Meditations for Everyday Mindfulness

The Relaxation Company's Meditations for Everyday Mindfulness features guided meditations from Beryl Bender Birch, a yoga teacher, founder of New York City's Hard & Soft Astanga Yoga Institute, and writer who coined the term "power yoga" to refer to the more active, astanga yoga practice. Birch is a clear narrator and good guide for the different techniques she introduces to the listener. Up front, she states, "technically, I cannot really teach you to meditate; I can lead you, guide you, but you cannot really listen to this CD and actually meditate at the same time." However, in the 22-minute "Introduction" track, she does make the listener familiar with her background, proper yoga techniques, and the general philosophies behind yoga and how people can use them in their everyday lives. Indeed, the "Introduction" is so informative that it would have been helpful to break it down into smaller tracks that are more easily accessed and repeated. Nevertheless, Birch makes the rather involved techniques and information easy to follow. "How to Chant OM" and "Japa Yoga: Chanting the Mantra OM" explore Japa yoga, or the repetition of mantra, in both theory and practice. "Pranayama: Conscious Breathing" explores the practice of focused breathing and how it can be used to make the listener more conscious of each moment. "Tonglen: The Practice of Sending and Receiving," meanwhile, is a unique technique that involves meditating as well as "breathing in" pain and "sending out" positive energy. Throughout all of Meditations for Everyday Mindfulness, Birch remains a clear and consistent guide, one with enough information to impress advanced yoga students and enough warmth to reassure novices.