Everyone learns differently, learning about yoga and meditation is no
different. Some people try out yoga because their friends are trying
it - word-of-mouth is enough to get them started.
Others choose to start yoga and meditation driven mainly by a health
scare, or a chronic health condition such as back pain, arthritis -
even temporary conditions such as weight loss and pregnancy can
benefit from yoga and meditation.
Then, there are those (and I happen to fall into this camp) who like
to understand WHY something works. Not necessarily a scientist, but
we would like to know enough about the premise of yoga and meditation
to be able to satisfy our own minds and more important, any skeptics
out there, why yoga and meditation has an impact on your mind and body.
I just finished reading "Anatomy of Hatha Yoga" by H David Coulter,
and let me say, this was a perfect level of explanation and detail
that helps me to better understand (in lay man's terms) how the
various aspects of yoga impact our bodies.
One of the most common problems I've experienced is tight shoulders
or shoulder "kinks" and stiff necks. Early on, it became obvious
that yoga and meditation helped tremendously with this chronic 20+
year-old problem.
Yoga helps back, shoulder and neck pain in two main ways: reducing
stress leading to chemical build-up in your muscles and joints and
stretches that keep muscles loose and limber. A combinaton of
meditation, breathing and yoga asanas that focus on upper body
stretching are extremely effective in reducing this pain.
Its a great book worthy of anyone who is still skeptical or simply
just interested in a psuedo medical explanation of how yoga impacts
your body.
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