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The YOGA of POOL – Secrets to becoming a Champion in Billiards and in Life, by Paul Rodney Turner, the inventor of the Billiard Aim Trainer, takes you on a journey to championship level billiards and self discovery as he reveals essential ingredients to winning pool and becoming and a better person in the process.

What is The Yoga of Pool about?

The full title is The Yoga of Pool: Secrets to Becoming a Champion in Billiards and in Life. The description says it takes you on a journey to championship-level billiards and self-discovery.

What topics does it cover?

According to the description, the author reveals essential ingredients for winning at pool and for becoming a better person in the process.

Who is the author?

Paul Rodney Turner, who the description says invented the Billiard Aim Trainer is named as the author in the title.

Everything above comes from the book description on its Amazon page.

How do attention and relaxation techniques relate to sport?

Sports that depend on concentration, such as billiards, golf or archery, have long used breathing and routines to manage tension. The NCCIH relaxation techniques page describes relaxation techniques as practices that bring about the “relaxation response”, which is the opposite of the stress response. Slow breathing before a shot is a simple, free example.

Research on whether such practices improve performance is mixed, so treat a promise of championship results with caution. What the evidence does support is that mindfulness means keeping attention on the present moment without judging it, a skill that helps in any activity requiring focus.

Practice sessions should be paced to avoid overuse injuries to the back, shoulders and wrists, particularly in sports with repeated postures. Stand up, stretch and move between games, and see a doctor about pain that persists. The WHO activity fact sheet also advises limiting sedentary time. A few minutes of stretching at your desk is a fair start.

Related reading on this blog: Sports Fitness: Four Habits That Keep You Playing and Preventing Sports Injuries: Twelve Habits Every Athlete Should Build

Book: The YOGA of POOL by Paul Turner
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From the creator of the bestselling “Office Yoga” comes the ultimate guide for harried travelers and commuters, with 50 tips and techniques for relaxation and rejuvenation.

Ease the aches, ease the pains, and ease on down the road. From the creator of the best-selling Office Yoga comes the ultimate guide for harried travelers and commuters. Taking the age-old practice of yoga and adapting it for our modern lives, author Darrin Zeer has compiled more than 50 techniques to help travelers relieve muscle tension, master the art of waiting, create hotel room harmony, blow off steam, and arrive revived. The removable guide in back is especially useful for frequent fliers, outlining stretches perfectly suited for small spaces. Packed with playful illustrations by Frank Montagna, Travel Yoga offers a host of techniques guaranteed to soften any landing.

Darrin Zeer spent seven years in Asia studying the Eastern arts of healing. An advocate for a more balanced workplace, he has appeared in Time, on NPR, and in hundreds of other media outlets. He lives in California.
Frank Montagna is a Los Angeles–based illustrator whose work has appeared in New York Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmo Girl, Modern Bride, and several other publications and books

Book: Travel Yoga by Frank Montagna
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This is a book of funny and poignant autobiographic stories, as a yoga practitioner and teacher as well as a human being. The yoga stories include rooming with the world’s creepiest human at a yoga retreat, taking a session with the Yoga Nazi, adopting a dog under false pretenses, and battling the elements in Central American jungles. Other stories include making an ill-fated werewolf movie at age 11, dealing with a mob super in New York, and attending a horrifying toxic cookout in Massachusetts.

What is this book about?

The description calls it a book of funny and poignant autobiographical stories, written from the point of view of a yoga practitioner and teacher.

What topics does it cover?

The yoga stories include rooming with the world’s creepiest human at a yoga retreat, taking a session with the “Yoga Nazi”, adopting a dog under false pretenses and battling the elements in Central American jungles. Other stories involve an ill-fated werewolf movie at age 11, dealing with a mob super in New York and a horrifying cookout in Massachusetts.

Who wrote it?

The author named in the title is Rob Dinsmoor. The description does not call it a yoga manual, and it lists no poses or exercises.

