Injured or in Chronic Discomfort or Pain?

​Looking for New Ways to Heal?

Practicing without pain is not only possible, it is the key to healing. 

Have You Injured Yourself in a Yoga Class?

Or perhaps you have noticed that your Yoga practice has led to a gradual deterioration of your sacroiliac and lumbar stability causing intermittent episodes of discomfort?

You are not alone.

You can overcome lower back pain and heal injury by working to balance and release your deep core muscles.  The psoas muscles are the deepest abdominal muscles lying right next to your lumbar spine.  When these muscles are weak, short, or tight on one side, they put strain on the pelvis and lower back. 
When the psoas is released, balanced and engaged, transformative healing can occur enabling pain-free movement to be regained.

Sorting out your psoas can sort out many other issues in your body, sometimes with phenomenally quick results.

Learning to stabilize the pelvis while releasing the hips is key.

Yoga is Not A One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Yoga methodologies that are based on a “one-size-fits-all” approach do not take into account the individual nature of human anatomy. Over thirty years ago when I began my own formal Yoga studies, this rigid approach to practice only made my hyperlordotic back worse*.   I gradually abandoned the lineage I’d been following and started to tailor fit my Yoga practice to meet my own needs.  This was the beginning of my fascination with the psoas and in-depth studies of anatomy. 

Over the ensuing decades I’ve noticed that many of the people coming to my intensives have problems caused by hypermobility rather than lack of flexibility.  Many are Yoga teachers who have literally pulled their bodies apart with Yoga and are now seeking a solution to chronic debilitating pain.  Today as I teach around the world the problem has multiplied.  We now have a global epidemicof instability and reoccurring injuries from over-stretching and repetitive practice of extreme postures.

* Hyperlordosis is an accentuation of the lumbar curvature. 

Knowledge is Power
​
Together with my co-author Leila Stuart we have put together the definitive guide to working with the psoas.  These practices have been tested in my own practice and with hundreds of students worldwide.

The result is Pathways to a Centered Body– Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain, and Moving with Ease.
Inside this Book You'll Find...
  • A step by step proven protocol that in some cases gives rapid relief from persistent pain.
  • Easy to follow practice sequences including two for relieving back pain that can sooth and release the psoas and spinal tension in 30 minutes.
  • Over 20 core specific poses and practices with clear colour photographs, including the benefits, contraindications and equipment needed with therapeutic variations offered for those with limited movement.
  • An experiential anatomy guide so you can find, soften, hydrate, balance and learn to strengthen and move from your core body.​​​​
  • Grow your anatomical knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of how the core muscles work so you can practice confidently and safely.

Sequence F, partial. Click to enlarge.

The Pathways Book and Ball Package

I am on a mission to heal lower back pain, so I am offering two great bonuses to make it easier to implement the practices in the book.
Buy the book at the standard rate of $34.95 plus shipping of $11.80 and you’ll get these two bonuses for free (USA mainland only):
  • The Muscle Release ball (normally $11.95) a simple prop as used in the Pathways book
  • Companion video– a downloadable 20-minute video with three dynamic core practices, (normally $11.95)
  • Total bonus value of $23.90
Bonus One
The Muscle Release Ball
  • This can help provide profound relief in lower back discomfort. Easily adjusts for different body sizes and shapes.
  • Very comfortable to use​​​​​
  • User Check
    Long lasting, non-slip and phthalate free
  • Normally $11.95 and today - FREE
Bonus Two
Pathways to a Centered Body – Companion Video
  • Gain a deeper understanding of the subtleties of 3 dynamic practices as Donna unpacks them step by step
  • 20 Minute downloadable video of 3 of the core practices in the Pathways book
  • Normally $11.95 and today - FREE
Buy Now $70.65 $46.75
What Others Are Saying 

My Back Has Been Much Happier

My lower back has been bothering me increasingly for several years. Its not quite pain. More like discomfort. It seems to have been aggravated by the construction work that I do.

I began heating my back and stretching in the evenings. I saw a spinal doctor at the Veterans Administration several times. I went through a course of physical therapy. I went through a chiropractic sequence. I tried an inversion table. I’ve used a Med Massager. I went to a masseuse for most of a year.

These treatments provided me with some temporary relief but none of them had lasting effects.


Somewhere on Facebook several months ago I came across Donna Farhi, Leila Stuart and Yoga U Online. I bought the Pathways to a Centered Body book and then the Anatomy of a Centered Body online course.


I began reading the book. I was struggling to get through the anatomy and happened to catch Donna on Facebook. She said to not worry about the anatomy and to try the exercises on pages 168-9 in the Pathways book. I did and my back has been much happier since I began integrating these practices.


Many thanks.

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Brian Sorensen Construction worker and novice yoga practitioner.

The Number One Muscle to Know If You Have Back Pain of Any Kind

The Number One muscle to know if you have a back pain of any kind, or physical practice of any kind, is the psoas. There’s a tremendous buzz about core strength in the fitness world, usually limited to building abs of steel, but there’s so much more to it. This book is the best way to get to know the psoas in all its subtlety, all its versatility, all its crankiness, and all its power and glory. Your body will be grateful.

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Ellen Saltonstall E-RYT500 Yoga and bodywork teacher and teacher trainer, author of Anatomy and Yoga: A Guide for Teachers and Students, co-author of Yoga for Arthritis and Yoga for Osteoporosis

I Turn To This Book Weekly

Personally, I have L4, L5 disc issues and many, many clients with back pain.

I turn to this book weekly as I really like how the sequence pages are clear and easy to follow. My students keep coming back saying it’s the only class where they can learn simple poses that they can do at home that really work!

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Joan Miller Therapeutic Yoga Teacher

About Donna

Donna Farhi

Donna Farhi is a Yoga teacher who has been practicing for over 40 years and teaching since 1982. As a post-lineage pioneer, Donna has been at the forefront of generating a new model for teaching and practice that fosters self-inquiry through the cultivation of each person’s inner reference system.  Going beyond the archaic pedagogic model that is characterised by “Simon Says” mimicry and rigid formulaic methodology, her approach is to create a safe learning environment where her students can investigate, adapt and evolve their practice to honor their individual needs.

Incorporating the rigorous backing of anatomical principles for safe and sustainable practice, Donna offers progressive levels of engagement that allow people of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic Yoga practice.
Considered the “teacher of teachers” students return to Donna’s intensives year after year to be a part of the inspiring evolution of Donna’s own practice and teaching.Donna is the author of four contemporary classics: The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living, and Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship which is a curricular text for teaching trainings worldwide.  Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with Ease her fifth and most recent book, co-authored with Leila Stuart, is fast becoming the go-to text for Yoga teachers, therapists and somatic practitioners.