Beth Gibbs - Enlighten Up!: Finding Clarity, Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World

PRAISE FOR ENLIGHTEN UP!

I have just read the final lines of Beth Gibbss book Enlighten Up! Like the finish of any worthwhile journey, I am both enriched and sad to see it end. The authors sharp and clever sense of humor, her real-life revelations, and her fascinating perspectives bring to life the 5-layered kosha model from the yoga tradition as a map to better living that would otherwise seem inaccessible and strange. Whether you are new to yoga-based lifestyle medicine or a longtime practitioner, through Beths perceptive eyes and words, you will be engaged, entertained and, dare I say it, enlightened up! Im already looking forward to diving back in for a second go around and putting all the practical tools for a more satisfying life into daily use. Wont you join me on the adventure?

Baxter Bell, MD

co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging

Ms. Gibbs seeks to help the reader understand oneself as opposed to fixing oneself. She has clearly spelled out the layers of awareness and shares her journey to enlightenment through her many stories. This book is enriched with yoga exercises that a beginner like myself was able to appreciate.

Marilyn Martin, MD

The Resource Group

Love, peace and happiness are not external goals; they dwell within us. Enlighten Up! shines light on the koshas, or five layers of self-awareness, to arouse self-inquiry and observation of the multiple levels of being beyond blood, bone and tissue. Gibbss essays on each of the five layers are expressed in down-to-earth and honest language, written from her personal and professional perspective and experience as a yoga therapist, teacher and long-time practitioner. She has seen and digested much along her journey and generously shares her insights. Yoga philosophy and Sanskrit terminology can be difficult to explain. However, the stories in Enlighten Up! demystify the metaphysical interplay between body, mind and spirit that impact the choices we make in life and inform how we feel about ourselves and others. When we understand the energies of the koshas, we possess the keys to self-mastery to fulfill our greatest potential and cultivate inner peace. This book is an invitation to know thyself. Best of all, Enlighten Up! has stories for everyone regardless of age or ability. It can be enjoyed by the yoga neophyte, seasoned practitioner, and the skilled teacher. It is a valuable tool for living yoga off the mat.

Jana Long

Executive Director, Black Yoga Teachers Alliance

Enlighten Up! is a book of hard-earned wisdom that will make a difference in your life. Its already made a difference in mine, especially the chapter called Bitchcraft, which not only outlines Gibbss evolution in turning fear and anger into assertiveness but outlines protocols, self-inquiry and practices for us to do the same. In fact, every chapter has guidance for us to rise through those layers of self-awareness. Dont be fooled by the title into thinking this is just another spiritual book. As a Black woman just past a tormented menopause, Gibbss story is her own, yet she uses it to shine light on our own blind spots. Enlighten Up! is deeply and profoundly spiritual and oh so human, written with compassion and ever-expanding self-awareness. As you read, you are nodding, saying yes to the truth of being a woman in a complicated world. As you read, you say yes to the author as a guide through the deepest wisdom of yoga as a lived experience. As you read, you are saying yes to Beth Gibbs, because she feels like your new best friend. Enlighten Up! will be one of those books I will turn to again and again for inspiration.

Amy Weintraub

Founder, LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute and author of Temple Dancer

I cant imagine a better person to take us on a journey through the koshas. Beth Gibbs has fifty years of yoga practice under her belt plus hard-won wisdom from life lived in the real world. Add in her teaching experience, her easy-to-understand and accessible writing style, and her awesome sense of humor and what you get is an entertaining read that provides you with deep understanding of how you can use the koshas to better make sense of your everyday life in the modern world and to navigate through its inevitable ups and downs with greater ease and contentment.

Nina Zolotow

Editor-in-Chief, Yoga for Healthy Aging blog and co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging

Unabashedly frank, Beth Gibbs shares personal stories with humor and intimacy. Weaving together wisdom she gleaned from experience, concrete practices she engaged to transform her life, and knowledge of the yogic kosha model, the author delivers a book of counsel and direction that supports wholeness and integration.

Deborah Adele

author of The Yamas & Niyamas

In Enlighten Up!, Beth Gibbs manages to condense years of practice and teaching into a book that can uplift yoga practitioners and teachers alike. She uses humor, storytelling, science and yoga wisdom to enlighten us and help us navigate our lives using the ancient tools of yoga.

Jivana Heyman

Director, Accessible Yoga and author of Accessible Yoga

Enlighten Up!

Finding Clarity, Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World

Copyright 2020 Beth Gibbs

Cover design 2020 by Mark Gerber

Song lyrics from Show Up & Be Heard by Wah! (Wah! Music), copyright 2002. Used by permission of Wah Devi.

Connection to stuff personal story used by permission of Nina Zolotow.

Spiritual grace personal story used by permission of Sandy Eimers.

Spiritual grace personal story used by permission of Maria Mendola Shamas.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the pub lisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Books published by Emerald Lake Books may be ordered through your favorite booksellers or by visiting emeraldlakebooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gibbs, Beth, author.

Title: Enlighten up! : finding clarity, contentment and resilience in a
complicated world / Beth Gibbs.

Description: Sherman : Emerald Lake Books, 2021.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020040142 (print) | LCCN 2020040143 (ebook) | ISBN
9781945847349 (paperback) | ISBN 9781945847356 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Self-consciousness (Awareness) | Self-help techniques.

Classification: LCC BF311 .G473 2021 (print) | LCC BF311 (ebook) | DDC
158.1--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040142

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040143

This book is dedicated to Joseph Le Page.

FOREWORD

B eth Gibbss book Enlighten Up! provides profound insights into the different layers of our being: physical, energetic, psycho-emotional, intuitive and spiritual. These layers, or koshas, are part of an ancient philosophy called Vedanta, which Beth has presented in an easily accessible way for modern readers. Each of us faces the challenge of how to integrate, accept and then unfold all the different facets of our lives. This was a topic that the ancient rishis, or seers, sought to explain. Beth explains the topic from her own experience by means of a series of personal essays.

The purpose of this journey through the different layers of our being is to find balance, contentment and resilience in everyday life, which is often challenging. More than an author, Beth is a living example of finding this balance. In her long career as an educator, counselor, yoga teacher and yoga therapist, she has developed the ability to see the positive in every situation and challenge. It is this ability to find a way to take life positively that makes Beths book so real and practical in our daily lives.