Yoga Sparks: 108 Easy Practices for Stress Relief in a Minute or Less

Description

Given the popularity of yoga in this day and age, you probably know about the benefits it can have on both the mind and body. An increase in positive mood, a decrease in stress, better sleep, and fewer aches and pains are just a few. Maybe you've been busy, and have been meaning to try it-or maybe you have tried it but still find it difficult to fit into your schedule. The most common excuse people give for not exercising is that they have no time. Between work, family, school, and social obligations, many of us are overbooked and scrambling to get things done in our daily lives. But what if there were quick, easy yoga exercises that could be integrated into your daily routine? Yoga Sparks offers 108 quick, practical, and accessible yoga exercises that you can practice anytime, anywhere-no matter how busy or stressful your schedule. In this book, you will learn how yoga in "bite-size" pieces can become a healthy habit that can relieve emotional stress, increase your physical strength and flexibility, and help you to lead a happier, healthier life. Whether practicing relaxed breathing while in traffic, sitting with proper alignment while working at your computer, or even balancing on one leg while waiting in line, the step-by-step, breath-by-breath practices in this book will help you bring the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of yoga practice into your daily life.

Carol Krucoff, E-RYT, is a yoga therapist, fitness expert, and award-winning journalist. She creates individualized yoga programs for people with health challenges at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, where she also codirects the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors teacher training. A frequent contributor to Yoga Journal, Krucoff served as founding editor of the health section of the Washington Post, where her syndicated column, Bodyworks, appeared for twelve years. She has written for numerous national publications, including the New York Times and Reader's Digest, and is author of the book Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain. Krucoff is creator of the home practice CD Healing Moves Yoga and cocreator of the DVD Relax into Yoga for Seniors. Certified as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise, she also has earned a second-degree black belt in karate and sits on the peer review board for the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. Krucoff has practiced yoga for more than thirty years.

"A valuable resource for new and experienced yoga practitioners alike, Yoga Sparks can help light a fire under your lagging yoga practice or provide a go-to tool to turn to throughout the day." --Baxter Bell, MD, Yoga Journal "Carol Krucoff's Yoga Sparks are unpretentious poses, breathing practices, meditations, and straightforward guiding principles that are easily engaged, but which can initiate powerful fires of inspiration within us. Simple yet powerful, these practices are designed to uncover our inner wisdom and inspire wonder, awe, delight, true purpose, and meaning into our lives. Weave Krucoff's offering into your hands, and you, too, will feel sparks of inspiration awakening in your life." --Richard Miller, PhD, author of Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing, founder and president of the Integrative Restoration Institute, clinical psychologist, meditation teacher, and yoga scholar "The secret to yoga's healing power is to practice every day, even if briefly. That's easier said than done, of course, which is why Yoga Sparks--with dozens of quick and easy practices--is so valuable. Just a few of them, done regularly, could improve your health and well-being." --Timothy McCall, MD, medical editor for Yoga Journal and author of Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing "Yoga Sparks is the perfect book for anyone interested in a practical way to incorporate yoga into his or her daily busy life. Krucoff goes beyond the poses and really provides a guide to experiencing all of the benefits that yoga has to offer for improving health and well-being." --Adam Perlman, MD, associate vice president for health and wellness for the Duke University Health System and executive director at Duke Integrative Medicine "It is so easy to go from zero to sixty and stay in high gear until you break down. Yoga Sparks generously offers a way for you to make a U-turn: quickies that translate into quick ease of posture, concentration, joy, and presence. Krucoff's sensitive sparks jump off the page and inject moments of repose into your days, nights, and life." --Jill Miller, ERYT, creator of Yoga Tune Up(R) and the Therapy Ball System(TM) "Krucoff's Yoga Sparks is a simple, powerful tool for you to move from 'doing' yoga to 'being' yoga. For too long in the West we've separated yoga as something we do, when by practicing Sparks you will discover that yoga is in fact what you are, moment to moment. My sense is you will soon be creating your own Sparks as you delight in your realization that 108 is really only just a good start! Let your fire burn brighter with Yoga Sparks!" --Matthew J. Taylor, PT, PhD, ERYT, former president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and the 'mind-body' rehab guy bridging traditional rehab with yoga "This is a wonderful collection of micro-practices designed to elicit the meaning of the teachings [of yoga]. Who would want more? Pause, feel the truth, be glad. Keep it simple, short, and frequent." --Erich Schiffmann, author of YOGA: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness "With a lighthearted understanding and compassion, we are offered 108 easy practices to 'spark' our remembering, connecting us to our spiritual source, each and every moment." --Nischala Joy Devi, international teacher and author of The Healing Path of Yoga and The Secret Power of Yoga "Yoga is popularly described as a practice for on and off the mat, but how many people actually integrate and transfer their insights from yoga to ordinary moments? Our reactivity easily eclipses our ease and calm when triggered by the unexpected, or worse, the unwanted details of life. If yoga is to become more than merely exercise, we need to inhabit mini moments with awareness and find ways to reconnect ourselves in body and mind. In Yoga Sparks, Krucoff offers profound wisdom in sparkling bites that can easily be applied while moving through our day, enhancing our capacity for mindful living. She teaches us that our busy life is not in the way of our yoga practice, and in fact the way to live yogically is through the everyday moments of our life." --Sarah Powers, author of Insight Yoga