Niyamas

Individual discipline; Rules of conduct towards oneself

Sauca - cleanliness
Santosa - contentment
Tapas - austerity
Svadhyaya - self-study
Isvarapranidhana - devotion or surrender to God
Astikya - belief
Danam - charity
Siddhanta Vakya Sravanam - listening to established doctrines
Hri - modesty
Mati - intellectual faith, devotion
Japa - recitation of mantras
Vrata - religious observances


from Yoga a Gem for Women
by Geeta Iyengar

New additions to the bookshelf

Exercises for Joints & Glands, as taught by Swami Rama, is a good book to take a look at if you need some very gentle exercises and stretches. The exercises in it are divided up by areas of the body (i.e. Hands & Wrists, Toro & Pelvis, etc.) making it easy to look up a specific stretch when needed. It's a fairly short book; easy to work through it in a couple of hours.

Gregor Maehle has written another wonderful book, Ashtanga Yoga The Intermediate Series. It's similar to his first book, Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy, with detailed explanations of the asanas, and illustrations of the bones and muscles. One of my favorite parts is a chapter that is dedicated to the mythology of the pose names.

Another book that I'm enjoying is Chants of a Lifetime by Krishna Das. I'm almost halfway through and so far he's written about his time in India with Neem Karoli Baba and his discovery and practice of kirtan.