Beth Shaw - Beth Shaws Yogafit - 2nd Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BETH SHAWS
YOGAFIT

Second Edition

Beth Shaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shaw, Beth.
[YogaFit]
Beth Shaws Yogafit / Beth Shaw. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-7536-7 (soft cover)
ISBN-10: 0-7360-7536-4 (soft cover)
eISBN : 9780736092791

1. Physical fitness. 2. Hatha yoga. I. Title.
RA781.7.S446 2009
613.7'046--dc22

2008037999

ISBN-10: 0-7360-7536-4 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-7536-7 (print)
ISBN-10: 0-7360-8473-8 (Adobe PDF)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-8473-4 (Adobe PDF)

Copyright 2009 by Beth Shaw

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

This publication is written and published to provide accurate and authoritative information relevant to the subject matter presented. It is published and sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, medical, or other professional services by reason of their authorship or publication of this work. If medical or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

The Web addresses cited in this text were current as of August 2008, unless otherwise noted.

Acquisitions Editor: Tom Heine; Project Consultant: Katie Pearson; Developmental Editor: Laura Floch; Assistant Editors: Laura Podeschi and Elizabeth Watson; Copyeditor: John Wentworth; Proofreader: Kathy Bennett; Graphic Designer: Joe Buck; Graphic Artist: Kim McFarland; Cover Designer: Keith Blomberg; Photographer (cover and interior): Victoria Davis; Visual Production Assistant: Joyce Brumfield; Photo Production Manager: Jason Allen; Art Manager: Kelly Hendren; Associate Art Manager: Alan L. Wilborn; Illustrator: Bullseye Studio; Printer: United Graphics

We thank Victoria Davis Studios in Santa Monica, California, for assistance in providing the location for the photo shoot for this book.

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Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Renee Taylor, YogaFit staff and trainers,
and the vast community of friends and enthusiasts

FOREWORDS

At the Applied Neuroscience Institute we are dedicated to taking sophisticated theories and research and simplifying and integrating them into concrete methods that lead to helping people feel good. Our work is at the crossroads of neuroscience, positive psychology, and quantum physics so were always interested in finding people who have integrated approaches that affect people on a number of levels. Beth Shaw and YogaFit understand something about this integration of methods that is very unusual. But, as it is said, the proof is in the pudding.

I had the opportunity to address the corporate board of YogaFit and then to present my own work called The Emotional Gym to their trainers. More than any other group I have worked with, they get it. As soon as I started to talk about integrating emotion and movement and then feeling good, they were with me in a way that let me know that YogaFit is for realnot just an exercise program but a holistic model of personal growth that aims at much more than a fit body. YogaFit, in its levels of experience, is about feeling good on levels of human experience that last and create personal flourishing over time. In other words, you flourish and get lasting results over the long haul.

Beth Shaw is doing something that is rare. Too often we think that Eastern practices or esoteric practices of personal growth translate immediately or effectively into Western culture. They do not, and because they dont, they dont last except with a group of niche followers or devotees. What Beth has done is build a model that is for everybody, that is applicable, that works, and that lasts over time. Beth has developed a program for living a fuller life that is solid and definitive but able to be experienced in a very individual way. You are not molded to a program; YogaFit is molded and formed for you.

Lets face itmany exercise programs today are boring and shallow. Others advertise that they integrate body and mind, but such integration doesnt happen without a plan. For most of these programs its a hope, not a reality. You put in your time, feel a little high from the exercise, and check the mirror too often to see what difference it has made. YogaFit is about the change from the inside to the outside. This is why when I encountered the YogaFit trainers I met vitally alive peoplealive to themselves and alive to life. They were about helping people living optimal lives, and they were an example of that vitality. They did not represent an elitist program for a healthy few, but a grass-roots, down-to- earth, we care about you program that makes everyone feel that they belong and that they can succeed. As Beth Shaw says, If you can breathe, you can do yoga.

This is a program about integrating levels of experience toward a simple goal: to be fit and to feel good. Beth Shaw realizes an important thing in exercise, that being fit doesnt necessarily mean feeling good. She understands that fitness involves many levels of human experience. She has developed a program of integrated methodologies that makes yoga accessible to everyone. This integration of diverse methodologies with a sense of fitness is at the heart of YogaFit and makes it a distinct stand-alone program quite apart from the fitness circus the average person doesnt choose because he or she doesnt know what to trust. You can trust this one, and you can believe in YogaFit because fitness is understood here in a unique combination of body, mind, and spirit that fits the culture of the Western world and suits a journey not just to disciplines but to the heart of the matter of fitness. Its a journey toward feeling good.

Dr. William Kent Larkin
Director
Applied Neuroscience Institute
Author, Growing the Positive Mind

At first glance, it might seem that yoga, with its nearly 20 million practitioners in the United States, hasnt a lot in common with organized animal protection. But thats a mistaken assumption. The two movements are ascendant and share a host of intersections, especially today, in an era marked by extraordinary threats to personal and planetary health.