Becca invites into her home for a private tour of her vast yoga library. Go behind the scenes with Becca as she shares her dog-eared favorites, her treasured top shelf books and tips for acquiring and curating just the collection. Listeners will get a sneak peek into the “must haves” yoga teachers will need throughout their career.
Podcasting Producer at WPRK Studios in Winter Park, Florida.
What is Yoga Teacher Talk?
Yoga Teacher Talk (YTT) is authenic yoga conversation with your favorite yoga mentors, trend-setting yoga teachers, and wellness experts who are changing the paradym on traditional instruction. YTT invites you add to your 200 or 500-level yoga teacher training and elevate your presence as an instructor. Host Becca Schmidt, E-RYT5000/YACEP, has more than 20 years experience on the lead mat, having taught more than 10,000 classes, workshops and wellness retreats. This show, formerly, The Language of Yoga, offers a fun, engaging platform for yoga teachers of all branches of yoga to gain confidence and continue their YTT for years to come.
17_Becca_ LanguageofYoga_mixdown
===
Becca: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Language of Yoga. I'm your host, Becca. Let's start today's episode with a big question. Are you an ardent reader? Do you love the sound and the smell of your local library? Do you eagerly await your book club meeting? And not for the wine, but for the discussion? Then if that is you, today's episode is for you.
Put your book down, turn up your volume. Here we go. I'm a big reader, and I love to surround myself by books. In fact, I think I have books in pretty much every single room of my house. Books on my bedside table, in my living room, dining room, kitchen, guest room. Books on the back patio. I don't think I have a book in the laundry room, but I'm not sure there, there might be.
I definitely have a book in my car [00:01:00] right now. And I'm actually even that person that a lot of people don't even want to be. And that's, I'm the person that puts books in the guest bathroom, inspirational books and such. But my favorite place in my whole house. is my home library in my home yoga studio. So my yoga studio at home is about a 12 by 12 foot space.
And I'm trying to give you a little picture of what that space looks like. So that's the size of it. I have two beautiful windows. I have a, A desk and a big, huge wall of books. , it's a wall to wall, floor to ceiling bookshelf. Over by the windows I have a cat tree for my cat Milo. He spends a lot of time sitting in the cat tree just basking in the sun.
Sometimes he's in the windowsill. But this is really such a cozy spot for me. And I think because there are so many books there, I just [00:02:00] feel really in this space that, , feels so natural and, and feels so happy for me. So The books on this bookshelf, I want to actually sort of invite you into that space and walk you through what's on what shelf so you can visualize.
Remember, I've been teaching for close to 21 years now, so I've had a lot of time to collect these books, to sort of curate the good books. And those are the ones I've kept over the years.
So today I'm inviting you into my studio to peruse the sacred library of Becca. So come on in. Imagine that you can feel and maybe even smell the books and we'll take some of those books off the shelf. Let's start with A for anatomy. So anatomy takes up the entire, , well, I wouldn't say the, the [00:03:00] whole left hand side, but, but the left hand side lower shelf, which is actually quite large.
The anatomy books. are really some of my favorite. I would not call myself an anatomy geek. I hear that term sometimes like, nah, that's kind of not necessary to call myself a geek, but I really enjoy those books. I want to start with some of those anatomy books that you might be really familiar with if you've been through a teacher training, maybe in the past 20 years or so. So, do you remember a book called The Anatomy Coloring Book or The Trail Guide to the Body by Andrew Beale?
How about the book called The Key Muscles of Yoga by Ray Long? Is that bringing back memories for you? So if you know these three textbooks, you'll agree with me about the anatomy coloring [00:04:00] book. So, I think this anatomy coloring book is way overrated. The line art is very two dimensional. The words, I'm telling you, the words in there are like a four point font.
Very, very difficult to read. And the idea behind the book is that if you color something with a very finely sharpened colored pencil, you'll remember it. But in reality, you are trying to color these lines. Absolutely. Teeny, tiny lines. And for me, I'm not very artistic. So I actually, , got so frustrated with this book.
