Everyone learns differently, learning about yoga and meditation is no different. Some people try out yoga because their friends are trying it - word-of-mouth is enough to get them started.

Others choose to start yoga and meditation driven mainly by a health scare, or a chronic health condition such as back pain, arthritis - even temporary conditions such as weight loss and pregnancy can benefit from yoga and meditation.

Then, there are those (and I happen to fall into this camp) who like to understand WHY something works. Not necessarily a scientist, but we would like to know enough about the premise of yoga and meditation to be able to satisfy our own minds and more important, any skeptics out there, why yoga and meditation has an impact on your mind and body.

I just finished reading "Anatomy of Hatha Yoga" by H David Coulter, and let me say, this was a perfect level of explanation and detail that helps me to better understand (in lay man's terms) how the various aspects of yoga impact our bodies.

One of the most common problems I've experienced is tight shoulders or shoulder "kinks" and stiff necks. Early on, it became obvious that yoga and meditation helped tremendously with this chronic 20+ year-old problem.

Yoga helps back, shoulder and neck pain in two main ways: reducing stress leading to chemical build-up in your muscles and joints and stretches that keep muscles loose and limber. A combinaton of meditation, breathing and yoga asanas that focus on upper body stretching are extremely effective in reducing this pain.

Its a great book worthy of anyone who is still skeptical or simply just interested in a psuedo medical explanation of how yoga impacts your body.