Every yogi knows that yoga is more than just a series of pos­es. It’s a way to live life. From med­i­ta­tion to breath to the asana (the pos­es), there’s an entire phi­los­o­phy about how yoga affects all aspects of a per­son. This can be a con­fus­ing, and at times, daunt­ing thing to con­sid­er, so here are six yoga inspired books that’ll help clar­i­fy it all.

Still the Mind: An Intro­duc­tion to Meditation
By Alan Watts
A com­pi­la­tion of the famous med­i­ta­tion guru’s jour­nals and famous lec­tures he deliv­ered across the coun­try, Still the Mind author Alan Watts explains, in three parts, the phi­los­o­phy of med­i­ta­tion, how to prac­tice med­i­ta­tion and how inner wis­dom grows. It’s a great short read for those that have trou­ble under­stand­ing how med­i­ta­tion works or why peo­ple meditate.

The Yoga Bible
By Christi­na Brown
Billing itself as “the defin­i­tive guide to yoga,” The Yoga Bible fea­tures over 150 yoga pos­tures from the main schools of yoga, mak­ing it a must-have on every yogi’s book­shelf. Each pos­ture is illus­trat­ed with step-by-step instruc­tions and advice on adjust­ments for begin­ners, as well more advanced posi­tions for expe­ri­enced yogis. You’ll also find lots of great info on breath­ing tech­niques and the dif­fer­ent schools of yoga in this lit­tle gem.

Yoga and the Quest for the True Self
By Stephen Cope
In his auto­bi­og­ra­phy, Stephen Cope shares how yoga basi­cal­ly changed his life by show­ing him who he real­ly is. Through is per­son­al account, he demys­ti­fies the phi­los­o­phy and psy­chol­o­gy of yoga and how it relates to all of our human prob­lems, like addic­tion, depres­sion and relationships.

 

How Yoga Works
By Christie McNal­ly and Michael Roach
How Yoga Works is a great choice for peo­ple who prac­tice yoga but don’t know a lot about the yog­ic prac­tice as a whole. It delves pret­ty deeply into the ratio­nale of cer­tain pos­es, breath­ing tech­niques, med­i­ta­tions and more. There’s even a bit explain­ing some of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. And it all comes pack­aged in an eas­i­ly read­able format.

Yoga Anato­my
By Leslie Kaminoff
Ever won­der how cer­tain yoga pos­es affect the phys­i­cal body? Well this is the book for you then. Yoga Anato­my shows how spe­cif­ic mus­cles respond to breath­ing and move­ment in the body and how sim­ple alter­ations can affect the effec­tive­ness of the pos­tures. Whether you’re a begin­ner to yoga or you’ve been prac­tic­ing for years, this is a must-read to under­stand exact­ly what your body is doing when you’re mov­ing through a flow.

Sci­ence of Breath
By Yogi Ramacharaka
One of the fun­da­men­tal com­po­nents of yoga is the breath—disciplined, con­trolled breath. This kind of breath­ing is intend­ed to induce med­i­ta­tion and relax your mus­cles. In Sci­ence of Breath, Yogi Ramachara­ka talks about the impor­tance of breath­ing to both phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al wellness.