Praise for Vital Yoga:  A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers

“Meta Chaya Hirschl’s contemporary journey through the wonder of yoga gently nudges superficial fads int perspective and shares refreshingly relevant insights. Vital Yoga’s illustrations,  poetic imagery, and key texts enrich the inner life of both the teacher and student of yoga:  students will inhabit poses with feeling and energy, while teachers will gain pragmatic advice on teaching. An aesthetically beautiful book, but above all . . . a book permeated with explorative joy!”

—Liz Lark
London-based yoga teacher

“A book with plenty of heart and lots of information.”

—Nicolai Bachman
Author of The Language of Yoga

“Vital Yoga supports yoga students on their search for inner freedom. Meta Chaya Hirschl blends her life experiences with the lightness that only wisdom can give. She takes the reader by the hand along the many paths of yoga tradition.”

—Rossella Baroncini
Florence, Italy–based yoga teacher
and longtime student of Vanda Scaravelli

“Having been a student of yoga for fifty years and teaching for twenty, and buying countless books on yoga, I finally stopped buying them, since it seemed there was nothing new to be said. When Vital Yoga fell into my hands, I read it cover to cover in one sitting. It is a gem! If a person could only have one book on yoga, Meta’s would be the one! It is an invaluable resource for both students and teachers (no matter how many trainings they may have attended.)”

—Barbara Luboff
Santa Fe, New Mexico–based yoga teacher

Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers is a beautiful, well-articulated volume of information. Hirschl’s preface section immediately grabs the reader with her love and passion on the subject as she describes how to apply yoga for a more holistic and joy-filled life. She also tackles some misconceptions on what it is and what it isn’t.

Vital Yoga is written with a gentle, yet structured style while the author’s genuine enthusiasm is evident throughout. I even loved the format – no slipcover, open and uncluttered pages, and a heading text font which was easy on the eyes yet reflected a hint of Eastern flair. The book will appeal to both new and experienced students and teachers of Yoga as it can be used as a how-to as well as a reference. Vital Yoga is simply the perfect one-stop shop for anyone in search of all things Yoga!

—Vicki Landes
Reader Views, www.readerviews.com

Vital Yoga has everything a yoga student or teacher should know and more. It is informative, well resourced and written with apparent love and joy. It features a panoramic view of the history of yoga, with sections on the mat and off the mat. …A very comprehensive and beautiful book.

—Australian Yoga Life,  June-August 2010

Vital Yoga will take care of you in all of the ways your body has always wanted. And then when the body has had its attention, the mind is waiting for you to take it on a trip: sitting meditation in a lot of ways is what yoga is all about. After all of the postures have been expressed there’ll come a day when you will realize it’s time to sit.

Meta’s book has pages & pages of postures and photos of postures and personally I learn a lot by looking at pictures. She has graphs and diagrams and maps to help articulate historical points and then she has quotes from many of the sages from all the thousands of years. And recipes to nourish your physical body. And then she has instructions on how to meditate.

Yoga provides a systematic process of discovering the life we carry inside ourselves. And Meta’s book is a good place to start practicing this system. A beautifully made book, sewn together, the strongest binding, a spine that opens fully onto the floor in front of your mat, broken up into chapters that are concise and eloquent and joyous. Not one iota of whatever is the opposite of authentic (I think I just invented a new variety of double-negative!)

—Mark Weber
Metropolis Media Group

“Meta Chaya Hirschl’s enthusiasm and love for yoga shine throughout these pages. Modern and accessible, bridging to the ancient truths, she reaches out to those of us who are yogis and yet don’t realize it, those of us who want to grow yet may have been put off by modern-day stereotypes about this ancient science…[The book] also includes a therapeutic view of yoga, which may expand our view of health care for future generations.”

—Amadea Morningstar, MA, RPP
Author of The Ayurvedic Cookbook and founder of
Ayurveda Polarity and Yoga Therapy Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico

“The yoga of self-mastery through the breathless state, as practiced for eons in the East, particularly before the Dark Ages, is a very difficult science to investigate. For those looking for a more approachable and less intimidating introduction to the yogas adopted in the West, Vital Yoga provides numerous welcoming doors to a bevy of paths and practices.”

—Sankara Saranam
Founder of The Pranayama Institute
and author of God Without Religion