Authors: Don Stapleton
ISBN-13: 9780892811830, ISBN-10: 0892811838
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Inner Traditions Bear & Company
Date Published: August 2004
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Don Stapleton, Ph.D., has taught yoga worldwide since 1976 and was a teacher and director of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health for 19 years. His extensive training includes Kripalu, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Siddha Samadhi, and Oki-do styles of yoga. He currently lives with his wife and son in Costa Rica, where he is co-founder and co-director of the Nosara Yoga Institute and the director of Interdisciplinary Yoga Teacher Training®.
Takes yoga back to its roots as a creative learning process and an expansion of consciousness, not just a technique for health and fitness
• Provides simple techniques that enhance the free flow of prana to promote physical and emotional healing, self-discovery, and spiritual evolution
• Includes over 100 exercises and meditations for a self-structured practice
• Teaches how to release the body’s inefficient, painful patterns and to access unknown potentials through kinesthetic inquiries
• Includes 60-minute audio CD-V of four guided meditation exercises
When artist and professor Don Stapleton discovered yoga, it marked the beginning of a journey into the awakening powers of prana--the energy of yogic purification--and the natural spiritual and healing properties of his own body. After 30 years of extensive yoga training, an accident left him with a severe injury to the spine. Faced with the challenge of physical recovery, Stapleton drew upon his knowledge of yoga to create a series of exercises that allowed him to recover freedom of movement, release emotional blockages, and unleash his spiritual and physical potential.
Self-Awakening Yoga is the synthesis of Stapleton’s practice. More than 100 exercises--from focusing on the breath to accessing primal sound--show how to unlock the wisdom and power of prana to engage the body’s healing powers. His simple exercises and meditations focus on natural movements that encourage body awareness. Readers learn how to listen to what the body is saying before engaging in any specific yoga postures. Self-Awakening Yoga takes yoga back to its roots as a creative learning process and an expansion of consciousness, not just a technique for health and fitness.
Acknowledgments | v | |
Prologue: Your Body as Earthen Vessel | ix | |
Part 1 | The Origins of Self-Awakening Yoga | |
1 | The Path to the Teacher Within | 2 |
2 | "Who Am I?": Self-Awakening Yoga Methodology | 38 |
3 | Initiating Your Self-Awakening Journey: Using the Inquiries | 54 |
Part 2 | The Inquiry Exercises of Self-Awakening Yoga | |
4 | Releasing into the Embrace of Gravity, Growing into the Light | 58 |
Heavy Body, Effortless Awareness | ||
Traveling to the Origin of the Breath | ||
Attuning to the Pulse of Being | ||
5 | Rooted in the Earth, Open to the Heavens | 75 |
Using Gravity to Realign Your Body | ||
The "Yes" Movement | ||
6 | Restoring Natural Alignment by Balancing the Cervical and Lumbar Curves | 91 |
Opening the Middle and Upper Back: Folded Empty Coat Sleeves | ||
Mobilizing and Synchronizing Movement in the Neck and Pelvis | ||
7 | Recharging the Body's "Energy Battery" in the Belly | 110 |
Locating and Energizing the Belly Center | ||
8 | Releasing into Movement from the Center of Being | 123 |
Moving from the Center | ||
9 | Opening the Hip Joints for Seated Postures and Simple Spinal Twists | 133 |
Locating and Anchoring the Sitz Bones for Grounded Seated Postures | ||
Differentiating Spinal Movements by Opening the Hips | ||
10 | Hugging the Planet Earth: Opening from the Belly into Front-Extension Postures | 155 |
Lengthening the Front Side to Hug the Planet | ||
Opening to Life by Engaging the Belly Core | ||
11 | Lifting onto All Fours: Balancing Stability with Mobility in Cross-Lateral Movement | 184 |
Stabilizing the Upper Body | ||
Balancing Upper Body Strength with Flexibility | ||
12 | Containing the Paradox of Polar Opposites: Individuation through Bilateral Movement | 210 |
Harmonizing Opposite Sides through Perpetual-Motion Rocking | ||
Balancing Strength with Flexibility in Side-Stretching Postures | ||
13 | Making the Hero's Journey: Traveling the Time Spiral of the Spinal Twist to Arrive Now in Seated Forward Bend | 235 |
The Paradox of Courage and Surrender in Hero Pose | ||
Spinal Twists | ||
Balancing the Upper and Lower Body in Seated Forward Bend | ||
14 | The Miraculous Journey to Standing in Now, the Open Moment | 259 |
Finding a Leg to Stand On | ||
Balancing Resolute Determination with Lightheartedness | ||
Walking through Life with the Strength of a Lion and Heart of a Lamb | ||
15 | The Practice of Flowing with Life's Unfolding Mystery | 279 |
Integrative Flow 1 | Angel Wings Breath | |
Integrative Flow 2 | Salutation to the Child | |
Integrative Flow 3 | Salutation to the Sun | |
Integrative Flow 4 | Prana Posture Flow | |
Epilogue: As You Prepare to Journey On... | 302 | |
Resources | 304 |