Fans pick 100 books like Yoga of the Subtle Body

As a mind-body science educator, Ann Swanson specializes in making complex scientific concepts simple and easy to understand. And in this dazzlingly-illustrated, comprehensive guide to how and why yoga works, she masterfully deconstructs more than two dozen basic yoga poses with detailed information on the physical and energetic components. A section on human anatomy explains various systems—including cardiovascular, digestive, and endocrine—and a Q & A section explores common concerns such as chronic pain, stress, and mental well-being. Full disclosure—Ann is a friend and colleague—with extraordinary energy, deep compassion, and a generous heart.  

Desikachar’s clear wisdom in The Heart of Yoga can’t be understated. Returning to this book reminds me of why I love yoga, why I teach yoga, and why I do yoga. Much of the value of this book is in Desikachar’s simple prose and exposition regarding yoga philosophy. He ends many chapters with a Q & A section, answering questions he anticipates readers will have. And while there are translations in abundance of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Desikachar’s translations have real-world applicability. His approach to yoga helps us understand why the practice has endured for so many years—and it reminds yoga teachers that bringing yoga to our students is an undertaking of immense importance. 

Yoga is much more than a workout, and the difference between a good class and a great one often centers on the instructor’s ability to inspire students to make a deeper connection—with themselves, with others, and with the world. In this practical and illuminating book, experienced instructors Sage Rountree and Alexandra Desiato offer a wealth of information designed to give yoga teachers essential tools to find their own, unique voice and take their classes to the next level. The book includes a section of 54 complete themes followed by blank temples and helpful prompts to create your own themes. Amidst bookshelves crowded with volumes on how to teach postures, this book stands out as a uniquely-helpful exploration of how to teach yoga.

In recent years, there’s been a growing appreciation that yoga is not just for slim, bendy, twentysomethings, but can offer profound physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits to people of all ages, sizes, and health conditions. Much of this increased awareness is due to the work of Jivana Heyman, director of the non-profit Accessible Yoga Association, whose mission statement proclaims that “all people—regardless of ability or background—deserve equal access to yoga.” Heyman has spent more than 20 years teaching yoga to people with disabilities, with an emphasis on community building and social engagement. In this book, he offers inspiring and practical guidance on how to break down complex yoga practices in ways that make them accessible, enjoyable, and healing for anyone—regardless of limitations or challenges.

I enjoy money books that go beyond calculations and numbers and can reach the heart and soul. Leisa’s book helped me think of money in a holistic way, using the chakras that I am familiar with through yoga.

It made me rethink my own relationship with money and how it affects not just my financial health, but my overall wellbeing. 

This is a beautifully produced book, as the chakras deserve, and full of many different practices as a great supplement to the Liz Simpson book. I particularly liked her teaching on yoga asanas. As chakras are frequencies of light, they are of course ephemeral. They are also grounded in the human body by the endocrine system. Those who are inclined toward physical and/or exercise types of healing will benefit here. She’s an expert. Her history section, whilst brief, is also hugely informative. This is a great beginner book for people at the outset of their chakra journey. Her emphasis is all on healing, wholing, and well-being.

Finally, the mechanisms that undergird the transformation of consciousness in all mystical traditions, whether East or West, are explained in language that is easy to understand. In this ground-breaking work, Motoyama combines the psycho-spiritual wisdom of Chinese medicine, Kundalini Yoga, and Esoteric Japanese Buddhism to create a model of spiritual evolution that can be utilized to good effect by anyone. 

The first edition of this book is visually stunning, and I like it, first, for that reason—chakras need color and beauty and imagery and vitality, not black and white prose. They are, after all, the animation of the life force itself viewed through a prism. How that could possibly ever translate into just words on a page, I’ll never understand. Second, her practices are simple and exemplary with Archetypes, Altars, Physical Exercises, Crystals, Meditations, Daily Questions/Journaling, and Affirmations. They touch on all four aspects of each of us: Body, Heart, Mind, Spirit. Information about chakras is fine but useless. Working with your own chakra system is the entire point as far as I’m concerned.

Cyndi Dale is perhaps the doyenne of the chakra experts. I’ve read a lot of her books, and she’s quite knowledgeable. However, I completely disagree with much of her chakra system. It’s too complicated for my taste, but then I am most interested in the whole population knowing how to work with their own chakras in an everyday way just like we brush our teeth. She’s training experts. Her work is valuable to know what others have discovered, and… her section on the history of the chakra system as well as how it has been a part of health and healing in cultures from the Incas to the Taoists to the Hindus to the Sufis to the Maori and more throughout time is quite simply the best. 

To say that Dr. Lincoln is eccentric understates the case. His interpretations of varied symptomologies can be truly harsh. Make sure you feel strong enough when you use him as a reference to push away what doesn’t resonate for you. His book is the one I return to over and over again because it meets at the crossroads of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life (the original classic in the field, if a little glossed-over) and Taber’s Encyclopedic Medical Dictionary, both of which I also use. The point is this: human bodies are remarkable, first and foremost, because they don’t lie. They don’t lie because they can’t lie. When we learn to listen to our bodies, we are that much closer to health and healing.