Spiritual Transformational Yoga (ePub)

Spiritual transformational yoga takes a step-by-step approach through the eight limbs of yoga. Most people initially come to the mat because of the physical practice and all the benefits that yoga offers for strengthening the body and increasing flexibility. The actual point of yoga is to unite oneself with God. Yoga is not a religion but is open to all religions. It is a spiritual discipline that can provide helpful tools to strengthen one's faith. The eight limbs of yoga provides a path to oneness with God. The first two limbs concentrate on external and internal values. Next comes the postures to prepare the body physically to sit in prayer and meditation for periods of time. Breath work is incorporated after the physical practice to calm the mind even further for meditation. It is then that the individual begins withdrawing from the senses, going inward to focus and being, then eventually meditating and being one with God.

Dr. Sally Bassett has written this book based on her experience of traveling and leading groups to over 120 countries. Sally has practiced yoga; prayed and/or meditated on the banks of the Ganga River in India, an abbey with Trappist monks, a convent with the Sister of Saint Benedict, in Muslim prayer rooms throughout the world, and a French ashram in the Loire Valley; sung gospel songs around campfires with rural women in Uganda; sat with monks in silence across Asia; listened to the beliefs from Native American Indians in Western United States; prayed in cathedrals across the globe lighting candles too numerous to count; and hiked hundreds of miles of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain.

Sally is a humanitarian, world traveler, seeker, and founder of Peace through Yoga Foundation. Sally's enthusiasm toward life as well as her creative and spiritual approach to yoga have been keys to her success. Her yoga journey has included a twelve-year ownership of two yoga studios, teaching yoga and philosophy as an adjunct professor at Butler University and cofounding the Yoga and Spirituality program at Christian Theological Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sally lives and teaches yoga in the village of Zionsville, Indiana, when she is not traveling the world.

All proceeds go to Peace through Yoga Foundation (www.peacethroughyoga.org).