, I did learn something I would say, but I think I really, the point was sort of missed on me. I got kind of wrapped up in how bad I was coloring and oh, I colored a muscle green when I'm supposed to color muscles red, I'm supposed to color bones, an [00:05:00] aqua color. So we're orange at, so I, I feel like I.
, it was not a very good target customer for that type of a book. And then I was just thinking about in that same book, you're also supposed to color these teeny tiny little dots that I think are like neurons or something like pinheads. So you can see why I was pretty frustrated with that. So my vote is some of those anatomy coloring books, unless you are just completely enamored by these and you think you'll use them forever and ever and ever.
I would take my anatomy course, do the work, pass your exam, and then throw that puppy in the recycle bin. I have literally never opened my anatomy coloring book since then. In fact, it might even be today that I put mine in the recycle bin, or maybe I can donate it somewhere. Anyway, the book called The Key Muscles of Yoga by [00:06:00] Ray Long.
And another book called Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kamenoff and Amy Matthews are my go to books. These are the books that are dog eared. These are the books that have highlighter marks in them. These are the books that have notes in the, the margins. And by the way, if anybody ever tells you that you can't mark up your own book, that's just, that's just BS.
Don't mark up a library book or certainly don't, , mark up a book in a bookstore. But my gosh, if you've paid for that book and it would help you to, , underline and highlight and use that book, spill Coffee on it, it doesn't matter. It's your book. So even though the two books I just mentioned are absolutely gorgeous, I have dogeared them.
I've used them so. The book I really, really like is that one, The Key Muscles of Yoga by Ray Long. He is an orthopedic surgeon who [00:07:00] has studied Hatha yoga for decades. And he was actually trained by BKS Iyengar, you know, who's a A legend, of course, in our industry, , the key muscles of yoga covers everything from terminology that describes relationships to the various locations of the body.
Becca: So he also, he has a really. , nice little page that explains the long bones versus flat bones and vertebral bones, , and why they're shaped for their specific functions. So that's my favorite page. It's, it's dog eared for sure. And then that Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kamenoff and Amy Matthews is a really beautifully illustrated book that details the skeletal muscular joint actions for.
65 different poses. So as you flip through the book, you're looking at literally 65 poses and which muscles and tendons and, and certainly you can [00:08:00] identify the bones as well that are actively integrated in these different poses. And I think that is extremely helpful. And the way this book is illustrated, makes a lot of sense.
So in case , you're working on your class and all you need is just like to, to pull a quick book off the shelf and just reference a page that you know is there or that already has a sticky note in it. It just makes it a lot easier.
easier than hunting down a YouTube video. So in that anatomy category, my very favorite anatomy teacher is a woman named Tiffany Cruickshank. So she has not written a lot of books, but , she's, she's done a lot of educational videos. I do actually have one of her books right in front of me called Optimal Health for a Vibrant Life.
And it's not so much a straight on anatomy book, but it also talks about, , the, , integration of what [00:09:00] you eat, how you breathe, the whole mix and how that affects the body and then how the body does its yoga. So I'm a super, super big fan of Tiffany. Shout out to Tiffany..
So. That was my bottom left shelf. Let's go up over to the right side of my big beautiful bookshelf. Those are my yoga philosophy books. So goodness gracious, where do I begin? Actually, there's more than one shelf with my philosophy books. So the philosophy of yoga is definitely the most complex and difficult, uh, sector.
Certainly when you Become a yoga teacher. And then, , you're handed a big gigantic copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or you're handed all the yoga sutras or the Upanishads. And they say, Oh yeah, you're supposed to teach this too. And then you want to do a [00:10:00] about face and walk right on out of there because we're really not prepared to teach yoga philosophy.
That's definitely something that we would want to intentionally dive into, but I don't want you to be scared of yoga philosophy because it is, , it's fascinating for one it's ancient, it's very exciting and it really does drive a lot of why we teach yoga. Some of , the philosophies and the principles and the truths , are important for us to be aware of.
So I think what I'm trying to say here is, you don't have to dive into the ancient scriptures, right? The ones that have been translated from Sanskrit into English, and then it still doesn't make a lot of sense for you. So what I recommend with, , yoga philosophy is to find some books that are extrapolating a lot of these concepts.
