Books Every Yoga Teacher Should Read

by Courtney Seiberling
|
8 books
Isn’t yoga more than just poses? How do I best structure a class, make it accessible, and give my students meaningful takeaways? These are questions that every yoga teacher should ask. Here are books to help.
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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

1990
The Sutras are the first written documentation of yoga that explain how the mind works and why it gets in our way of seeing clearly. It is the manual for the study and practice of yoga. Though written thousands of years ago, the Sutras are still relevant and feel like an advice column from somewhere celestial.

Yoga's Yamas and Niyamas

10 Principles for Peace & Purpose
Courtney Seiberling, 2018
This book is a comprehensive guide on how to apply the first two limbs of yoga to everyday life. Each yama and niyama is explained and then a physical practice, intention, and personal essay follow. There are 10 classes you can take directly from the book and teach!

Embrace Yoga's Roots

Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice
Susanna Barkataki, 2020
Essential for anyone who wants to understand what yoga is beyond the physical practice, this book is a generous offering to ensure we are being reverent with the practice of yoga and not appropriating it.

Accessible Yoga

Poses and Practices for Every Body
Jivana Heyman, 2019
So much focus in the West is on power yoga, but the practice should be accessible to anyone who walks into your classroom. This book is a great resource so any student who comes to class feels welcome and included.

A Thousand Mornings

Poems
Mary Oliver, 2013
Though not a yoga book, poetry can add meaning to a class. Mary Oliver’s writing is about being present, noticing and inhabiting the natural world, and is an excellent way to set the tone.

Skill in Action

Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World
Michelle Cassandra Johnson, 2021
Yoga is a practice to ease suffering which includes lessening the suffering of others. This book connects the philosophy of yoga to social justice and has insight, prompts, meditations, reflection, and heart.

Ceremony

Brianna Wiest, 2021
This collection of prose is packed with wisdom about suffering. Again, it’s not a literal yoga text, but it has many comparable ideas to yoga. Reading from it would be an excellent start or end to a class.

Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā

Swami Dayananda Saraswati, 2007
The Bhagavad Gītā is the main teaching of The Mahābhārata, an Indian epic. It’s about a warrior entering battle and not wanting to fight, but it’s really about the battle within each of us to live a meaningful life. It is an exciting and inspiring text about acting with awareness and heart.