STANDING, SITTING, WALKING, RUNNING
How your Posture affects your Mind
JENNY BEEKEN
and Patricia Lopez
A book designed to help each of us rediscover our natural posture and so develop calm and comfort. Through simple adjustment we develop an upright spine on legs and feet that are active and easy, a head that is aligned and alive, and an open heart.
Although it carries a yoga perspective this book is written so as to be suitable for gym users, the elderly, young people, commuters and air travellers alike. Our habits with chairs, cars, computers and the rest encourage the body to collapse - and the mind with it. The detailed instructions and drawings enable each part of the body to play its part in waking up to a wholeness that is totally transformative for everyone.
The four sections of the book implied by the title, supplemented by brief contributions on cycling, climbing and swimming, lead into a profound description of how meditation relates to each of the featured activities, including running and walking, and can be used with them.
ISBN 978-1-905398-33-1
£9.99
Buy Standing, Sitting, Walking, Running GBP
Buy Standing, Sitting, Walking, Running USD
About the Authors
Jenny Beeken is a yoga teacher known throughout the UK and widely abroad. She spent several years following the teaching of B.K.S. Iyengar before moving to found her own school, the Inner Yoga or Yoga of the Heart School. Her main influence is the Italian teacher Vanda Scaravelli, who worked with Yehudi Menuhin and J. Krishnamurti.
Jenny is accomplished in yoga therapy, and has made a speciality of how to teach yoga in pregnancy.
Pachi Lopez is both running coach and yoga teacher and trained with Jenny.
A hallmark of Inner Yoga is the teaching of 'yoga awareness' - in order to 'wake up' the body and mind.
Launch events:
at Wheel of Yoga Congress, Warwick Univ., 15 April 2016
at One Tree Books, 7 Lavant St, Petersfield, Hants. GU32 3EL, 20 April 2016
At Cafe Mila, 1 Angel Court, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1DT, 20 May 2016
Reviews
The very first words in the Introduction to this book are: `We have within us the power to change our posture dramatically and this will transform our minds.`
This little book is truly inspirational. (It fits neatly into my handbag and its clear format and illustrations make it really easy to refer to as a constant reminder - which is a good idea as our bodies get into habits of posture which can be hard to change!) Colum gave me a copy for my birthday, and as soon as I started reading it I felt my mother, Joan Hodgson, very close, and as it were, reading it with me. I remembered that the very first book she wrote for the White Eagle Publishing Trust (long out of print now) was entitled `Health, Poise and Happiness`. Joan was very keen on posture and often as children Rose and I were told to `stand up straight`. In fact, we used to practice walking with a book on our heads - but that was just for fun! Our skill was nothing like the ladies I have since met in Asia and Africa...their poise is incredible! My mother linked physical poise with spiritual poise, and I am sure she was right. Just standing up straight can help us connect more easily with our shining body of light and its perfect posture.
I don`t think we often think of standing as a skill, or even walking, and as for sitting...well, that`s just something we do! So it is indeed an eye opener to read what Jenny shares in her book. She puts it all very simply, and, as I have said, with the clear illustrations too, nothing is complicated. The thing is, we just have to get into the habit of doing it!
Another thing I love about the book is that Jenny has pitched it to appeal to all levels of interest. I believe it will prove to be a most helpful `textbook` for yoga teachers and for experienced yoga students, but also helpful for people like myself who would simply like to improve their posture and feel younger, more flexible and healthier in the process, as well as more `mindful`. This has become a much used word nowadays and can be a way of describing a form of yoga meditation practice - and there is a very helpful section towards the end of Jenny`s book about this. Also intriguing is Patricia`s writing about meditation in connection with running. But for me, one of the most powerful aspects of this profoundly helpful little book, is the way Jenny encourages all her readers to be more aware, more mindful of their bodies. We can truly use our minds to help us love and nurture, reinvigorate and realign everything in the `temple of our physical bodies` ... our toes, our feet, our legs, our hips’ our spine, our heads....everything...so that we can stand and sit and walk (and maybe run - some of us!) with joy and freedom.
(PS...and if, for whatever reason, physical movement is dificult or impossible...don`t forget in your body of light you can do anything. So it is possible to use your meditation times to visualise your body being able to do these things. Because of the power of thought, this could also subtly and gradually help the physical body too!)
Jenny Dent, in the White Eagle magazine Stella Polaris