Yoga for Emotional Flow: Free Your Emotions Through Yoga Breathing, Body Awareness, and Energetic Release

by Stephen Cope

More than 4,000 years ago, the early masters of yoga made an astonishing before we can find true happiness, we must first learn how to be open to the energy of our emotions. On Yoga for Emotional Flow , Stephen Cope, psychotherapist and senior scholar-in-residence at Kripalu, the largest yoga center in America, presents a life-changing strategy for riding the wave in even the most challenging emotional situation. Cope details the psychology behind the difficult circumstances we create for ourselves through improper handling of our feelings, and shares the prescription for effectively relating to anger, fear, grief, joy, and others from a yogic point of view. Through breathing and visualization techniques used successfully by thousands of his students, Cope offers listeners practical tips for day-to-day emotional balance; lessons in awakening the witness consciousness, which is a nonjudgmental vantage point for welcoming emotions; steps for clearing the field at the end of each day; and more. For the yogi, there are no bad feelings, only unskillful responses to our ever-changing emotional states. Yoga for Emotional Flow is an essential program for working with these powerful forces, and a template for a new way of being.

Genres: Spirituality, Self Help, Nonfiction, Health

Audio CD

First published March 15, 2003

About the author

Stephen Cope is the director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living, the largest yoga research institute in the Western world—with a team of scientists affiliated with major medical schools on the East coast, primarily Harvard Medical School. He has been for many years the senior scholar in residence at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, and is the author of four best-selling books.

Reviews

[Artemisia Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first 20 minutes of this audiobook started with some pretty basic material about yoga, but then the “wows” starting happening for me. I’ve practiced yoga on a daily basis for over 50 years, and still I find that when I go back and listen to or read a good teacher’s material, I’m always renewing my practice in some valuable way. In this one, Kripalu teacher Stephen Cope focuses on how we can process our emotional energies while we are practicing our poses. I’ve always been aware of this idea and have used it myself at times (mostly when I’m in the thick of something difficult) but this was a good reminder for me to keep my focus on this energetic and therapeutic aspect of my yoga on a more regular basis. It’s so easy to allow a long term practice to become a bit too routine, and I’m really grateful when I find a valuable presentation like this one to help keep my time on the mat alive and inspired.

[Roberta]

I’ve read all of Stephen Cope’s books, and studied with him multiple times so this was more of a review. This is essentially a longish essay with three guided meditations. It’s currently available free on Hoopla and is worth a listen. I highly recommend his other books. He is a yoga teacher as well as a therapist and scholar in residence at Kripalu where I studied so has a wide range of expertise to share.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I randomly picked this up at the library not knowing what it was--I was looking for more of a discussion on the science and practice of yoga. The first disc did bring up some really interesting points; I especially liked the discussion of our fear of fear being worse than actual fear or the stress of stress perpetuating the cycle of it, reminding us to be mindful of emotions versus judgmental. The second disc would have been great if I wasn't driving... If you are looking for a good guided meditation, then this seems pretty nice. Overall, the book's main focus of scanning the body, riding the wave, and clearing the field seem like useful tips for yoga and meditation--I might try to bring some of these elements of focus and intention into my writing courses as well.

[Valerie Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great musings on moving through emotions mindfully in part 1, and three specific guided exercises in part 2. Not sure how this is a “book”? Listened to the audio from the library

[Rose Grabowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kripalu teacher Stephen Cope offers a discussion on how to move through emotions mindfully and the mind body connection. There are bonus guided meditation.

[Reading Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first part of the work better than the last--I never get into people's voices in guided meditations--I just get caught up in the tics or mannerisms of their voice and it distracts me.

ANYWAY, though, the first part is what Cope is best at: yoga theory and psychoanalysis. He argues for the development of the witness--a non judgmental awareness that resides in all of us--as a faithful companion through emotional turmoil.

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not bad necessarily, but not what I was looking for. This was more guided meditation than discussion of theory.

Not at all a driving book!