Other helpful Christian yoga links, classes and teacher training programs:
Manresa Jesuit Center, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Christians Practicing Yoga
Outstretched In Worship, Alabama
Yahweh Yoga, Arizona
Holy Yoga, Arizona - Excellent DVDs for purchase!
Book: Yoga Alternatives, Lesson One
Yoga Devotion, Minnesota
Lourdes Wellness Center, New Jersey
Clothing and merchandise:
In my CafePress store you will find many different Soul Stretch shirts, outfits and even bags suitable for wearing to class, or just for a leisurely day around town.
Click here to Shop for Soul Stretch Merchandise
Book and music suggestions to deepen your Christian Yoga practice:
Holy Yoga
An excellent resource for the Christian Yoga practioner. Also, check out Brook's DVDs available through her website Holyyoga.net
My Peace I Give You
I just discovered Tami Briggs and her wonderful healing harp. To find sincere peace, this album is perfect.
Yoga For Christians by Susan Bordenkircher
When God gave Susan Bordenkircher the vision for her yoga-based Christian ministry, Outstretched in Worship, she truly believed she was stepping into uncharted territory. And while God has used her ministry as a pioneer of sorts in this movement, she was amazed to see the level of interest and involvement that already existed. She quickly learned that there are approximately 15 million people in this country practicing yoga, and fully 50-60 percent of them say they come from a church background. In fact, many churches, Christian retreats, and denominational conventions are incorporating yoga as one creative approach to cultivating a quiet, receptive spirit and deep prayer life.
After producing several top-selling Christ-centered yoga instructional videos, Susan now brings her unique form of exercise, stretching, and prayerful praise to a market eager for yoga that is centered around Christ and not eastern forms of meditation. She has even included a full-length instructional workout DVD for readers to follow along with!
Yoga Prayer DVD
Practice along with a Christian yoga founder, Father Tom Ryan.
BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness by Laurette Willis
An Invitation to Christian Yoga by Nancy Roth
From the Publisher: Although yoga is increasingly popular as a source of spiritual and physical well being, few Christians know that it is also a unique way to worship God through the ancient practices and disciplines of body prayer. Nancy Roth's An Invitation to Christian Yoga offers an introduction to the practice of yoga as a Christian discipline of prayer, followd by simple poses and exercises that are clearly explained and helpfully illustrated by line drawings. Roth offers a short biblical text, often from the psalms, to accompany each pose as basis for meditation.
This books is ideal for beginners as well as more advanced practitioners who wish to incorporate yoga into their life of daily prayer.
Spiritual Exercises by Nancy Roth
From the Publisher
"For just as strolling, walking, and running are bodily exercises, so spiritual exercises are methods of preparing the soul," wrote St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises. In her homage to this classic, Nancy Roth offers a rationale and overview of contemporary prayer and practices that prepare the soul in the here and now through a variety of exercises that honor the link between "body" and "spirit" and lead the body to express itself in prayer.
To help us in our quest to integrate physical well-being with spiritual practice, Roth introduces and leads us through many different disciplines, including Pilates, Tai Chi, yoga, dance, strength training, and aerobic exercise. After summarizing their origins, she describes each discipline clearly, with three or four examples, and then discusses how this particular form of exercise provides a metaphor for the spiritual journey. Other sections discuss breathing and posture, alignment, progressive relaxation, and message, while the final chapter helps us think through the different offerings presented here and decide which we might incorporate into our own lives of prayer.
Prayer of Heart and Body by Thomas Ryan
If you're looking for clear links between Christian faith and the practice of yoga and meditation, this book is for you. Prayer of Heart and Body will help you integrate teachings from the Christian contemplative tradition into your practice and encourage a new appreciation for the role of the body in prayer. "Yoga," says the author, is "meditation in motion, a way to pray with one's whole being--body, mind and spirit. It was originally designed to prepare people for sitting meditation." The two work powerfully together.
Quoting extensively from such authors as Ignatius, John of the Cross, Rahner and Merton, Ryan explains what is distinctive about Christian meditation compared to some eastern forms, and looks at reincarnation and kundalini energy in the light of Christian faith, respecting the authenticity of other world religions and drawing from their wisdom traditions where appropriate. "Through this, Ryan integrates all that is beautiful, wise and holy in other traditions," says Jean Vanier in his Foreword, for a book that is "unifying and pacifying."
