Here are some books that have sparked deep reflection for me. I add my most recent reads at the top of the list. Enjoy some food for thought!
What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World
When we don’t fit into the world, do we change ourselves, or the world? This was a thoughtful exploration of how we can design a better world to suit all different sorts of bodies and needs.
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again
If you need encouragement on disengaging from all the distractions, this is a great one for helping you get your brain back.
Fluent Bodies: Ayurvedic Remedies for Postcolonial Imbalance
Finally, a critical analysis of how Ayurveda has been repackaged for consumption in the modern world. This reads like someone’s PhD thesis, but it is a worthwhile, dense, nuanced, and necessary read.
Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Public Health Threat
A compassionate yet discerning look at the confluence of wellness, politics, and culture.
Why Wellness Sells: Natural Health in a Pharmaceutical Culture
An excellent companion to the Conspirituality book that inspires critical thinking.
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others
Serving others while abandoning one’s own needs and wants is a recipe for burnout. Read this to help you to come back (or stay away) from the brink.
Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body
I love how this book emphasizes adapting the practice to suit you, and not the other way around.
Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans
Written by an Asian American clinical psychologist, this unique book is a culturally-informed look at the effects of racial trauma. While the material is geared towards those who identify as third culture or as part of the Asian diaspora, its transcendent themes can be useful for understanding intergenerational trauma and the legacies we carry.
Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body
Written by one of the first people to study how yoga can help heal trauma. A must-read for serious practitioners and yoga teachers.
Before I Was a Critic I was a Human Being
I loved this. It made me think. I think you should read it too.
Roots of Yoga
Translations of over 100 ancient and medieval yoga texts, without much commentary – which is a great opportunity for you to get closer to your own interpretation of the translations.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
This helped me understand the culture in which yoga originated, and how the same social structures continue to play out today, often in deleterious ways.
Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm
A thoughtful look at the intersection of an awareness practice and social justice.
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
The distinction made between “clean pain” and “dirty pain” is so helpful. Read to understand more of what this means.
Practice And All Is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, And Healing In Yoga And Beyond
A compassionate and necessary look at the uncomfortable parts of yoga cultures and communities.
The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
This comprehensive book unpacks how deeply trauma affects individuals and society. It covers some pretty heavy topics and is an absolutely worthwhile read.
Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair
Another book that made me think, particularly about defensiveness and what’s in my realm of personal responsibility..
Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice
A well-written, thorough look at where yoga as we know it now came from. A paradigm-shifting read.
a remix of patanjali’s sutras, with commentary and reverie
My favourite translation of the Yoga Sutras.
Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga and Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life
Michael had a unique and approachable way of synthesizing yoga, Buddhism, and social justice in a way that I have yet to come across again. His words still land, after all these years.
Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong
The feeling of the practice really comes through in how this is written: with clarity, kindness, and sincerity.
Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death
Death – we’re all gonna do it! A clear-eyed turning-toward the inevitable.
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