Yoga, Meditation and Spiritual Growth for the African-American Community (BOOK REVIEW)
Yoga, Meditation and Spiritual Growth for the African-American
Community
by Daya Devi-Doolin
Amber Books
Paperback, $14.95
116 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-937269-46-3
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“This
book is for you, the everyday person, the person who works, has a family (or
not) and wants to stay stress-free, happy, fulfilled and healthy. This book
will lead you, the yoga aspirant and participant, to that place.
It
has a lovable and knowledgeable approach, as if the readers were right in my
yoga studio at the Doolin Healing Sanctuary… You too can do yoga regardless of
where you are or how limited you are.
The
main idea is that everyone can benefit from yoga and meditation, and can start
to use it wherever they are in their life.”
--
Excerpted from the Introduction (page vii)
Yoga has
exploded in popularity around the country in recent years, as proven by the
profusion of women you see walking down the street everyday with a rolled-up
rubber mat under their arms. The fad appears poised to take the black community
by storm, with even hip-hop mogul-turned-yoga practitioner Russell Simmons
becoming a vocal proponent of adopting a meditative Eastern path.
Another very
dedicated advocate is Daya Devi-Doolin, co-founder with her husband, Chris, of the
Doolin Healing Sanctuary located in Deltona,
Florida. There, she not only
teaches private and group yoga classes, but offers free sessions for abused
women and military veterans.
Now, this spiritual
sister shares her philosophy in Yoga, Meditation and Spiritual Growth for the
African American Community, an easy-to-read how-to tome with easy-to-follow illustrated
introduction aimed at beginners and also the young at heart. The book features
photographs not of skinny contortionists, but of the author and some of her
students who, as you’ll see, come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
That lets you know
that you don’t have to be lithe and limber like a runway model to assume such
poses pictures as the Boat, the Butterfly, the Half Lotus, the Cow, the Chair,
the Eagle, the Half Bridge, the Dancer, the Cobra, the Tree, the Spinal Twist,
or my favorite, The Mountain (which looks the easiest). Why should the
uninitiated even consider trying yoga? “For a new or a renewed body, mind and
spirit,” Daya suggests.
Hatha yoga has been
around for thousands of years, and is ostensibly beneficial in terms of maintaining
youthfulness and flexibility. Furthermore, according to the yogini, our organs
and endocrine glands as well as the skeletal, reproductive, circulatory and
lymphatic systems are all “healed by the inversion asanas, stretching postures,
back bend asanas and twisting asanas. “Asana,” by the way, is just a fancy
Sanskrit word for position.
If Daya Devi-Doolin’s
aim in penning this simple, self-help primer was to demystify yoga while making
it appealing to the novice, then bulls-eye!
To learn more about the Doolin Healing Sanctuary, visit: http://www.padaran.com/index.html
To order a copy of Yoga, Meditation and Spiritual Growth for
the African American Community, visit:
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