, there's a book that [00:11:00] I'm just a big, big, big fan of, and I'll talk about it actually a little bit later. In a second, but the heart of yoga and that's written by TKV Desikachar. And that Desikachar is actually typically one of the textbooks that a lot of yoga teacher training programs require.
Desikachar actually talks a lot about the yoga philosophy, not only in the context of Ancient history, but certainly in 21st century, , yoga principles and dynamics. He is, , an incredible writer for one, , that helps that you can actually understand, , in this particular book, , Desi Kachar has, Taken the, , the yoga sutras one by one and, , he actually prints them all within the book.
The sutras are actually sort of one liners, if you will. So they are not, , anything you have to really dive [00:12:00] in to and memorize cause he helps you understand those. So I really, if you're just introducing yourself. To the ancient philosophy of history, start with some modern approaches to how we can use the yoga philosophy in, in the 21st century.
So the Bhagavad Gita is another one of these big, scary pieces of, , text that is really I would say, , but it's a beautiful story. It's a, , long poem actually between, , Krishna, , the God figure and Arjuna. I have found just in my searching that there are really only a handful of books that have helped me with this one.
So, . It's called The Illustrated Bhagavad Gita by Rantor Prime. And so this book, , [00:13:00] underscore the word illustrated. I like pictures. So it is illustrated with actually not just illustrations, but, , lots of photography that, , of, , ancient art and things that help you kind of understand this text a little bit better.
So, Iyengar going back to, , BKS Iyengar. He is He's, , one of the fathers of modern yoga for, for sure. So he has written, , many books that will help you kind of tie in the ancient yoga philosophy with, , what we're talking about today. His books are called the core of the yoga sutras, , light on yoga.
That's a very popular one, light on Pranayama and light on life. really magically, I would say magically thread these ancient yoga principles with , how we approach yoga today.
MUSIC TRANSITION
---
Becca: Let's move on to another one of my shelves here. I have a really nice [00:14:00] collection of autobiographies and biographies of various yogis. You know, you've heard of the autobiography of a yogi for sure, and I definitely recommend you have that copy.
They're pretty easy to come by. You can buy them on, , a books or thrift books or any online bookseller. So definitely get yourself one of those, the autobiography of a yogi. But my favorite book about a yogi is called The Goddess Pose and the subhead is The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the woman who helped bring yoga to the West.
And it's a story of a woman who is an actress, a dancer, a yogi. , and the book also says a globetrotter who brought yoga to America and to the rest of the, the, , Western world. So in the 1930s, , she's Russian by the way, , her name is Eugenia Peterson and [00:15:00] she changed her name to Indra Devi and she traveled, , from Russia to Berlin.
And then, , I should say, by the way, , Berlin, and she was very interested in sharing her yoga discipline, her yoga practice with, , the United States. And so she went straight to Hollywood. She worked with Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, and. And she helped popularize yoga as somewhat of a fitness routine back in the thirties.
, I love her story. It's absolutely fascinating. Some of the other books I have on my shelf that include sort of these personal stories. I love an author, , called Max Strom. He wrote a life worth breathing. That is a beautiful book on so many levels.
He has things that are very quotable in there. , some of the other sort of famous yogis of our [00:16:00] past couple of decades include Rodney Yee. , Baron Baptiste, , even David Swenson, they have books where they talk about their yoga journey. , they personalize, even if their book is sort of about the postures or the breath work, they give you a lot of, , personality in them.
So I would highly recommend some of those books. So I'm not going to be able to talk about all of my shelves today just for timing, but I will sort of capsulate that the rest of my shelves, I have many, many books on meditation. I have books on the chakras, the yamas and the yamas, which are kind of more of the philosophical genre.
But I also have books on running a yoga business. I have a more nuanced categories, yoga for women, yoga for athletes, yoga for new moms, prenatal yoga, yoga [00:17:00] for over 40, yoga for over 50, over 60, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So if you are exploring a particular area, even if you don't quite have a name for what you are.
interested in, allow yourself to peruse a, , a giant bookstore and then just sort of browse and see what piques your interest and buy that book. The books, you know, there are authors behind these books that are being paid when you buy their work, one, and then two, you're buying from a bookstore, , and they need your money.
