8 Fascinating Yoga Books
Do you want to develop your knowledge of yoga? Check out Yogom’s Top 5 Yoga Books as well as some other books that might interest you depending on what you’re looking for!
- Yoga, 2500 years of history: the Best Yoga Book to immerse yourself in the history of yoga, its origins, foundations and evolution! A beautiful book that traces the history of yoga through the centuries, ideal to offer or to offer oneself 😉
- Yin Yoga, the praise of slowness Yin Yoga: A complete Yin Yoga book with detailed Yin Yoga postures and explanations of the philosophy and principles of Yin Yoga.
- The Secrets of Yoga: A Yoga Book beginner with beautiful illustrations and written with humor to understand yoga and find answers to all your questions about the history of yoga, the postures, the habits and customs, the different practices…
- Yoga Anatomy, the postures The best-selling book onyoga anatomy, ideal for understanding everything about yoga postures and their implications on the body (tendons, ligaments, muscles…).
Also, check out all the other accessories you might need for your yoga practice in our Yoga Equipment Buying Guide .
Discover below the advice and recommendations ofElise French Plume, the famous blogger:
Here, I wanted to introduce you to fundamental texts, essential books that will nourish your inner quest, to make you travel towards the soul of yoga. You will also discover more recent books, which are integrated into our modern practices.
Find Elise on Instagram: passionateabout personaldevelopmentand neuroscience she talks to you without a filter!
Yoga, a path of reconnection
When we say “yoga” we immediately think of a person doing contortions on a mat.
This is a bit of a downside, due to its huge success and spread on social networks. Many people therefore equate “Yoga” with “physical exercises”.
In reality, Yoga is much richer than that, it is made up of 8 founding pillars :
- Yama : our relationship with others
- Niyama : the relationship to oneself
- Asana : the practice of postures
- Pranayama : breathing exercises
- Pratyahara: the withdrawal of the senses, implying a sharpened listening of internal senses and not letting the mind be disturbed by the outside
- Dharana: concentration: the art of perfect concentration on one point.
(Yoga Sutra, III.1) - Dhyana : meditation
- Samadhi : Self-realization
You will have understood that yoga is not limited to simple physical exercises, it is an art of living, a spiritual adventure.
When you begin, you are embarking, often without knowing it, on a path of reconnection to yourself, you will go towards a better understanding of your body, your feelings and your needs.
Philosophy & spirituality:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
It is the reference text of yoga, from which different currents have subsequently emerged.
The “sutras” are small verses.
Let us not forget that yoga is an art of living and that asanas are only one of the many branches of this tree.
That is why in the Yoga Sutras you will find texts on the concentration of the mind, the spiritual life, the practice of yoga, the liberation of man.
“Yoga is the stopping of the disturbances of the mind.” S1.2
The Bhagavad-Gîtâ
This is a fundamental sacred text of Hinduism, containing timeless wisdom.
The messages he delivers are still relevant today and lead us to reflect on our lives, our relationship with others, etc.
One of my favorite quotes from this text goes something like this :
“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live the destiny of another perfectly”, in other words, be yourself!
In search of oneself by T.K.V Desikachar
M.Desikachar is the son of one of the founding fathers of yoga : Krishnamacharya, he is one of the first to have propagated yoga in the West.
To read the books of T.K.V Desikachar is to go directly to the source, far from all distortions and drifts of the New Age.
It is a fundamental if you wish to discover the yoga based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and if you want to have a healthy basis in your practice and understanding of the philosophy of yoga.
If you read English, there is also a beautiful book by the same author: The heart fh Yoga
A real nugget that will guide you to understand the philosophy but also to have a practice respectful of your body.
The yoga of nutrition by Omraam Mikael Aivanhov
Nutrition concerns all aspects of our being.
Food is energy that we take in, and how we eat is just as important as the quality of what we eat.
The author teaches us how to eat well, consciously, and how to purify ourselves, his vision of things is amazingly powerful and simple.
Practice and Anatomy:
Your Body Your Yoga by Bernie Clark
What if we explained to you that each individual has his own bone structure and that, because of this structure, you and the person next to you will never do an identical posture?
What if you forget the strict alignment that forces you to go against the nature of your skeleton?
This is the interest of this book, a must for any teacher and very enriching for students who wish to get rid of their inferiority complexes when they can’t touch their feet or contort themselves.
Bernie Clark makes very specialized concepts accessible.
Attention, this book is rare in French, you can also find it in English under the title “your body, your yoga”.
Yoga Encyclopedia: Hatha Yoga, all âsanas step by step
by André Van Lysebeth
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced student, you will enjoy this book, it is a pleasant read and the postures are clearly illustrated with the do’s and don’ts.
What I really like is that we discover the benefits of asanas on our health, as well as meditation and breathing exercises.
The book also offers ready-made sequences on different themes such as stress reduction.
Millennia-old gestures for our well-being by Swami Saradananda
Mudras in practice:
The power of small gestures.
Over 3,000 years old, mudras, the positioning of the fingers, help direct and circulate energy in your body.
During your practice these subtle and powerful gestures will allow you to align yourself entirely, soul, body, mind.
This book will guide you step by step, whether you are a beginner or an expert.
Finally, for those who read English, you are lucky because you will be able to discover a beautiful book mixing anatomy and energy:
Yoga of the Subtle Body: A Guide to the Physical and Energetic Anatomy of Yoga
by Tias Little
This book is unfortunately not available in French and it’s a shame.
Tias Little, the author, brings us a sharp understanding of the relationship between yoga, the body and energy centers.
In a structured way the book makes the link between our different bodies: physical, mental, emotional and energetic.
It proposes exercises, meditations and pranayamas allowing us to reconnect to our sensations and our different bodies.
I hope that the books presented here will inspire you, and make you want to go further in your practice and understanding of yoga.
Although it is taught in groups, yoga remains above all an intimate and personal adventure.
It is by reconnecting to ourselves first that we can then reconnect to others.
I wish you a great adventure, and great reading.
Elise,
