7 Minutes a Day – 7 Days a Week
This may be a small book, but it packs a lot of good advice, especially about our physical health. Yoga, 7 Minutes a Day, 7 Days a Week is exactly what the title implies. It organizes a wide range of yoga disciplines into seven manageable practices, one for each day of the week. Each day works with one system of the human body. When these seven practices are performed regularly a healthier and happier life is created. That’s the message of the author, Gertrud Hirschi.
So how does this system of yoga work? A sequence of yoga postures is clearly pictured for each day of the week. This practice is followed by a short meditation offering a philosophical consideration of the qualities of that day. The daily session is finished up with a Mantra, a set of sacred words and a Mudra, one those lovely ritualistic hand gestures. And all this sacredness can easily be accomplished in seven minutes.
What I particularly liked most about this book is the approach. It is kind and encouraging, without being weak or silly in any manner. While yoga is taken seriously, often information about the days of the week is goofy and without any practical bearing on life. The daily wisdom in this book has obviously been tested through personal experience, physical movement and serious thought. This book reinforced to me that the energies of the seven days of the week are very real.
Day of the Week Practices
SUNDAY – Heart and Circulatory System
MONDAY – Lymph and Water Balance System
TUESDAY – Muscles and Male Reproductive Organs
WEDNESDAY – Brain and Nervous Systems
THURSDAY – Digestive System
FRIDAY – Balance and Female Reproductive System
SATURDAY – Bones, Joints and Metabolism
Gertrud Hirschi established her own yoga school in Zurich, Switzerland. She also held regular seminars in Switzerland, Germany and Greece. Besides this helpful text she has written four other books. Three of them explain the yogic mudras (hand positions) in depth. Her fourth effort is a set of 84 mudras printed on cards. Hirschi’s yoga publications have been translated into eighteen languages.
Wellness
Taking Good Care of Yourself