Book Review: 'Inside Out Yoga' Offers Roadmap to Inner Peace
In this time of incredible tension and uncertainty, we need an outlet to release our built-up stress now more than ever, and in one short month, a local author will provide a new way to accomplish this vital need with the release of the book Inside Out Yoga. Water Mill resident Sandra K. and co-author Joanne de Simone have created a roadmap to inner peace in a tome filled with more than 30 yoga poses and techniques that guide readers through the simple act of breathing to the more advanced headstand pose and a lesson in the seven chakras.
Each chapter comprises an illustration demonstrating a yoga pose, a few lines to describe the stance’s purpose and a space for self-reflection, where readers can write down the thoughts and feelings experienced while engaged in the pose. Annette Lee’s illustrations of strong, serene women bring a sense of power and body-positivity to readers, while the accompanying description offers a promise of increased wellbeing—from the Fish Pose’s, “Take comfort, disease dissipates,” to the Tortoise Pose’s, “Quell insomnia, awake refreshed.”
The following lines read like a stanza of poetry, both describing how to perform the stance and its effect on the mind, body and soul. Those uninitiated in the art of yoga and experts alike can expect to be overcome with peace and confidence when reading each carefully worded, uplifting line. Finally, the blank space for self-reflection offers the chance for readers to look deep into their soul and locate the tranquility, bliss and mindfulness that have been buried there under life’s countless stressors.
At the end of the reader’s journey, they’re tasked with taking the insights and feelings unearthed to create a vision board of words, photos and drawings that illustrate their inner desires and dreams for this life. Inside Out Yoga offers its readers a level of inner peace unthinkable in today’s stressful world, as well as the guide necessary to maintain that serenity and wellbeing through whatever life throw at us next.
Inside Out Yoga will be available at virtual bookstores by mid-February.