Overview: Take My Yoga connects yoga’s eight major teachings to the call to follow Jesus, exploring how we might do that through yogic wisdom.

Essentially a practical book without reference to doctrine or dogma, Take My Yoga provides insights and practices for supporting different spiritual journeys, particularly Christians exploring their faith in new ways or yogis looking for a deeper practice, or simply a path for people not committed to any religious faith.

Verdict: This new book from author Ian John Spencer entitled Take My Yoga: The Wisdom of Yoga for Christians and Seekers - opens with Take my yoga and learn of me… and explores how to understand Jesus’s life in terms of Jnana (wisdom), Bhakti (devotion), Karma (selfless action), and Raja (meditation).

A powerful, yet dutifully engaging opening to such a genre of book, I myself knew nothing of this understanding and have to say that I was totally enthralled from the first page until the very last.

So what is Yoga, I hear some of you ask? Well, Yoga is an indigenous practice that has origins in Egypt and the Indus Valley — two ancient civilizations that date back over 5,000 years. It is an ancient practice that connects the body, breath, and mind using physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation.

Now, back to this quite brilliant new book, and furthermore, the following chapters provide insight, meditations, and practices based on yoga’s eight major teachings (aka the eight limbs of yoga). Now this I knew a little something about (albeit through the teachings of my first ex-wife), for those eight limbs of yoga are a progressive ethical and spiritual guide outlined by the sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sūtras to help a practitioner achieve inner peace and liberation.

1. Yama (Restraints): Social ethics and moral vows regarding how we interact with the outer world, including non-violence (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), moderation (brahmacharya), and non-possessiveness (aparigraha).

2. Niyama (Observances): Internal disciplines and personal practices focused on self-care and purity, including cleanliness (saucha), contentment (santosha), discipline (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya), and surrender to the divine (isvara-pranidhana).

3. Asana (Posture): The physical postures of yoga, traditionally meant to create a steady, comfortable seat for long periods of meditation.

4. Pranayama (Breath Control): Techniques used to regulate the breath and manage the flow of life-force energy (prana) within the body.

5. Pratyahara (Sense Withdrawal): The practice of turning your attention inward and detaching your senses from external distractions.

6. Dharana (Concentration): Cultivating single-pointed focus and anchoring the mind on a single object or thought.

7. Dhyana (Meditation): A state of uninterrupted, fluid contemplation where the mind remains deeply focused on the object of meditation.

8. Samadhi (Enlightenment): The final stage of complete absorption, unity, and bliss where the individual self merges with the ultimate reality.

Reflecting on his own personal yoga practice, Ian John Spencer not only provides here a detailed, wholly dedicated, yet unforced (meaning you take what you want and you use what you want) set of prose - ones in which he very much hopes can open you up to start feeling how it can deepen your own Christian faith - but the trained Yoga Teacher authorized by the Association for Yoga studies (AYS); and a long-time student and practitioner of Zen also freely imparts some practical wisdom to all contemporary spiritual seekers.

In closing, Take My Yoga is written for anyone who wishes to experience an abundance of life for themselves, their loved ones, and indeed their neighbors - that is, all beings everywhere!

About the Author - After a short career in the Royal Navy, and a rather longer one in I.T., Ian was accepted, trained and ordained into the Anglican Church in 2005. He remained in full-time ministry until 2023 when he retired. After serving his curacy at Great Malvern Priory, he became Priest and Warden of the award-winning Holland House Retreat House in the Diocese of Worcester.

As well as managing the business, Ian also created and ran retreats on Christian mystics, Yoga, Zen and Contemplative prayer. He’s a trained Yoga Teacher authorized by the Association for Yoga studies (AYS) and a long-time student and practitioner of Zen. He lives in Worcester, UK.

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