Yoga Cures: Simple Routines to Conquer More Then 50 Common Ailments and Live Pain-Free, by Tara Stiles

If I told you that doing Yoga would cure your acne, you might be skeptical.  On the other hand, if I said that acne was partly caused by stress, and there was a time-tested, drug-free way to reduce stress and as a result reduce acne, you might be interested in giving it a try.  That’s the approach taken by Tara Stiles in her book, Yoga Cures.  According to Stiles, yoga can help with such ailments as ADHD, OCD, allergies, colds, flu, hangovers, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and arthritis.  It can also improve eating disorders, vision problems, hot flashes, migraine, and even a broken heart.  Superficially, this seems silly, but Stiles explains, in a quite sensible way, how yoga can help with these issues.

Some cures are for less specific problems like “office body”, or for things like “Jiggly Thighs”, “Saggy Booty” and obesity that will take more than a few warrior poses to fix.  I was going to try the cure for procrastination, but just haven’t got around to it yet.  Can a shin hug really reduce my sugar cravings?  Well, maybe it can, if done with proper mental focus.  Can headstands cure wrinkles?  Perhaps not, as it turns out that the yoga cure for wrinkles is “not to care when you get wrinkles.”  I have that one covered!

The long-term health benefits of yoga are undeniable, but I wouldn’t expect a couple of cobras to cure what ails you.  Perhaps Tara Stiles should have used the title “Yoga Treatments”; it’s less snappy, but more accurate.  I never did find a cure for my swimmer’s shoulder or runner’s knee, which I know are improved by certain yoga or physiotherapy exercises, so I think there’s room for some more Yoga Cures.

Yoga for Dummies, by Larry Payne and Georg Feuerstein

At first I was skeptical of the Dummies series.  I’d like to think I’m not a dummy, and didn’t want to read books that had been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.  But of course, the Dummies series isn’t like that.  First I tried Classical Music for Dummies, which provided a solid, straight-forward, light-hearted introduction to the history of classical music.  There was even a CD containing examples of the various musical styles.  Then there was Curling for Dummies, which again contained a simple, no-nonsense introduction to the basics of curling.  Now I’ve read Yoga for Dummies, and I’m impressed.

The book is thorough, well-organized, and easy to understand.  It discusses the different Yoga traditions and subdivisions and the goals Yoga can satisfy, from physical fitness to spiritual growth.  There are sections on relaxation and breathing, detailed descriptions of over 50 poses and how to move into and out of them, and variations for the young and not-so-young.  It emphasizes practicing safe Yoga, modifying or avoiding risky poses to make it safe to try on your own.  Principles for designing your own Yoga routine are presented, and there are sections on living a Yoga lifestyle and advancing through meditation.  Finally, there’s advice on dealing with pain, headaches, and back problems.  I can see myself using the book to design a Yoga program that focuses on my own goals and fits my schedule, especially for those times when it’s hard to make it to my local Yoga class.