I wanted to introduce my students to yoga and was looking for some good resources for me and them! While I will need to modify a bit, I felt like Yoga Life is full of "the basics" for not-so-familiar people like me! It will be a good tool for my toolbox!

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the digital review copy.

Yoga Life takes you through the different elements of a yoga practice with the goal of helping you craft a personalized, daily routine that you can easily fit into your life. Larkin offers different practices for each section of the practice, guiding you through a worksheet until you've created your own daily yoga ritual. Along the way she offers tips, modifications, and some personal anecdotes about how yoga has helped her in her life.

What I Liked

I appreciated Larkin's approach to building a daily yoga practice that works for you. She highlights that yoga doesn't have to be a lengthy athletic pursuit in order to have benefits, and does a decent job of nodding to yoga's origins along the way.

For the most part, the overall tone was encouraging and realistic. Larkin feels like your personal cheerleader who wants you to get the benefits of yoga and cheers you on, but also isn't here to say you've failed if the only yoga you do in a day is a few deep breaths.

In addition to describing the various poses and practices she suggests, the author includes QR codes for videos that help guide her reader through what she's describing. Yoga can be challenging to figure out from description alone, especially if you're newer to the practice, so I thought this worked well as a supplement to the text.

The personal anecdotes were a nice touch as well, helping us see how Larkin arrived at her approach to daily yoga. I couldn't always relate to them, but it was still nice to get to know the yogi behind the book.

What I Didn't Like

Much of the book relies on the idea of the doshas to help you build your personal practice. There's a quiz in the book to help identify your dominant element, and much of the guidance that comes after refers back to this idea. However, in my opinion the quiz wasn't long enough to actually help you determine your dominant element. There were only five questions, which makes it very easy to wind up with a tie between two elements and one in a very close third.

I wish the quiz had been a few questions longer or that Larkin had offered information on where to go to take a longer quiz if the five questions didn't get you a clear result. I read most of the book not being sure which of my elements was dominant based on this framework, so a lot of the advice that followed didn't feel super relevant.

That was going to honestly be my primary complaint about the book until I got to the adaptations list at the end. Quick content warning for disordered eating behavior here before I continue.

Larkin offers sections on how to adapt your yoga practice if you're aging, pregnant, etc. One of those modification suggestions is what to do if you're trying to lose weight. While she includes a note to say that no one needs to lose weight, every body is a yoga body, etc, she then proceeds with some advice that I found deeply troubling. She suggests to readers that they should get on the mat and practice yoga asana if they're feeling hungry outside of meal times, instead of eating something. This strikes me as super problematic advice, suggesting that readers ignore their body's natural hunger cues and engage in behavior that could lead to some seriously unhealthy attitudes toward food.

If you're skipping the content I warned about above, you can resume reading here.

Final Thoughts

Overall I found this book to be an interesting look at how yoga asana and some other elements of yoga philosophy can fit into a modern, Western life. I enjoyed most of the book and will be taking some of these ideas into my daily practice.

That said, I can only recommend it with a huge caveat that you should not read the section on weight loss in the adaptations section if you've ever had any issues around food. If you skip that and find a more in-depth dosha quiz online, this book could be a great way to introduce a daily yoga practice into your life.

Reviews of yoga books are subject to some of the same complexities that yoga books themselves are: how does a modern, western reader approach a modern, Western book about ancient, Eastern practices? What is appropriate? I respect yoga tremendously and I respect the cultures in which it originated and grew. Positioned as I am, I think Larkin's book is fantastic, a welcoming invitation to the diverse, modern forms yoga can take.

I loved this one... I may be a little biased, though, as I do love yoga, as well.

The first part of the book is where author/yogi Brett Larkin introduces the reader to three basic skills: Nourish Self-Awareness, Choose Transformation, and Relinquish Control. She gives you some (thought) exercises on these, and also compares them to the principles mentioned in the Christian Serenity Prayer.

Next, she introduces you to the different styles of yoga, but also brings up that which style interests you the most might not be the one you NEED the most. This connects to the ayervedic idea of doshas, which she explains in detail (and gives you some more questions to ponder about).

Once you understand these concepts, the rest of the chapters are about creating your own yoga sequence that will bring balance to your life/dosha/energy level on any given day. And the key is that, as your energy level changes from day to day, you can also modify your ritual accordingly. Your sequence is broken down into five parts - Sit (breathe), Warm Up, Move, Stretch, and Meditate. She walks you through various practices or poses that might fit into each section, and guides you on which ones would be better for balancing different doshas.

There are modifications and prop recommendations throughout this entire process, but she offers alternatives for more specific considerations at the end (example: if you're pregnant).

