Robert Butera - Body Mindful Yoga: An Empowering Approach to Redefining Your Relationship with Your Body

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Body Mindful Yoga: Create a Powerful and Affirming Relationship with Your Body 2018 by Robert Butera, PhD, and Jennifer Kreatsoulas, PhD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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First e-book edition 2018

E-book ISBN: 9780738756936

Cover design by Shira Atakpu

Interior illustrations by Mary Ann Zapalac

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Butera, Robert, author.

Title: Body mindful yoga : create a powerful and affirming relationship with

your body / by Robert Butera, PhD, and Jennifer Kreatsoulas, PhD.

Description: First Edition. | Woodbury : Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2018. |

Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018029960 (print) | LCCN 2018041234 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738756936 (ebook) | ISBN 9780738756738 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Yoga. | Body image. | Mindfulness (Psychology)

Classification: LCC BF697.5.B63 (ebook) | LCC BF697.5.B63 B88 2018 (print) |

DDC 613.7/046dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018029960

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

To our readers and future generations,

may your words affirm your body and embrace your wisdom.

Contents

List of

List of

by Melanie C. Klein

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

Chapter 10:

Chapter 11:

Chapter 12:

Exercises

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Yoga Poses

(Mountain Pose)

(Palm Tree Pose)

(Standing Half Moon Pose)

(Tree Pose)

(Warrior I Pose)

(Warrior II Pose)

(Childs Pose)

(Crocodile Pose)

(Cobra Pose)

(Easy Pose)

(Gate Pose)

(Half Seated Forward Bend)

(Bridge Pose)

(Reclined Half Twist)

(Inverted Action)

(Corpse Pose)

Disclaimer

The practices, movements, and methods described in this book should not be used as an alternative to professional diagnosis or treatment. The authors and publisher of this book are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury or negative effects that might occur through following the instructions and advice contained in this book. Before beginning any treatment or exercise program, it is recommended that you consult medical professionals to determine whether you should undertake this course of practice.

Foreword

L anguage, the symbol systems we use to communicate both verbally and nonverbally, is the foundation of our cultural reality. Without language, culture would not exist. It is language that allows us to have a shared reality. The words we use to communicate, the ways in which we communicate, and the words and meanings we have yet to create are the seeds of change. Oftentimes, social change is imagined in terms of large-scale events, while the power of smaller-level actions, like shifting our language, is undervalued or overlooked entirely.

Can we become more aware of how we communicate and evaluate ourselves and others? Can we become conscious of the ways in which the larger sociopolitical landscape informs both and leads to measures of worth and value? Can we begin to track these patterns and then choose to create a shift? Absolutely! Yoga and mindfulness tools elevate our consciousness and attune us to the often taken-for-granted aspects of our cultural narrative and, specifically, our internal dialogue, which is an essential component and contribution to the larger cultural messages around body acceptance and peace. In fact, this is where yoga and mindfulness tools become essential, as Body Mindful Yoga so poignantly makes clear and relevant. If body acceptance and peace are the desired outcome, we must become conscious of the larger cultural narrative and our own internal dialogue. Yoga and mindfulness tools provide us with the opportunity to become attuned to both the cultural narratives and our personal stories. And when we become aware, we create opportunities to make new choices that empower rather than undermine our sense of self and our relationship with our bodies.

The task of deconstructing and recreating our framework of understanding can seem daunting. How do I begin? What guide is available? What tools can I harness? Well, guess what? Youre holding that powerful tool in your hands right now. Loaded with insight, wisdom, and practical tools and mindfulness practices, Body Mindful Yoga offers a clear path to change the ways we think and feel about ourselves and others for all who read it and take action. This book is a guide you can refer to over and over again as you take your personal insight and experience off the yoga mat (or the meditation cushion) and out into the world, because a shift in perspective and, most importantly, a shift in being requires all of us to step into our power and role-model how to become agents of change in whatever way is most authentic to us. And it begins with our words. This book will undoubtedly support you on that path.