Book Review | Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers
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Yin Yoga / Fascia / Meridians / Yin Yang
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Book Review | Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers
Who Is This For
If you are looking for more on the subject of Yin Yoga this should be one of your top 5 books. In particular, those looking for a solid introduction to Yin Yoga this may be one of the top 3 options out there.
More broadly speaking if you like your books in a larger format this may be your top pick as far as Yin Yoga books is concerned. Finally if you are someone who just likes Yoga books in general with a familiar Yoga vibe and aesthetic but want something different, as far as content, then you’ll enjoy the mixture of what is presented in this book.
What Kind Of Book Is This
This is a large format, black & white book. It is a good cover to cover read especially if you are new to Yin Yoga but it can also be used as a great reference book.
Of particular note is how much depth is provided on the meridians in relation to Yin Yoga asana, but it is also a pretty solid resource for meridians in and of themselves as each one is covered thoroughly.
There are a lot of reference images, so this would be very digestible for visual learners or those that are trying to practice directly from the book. In addition to that there are quite a lot of sequence options provided, each with asana images for the poses in the sequence, so you don’t have to flip back to check poses you forgot earlier in the book.
Highlights
Many of the asana images show the meridian lines drawn on to the figure as an overlay which can be quite nice as a reference. This is also helpful in understanding the meridians in relation to the asana targets. The book has an easy to read style which should be accessible to anyone and covers quite a lot of topics. Even Yang Yoga is incorporated so you can really learn to mix things up with your Yin Yoga practice if you wanted to. The extra emphasis given to meditation is always nice to see in conjunction with Yin Yoga.
What Do I Think Of This
When I first discovered Yin Yoga books years ago it was through Bernie Clark’s book and I soon after bought Paul Grilley’s book. Both of them were in most book stores so I was able to browse them and easily decide if I wanted to read them. Insight Yoga however I always knew about but it was a while before I saw it in a store to browse. I decided it wasn’t enough new information (after reading the other two books) to warrant a purchase for me personally at the time. Now, years later, to do this review I bought the book and am glad I have finally given it a read. It has, as I had thought from browsing it in the store long ago, a lot of little nuggets of info that help expand on ideas in the other Yin books. It was also a great refresh as it has been a while since I read the other books. Along with the familiar content though there is a lot of perspective not covered the same way or in the same depth by the other books.
I really enjoyed reading in here about the meridians, pranayama, meditation and philosophy. Sarah Powers devotes a good amount of time to them all within a Yin context. I even found some interesting snippets in the sections on Yang Yoga as the book tries to create a well balanced practice overall.
As someone who trains Yin teachers I found Insight Yoga worth the read so that I can recommend it to students who I feel would vibe with it. However as a Yin practitioner/teacher I still feel the other two books were more my personal vibe and provided all I needed as far as Yin Yoga books go.
Buy or Borrow
I consider this part of the trilogy of essential Yin Yoga books with Bernie Clark’s and Paul Grilley’s so if you are looking to have a thorough bookshelf collection of Yin books then buy this one (you don’t need to own any books to do Yin though))). Also if those other two Yin books don’t appeal to you this one is quite different from them in its format and approach so it might be just what you were looking for. Other than those reasons though borrowing this from the library to absorb what you need would be sufficient.
