind
Storing Prana

Chapter 6: Pranayama
What Is Pranayama?
Benefits of Pranayama
Working With Ha and Tha
Pranayama Practice for the Immune System

Chapter 7: Yamas
Yama 1: Ahimsa
Yama 2: Satya
Yama 3: Asteya
Yama 4: Brahmacharya
Yama 5: Aparigraha

Chapter 8: Niyamas
Niyama 1: Saucha
Niyama 2: Santosha
Niyama 3: Tapas
Niyama 4: Svadhyaya
Niyama 5: Ishvara Pranidhana

Chapter 9: Emotions
Emotional Effects of Asana
Frustration in the Body
Embracing Change
The Only Constant Is Change
Fear
Letting Go
Patience

Chapter 10: Mindfulness
Mindfulness: The Core of Practice
Paying Attention
Dharana
Mindfulness of Gratitude
Holiday Gratitude
Mindful Eating
Setting an Intention

Chapter 11:Chakras
Chakra 1: Muladhara
Chakra2: Svadhisthana
Chakra 3: Manipura
Chakra 4: Anahata
Chakra 5: Visuddha
Chakra 6: Ajna
Chakra 7: Sahasrara
Chakras and the Five Tibetans

Chapter 12: Lessons of the Heart Center
Anjali Mudra: Namaste
Seeds of Love
Expanding the Heart
Reversing Negative Emotion

Chapter 13: Relaxation
Be a Corpse
Expanding the Light
Favorite Place
Dark Cloud
Journey Through the Chakras
Silent Chanting

Recommended Reading
Glossary
Asana Index
About the Author

Look this: Fitness After 50 or Life without Bread

How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine, and Crafts

Author: Frances Densmor

A renowned ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution offers a fascinating wealth of material on nearly 200 plants that were used by the Chippewas of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The volume provides an emphasis on wild plants and their lesser-known uses. "A fascinating, well-illustrated study." — Grand Rapids Gazette. 33 plates.