Susan Neal is an author new to JPC Allen Writes. Her books on healthy eating and yoga give a Christian perspective to living a healthy life. Her true story below relates how writing, one of the most solitary and sedentary arts, can lead to adventure. Welcome, Susan!
I had been teaching Christian yoga at my church for ten years. Through the years I created dozens of theme-based Bible verses to recite during my yoga classes. One of my favorites was “How to Receive God’s Peace.” I felt called by the Lord to compile those lessons into a book. I had published two Christian yoga DVDs, but I had never written a book. So I attended Christian writer conferences and joined a Word Weaver Writers Group to help prepare. I worked on the manuscript for two years before it was published in 2016.
You become an expert on the topic that you wrote about when you publish a book. Soon after Scripture Yoga was published, I spoke at the Christians Practicing Yoga Retreat in New York. I made many connections through this group during that conference. Three years later, one of the Christians Practicing Yoga Association leaders put together a trip to the French Alps to find the yoga retreat center of the person who wrote the first Christian yoga book. A priest, Father Dechanet, published Christian Yoga in 1956. It sold over 100,000 copies and was translated into seven languages.
What an adventure to jump on a plane and fly to France. I previously met all the individuals on this trip at the Christians Practicing Yoga Retreat. Seven of us met in Lyon, France and traveled by van to the little village of Valjouffrey that was nestled in the Alps. What a glorious countryside with tall green mountains, crystal clear blue skies, and winding rivers. The little village of about fifty people was like going back in time a hundred years.
A mile up the mountain from that village was the abandoned Christian yoga retreat center founded by Father Dechanet. Every morning for a week, the seven of us hiked up that mountain and began our day with a Catholic mass, yoga, and meditation. I could envision the lively retreat center in the 1970s when people from all over Europe learned Dechanet’s teaching on spirituality, health, and yoga. Dechanet understood the close link between the body, mind, and spirit. He died in 1992, but his books leave a legacy for those who follow. That is what books do.
I would’ve never guessed that writing Scripture Yoga would have led to such an international adventure. What traveling adventures have you enjoyed because of your writing?
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This book assists Christian yoga instructors and students in creating a Christian atmosphere for their classes. Choose from twenty-one lessons, each is a mini Bible study that will deepen the participants’ walk with God.
Each lesson contains a Scripture theme designed to facilitate meditation on God’s Word. The Scripture verses are arranged progressively to facilitate an understanding of each Bible study topic. The Bible lessons will enhance the spiritual depth of your yoga class, and make it appropriate and desirable for Christian participants.
Check your poses with photographs of over 60 yoga postures taken on the sugar white sands of the Emerald Coast of Florida. A detailed description of each pose is provided with full page photographs so postures are easily seen and replicated.
“Scripture Yoga is a useful tool for teachers and students of Christian Yoga, written by an experienced instructor. Specific Bible verses are suggested, along with clear instructions, and beautiful photographs illustrating each pose. It is quite clear that users will discover their bodies as ‘temples of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 6:15) under Susan Neal’s wise tutelage.”
-THE REVERAND NANCY ROTH, author of Invitation to Christian Yoga
Photography: RK Photos http://rkphotos1.zenfolio.com/
Cover Design: Angie Alaya
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Susan Neal RN, MBA, MHS, lives her life with a passion to help others improve their health so they can serve God better. She is a Certified Health and Wellness Coach and Writer and Speaker Coach. Her mission is to improve the health of the body of Christ. She is the author of seven healthy living books. Her #1 Amazon best-seller 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates, won the 2018 Selah award. The sequel Christian Study Guide for 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates won the 2019 Directors Choice award.
Susan is a certified yoga instructor with over 30 years’ experience in practicing and teaching yoga. She published two yoga books, Scripture Yoga and Yoga for Beginners; plus, two sets of Scripture Yoga Card Decks, and two Christian yoga DVDs. You can find her on SusanUNeal.com. Follow her on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
