Yoga

Yoga is a very powerful tool to evolve, to improve oneself, mentally and physically. It raises awareness and aims to help and guide us in our quest for a balance between body, mind, and spirit because it is a practice of listening and awareness. Yoga is a form of self-knowledge, presence, and meditation in motion.

It is a life-enhancing discipline that you can start even if you have never practiced. There is no competition, no breathlessness, the only connection with yourself and your breath. Don't have expectations, observe, and stop when you need to, but always remain present, in connection with us during the practice. Yoga teaches us first and foremost to love ourselves, and everything around us and to share this with others. A practice that allows you to connect deeply with yourself and does so through movement combined with breath.

Moving on the mat, practice after practice, we rediscover new aspects of our mind and our feeling, we flow in our mind-body space finally finding a balance, feeling within ourselves, but in connection with what surrounds us, with the whole universe. If you have never practiced yoga, let yourself go, don't think about technique because you don't need it here. Breathe and abandon yourself, let yourself be carried away by the movements. Let your body speak, let go of any prejudices about your body and give yourself time, listen to yourself, and try to approach each asana in the variation that best suits your body at that moment without preconceived images.

Yogic practice is always recommended to be done on an empty stomach or three hours after meals, two if you have had a light snack. If you feel the need to eat consume nuts, but always listen to your body. Some books our teachers suggest to us.

Giorgia F recommends Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung, Meetings with Remarkable Men by George Gurdjieff Gurdjieff, Jung and Eastern Thought: A Dialogue with the Orient by Jung, The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga by Jung, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening by Goldstein and Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda.

Gigi recommends Light on yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar, Yoga sutras by Patanjali, and The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran.

Francesca recommends The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T. K. V. Desikachar, The tree of yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar, Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda, The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving-Kindness by Pema Chödrön.

Raffaella recommends The Heart of Yoga by Desikachar for a conscious and personal practice. Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Saraswati. Yoga Mala by Pattabhi Jois, one of the main masters of the Ashtanga method. It deals with breathing and alignment in the first series of ashtanga, but I think it is useful for deepening any kind of yogic practice.

Viviana recommends Intuitive Being: Connect with Spirit, Find Your Center, and Choose an Intentional Life by Jill Willard, Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson, Yoni Shakti: A woman's guide to power and freedom through yoga and tantra by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli, Kundalini Awakening by Zachary Selig, The body keeps the score by Bessel van der Kolk.

Arianna recommends Light on Yoga and Light on Life by Iyengar. Giorgia Reda recommends Light on Life by BS Iyengar.