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Books & Resource Lists – Meditation & Mindfulness for Yoga Teachers

Recommended Book

Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers link

Why We Recommend This Book

To see Sarah Powers teach is to see compassion, heart and wisdom in action. This book captures some of her diverse offerings to the yoga community, including deep experiential knowledge of mindfulness meditation and practicing asana as meditation, using both Yin Yoga and yang styles. Her flows are smooth and effective and her pose descriptions often inspire a new perspective and give you more tools for your toolbox. – Shelly

Book Quote

Yin yoga activity is slow, steady, and often stationary, with a sense of core softness and surrender. Yang yoga activity is mobile, builds to an apex before calming down, and maintains a core strength that requires appropriate effort… The main difference between these different styles of engagement is a matter of degrees—a shift not so much in which poses we choose (for a yoga pose is not in and of itself Yin or Yang) but in how we practice, [which] determines whether we target the yin or yang tissues more directly or indirectly.

Books

While we have highlighted a few outstanding books, there are many wonderful books and we encourage you to peruse the entire list. Any one of these may be just what you need!

  1. Brach, Tara PhD — Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha  link
  2. Brach, Tara PhD — True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart  link
  3. Brach, Tara PhD — Mindfulness Meditation: Nine Guided Practices to Awaken Presence and Open Your Heart  link
  4. Carrera, Reverend Jaganath — Awaken: Inside Yoga Meditation  link
  5. Chodron, Pema — Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change  link
  6. Chodron, Pema — Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears  link
  7. Chodron, Pema — When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times  link
  8. Chodron, Pema — The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness  link
  9. Easwaran, Eknath — Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily Life  link
  10. Hanh, Thich Nhat — Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life  link
  11. Hanh, Thich Nhat — Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings  link
  12. Hiltz, Will — Simple Meditation: A Quick and Easy Guide for Learning to Meditate  link
  13. Iyengar, B.K.S. — The Tree of Yoga  link
  14. Kabat-Zinn, Jon — Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness  link
  15. Kabat-Zinn, Jon — Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness  link
  16. Kabat-Zinn, Jon — Wherever You Go, There You Are  link
  17. Kempton, Sally — Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience  link
  18. Kempton, Sally — Shakti Meditations: Guided Practices to Invoke the Goddesses of Yoga (CD)  link
  19. Kornfield, Jack — A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life  link
  20. Kornfield, Jack — The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology  link
  21. Maehle, Gregor — Yoga Meditation: Through Mantra, Chakras and Kundalini to Spiritual Freedom  link
  22. Moffitt, Phillip — Emotional Chaos to Clarity: Move from the Chaos of the Reactive Mind to the Clarity of the Responsive Mind  link
  23. Powers, Sarah —  Insight Yoga  link
  24. Salzberg, Sharon — Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience  link
  25. Salzberg, Sharon — Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness  link
  26. Salzberg, Sharon — Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Programlink
  27. Saraswati Swami Niranjanananda Dharana Darshan-Yogic — Tantric and Upanishadic Practices of Concentration and Visualization  link
  28. Saraswati, Swami Styananda — Meditations from the Tantras  link
  29. Sovik, Rolf — Moving Inward: The Journey to Meditation  link
  30. Stryker, Rod — The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom  link
  31. Stryker, Rod — Meditations for Life (CD)  link

Teaching Tools


 

Pratyahara

Books

  1. Bachman, NicolaiThe Path of the Yoga Sutras: A Practical Guide to the Core of Yoga  link
  2. Bell, Charlotte — Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice  link
  3. Chopra, Deepak — The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga: A Practical Guide to Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit  link
  4. Desikachar, T.K.V. — The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice (Part III)  link
  5. Devi, Nischala Joy — The Secret Power of Yoga: A Woman’s Guide to the Heart and Spirit of the Yoga Sutras  link
  6. Freeman, Richard — The Mirror of Yoga: Awakening the Intelligence of Body and Mind  link
  7. Gates, Rolf & Katrina KenisonMeditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga  link
  8. Iyengar, B.K.S. — Light on Yoga  link
  9. Iyengar, B.K.S. — The Tree of Yoga  link
  10. Lasater, Judith PhD, PT — Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life link
  11. Maehle, Gregor — Yoga Meditation: Through Mantra, Chakras and Kundalini to Spiritual Freedom  link
  12. Payne, Larry PhD & Richard Usatine, MD — Yoga Rx  link
  13. Roach, Geshe Michael & Christie McNally — The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga  link
  14. Saraswati, Swami Satyananda — Four Chapters on Freedom: Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali  link
  15. Satchidananda, Sri SwamiThe Yoga Sutras of Patanjali  link
  16. Taimni, I. K. — The Science of Yoga: The Yoga-Sutras of Patanajli in Sanskrit  link

Teaching Tools


Yoga Nidra

Books

  1. Miller, Richard — Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing  link
  2. Saraswati, Swami Satyananda — Meditations from the Tantras  link
  3. Saraswati, Swami Satyananda — Yoga Nidra  link
  4. Stanley, Tracee — Radiant Rest  link
  5. Stiles, Mukunda — Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy  link
  6. Yoga International — Yoga Nidra: The Power of Yogic Sleep  link

Teaching Tools


No Compensation for Recommendations

Our goal in providing book lists with quick links is to make it easy for you to get a sense for the variety of possible resources and to access them easily.

We receive no compensation of any sort for any recommendations or mentions. We are simply offering information as we feel called to do so.

Most of our book links use Amazon Associates, which pays a tiny commission on purchases made through those links (80 cents on a $20 book, for example). On average, we receive less than $15 per month from Amazon.

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