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MEDIA REVIEWS // BOOKS

Bent: How Yoga Saved My Ass

Anne Clendening
Parallax Press

Hold onto your seats, because this memoir
is a “Pow Pow Pow Pow Experience.” It
will grab you, spin you, and pull you up and
down until it lands you into your center of
gravity.
Anne Clendening is a yoga teacher and
creative nonfiction writer living in LA. I first
met her years ago when she subbed some of
my yoga classes and I found her to be capti-
vating, fragile, and enthusiastically raw. This
also describes her style of writing.
In one of the many juicy and insightful
quotes from Bent, Anne says, “Fear is a
bastard. Fear is an attention whore. I want to
ask fear if it has mommy issues because that
is the only reason I am thinking why it needs
attention so bad. I want fear to get Parkin-
son’s, then maybe fear will know how it feels
to be on the run from something it doesn’t
understand.”
In Bent, Anne takes us on a journey of
her experience growing up in Los Angeles,
her struggles with alcohol, becoming a yogi,
and her diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. I
feel that yoga is almost a second character
in the book, as she describes her relation-
ship with yoga from her first introduction to
the practice to how it is saving her life now.
Anyone suffering from emotional or physical
challenges will be inspired. Reading this book
will definitely transform you and that is a
“Girl Scout Promise.”
As I write this, I am on the second read of
Bent, and I am totally convinced that if Anne
were older, Jim Morrison would have written
the song LA Woman just for her.

Dale Nieli is a yoga therapist and teacher who owns
Zen Bodies Malibu: zenbodies.com

Dead Set on Living

by Chris Grosso with Alice Peck

North Star Way

You know when people ask you, “If you

could host the ultimate dinner party, who

would be on the guest list?” Dead Set on

Living: On Making the Difficult but Beauti-

ful Journey from F**cking Up to Waking Up

reads like the transcript of the best dinner

party ever. If you don’t yet know who Chris

Grosso is, you should, and you will.

Dead Set on Living is Chris’ latest book.

His first two, Everything Mind, and Indie

Spiritualist, were both solid contributions

to the modern spirituality space. Dead Set

On Living is a manual for navigating human

condition at high contrast. His voice is sweet

and raw, confident and vulnerable, curious

and knowledgeable. He openly shares the

frustration and shame of his (at times) life-

threatening struggle with addiction—recov-

ery, relapse, and recovery, rinse and repeat.

Grosso weaves his story throughout the

book, which is comprised of conversations

with a series of teachers and thought leaders

from a variety of disciplines, including Gabor

Maté, Tara Brach, Ram Dass, Noah Levine,

Duncan Trussell, Sharon Salzberg, and many

more. Each chapter explores the nature of

suffering and addiction through a particular

lens, and is punctuated with instructions for

a practice that will help cultivate whatever

soul hack was covered. Dead Set on Living

delivers wisdom for everyone.

Let’s be honest, we all have our ways of

numbing out when the endurance test that

is life feels too hard. Whether your addictive

behavior is obvious or subtle, legal or con-

traband, Grosso and his posse offer practical

wisdom for the journey towards self-mastery

delivered with humility and compassion.

Reviewed By Zoë Kors, a writer, speaker, and coach:

zoekors.com

The Doctor from India

Directed by Jeremy Frindel

Zeitgeist Films

Ayurvedic physician Dr Vasant Lad is one

of the modern pioneers of this ancient prac-

tice. Dr Lad exudes the love of a thousand

grandmothers and melts hearts as he teaches

and heals with the ancient Indian health

system of Ayurveda.

This feature-length documentary, directed

by Jeremy Frindel, is full of standout mo-

ments. These include seeing Dr Lad in his

native India. We see him revisit the tiny,

humble Indian apartment where he grew up

as a child. Viewers learn about his father,

who was a devotee of Gandhi and the path of

nonviolence.

The film followed a day in his current life

in Pune, India where he lives and works for

at least three months a year. After teaching

international students at his school, Dr Lad

heads into the city each night to work at his

free night-time health clinic to serve the sick

and poor locals with Ayurveda. I was inspired

by the love and devotion he demonstrates in

all areas of his life and work.

The Doctor from India reminded me to

believe in the mysteries of life, to feel beyond

that which we can rationalize with our think-

ing brain, and beyond what see with our

physical eyes.

If you are on the spiritual path, if you are a

compassionate human, or if you are curious

about India, then you will be inspired by this

film. You will learn about Ayurveda, yoga’s

sister science, and you will feel so much love vi-

brating from the screen. Ayurveda is love. Please

go see this film. It is showing in the LA area June

2-3: zeitgeistfilms.com/film/thedoctorfromindia.

Reviewed by Erin Douglas, Community Manager at

Banyan Botanicals. Dr. Lad is the reason Erin studied

Ayurveda and changed her career to work in the field

of Ayurveda.

Design: Adrian Curry. Illustrations by Keshari Das and Dr. Vasant Lad (courtesy of Lotus Press).