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Book description

Whether you have five minutes or an hour, taking time out each day to relax and renew is essential to living well. This book presents nurturing physical postures and breathing techniques called restorative yoga. When practiced regularly, they will help you to:


  • Heal the effects of chronic stress

  • Recover from illness or injury

  • Balance energy and quiet the mind


With clear instructions and photographs, Relax and Renew gently guides the experienced practitioner and enthusiastic beginner—regardless of age, flexibility, or strength—in techniques that will ease your way through this hectic world. The first book devoted exclusively to restorative yoga, Relax and Renew offers:


  • A general restorative sequence

  • Programs for back pain, headaches, insomnia, jet lag, and breathing problems

  • A special section for women during menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause

  • Routines for when time is limited, including one for the office

  • Practical suggestions that help you prevent stress and live more fully in the present moment

Judith Hanson Lasater

Judith Hanson Lasater

JUDITH HANSON LASATER has taught yoga since 1971. She holds a doctorate in East-West psychology and is a physical therapist. Dr. Lasater is the president emeritus of the California Yoga Teachers Association and is one of the founders of Yoga Journal magazine. She trains yoga teachers in asana, kinesiology, yoga therapeutics, and the Yoga Sutras, and she is a pioneer in the teaching and practice of Restorative yoga. Dr. Lasater is the author of eleven books on yoga.

Praise for the book

Mary Pullig Schatz

MD, author of Back Care Basics

“I welcome this fine book to our anxious and weary world. We all need the wisdom it contains. . . . Restorative yoga has been helpful for my patients with such diverse conditions as back pain, neck pain, high blood pressure, asthma, migraine and tension headaches, stress-related diseases, chronic fatigue, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer.”

Dean Ornish

MD, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease; Eat More, Weigh Less; and Stress, Diet, and Your Heart

“In Relax and Renew , Judith Lasater writes with insight and clarity about a subject she loves: restorative yoga. These techniques will help you ease stress and live well.”

Sadja Greenwood

MD, author of Menopause, Naturally

“Judith Lasater brings wisdom and experience to this remarkable book. Her suggestions for menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause are invaluable for women today.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn

UMMC Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Full Catastrophe Living

“This book can help anyone develop and deepen the practice of yoga, and use it in the work of healing not only one’s body, but one’s life. The detailed recommendations for practicing the various postures are extremely valuable. Restorative yoga can be a gateway to deep relaxation and the cultivation of mindfulness. Enter, enter!”

Joan Borysenko

PhD, author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind and The Power of the Mind to Heal

“Relax and Renew is a major contribution to the study of relaxation. It offers you skillful ways to mind the body and mend the mind.”

Book Riot

“If what you want is simply a way to destress and relax, you’ll love this book deeply. Lasater focuses on supported poses that allow you to sink, settle, and completely bliss out. There are sequences in here for short practices, for yoga at your desk, and more.”

Author: Judith Hanson Lasater

Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times

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