The yoga-in-schools movement has been gaining momentum in recent years as adult practitioners realize the benefit of yoga in their personal lives and want to share it with children and youth. As the movement has grown, so has the need to understand how yoga works and its effects on individuals, groups, and school culture. Stories of School Yoga brings together firsthand narratives by teachers and practitioners from diverse settings nationwide to illuminate the multifaceted work, challenges, and benefits of teaching yoga to K−12 students in public schools. The stories here supplement and reframe quantitative research in the field; demonstrate how yoga can mitigate stress and tension, particularly amid an increased focus on standardized curricula and testing; and offer lessons learned and practical insights into planning, implementing, and running these programs. Rich in detail and accessible to nonspecialists, Stories of School Yoga presents helpful resources and a nuanced, on-the-ground look at the yoga-in-schools movement.

How did an ancient Indian spiritual discipline turn into a $20+ billion-a-year mainstay of the global wellness industry? What happened along yoga's winding path from the caves and forests of the sages to the gyms, hospitals and village halls of the modern West? This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. It leads us on a fascinating journey across the world, from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the twentieth-century West. We discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future, such as feminism, digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for an authentic identity in the face of unprecedented change. Shearer's revealing history boasts a colorful cast of characters past and present, who tell an engaging tale of scholars and scandal, science and spirit, wisdom and waywardness. This is the untold story of yoga, warts and all.

This book presents a close reading of four Indian narratives from different time periods (epic, Upaniṣadic, pre-modern and contemporary): Ekalavya's story from the Mahābhārata (MBh 1.123.1-39), the story of Prajāpati, Indra and Virochana from the Chāndogya Upanisad (CU 8.7.1-8.12.5), the story of Śankara in the King's body from the Śankaradigvijaya, and A.R. Murugadoss's Hindi film Ghajini (2008), respectively. These stories are thematically juxtaposed with Pātañjala-yoga, namely Patañjali's Yogasūtra and its vast commentarial body. The sūtras reveal hidden philosophical layers. The stories, on the other hand, contribute to the clarification of "philosophical junctions" in the Yogasūtra. Through sūtras and stories, the author explores the question of self-identity, with emphasis on the role of memory and the place of body in identity-formation. Each of the stories diagnoses the connection between self-identity and (at least a sense of) freedom. Employing cutting-edge methodology, crossing the boundaries of literary theory, story-telling, and philosophical reflection, this book presents fresh interpretations of Indian thought. It is useful to specialists in Asian philosophy and culture.

About the Book: Ten-year-old Badri joins a yoga school. Unexpectedly, Badri discovers that his school friend is searching for his mother, and his senior is performing magic. Concurrently, his guru relates wonderous tales of his travel and sketches a ladder of peace for his students to climb. As Badri learns this ancient wisdom, he must overcome his limitations, help his friend and kingdom, and understand the teachings of great sages. Most importantly, Badri must uncover the message and science of yoga in this endearing story of distractions during these seven years of transformation. If a storybook can roll in the logic of yoga – from Bhagavad, Patanjali, Hatha, and Chakra - this would be it. Search no further for the fountain of peace! About the Author: Dr. Gnan Thakore is a neurologic intensive care physician at the Neuroscience Institute in Dayton, Ohio. Passionate about yoga since a young age, Dr. Gnan Thakore obtained the Yoga certification RYT 300 with the support of Dr. Paul Gerard of the Aura Wellness Center and now teaches Yoga in Dayton, where he resides with his family. Dr. Thakore is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Wright State University. Teaching medical students and residents, he follows the approach he takes for yoga and his writing of this book. What do we practice? And why? How do we interpret results and integrate new information? His hobbies include backpacking, reading, and writing.

Yoga promotes both physical and mental well-being and thus has no age barriers. This book is about Yoga for children. It offers an introduction to the subject for both parents and teachers who wish to introduce kids to Yoga.

