The Woman’s Yoga Book: Asana and Pranayama for All Phases of the Menstrual Cycle, by Bobby Clennell — Book Review
Being a Yoga enthusiast, I keep exploring yoga books and I have some inclination towards menstruation, its process and I believe it shapes up the physical, mental and spiritual health of a girl.
So when I stumbled upon this book that was serving both of my interests, I quickly added it to my cart, and I would say I was not at all disappointed.
The book starts with a very sensitive topic of how we have been neglecting our menstruation cycle, and adding to the misery is stress, pollutants, junk food and advice from many women daily’s — to go to the gym, get pampered in a parlor, and not to rest/meditate during menstruation.
And what she says is -
How can we as women rediscover our unique creative power and live holistically without compromising our recently won and crucially important place in society? In The Woman’s Yoga Book, I do not ask you to return to the repressive attitudes of the prefeminist era or to abandon your independence for a life of continual pregnancy and childbirth. I suggest instead that feminism take into consideration the biological reality of womanhood. My intention is to offer all women — whether they have children or not, whether they have careers or not — the teachings of a wise, age-old system of healing that is ours for the taking: yoga.
Indeed, that’s a revelation’s, working, running to match up to the speed of this fast-paced life, we have indeed forgotten some of the natural things that make us woman. And while I remember How I used to hate my periods in teenage, these days I simply love them and wait for them on what “experience” it has to offer every month.
Then the Author narrates her journey, when she discovered Yoga in 1973, and how she also faced the pressure of juggling the demands of family and work, and how Yoga helped her achieve courage, physical and emotional strength and confidence.
After the initial introduction, Bobby narrates the science of menstruation and what traditional and modern approach has to say about it. She also dives deep into a woman cycle of menarche to menopause and that’s an interesting story, every woman/girl should read.
Then the story of yoga starts in her chapter — How Yoga can Help Women? I loved this chapter because it connects body science to yoga. The author cites many pieces of research to support her argument, that connected my core of this book.
The rest of the book is all about the Yoga asanas for a specific time of a woman menstruation cycle — like what asanas to be done when period is over, Bobby states that as “New beginning” or while you are in your periods, how to practice effortlessly.
The book also helps in offering asana’s for PMS issues like — Migraines, Mood swings, bloating, breast tenderness etc. The author has also dictated the asana sequence for scanty and prolonged periods.
So, in short, it covers almost all of the aspect of a menstruation cycle that eventually means handling of womanhood.
With the knowledge and wisdom this book has to offer, I consider it as a classic and would surely be keeping a hard copy for myself
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I am a Reiki Practitioner, a yoga enthusiast, and a firm believer in Keep Faith. Do follow for more updates.