And some of the authors I think are just people who I respect. , very, very much, especially people who are, , just absolute experts in their field. , with prenatal yoga, that's one of them. And even the chakras and the mudras, , people who spend a greater part of their, their careers and certainly, , their interests in , their teachings and , [00:18:00] their life skills are around these particular smaller genres, if you will.
The best places I've found to buy these yoga books are maybe not what you think. I don't just drop in at, , I certainly don't, I don't make my first place Amazon. I like the tactile experience. My very favorite bookstore on the planet is Powell's Book in Portland, Oregon. Their yoga section is at the end of this video. Out of hand.
It is gigantic. They have hundreds of yoga books. So I, if you have, if you live in that area at all, make sure if you go to Powell's for sure, check out their, their yoga book selection. And other places I think can be very interesting are, estate sales. Sometimes you might find a book that maybe it's a historical book.
I've been extremely lucky. I found , five to 10 [00:19:00] books that interest me, , in the yoga sort of general world, , from estate sales. And it might just be a book about. I don't know, energy healing or crystals or, , something that sort of a little bit of an offshoot, but , it's sort of in that, , my general wheelhouse.
So I picked those books up as well. There's a, I think it's a semi annual sale if I'm not, if I'm not wrong about this in Gainesville where my mom lives and. , that is a discards from many, many libraries around, I don't know if they're from around the state. I believe they are from the university system and the community libraries.
And there are typically, , more than a hundred books in this yoga category. So I surf through them. I try to go to that book sale as much as I can and definitely, , from the yoga festivals you might go to from. , the Southwest [00:20:00] Institute of Healing Arts is where I graduated from my first 200 hour yoga certification.
They had a great bookstore. So look in some of these more nuanced places. Most yoga studios have, , if their yoga studio owner has written a book, buy that book, get the studio owner to sign it for you. Be involved in those local authors. , they just are. , sometimes these overlooked books because they aren't necessarily, , pushed up at the top of , the sales catalog on Amazon.
So go a little bit deeper when you're finding these books.
MUSIC TRANSITION
---
Becca: All right. Last thing, how do I discard a book? How do I get rid of it? How do I decide I'm done? So , I'm pretty, pretty open to loaning my books out. , some of them I will say that's a permanent loan. I don't need to see it again. Others I am, , etching my name and, and asking them to sign a contract and a [00:21:00] deposit.
So I get that book back. But, you know, You know, some of the books that you might decide that you're going to go ahead and, you know, donate to the thrift store or donate, you know, somewhere. , I don't like to throw them in the garbage except for that anatomy book. Anyway, so this would be books that are reprinted, you know, maybe you have a 10 year old copy and, and you want to get.
Last year's copy or the 2024 copy. So, you know, an out of date edition is one reason. And another one, this is my favorite reason, I've outgrown the book. So when I first started teaching yoga, I might get these books that are like how to do a sun salutation. Well, I've. I've. Taught 10, 000 classes in my career.
So I'm pretty sure I know how to do a sun salutation. So that's a book I no longer need. So look at your library.
And just see what [00:22:00] you still want to hang on to and what maybe, , you can pass on to others. All right. So if you haven't tuned out, if you haven't hung up on me by now, you are a kindred spirit. You are a reader. You're one of, one of my kind. Thank you for staying on the podcast with me. And I hope you enjoyed my tour of the library.
Outro Music
---
Becca: Thanks for listening. You know, I love a two way conversation. So if you are willing to reach out to me with your comments or suggestions, please get a hold of me at my email address. It's Becca, B E C C A at blue moon. Be sure to check out the show notes for today's show. I'll be listing the books that I mentioned today.
And if you want a really comprehensive list of all the books that I recommend over the years, especially when I'm mentoring [00:23:00] the newer yoga teachers in my program, I give them a list of books. So that would be on my website at bluemoon. yoga. Thanks again for listening.
