Jaime Stover Schmitt - Every womans yoga: how to incorporate strength, flexibility, and balance into your life

M odern life encourages us to look outward to find meaning. We are distracted by media, news, and fashion, and many times we dont take the time to find meaning within. Business, the beauty industry, and consumerism dominate society, and therefore tend to rule our minds and lives. We think we will be happy when we measure up to societys standards: Look beautiful and attain significant wealth. But the truth is that we arent completely happyeven when we do succeed in meeting these goals. Thats because we find true joy and peace and purpose when we look inside ourselves. Every Womans Yoga, by Jaime Stover Schmitt, is a user-friendly, comprehensive invitation to do just that. In these frenetic times, this book offers us a welcome respite of clarity, peace, and yogic wisdom.

The practice of yoga is a wonderful way to begin the inward journey. We can start with physical movements and breathing techniques that make us feel more flexible, calm, and healthy. We can also practice meditation and contemplation to help us deal with stress, anxiety, and depression. In a systematic way, yoga offers all the tools we need to explore and understand our entire naturebody, energy, emotions, mind, and spirit. According to the science of yoga, health and happiness come to us when we understand and integrate these parts of ourselves. As Jaime says, Each yoga practice, whether it emphasizes moving, holding a pose, tending the breath, or focusing the mind, invites you to integrate body, breath, mind, and emotions. This is the foundation of health and well-being.

For this reason, Every Womans Yoga is essential (as the title says!) to every womanyoung or old, a beginner at yoga or a more practiced student. As a beginning yoga manual, it teaches standard yoga poses, breathing, and relaxation to help you stretch, get in shape, and destress. It is also a guide for those seeking to deepen or refresh their current practice by listening to the voice of the body. Jaime includes numerous variations and practical tips about poses, as well as ways to make your yoga practice work for you. Her message is consistently, Listen within. Your practice, she says, should be molded to suit you, rather than you molding yourself to suit your yoga practice. Your practice shouldnt be another should that you arent quite doing right! Rather you should feel better in body and mind every time you practicenot exhausted, but refreshed and revitalized.

On a personal level, Jaime has been an inspiration in my life. As a colleague, teacher, and friend, I have witnessed over and over her devotion to helping others heal through this integrative work. She speaks with the knowledge gleaned from over two decades of experience in teaching yoga in groups and to individual clients and from developing her own practice. What I admire most about Jaime is her absolute conviction that the body doesnt lie; in fact, that it is a medium for transformation. She has a profound reverence for the wisdom within us and a fearlessness to act spontaneously in response to it. She is ever encouraging us to experiment with poses and movements and to honor what comes to us through them. I hope that you take what she offers here and use it to create or expand a regular yoga practice. It will serve you remarkably well in your quest for health, happiness, and spiritual growth.

Carrie Demers, M.D.
medical director, Center for Health and Healing
Honesdale, Pennsylvania

I pay homage to H. H. Sri Swami Sivananda, whose approach to yoga therapy has been my guiding light due to the perennial generosity of Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D., spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute. I pay homage to H. H. Sir Krishnamacharya, whose yoga method I have had the great fortune to study from his disciple, Sri Srivatsa Ramaswami.

I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my teachers, some of whom are mentioned here. I thank Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D., and Pandit Upadesh, Ph.D., of the Himalayan Institute; Swami Veda Bharat, D. Litt., of the Meditation Center; Aileen Crow, my mentor; Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Sandy Jamrog, and the faculty of the School for Body-Mind Centering; Mick Grady, Kevin Hoffman, and Dave Gorman, who were my main Hatha teachers; Sri Srivatsa Ramaswami whose work has influenced me greatly; and Lilias Folan, who I feel embodies the true spirit of yoga. I thank Drs. Arny and Amy Mindell, creators of Process Work; Eva Gholson, Dr. Edrie Ferdun, and Dr. Sarah Hilsendager of Temple University; Jacki Hand Vagario, Ed Groff, Jan Pforsich, and Jimmyle Kester of the Laban Institute of Movement Studies.