3 Books That Changed How I Teach Yoga (and How I Live as a Woman)

Three books shaped my last year more than any wellness trend, or routine ever could.

They reminded me how to come back to myself.

As women - especially women who hold a lot (careers, clients, deadlines, pregnancies, babies, relationships, expectations etc) we are often praised for our capacity to override ourselves.

To push through.

To stay composed.

To perform.

These books resonated deeply, as I am quietly unravelling that conditioning for me.

📖 The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock

The path for women is not simply “slay the dragon and win.”

The real journey may be

- slaying dragons of our own choosing,

- popping by the underworld & return, and

- finding the courage to accept who we are and find our voice.

📖 Yoni Shakti by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

This book changed how I view yoga.

As women, our bodies are not problems to fix or systems to discipline.

When we practise yoga, are we simply remembering what our bodies (and our wombs) already know?

We do not need more rigid rules created without women in mind.

We need reconnection.

Trusting ourselves.

Finding the stillness to listen inward again.

📖 Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed

Have you noticed how quickly we are encouraged to surrender our power at the threshold of transformation.

Pregnancy.

Birth.

Motherhood.

Career transitions.

Identity shifts.

But the liminal is not weakness.

It is initiation.

And before you hand your power away, remember:

you are standing at the threshold of something sacred.

These books have changed how I teach yoga now.

Not as performance.

Or another thing to achieve.

Rather - as a practice of autonomy.

Mind-body connection.

Returning to your inner wisdom.

Especially for busy women navigating full lives. Who are pregnant, postpartum, ambitious, exhausted, evolving.

Your body is not something to control. It is something to come home to.