The Yoga Mind: 52 Essential Principles of Yoga Philosophy to Deepen Your Practice, delivers on the promise of the title. Author Rina Jakubowicz is both a sincere teacher as well as a dedicated student of all of the limbs of yoga practice. In this user-friendly tome, she shares a number of practices. Rina organizes them into digestible segments that pair philosophy and practice.
Rina dedicates the book to her guru Swami Parthasarathy, a Vedanta teacher, as well as her husband Eric Paskel, the owner of Electric Soul Yoga in Studio City. Their influences shine through in the book, yet the evocative words and simple practices are Rina’s own.
Related Story: Rina Talks about her practice in LA.
Topics in The Yoga Mind
The 52 principles in The Yoga Mind are organized into seven sections. These are: The Basics, Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, The Eight Limbs of Yoga, Practice, Chakras, and Hatha Yoga Styles. She covers topics such as Santosa (Contentment), Mudras (Gestures), and Pratipaksha Bhavana (Shifting Perspectives). The Yoga Mind also features core concepts including Mindfulness, Mantra (Repetitive Sounds), Sakshi (Witness), Sattva (Purity), Buddhi (the Intellect), and more.
Related Story: Read How Rina engaged with Sakshi in her own life.
Practice and Philosophy
The philosophical segments are paired with practices. For example, Vedanta is described as the scientific knowledge explaining how to have both an active and peaceful life. The accompanying practice that illustrates this point is Vrikshasana: tree pose. The concept Dhyana: Meditation is followed by a journaling practice. Journaling offers a means for reflection on desire, clarity, happiness, and patience.
Rina offers a description of Svadharma that will serve us all. “Svadharma means to live according to one’s own nature, living your truth. When you live your Svadharma, you live in harmony, peace, and acceptance of your purpose regardless of what anyone else thinks.”
Recommending The Yoga Mind
This may just be what you’re looking for if you’d like to read or recommend a book that explains a number of yogic concepts in contemporary language. The Yoga Mind is a collection of 52+ gems of wisdom. It is a book that benefit beginners as well as longtime practitioners.
Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.