The final section gives explicit instructions on beginning yoga. Using easy-to-follow diagrams, it covers breathing exercises, warm-up exercises, and the postures, including benefits, precautions and contraindications for each. In all, the basic aim of this beautifully written book is to assist the millions of Christians who today are practicing meditation or yoga or both, to consciously integrate them into their Christian spirituality as effective instruments for their personal development in prayer and daily living.
Reclaiming the Body in Christian Spirituality by Thomas Ryan
This small, spirited book examines the role of the human body in the Christian spiritual life. It addresses those who cycle, swim, jog, dance, practice yoga, engage in manual labor, care for the earth, and make love. It reclaims a positive, healthy attitude toward our individual bodies, toward the social body, toward the body of believers who make up the Church, and toward the earthbody of the natural world. Fr. Thomas Ryan, as editor and contributor, leads with an introduction and in two subsequent chapters lays the groundwork for a positive spirituality of the body, providing examples of embodied faith expression in Eastern and Western Christian practice, as well as in the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish traditions. Exercise and rest, fasting and feasting, acts of corporal mercy, the sexual expression of love are lifted up as the body language of faith in daily living. James Wiseman provides a short overview of historical Christian attitudes toward the body. Casey Rock reflects on her own delicate dance with Christianity and yoga. Jim Dickerson challenges us to integrate the social and political dimensions of the gospel into personal prayer practices. James Hall reflects on the embodiment of Christ in the world of matter and how care for the earth is integral to faith. Fitness buffs, outdoor enthusiasts, yoga practioners, and political activitists will resonate with this positive spirituality rooted in the body.
Meditative Prayer by Richard Foster
A delightful little pocket guide to the Christian history of meditation.
Get in the Gap by Wayne W. Dyer
The practice of meditation takes us on a fabulous journey into the gap between our thoughts, where all the advantages of a more peaceful, stress-free, healthy, and fatigue-free life are available, but which are simply side benefits. The paramount reason for daily meditation is to get into the gap between our thoughts, and make conscious contact with the creative energy of life itself. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer explains the soul-nourishing meditation technique for making conscious contact with God, which the ancient masters have told us about.
Stretch and Pray by Murray D. Finck
Body by God by Ben Lerner
In Body by God, Dr. Lerner offers a comprehensive plan for getting in touch with our bodies in four areas: nutrition, exercise, stress management, and time management. His "5-in-5" plan is designed to instill the good habits that will lead to optimum health benefits. Readers will learn how to get in shape with 10-minute workouts, reprogram the way they react to stress, and more. "Owner's Manual Tips" give specific ways to apply the material to real life. Our bodies are "fearfully and wonderfully made." With the help of Body by God, readers will learn how to achieve the highest level of performance from God's handiwork.
A Walk In The Forest
Beautiful guitar and natural sounds of the forest come together to create an amazingly peaceful album.
Acoustic Hymns
Your favorite hymns on acoustic guitar - sometimes uplifting, sometimes calming, always beautiful.
Prayerful Moods
Another acoustic beauty!
Our Lady of the Guitar
This is my latest favorite album for rejuvinating yoga and relaxing prayer. If you like Spanish guitar, you will love this disc!
Albums by Rivertribe
Four Australian musicians, indigenous and non-indigenous, who are based in Melbourne, Australia. The ancient sound of the didgeridoo is overlaid with a variety on international flutes and percussion. Outstanding, original Christian music!
Yoga Journal Magazine
From the Publisher: Your guide to more healthful living. Stretch your body, mind, and soul with Yoga Journal. Whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced practitioner of Yoga, you'll find plenty of useful information in every issue that is aligned with your needs.
Itsy Bitsy Yoga by Helen Garabedian
If you've been searching for an excellent way to bond with your baby and improve his or her health, Itsy Bitsy Yoga is the solution you've been looking for. Helen Garabedian, a certified instructor in yoga and infant massage, has developed over seventy yoga postures and thirty-five series for moms and dads to enjoy with their growing babies. You don't need any previous yoga experience. Learn the many benefits of yoga, posture by posture, in this accessible guide, with seventy beautiful black-and-white photos, at-a-glance reference charts, and memorable Itsy Bitsy Yoga rhymes.
