Slim Calm Sexy Yoga: 210 Proven Yoga Moves for Mind/Body Bliss

dance as my path at an early age. Like a lot of little girls, I wanted to be a ballerina almost as soon as I could walk. I was a born performer with natural grace and skill, gifts that served me well in my smalltown recitals. It was a good fit—until I saw how competitive the real world of dance is.
    I started formal training at a professional level when I was 10, and I found myself surrounded by ballerinas who had trained in far more hard-core programs than I had. To keep up, I had to work doubly hard. And it was tough not to compare myself obsessively with these girls. My confidence shriveled. By the time I was in my late teens, I’d evolved from a happy, intuitive kid into an insecure, people-pleasing young adult.
    It didn’t help that at 5 feet 9 inches tall, I was considered a giant in the world of ballet. In pointe shoes, I towered over all my potential dance partners. (Yes, dancer guys are on the small side.) In a roomful of petite girls, I felt like a big, clumsy monster. I grew to dislike my body and began to have doubts about my talent and purpose. My self-esteem plummeted.
    At least my height served one purpose: Onstage I was hard to miss. A Chicago photographer took notice, and we did a fashion-inspired ballet shoot. He showed the pictures to an agent, and I signed with Aria models (now the prestigious Ford agency) and started to work in magazines and TV commercials. But when I quit dance and moved to New York City in the summer of 2000 (I was 20) to model full-time, things on the confidence front didn’t get much better.
    Don’t get me wrong. Many people would consider a modeling contract in New York a dream come true. And it was definitely an exciting time, full of glitz and glam. But as yoga took a backseat to endless go-sees and photo shoots, I continued to struggle with my self-worth and started to feel lost. I was 800 miles from my family and trying to survive in a Chutes and Ladders industry. My job description was to be slim, calm, and sexy, but let me tell you, often I felt nothing like that. I felt misplaced, misunderstood, and unfulfilled.
    Then one day, a couple of years after moving to New York City, I had a moment of clarity. I was doing insanely long back-to-back shoots (a music video shoot all night, straight to a Lady Foot Locker campaign in the morning). I was exhausted to the point of tears. I couldn’t and didn’t want to continue down the path I was on. It had no substantial meaning for me and didn’t fuel me with anythingpositive. I had seen much more exciting things meditating in the trees and on the mat in yoga class. I began to wonder if yoga could bring me back to myself.
    It didn’t happen overnight, but soon after I made yoga a priority in my life, I started feeling alive again. The physicality of yoga reminded me how to feel good in my body. Its meditative side made me feel good in my head. Practicing yoga helped me f i gure out how to sync up my body and mind so I could return to my own intuitive sense of well-being, the one I’d had so naturally as a kid. I’d forgotten what I was capable of, but once I was back to a regular practice, I realized I was finally on the right path to a healthy and satisfying life. It was a game changer.
    In the past decade, I’ve made up for lost time. I’ve devoured the teachings of such major players as Paramahansa Yoga-nanda, Krishna Das, Ram Dass, Dharma Mittra, and many other meditation masters, mystics, and healers. I continue to explore, meditate, and learn through my own practices and the wisdom of others. I still model now and then, but I’ve devoted my life to helping other people through yoga. Today I run my own studio, called Strala Yoga, in New York City, where I teach some of the most successful, hard-charging people in the world—from busy executives to professional actors to members of the military—to be slim, calm, and sexy.
    And I want to teach you, too.

CHAPTER 01
15 minutes to a
slimmer,
calmer,
sexier
you!
Your transformation starts here

    Here’s my promise: If you let it, yoga can change your life. Maybe you’ve always thought yoga is reserved only for the superskinny, or for Hindu converts who make regular pilgrimages to India. Maybe you think it’s just a bunch of stretching and deep breathing, and a total nonworkout.
    But before you dismiss it, consider this: Yoga’s many benefits—including a slimmer body, stronger immunity, lower blood pressure, improved mood, better sex, and more—are backed