This summary is based on the book description on the Amazon page.

What should I expect at a yoga retreat?

Retreats pack in more yoga and meditation than a weekly class, so prepare. A typical day mixes morning and evening practice with meals, rest and free time. Because it is a lot of exercise for someone who normally sits, ease in rather than doing everything: skip a session if your body is tired.

Injuries are the main hazard, and the NCCIH page on yoga says sprains and strains are the usual ones. Ask the organisers about the teachers’ training and class sizes, tell them about injuries and dietary needs, and drink enough water, especially in hot climates.

If you have a medical condition, take medicines or are pregnant, check with your doctor before booking.

More on this blog: A Short History of Yoga: From Ancient Texts to Hatha Classes and a Record Number of Americans and What Is Yoga?

Book: The Yoga Divas by Rob Dinsmoor
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This extraordinary book clearly outlines and discusses the methods for transforming both body and mind through the highest forms of tantric practice. Highest Yoga Tantra is the pinnacle of tantric systems found in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

– Part One discusses the practices common to sutra and tantra.

– Part Two presents the generation stage of Highest Yoga Tantra.

– Part Three covers the entirety of the completion stage yogas (i.e., physical isolation, verbal isolation, mental isolation, illusory body, clear light, and union).

– Part Four compares the Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja stages of completion.

What kind of book is Highest Yoga Tantra?

The description says it outlines and discusses methods for transforming body and mind through the highest forms of tantric practice. It describes Highest Yoga Tantra as the pinnacle of tantric systems in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

What will I learn from it?

The book has four parts: practices common to sutra and tantra, the generation stage of Highest Yoga Tantra, the whole of the completion stage yogas, and a comparison of the Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja stages of completion.

Who wrote it?

According to the title, the book is by Daniel Cozort.

This summary is based on the book description on the Amazon page.

How do tantric and mindfulness practices differ?

Words such as “tantra” cover different things in different traditions, and a short summary cannot do them justice. In Tibetan Buddhism the term refers to a body of advanced contemplative methods, learned within a lineage and usually after preparatory training.

By contrast, the mindfulness taught in clinics is a short, secular course. The NCCIH meditation page describes mindfulness-based stress reduction as teaching mindful meditation alongside discussion sessions and strategies for applying it to stress. Many techniques began in Eastern traditions, but the form and purpose differ between a monastery and a health program.

A reader should be wary of anyone promising dramatic physical or mental transformation. The same page says that few studies have examined potential harms, so a cautious, supervised approach makes sense. If you have a mental health condition or a history of trauma, talk with a clinician before intensive practice.

More on this blog: Where Did Yoga Come From? Its Meaning, Early Texts and What Scholars Can Say and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: The Eight Limbs of Yoga Explained

Book: Highest Yoga Tantra by Daniel Cozort
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Spiritual power demands physical health and the contemporary Western practitioner can learn much from the ancient tradition of yoga. Yoga, meaning “union,” is a multi-dimensional discipline designed to help the individual attain health, serenity, focus, and, ultimately, union with the Divine. In the words of one master, Aleister Crowley, “Magick is a Pyramid built layer by layer. The work of the Body of Light-with the technique of Yoga, is the foundation of the whole.”
This succinct and uniquely helpful book explores the often-overlooked importance of bringing and maintaining a healthy body and a clear thinking mind to the practice of ceremonial magick or witchcraft. While many books on magick discuss the importance of ritual, few focus on the physical, spiritual, and moral qualities necessary to make those rituals effective.
“The physical body is the living temple of the Holy Spirit. A person who can’t sit in one position with comfort and quiet, who can’t breathe with evenness and regularity, who can’t temporarily still the mind of its many warring thoughts, who can’t channel powerful energies through the body because of ill health-will be hard-pressed to spiritually advance. This book will teach you do to every one of these things and more.”

View this book on Amazon (affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no cost to you)