Yoga of Courage and Compassion: Conscious Breathing and Guided Meditation

Lessons in fearless living through breathwork, gentle movement, and meditation based on the experiences of those at the edge of life • Shares a series of simple, practical, and profound conscious breathing, movement, and meditation exercises that help you bypass the ego-centered mind, open your heart, and live in the present moment • Developed through the author’s decades of work with cancer patients Through decades of teaching yoga and meditation to cancer patients, William Yang witnessed hundreds of breakthroughs into radical presence and openheartedness. In many ways, his patients taught him more than he taught them. From this collaboration with the sick and dying, Yang developed a series of simple, practical, and profound conscious breathing, movement, and meditation exercises that help to bypass the ego-centered mind, open the heart, and live fearlessly in the present moment. Yang’s exercises begin with an invitation to rediscover a natural and unforced way of breathing, so we can let go of our anxious ego and let life in again. From there, enlarging the sequence step by step, the author focuses on grounding and connecting with Mother Earth, working with the spine to develop a new sense of self-confidence, and opening the heart to love again. As we shed elements of the stressed, anxious person we once were, we are able to be more attuned to the world around us in a loving and caring way. Through the lessons learned from his cancer patients, Yang shows how, with courage and compassion, we can live and love without reservation at any time in our lives.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART 1 BREATH 1 Breathing Out Letting Yourself Go 2 Breathing Pause Venturing Emptiness 3 Breathing In Allowing Life Back In Again PART 2 BREATH AND BODY 4 The Pelvic Bowl Accepting with Compassion 5 The Spinal Column Courageously Facing Reality 6 The Open Heart Being in Love Again PART 3 BREATH, BODY, AND ACTION 7 Acting Healing the World by Touch 8 Speaking Healing the World by Speech 9 Being Silent Healing the World by Being Present Index

About the Author :
William Yang has been teaching relaxation, breathing, meditation, and yoga exercises to cancer patients since the early 1980s. Inspired by the benefits patients reported in the hospital where he worked, he founded a center dedicated to these programs, which in a later phase went on to become the William Yang Foundation, based in the Netherlands. In 1995 he received the Dr. Marco de Vries award in bio-psychosocial medicine and in 2005 he became a knight of the order of Oranje Nassau, an honor bestowed by H.M. Queen Beatrix for his work with cancer patients and disadvantaged children in India. He lives in Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Review :
“William Yang takes you on a profound journey of awakening through a step-by-step program that anyone can understand, explore, and bene t hugely from. Dive into these teachings wholeheartedly, and you will transform your relationship with both life and death.” “This is a brave and passionate book that should be in every yoga lover’s backpack. It shows that yoga is far more than the beneficial physical exercise it has often been reduced to in our materialist culture, and it demonstrates with precise verve how doing yoga can provide a foundation of galvanized yet peaceful energy for the courageous work of sacred activism and for rising gracefully to the brutal challenges of our time.” “There is more to yoga than staying limber, youthful, and healthy. The confrontation with the vulnerability of the body and the finite nature of life is an essential moment of spiritual learning. William Yang has collected precious lessons about courage, compassion, and love in the years he has worked with people who have cancer. He has brought these lessons together in this book, opening up a deeper dimension in yoga. His exercises are simple, yet profound and very energetic. They help you embrace the totality of life and enjoy the depth of the moment. William’s work has become a source of inspiration for many yoga teachers and their students. I can heartily recommend this book.” “William Yang invites people to take the journey into the depth of their own being. If people are willing to investigate their life in the face of death, all false solutions will be destroyed. This book is not only for the sick but for all those affected by the incurable disease of life. Yoga of Courage and Compassion is remarkable.” "I was most impressed by simple and easy to understand illustrations that show the contemplative how to perform each exercise, because illustrations are often more confusing and less than helpful. But these are very clear, easy to comprehend and imitate. The exercises are very easy to do. This is such a wonderful little book; great for the beginner who may be a little intimidated by creating a meditation practice, or the experienced contemplative who would like to fine tune their daily sessions. Told in an easy, gentle, straightforward manner, without all the confusing rhetoric of more traditional meditation manuals, this book comes highly recommended for anyone who wants to meditate effectively."