This is the first research-based text intended to help teachers and practitioners implement mindfulness and yoga programs in schools. A complete review of the literature on mindfulness and yoga interventions is provided along with detailed steps on how to implement such programs. Training requirements, classroom set-up, trauma-sensitive practices, and existing quality programs are reviewed. Twelve core principles of mindfulness and yoga in schools are woven throughout for the utmost in continuity. As a whole, the book provides tools for enhancing classroom and school practices as well as personal well-being. It is distinguished by its emphasis on research, translation of research into practice, and insight into potential roadblocks when using mindfulness and yoga in schools. Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools provides: A thorough examination of the efficacy of mindfulness and yoga in reducing stress and conflict and enhancing student engagement to serve as a rationale for integrating such programs into schools How-to sections for training, classroom and lesson plan preparation, and implementing specific techniques and comprehensive programs Photographs, scripts, and figures to help implement your own programs A tool for assessing and cultivating teacher and student self-care Part I reviews the conceptual model for embodied self-regulation and the risks associated with a lack of self-regulation, an intervention model used in education, and tips for implementing mindfulness and yogic practices within this approach. Parts II and III review the philosophical underpinnings of mindfulness and yoga and critically review the mindfulness and yoga protocols and interventions implemented in schools. Part IV addresses mindful self-care for students and teachers, including a scale for establishing self-care goals and a scoring system.

This book is an autobiographical narration of the research activities, with penchant and passion, by two leading clinicians who turned towards stem cell research in later years of their life. The book is about facts as they happened, it also includes fiction as it should be a part of any novel and there is fantasizing as well as what one would like to be in the future. Facts, fiction and fantasy are frequently flavoured with philosophy as well. The authors axiomatically classify themselves as philosophers. Advocating that philosophy is the mother of all disciplines, they narrate how they jumped into deep waters of expensive stem cell research. The book describes how did they blunder at times and also cites the appearance of guardian angels to salvage them. Floundering from cell biology to different kinds of stem cell applications, the book describes where they have now parked at a far horizon, on the edge of new discovery of a wonderful drug. They ignite a spark of caution with restrictive regulations. The book ends with reframing the poem by Rabindranath Tagore, ‘Into that heaven of regenerative medicine, my Father, let my country awake.’

Whether they were utopian communitarians, sun-seeking gurus, or Protestant health reformers, Southern California's spiritual seekers drew on the United States' deepening global encounters and consumer cultures to pair religious and personal reinvention with cultural and spiritual revitalization. Through a rereading of the region's cultural landscape, Golden States provides an alternative history of California religion and spirituality, showing that seekers developed a number of paths to fulfillment that enhanced the region's lifestyle brand. Drawing on case studies as varied as surfing and yoga practices, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, and the only designated "Blue Zone" in the United States, this work explores the long-term impact of alternative beliefs on the region. In doing so, it highlights the ongoing tensions between privileging personal choice and pursuing social good as communities navigated whether the commitment to the emotional and therapeutic needs and desires of individual believers should be pursued at the expense of broader efforts to achieve collective well-being.

A sharply funny travelogue from a fantastic travel writer. Lucy Edge tells the story of her personal quest for serenity and yogic flexibility through the ashrams and gurus of India. After over a decade spent working and drinking too much in the world of advertising, Lucy decided she had to leave town for an altogether more spiritual and, well, meaningful way of life - And whilst she was at it, she could acquire a newly lithe and supple body. Would she come home looking like Christy Turlington and pick up some Buddhist serenity on the way? Or did something much funnier, interesting and complicated happen? Did she fall in love - with a place and its people? A divine comedy of the Western obsession with life's deeper meaning, a yogic experiment and a love letter to India, this is a very funny book from a wonderful travel writer.

Provides firsthand perspectives from yoga practitioners and educators on the promises and challenges of school-based yoga programs. The yoga-in-schools movement has been gaining momentum in recent years as adult practitioners realize the benefit of yoga in their personal lives and want to share it with children and youth. As the movement has grown, so has the need to understand how yoga works and its effects on individuals, groups, and school culture. Stories of School Yoga brings together firsthand narratives by teachers and practitioners from diverse settings nationwide to illuminate the multifaceted work, challenges, and benefits of teaching yoga to K−12 students in public schools. The stories here supplement and reframe quantitative research in the field; demonstrate how yoga can mitigate stress and tension, particularly amid an increased focus on standardized curricula and testing; and offer lessons learned and practical insights into planning, implementing, and running these programs. Rich in detail and accessible to nonspecialists, Stories of School Yoga presents helpful resources and a nuanced, on-the-ground look at the yoga-in-schools movement. “Stories of School Yoga contributes to the field of school-based yoga programs by providing a much-needed counterpoint to the majority of research in this field, which tends to be quantitative in nature. The book shares the rich stories of people who are implementing yoga in schools while also providing a scientific explanation for why these stories are important/needed. The contributors do not shy away from the broader social/political issues involved in implementing yoga within the educational system—a system that has many challenges of its own. I believe this book will assist both quantitative and qualitative researchers in developing future studies of yoga in schools, as well as practitioners interested in implementing yoga in schools.” — Bethany Butzer, University of New York in Prague