New Yoga Book Presents a Practice for Stressful Quarantine Times

MONTREAL, Dec. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Combining yoga and fine art, Malcolm McLean, an adept yoga teacher, and Joyce Borenstein, an award-winning animator, present a new book, Yoga: Going Within. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this yoga book is intended to alleviate the mental pressure for beginner and intermediate practitioners as self-isolation has put a new emphasis on practicing yoga at home.

In a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Tracking Poll conducted in mid-July, 53% of adults in the US reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the coronavirus. In Canada, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) reported their September findings with nearly one quarter of women (24.3%) having indicated experiencing moderate to severe anxiety, significantly higher than the 17.9% found among men. On average, 20.1% reported being lonely and 21.2% felt depressed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has noted that "yoga can help a person lose weight, improve immunity and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Yoga can also relieve depression, anxiety, fatigue and sleep disturbances, especially when it incorporates breath control and/or meditation." McLean, who wrote this book several months into the COVID-19 lockdown, supports these sentiments and adds, "Sometimes, people need to withdraw from the blue screens that draw them into the Infosphere and instead turn their senses inward. This home practice is designed to help them do that."

Yoga: Going Within introduces a sequence of gentle movements for the spine. The 31 poses are sequenced in a gradual progression from sitting, to all fours, to standing, to balancing, then slowing down into a quiet, relaxed state. The practice takes about one hour, depending on how long you hold the posture and stay in relaxation. It is intended for people who would like to practice regularly. While people can follow the yoga book practice conveniently from their home, they can explore it indefinitely and on their own terms. You may choose, in each session, different variations with varying degrees of physical intensity. Breathing exercises cleanse the respiratory system and energize the body, then help to slow the pace and bring calm, a treasure in chaotic times.

The accompanying illustrations from Borenstein, a yoga practitioner herself, came from her desire to understand the postures and to express the intense inner landscape of her own practice in colours and shapes. Her watercolours depict both the physical form of the posture along with some of the subtle energies within the form. She acknowledges how "yoga is timeless and cross-cultural, surviving hundreds of years and spanning many continents; wherever there are human beings, yoga practice engenders physical and mental well-being."

As the holidays approach with a high chance of another lockdown or continued social isolation, it is important to seize the opportunity to focus on inner and physical well-being and possibly develop some new resolutions for an elevated spirit. This yoga book makes a well-timed gift for people interested in practicing yoga, using McLean's easy to understand prose, accompanied by Bornstein's enlightening illustrations. To learn more about why this book may be for you, a family member, or a good friend, check out the reasons to buy this book.

About the "Yoga: Going Within" Book:

Malcolm McLean's new book is a yoga routine which comes in response to the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020. A time of self-isolation for everyone, this period has redefined what it means to practice yoga at home. Demonstrating the classic yoga exercise, in this book we can enjoy the vivid brushstrokes of watercolours from professional illustrator, Oscar-nominated movie animator, and yoga practitioner herself, Joyce Borenstein.

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SOURCE Malcolm McLean