Blessed to Serve - Book Review

It seems a little odd to me that I'm posting this review after having already listed this book in my gift guide. However, I felt from my first glance that it was worth suggesting. My intuition was consistently proven correct throughout my reading of Blessed to Serve.

Karen Lo compiled this fantastic set of interviews with nine "torch-bearers of modern yoga" in an approachable pieces kind of way. I found that if I only had 5 minutes to read I could still find a good stopping point somewhere instead of being lost every time I returned to the book. It's mostly a fixed set of questions but flows organically like the conversation that it is... and like a good vinyasa class. Taking in the words of this book is like getting to pick the brains of some of the best teachers in the US. I especially enjoyed hearing little details and personal stories about where they came from and how they felt at meaningful crossroads in their careers.

Teachers featured in Blessed to Serve:
Duncan Wong, Sianna Sherman, Jason Crandell, Rusty Wells, Stephanie Snyder, Darren Main, Kathryn Budig, Geoffrey Roniger, and Jason Nemer.

Let's declare this book required reading for aspiring teachers. 
It's lighthearted while covering deeply important questions such as when you're ready to teach, how to handle the first hard year, teacher-student relationships, and even humility. Steeping in some of the wisdom contained in this book, I think, will make stronger happier teachers.

I don't want to say this book is just for yoga teachers - far from it. Any yogi would be served by the knowledge collected here. Whether to understand their teachers better, or to inspire their own path in the practice.

Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/01/karen-lo-january-yoga-instructor-feature/

This is not a sponsored post. I was not paid or even asked to review this book.