Book Spotlight of Yoga’s Healing Power: Looking Inward for Change, Growth & Peace by Ally Hamilton
Yoga's Healing Power Published by Llewellyn Publications Publication Date: Aug. 8, 2016
Pages: 216
Goodreads
My Superhubby tried to get me to do yoga. As my biggest health advocate, he’s always looking for ways to help me move, exercise and feel better. So I tried yoga a few times many, many years ago and it was my first incredibly rude awakening at the limitations of my body with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Because of the damage RA has done to my hands, I cannot flatten my hands to hold up my body weight or even put my palms together in prayer. I knew I was not doing the poses correctly but physically, I just couldn’t. What was supposed to be a peaceful yoga session, actually caused me stress and tears. I gave up yoga as quickly as I had started.
That was at least ten years ago and I’m at a different place with my mental and physical health now. Physically, I know that I have to accept my body’s limitations and I have to adapt the way I do things to not add stress to my hands and feet in particular. Mentally, I’m more at peace with and accepting of the “new normal” that chronic illness brings with it. I’ve come to understand my body and my illness. To continue on my journey to thrive with chronic illness, I love that yoga aims to bring about self-enlightenment, peace and joy in our minds, bodies and souls.
So I’m happy to be spotlighting Yoga’s Healing Power by Ally Hamilton today. It’s a book I think many of us can benefit from reading and trying the poses to see if we can improve our physical mobility and flexibility. Whether you’re a busy mom being pulled in millions of directions or a chronic illness patient trying to cope with the physical and mental symptoms of your disease, I invite you to learn more about Yoga’s Healing Power and see how it can help you on your journey.
Note: The following information was provided by the book’s publicist. This post also contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk. Purchases from these links provides a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.
Synopsis:
In YOGA’S HEALING POWER*, Ally teaches readers how to develop their intuition, uncover their particular gifts, and ultimately experience a profound sense of joy. Every healing process requires a great deal of dedication and bravery, and Hamilton acts as an expert guide to show you how to reach your own inner peace. Through a very personal journey, Hamilton invites readers to share in her experiences, learn from their own behavior, and develop the skills to attain a clearer perspective. Some of the tools you learn include:
- how to apply the ancient practice of yoga to your modern, busy, smartphone-carrying life in daily, powerful, practical ways.
- how to improve the relationship you’re having with yourself
- how to communicate honestly and with compassion
- how to co-parent after divorce
- how to understand your inner self from the child you were to the person/partner/parent you’ve become
- how to stop repeating patterns that bring you heartache
- how to train your mind to focus on all the things that are going well
- how to prioritize joy, gratitude and love, and create more space in each day for all of these
- how to listen to all the people in your life in a way that will make them feel heard and understood.
Meditation, deep breathing, and physical poses are the keys associated with yoga’s healing powers. In Hamilton’s eight limbs practice, the healing process is expanded even further. Ally makes the connection from the ways we relate to ourselves and the world and clears the obstacles that block our path. Through Ally’s real-life, personal stories, clear take on yogic philosophy, journaling exercises, and yoga and meditation practices that connect it all, we can wipe our lenses clean.
“We want to make sure our attachment to our ideas or opinions is not distorting the lens through which we perceive other people, circumstances, or the world at large.”
—Ally Hamilton
Facing yourself and doing the work to heal takes bravery and strength, but it’s possible with YOGA’S HEALING POWER and Ally Hamilton as your guide.
Praise for Yoga’s Healing Power:
“I have practiced yoga nearly twenty years now, and I appreciate the spiritual and healing aspects of my practice as much, if not more, than the physical. Thank you Ally Hamilton and Yogis Anonymous for providing both the physical challenge, and the tools for healing and balance in my life. Yoga and life are journeys, and this book is a wonderful guide along the path! Namaste!”
―Greg Louganis, four-time Olympic gold medalist
“This is a stunningly generous book about what it means to move through life with grace, presence, and forgiveness. It’s less of a treatise on yoga and more of a lesson on how to be human. You’ll close the cover feeling more compassion for yourself than any yoga class could ever bestow. I was deeply humbled and greatly inspired by Ally Hamilton’s courageous take on life, love, loss, and surrender.”
―Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance
“To share in the wisdom…check out “Yoga’s Healing Power”. You’ll find, as the title says, that yoga can be a path to healing, no matter what your core spiritual beliefs might be. The path to knowing You is never a bad one to tread.”
—Beliefnet.com
Yoga’s Healing Power isn’t just for serious yoga students. It’s for everyone who is trying to live an authentic life. In her inimitable way, with the deepest reverence and a well-honed sense of humor, she has created a field guide that combines powerful personal stories, yoga philosophy, and hands-on practical tools and practices that are both simple and profound. I haven’t read anything quite like this wonderful little book. Sit back, relax, and get ready to have your world rocked in the best possible way, Ally Hamilton-style. Namaste.
—From the Foreword by Dani Shapiro, bestselling author of Devotion
About Ally Hamilton:
As the popularity of yoga continues to spread throughout the world, more people than ever understand the physical and mental benefits of regular practice. Now Ally Hamilton takes us a step further into a deeper, more meaningful practice. As the co-creator of YogisAnonymous.com, a popular site for online yoga classes, Ally shows readers how to overcome negative patterns in their lives to find sustained peace and healing, in her enlightening new book YOGA’S HEALING POWER: Looking Inward for Change, Growth, and Peace (Llewellyn Publication; August 8, 2016, ISBN-13: 978-0738747835; $15.00; 216 pages).
Hamilton is a Santa Monica-based yoga teacher, writer and life coach, who connects daily with yogis all around the world via her online yoga classes. YogisAnonymous.com has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Vogue Magazine, Shape Magazine and The Wall Street Journal and Ally is a regular contributor for The Huffington Post and Positively Positive, and a wellness expert at MindBodyGreen.
Ally Hamilton grew up in New York City and graduated from Columbia University with a B.A., having done an English major and Psychology minor. During her senior year, she wandered into a yoga class thinking it was going to be too easy for her, and that yoga was “stretching on the floor.” After having her butt handed to her, she was hooked. Not only was the physical challenge appealing, she discovered yoga was a way of being, not something you do for 90 minutes on a mat.
YogisAnonymous.com is one of the leading online yoga video services on the web. Hamilton and her roster of some of Los Angeles’ most experienced yoga teachers bring their teachings to an audience spanning five continents on a daily basis. Classes are filmed live with real students in their Santa Monica studio and made available to website subscribers, creating the experience of participating in real classes from anywhere at any time. YogisAnonymous.com has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Shape Magazine, Vogue Magazine, CNN, and more.
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Great share! I’ve been practicing Yoga for almost five years its soooo beneficial to life! Thanks for sharing over in Small Victories 🙂
Hello Tanya, I really like your post. I love yoga. Yoga is the important part of my daily routine and I never skip this. I really want to read this book. Thanks for sharing this blog!
I love yoga, Tanya. My goal is to restart doing it on a daily basis, but I’m not there yet.
Yoga is freeing and helps a lot in mindfulness. I’m glad to see you enjoyed this book.
It’s great that you tried again and were able to continue to do the poses. It can be stressful at first but to each is their own. l love yoga and its benefits. This book seems like it needs to be on my book shelf.
Well I have not tried again yet but I will. This book coming across my email made me realize that I had grown mentally and improved physically since my last go around at yoga. I want to try again! I need to find an exercise I love so it’s not so much a chore. Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy the book!