The Yogi Assignment: A 30-Day Program for Bringing Yoga Practice and Wisdom to Your Everyday Life

I loved the idea how to incorrect yoga in my life.

For those of you on the fence about whether or not you should buy it-- just buy it. It's worth every moment you spend reading it (and you'll probably read it over and over and over again).In April of this year I went to a couple of workshops that were taught by Kino. This is when I first experienced her essence; while I will try not to be bias in terms of my review of her newest release, I will admit that she is truly inspirational to me and I look up to her.This book truly represents the heart of yoga. I was interested to see what poses she would choose for practice each day considering most aspiring yogis don't have her stamina or flexibility.... and, as always, she surprised me. Her daily lessons challenge the yogi to grow in grace, authenticity, strength, and balance while maintaining an equanimous mind (cancelling out any reactions or judgments to one's current ability, on or off the mat). The poses she chooses are a beautifully designed mix of challenge and accessibility; this forces the student to continually be humble, and if practicing the lesson for the day (and every day), to let go of any expectation of a particular result (nonattachment).Kino tunes into the heart that speaks to all hearts; she has a knack for being empty enough of herself to allow the light to shine through while maintaining her own voice. She's uplifting, encouraging, inspiring; her lessons are reflections of that charisma, accented by the fire of knowledge that burns through the layers we tend to cover our selves in.True to form, her book is concise and well-written; her points accessible and inspiring. Kino is changing the world; she's renewing the interpretation of yoga practice with a spiritual intention that has primarily been lost in the West; after all, asana is only one aspect of yoga.Thank you, Kino, for being so empty that you are full and overflowing to those around you. You've changed my practice, given me direction, helped me to define my purpose, and inspired me to love in a way that is empty, without attachment to results.You are a true yogi.

Kino MacHregor doesnt just show the reader a lot of impressive yoga postires in very very beautiful and peaceful pictures. She also describes the deeper sense of yoga and Meditation. A lot of information and practical exercises - not just for Beginners

Well illustrated and described. Advantage the recycled paper with no acid ink but with grate pictures and colour!

This is a real gem of a book. I sincerely hope that it will find its way into the spiritual hearts and daily asana practice and meditation of all aspiring yogis, and onto their shelves, from which it can be retrieved particularly when the path feels boring, futile and just too challenging. Kino's book both seriously invites yogis to deepen their practice, and offers a warm and welcoming invitation to those who are troubled, lost and suffering; and are seeking the path back to their Selves - their inner home - a path they can travel through Yoga accompanied by a well-grounded teacher, such as Kino.It is a very loving and generous gift - a distillation of at least twenty years of dedicatedly studying, practicing and teaching Yoga - from a woman who transformed her life from a frenzied attempt to deal with her deep inner distress and disturbance through vanity, the self-medication of drugs, partying and a life-style, which threatened her very being and the core of her lovely essence. It offers not the illusion of hope, which can so easily take us away from just being present to and with the breath; rather, it beckons us to re-connecting with utter faith and determination to what has always been there but has been occluded for all sorts of reasons (samskaras = (un)conscious and unhelpful patterns and habits of being and relating) - the Divine within.This gem of a book is very beautifully produced. The front cover holds a photograph of Kino in 'Vrshiksana Variation' on a beach - 'on the seashore of endless oceans, where children play' (Tagore). When I made this image the object of meditation, it transmuted into the unerringly still flame and light of a candle beckoning me to open the book. Her photographer is to be commended for her creativity in capturing the strength, quiet contentment and infectious joy within her subject in the images she has produced of Kino demonstrating about 103 asanas, most of which appear in the book; some of them find their home in the glossary at the end of the book from which we can glean hints about developing our asana practice.without judgment. I say that because some of the asanas are seriously aspirational and apparently a bit beyond what we can imagine.That is not the point; the point for me is the journey illuminated by the light of self-knowledge, which can spotlight the blocks and resistances, and release them when inner discipline, devotion, determination and dedication - (the four Ds of one of her teachers: R. Sharath Jois) - are given their freedom.The book is an invitation to a 30-day assignment. This offers a structure which could be revisited every month over a year, for example. Each day, apart from Day 20, consists of a trinity of pondering on an aspect of yoga philosophy like sankalpa (intention), some homework and asana exploration. The three are skilfully interwoven; one of them on its own makes less sense without the other two. And, the reader is advised to keep a spiritual journal which of course can be constantly scanned. What I found on re-reading very slowly every chapter (day) was that I needed a lot of time and inner space both to absorb the wisdom and to allow myself to be challenged by the compassionate questions that Kino asks.I cannot detail the contents of this inspirational book which form a very beautiful arc between Nirodah (Stillness) and Sharanam (Seeking refuge in divine shelter - like a rainbow of yoga. Some of the test will make you: laugh, cry, feel angry upset and frustrated. But, I can guarantee that, if you buy this book for yourself, your friends and fellow yogis, you will all be deeply touched by the author's spiritual journey and the compassionate understanding and loving-kindness she so generously extends to her readers, who are on exactly the same timeless path of questions, which are the children of freedom - questions she asks of herself and all of us.The concept of the book and its realisation have emerged from a very deep exploration by Kino of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and her devotional approach to probing all aspects of yoga; as well as requests from the international community for authentic teaching from a teacher who has clearly lived though and beyond suffering. Most of the images in the book depict Kino smiling - which is another gift to us all.Not only is this a book to be slowly absorbed by the spiritual heart; it is also of such a size and shape that it lends itself to being a travelling companion into and through a retreat or on holiday to the outer edges of one's imagination. I commend it to everyone.The book is an invitation to a 30-day commitment.