I thought this was a very down-to-earth approach to bring yoga to anyone who may want to practice at home. Even though she uses some ayurvedic principles and a few Sanskrit words, her step by step method of picking which pose comes next in your sequence serves to "demystify" yoga.

Suffice it to say, I absolutely love this book. In fact, I love it so much that I just ordered my own paperback copy on Amazon so I can refer back to the most important parts. It is unlike any other yoga (or self-help) book I have read because it gives the reader options to customize their yoga routine and edit it as needed. I needed those tools to help me along my journey to improving "me".

Larkin wrote this in a conversational tone and I feel like we are sitting together sharing a cup of tea as I learn. There are bits of personal history as well as yoga/meditation history, ways to learn yoga and meditation in a self-paced manner, it promotes self love/acceptance, and is helping me incorporate yoga and meditations throughout the whole day not just time on the mat. I still plan to attend my weekly gentle yoga class, but this book is guiding me to become motivated to explore and learn more about yoga.

I did not know how much I really needed this book until I started reading.

This is a very well done book, I appreciate how it was organized. It was easy to follow and easy to apply to life. The worksheets and photos included were also very useful. A great take on the standard yoga book.

Fun and easy read all about the practice of yoga. It’s not the best one I’ve read on the subject, but it provides a basic history and some easy-to-follow tips and encouragement.

If you are interested in the history of Yoga, then this is for you. A well thought out look at Yoga from beginning to the end.

From a beginner to an advanced session, you will learn something here.

I was not familiar with Uplifted Yoga or its founder, Brett Larkin, before picking up this book. Ms. Larkin spends quite a bit of the front matter explaining her business, and it feels quite sales-y. Still, after that, the book shines as Larkin explains how modern yoga distorts the original intent. We don’t need fancy practices in special places — yoga is meant to be adaptable to whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. The book includes tips on designing a personalized practice and using “yogic tools” like breathwork and meditation and illustrations demonstrating some movement patterns.

This is a solid resource for demystifying yoga, making it accessible to a home audience.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

This was an enjoyable book and gave me the motivation to connect to my practice again. I liked the tips to start a doable practice.

Brett Larkin's Yoga Life radiates with a remarkable sense of clarity and unwavering conviction. Larkin skillfully unveils the extraordinary healing powers of ancient yoga, tailored specifically for those who need it the utmost.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and net galley for the e-ARC of the book.

This book gave me motivation to give another chance to yoga. I liked that Brett emphasized that yoga is for everyone and gives practical advice on how to adjust it to each individual. I loved the quizzes that were quick but the results made me reconsider how I was looking at things.

I don’t often read ARC of yoga type books. Something drew me into the cover. And I was Intrigued! Well I made it only 2 chapters in and knew I needed this book in my hand and on my book shelve for life. I immediately preordered a copy! Do yourself a favor and preorder now! No matter if you do any yoga or not, this book is for you! It will change your life and the way you look at everyday life.

Thanks Netgalley & Grand Central Publishing for this ARC for my honest review.

Yoga Life is both interesting and encouraging. Brett Larkin covers the history and origins of the modern day yoga practice which is a fascinating read in itself.
There is so much information here, but it is presented in an accessible way using short quizzes and worksheets to help establish your personal yoga practice which can be used daily and in all kinds of different ways.
There is something for everyone in this well written book, it will be an addition to my own shelf as well as the library shelf!

I liked much of this book but wouldn't use it for educational purposes as it is linked to monetizing and less appropriate for college level classrooms.

I love yoga and I like Brett Larkin a lot, but I couldn't really get into this one. The introduction was mostly Larkin trying to sell us on her, like she isn't the reason most would pick up this book in the first place. I know she's a talented yogi with a thriving business, I don't need her to tell me about it for 10 pages. Beyond that I didn't think there was anything particularly new or interesting here. This is a good yoga book for beginners, but advanced yogis or people who practice regularly won't find much here.

This was a good book but not what I expected. It is very much a self help book, just using yoga principles. It’s a very good one and there’s a lot of stuff I had never thought of, like doing the opposite of what you’re used to doing (like if you’re a competitive person who’s always on the go then do calming, grounding practices and I need to do ones that give me energy and heat). It doesn’t have the poses though. I suppose it’s for people already familiar with them. It’s very in depth in improving all aspects of your life, just not at all what I was looking for. Additional material if also available by scanning the QR codes in various sections, like guided meditations.

I read a digital version of this book for review.

Very enjoyable yogic read. This had great information for the newbie or the seasoned yogi. As someone who is looking to reconnect with my yoga practice, for health reasons, there were lots of good reminders and tips that will help me get there.