Awakening the Spine

By Vanda Scaravelli,

Book cover of Awakening the Spine: Yoga for Health, Vitality and Energy

Book description

A fully revised and updated edition of the classic yoga book, with a new foreword by B.K.S. Iyengar.

For more than twenty-five years, until her death at ninety-one, Vanda Scaravelli helped transform bodies and lives with her innovative approach to yoga through the proper alignment of the spine. She listened…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Awakening the Spine as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is my all-time favorite yoga book—and I have lots and lots of books on yoga that I really love! The main reason I relate to this one is that it is written in a way that embodies what yoga is and means by someone with a depth of knowledge in the practice—the author studied for years with one of the world's leading yoga instructors, B. K. S. Iyengar. With brief and insightful entries on topics as wide-ranging as transformation, gravity, time, the eagle, and organizations, Scaravelli gradually and generously invites readers into understanding the relationship between ourselves and the…

Visually enticing, this book provides an innovative approach to yoga based on gravity and the spine. Care for your spine and you care for yourself. Scaravelli, a student of Desikachar, Iyengar, and the philosopher Krishnamurti connects the body to nature. The spine of a leaf resembles the human spine, an ocean wave, or the undulation of a back bend. We are nature, not separate from it. This book is full of stories, ancient myths, and her own blunt advice: “Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose.” The yoga photos of Scaravelli in her…

From Julie's list on inspiring your yoga practice.

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