Yoga for Healthy Aging: The Book!

by Nina

The positive “changes” that Baxter alluded to in his post Friday "The Times They Are A'Changing" are that he and I have agreed to write a book on Yoga for Healthy Aging for Shambhala Press. Yes! We’ve wanted to write a book on yoga for healthy aging for some time now (and a lot of our readers have been asking for one), but we needed to find the right publisher. And the way we found Shambhala is truly wonderful.

During our 2015 summer, one of our students was a tall quiet man named Dave. We didn’t know much about him except that we knew he wasn’t a yoga teacher and that he had come to the intensive with his husband all the way from Boston. At the end of the intensive, during our closing circle, one of the other attendees asked us when we were going to have a book. I made a somewhat flippant remark, “Someone’s going to have to pay me to do that!” Baxter calmly explained that what I meant by that was we had decided that self-publishing wasn’t right for us, so we needed to find a publisher for our book. It wasn’t about making money so much as we needed the production and marketing support of traditional publisher to create the type of book we wanted to put out in the world.

After the intensive we had a little party, where we could relax and socialize, and I was standing there eating some delicious vegetarian sushi when Dave walked up to me and said, “So you want someone to pay you to write a book?” I replied, “Yes, that’s right.” And he said, “I’ll do it,” and handed me his business card. I looked at the card, and learned only then that he was Dave O’Neal, Senior Editor for Shambhala Press! Frankly, I don’t remember exactly what I said after that I was so nonplussed. But clearly I said something positive because within a few days Dave and I were discussing the outline of the book, possible deadlines, etc. Baxter and I didn’t hesitate about this deal for even a moment because not only was Shambhala the publisher of some of our favorite, most used books, including The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden, and Richard Rosen’s books on pranayama and Original Yoga, but our acquiring editor was going to be someone who really understood and appreciated our work. 

Anyway, you can see why—with a whole book to write—it’s going to be a busy year for us! And while we’re both going to continue to write for (and, in my case, also continue as Editor-in-Chief for) the blog, there will be some changes so we can free up a bit more of our time for working on the book. That’s why Baxter is temporarily giving up the Friday Q&A feature. I, too, will be changing the focus of my blogging a bit—although that may not be as obvious to you because I tend to be a bit all over the place (for example, maybe not so much science from me). So that’s why even though the book won’t be published until 2017, we’re announcing it now.

Another reason we’re announcing the book project so early is that we need your help! Dave and I agreed our book would be more compelling if we included the stories of some real-life yoga practitioners whose physical, mental, or emotional health has been improved by yoga—or who has just found more peace of mind. So you are someone with a good story about how yoga has helped you with strength, flexibility, balance, agility, stress, medical problems or all-around health, or equanimity, please write me via the Contact Us Page page. 

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