There is a lot of good information in this book but I found the tone of the writing droll, and thus it was a struggle to finish it.

I love this. I started reading it sporadically and only in the last 1/3 or so did I read it consistently and finish it. It’s a dense book, jam packed with quotable wisdom and insight. I’ll definitely have to let that marinate and read it again after a while.

This book is beautifully written and thoroughly sourced, drawing from the Yoga Sutras to really get to the heart of the yoga tenets that are most tangibly applied to life. The main focus of this book seemed to be about relationship to self and others, and how yoga practice impacts the dynamic of these relationships. In that way, I found the most compelling parts of the book to be when Farhi brought in examples and stories from her own life and her own students. This made the content much more relateable, instead of strictly theory or philosophy. I also found that the questions Farhi posed for reflection in each chapter, (such as, What elements of your teacher are you seeking to embody?), were very impactful and reflective. I would have loved if there were more questions like this, and if there was a sort of “reading guide” as a companion to each chapter to help readers use this book as a resource for personal reflection and evaluation of the concepts covered.

DNF...got about 1/4 of the way in and found it too verbose and “woohoo” for me.

This is the second time I have read this book. When I read it back in 2009 I gave it four stars. Now, I give if a full and enthusiastic five stars. Of course, the book hasn't changed, but my receptivity to its message has.

This is not a book about yoga poses. This is a book about how yoga can be a part of your life. Donna Farhi writes beautifully about how yoga can help us become more calm and more centered. Fortunately, it's not all unicorns and rainbows though. She acknowledges her own ugly thoughts and difficulties to show that everyone has her own journey--and it's not always like you see in the movies.

This time around I read the book with a pencil in-hand to make notes and underline my favorite passages. Let me share some with you:

"The yoga tradition tells us to make the house of the body a fit place to live."

"Rather than constraining, discipline is any practice that contains our thoughts, energy, and actions so that we can use ourselves in a potent way. Just as a bucket riddled with holes cannot carry water from one place to another, lack of containment of our physical, psychological, and psychic energies sabotages our best intentions."

"We practice finding our center and staying in our center in the hothouse conditions of practice so that when push comes to shove, we will know where to turn."

"In truth, it matters less what we do in practice than how we do it and why we do it."

"Intention has a way of coloring all experience."

I highly recommend reading this book more than once.

I'm in two minds about this book. It compelled me to keep marching through it, but occasionally I felt the point would have been made a bit clearer if the language had been a tad sharper. I don't mean simpler, for I actually enjoy a depth of vocabulary, but while sections of the book were stunning and others felt convoluted. I can't help thinking that a really hard edit would have given the book a stronger backbone and left room for some glossed over areas to be covered in more detail.

Personally, I'd have liked to have had more discussion of the terms which were new to me, perhaps with some more examples of their real-life practice so that the names and ideas sunk in.

The weakest part of the book however was the short reference to the role the practice of Yoga plays in a breakdown. What happens when your sense of who you are shatters and you're left facing the floor? The author's account of the role of these dark moments didn't resonate with me. I felt like she was hiding behind the page, skimming over something that should either have been tackled with courage or left out entirely.

However, if you have a yoga practice and you're wanting to develop the spiritual side of that practice and have it bleed into the rest of your life, it's not a bad choice of book to read.