Recommended Reading

Now is the Time to Deepen Your Study and Practice

Deepen Your Study
Modern civilization is at a crossroads. We are facing existential threats, even though we are armed with great knowledge in our sciences. We have the ability to manage these threats if we can find a way to heal the rift that is growing between various sections of society. However, these rifts appear to be growing wider, causing loss of connection (yoga) and diminished dharma, actions that are not in harmony with universal laws.

The future is not certain, and if we look to the past, we have indications of civilizations that have risen, cultivated science and arts, philosophy and spiritual practice, and even then, they have fallen. They are now only a vague echo in the hallways of our deepest ancestral memory.

According to Alain Danielou⁠1, “We are so accustomed to regarding the evolution of humanity as a constant progression, and the development of knowledge over the course of several centuries or even decades as a continuous forward movement, that we sometimes have difficulty realizing that contrary forces also exist which periodically return people to states of incredible barbarism. Important civilizations pass away, their highly developed knowledge suddenly annihilated.”

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{New Book} 10 Things Girls Need Most: To Grow Up Strong and Free

Foster The Wild Child
An excellent new book, 10 Things Girls Need Most: To Grow Up Strong and Free by psychologist Steve Biddulph, explores the trials and traumas of prepubescent and pubescent girls. The book targets parents of girls, however, it’s for anyone who wants to understand the difficulties girls of today face – our women of tomorrow. 

Just as Biddulph’s book Manhood, aimed at fathers and sons, was an informative read for women (I gifted many copies to women to better understand their fathers, sons, brothers, and lovers), his new book offers illuminating insights for women and men of all ages.

For me, the book offers visceral insights into the state of the feminine in current western culture. Regrettably, it ain’t particularly pretty.

 What are the 10 things girls need most?

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Hope: How Yoga Heals the Scars of Trauma

We are pleased to announce the arrival of a new and important book on how yoga heals trauma by Swami Ahimsadhara (Helen Cushing).  Swami Ahimsadhara will teach a course on this topic through Big Shakti’s education platform in 2017. (Register your interest below).

Yoga for Trauma Recovery

Yoga is a powerful and efficient system for changing the brain. This is exactly the need of people suffering from post-traumatic disorder (PTSD). Not all trauma survivors develop PTSD but for those who do, life becomes unbearable, just as the trauma was. Devoid of hope, suicide can feel like the only way to freedom from physical pain and mental anguish. Yoga offers a vital seed of hope.

Although PTSD is generally treated as a psychological disorder it is increasingly recognised as a condition of the entire organism. Hence, body inclusive therapy has an important role to play in full recovery. The need is to heal the nervous system, reset the brain and learn methods for relaxation, mind management and putting the past to rest. As the symptoms of PTSD reduce it becomes possible to re-establish fulfilling relationships with loved ones and interact comfortably with society.

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Living Well Dying Well

Dr Swami Shankardev reflects on a powerful new book about the challenges of ageing and how we regard dying in our society.

I have recently read a wonderful book called Being Mortal and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande, a Professor in both the departments of Health Policy Management and the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. I found the book well written, lucid and riveting.

Professor Gawande describes the problem of ageing in our technically advanced world, in which we have achieved greater quantity of life but perhaps at the expense of greater quality of life. He examines the evolution of the nursing home and describes how, for many people, the experience of dying has become something abhorrent and something to be avoided in conversation because we have seen so many people endure distressing deaths.

Ageing, a taboo topic

Perhaps we are ageing and dying poorly due to the fact that we as a society are unable to discuss or deal with the subject of our own mortality and thus we are not taking intelligent steps to create a better old age and a better death for ourselves.

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