In The Yoga Prescription: A Chronic Illness Survival Guide, yoga teacher Cory Martin uses yoga poses and philosophy to help her cope with the effects of disease, in her case, both lupus and multiple sclerosis. Martin’s simple, direct style feels like a friend with a hand on your shoulder saying, “I’ve been there, and I’m with you. We’ll take this one step at a time for as long as we need.” In each chapter, Martin guides her readers by identifying with their health struggles—from fatigue to immobilizing pain—and acknowledging the shared experiences of fear, frustration, and physical limitations. She then offers ways to address those situations by connecting the experiences to yoga philosophies, for example, applying Brahmacharya as abstaining from stressful jobs that leach valuable energy rather than Brahmacharya as abstaining from sexual excess. To physically connect to the yoga practice and to assess and track sensation, she walks readers into simple, well-cued poses, such as savasana or corpse pose. She then adds a positive and empowering mantra, such as “be here now” or “surrender to what is,” to direct attention to peace and positivity. The philosophies, poses, and mantras meet students where they are and provide clear instructions.

Martin’s style, simple, honest, and direct, focuses on encouraging students to respect their body on any given day. A daily assessment is good advice for any yoga practitioner but clearly even more of an imperative for those living with chronic illness where overdoing it can have real consequences, both energetically and in terms of their health beyond what most practitioners experience. Martin uses her deep knowledge of and connection to yoga practice through the asanas (the physical poses), as well as yoga philosophy, primarily Patanjali’s contributions of the Sutras and the Eight Limbs of Yoga, to help those suffering manage their disease. She acknowledges the truth of chronic illness with a pithy “it sucks,” and explains her own illness (from symptoms to diagnosis to daily management) without sugarcoating or downplaying her experience but also while refusing to accept every limitation. She’s strong and clear and sympathetic and exudes those qualities as if willing them to her readers.

For many of us, yoga can provide a way to navigate the challenges of life, from tight hamstrings to volatile reactivity. For patients who find themselves seeking some treatment beyond the limited scope of medicine, Martin offers this ancient system of teachings that put the power into the patients’ hands by honoring their own bodies—helpful for any student of yoga, essential for someone with disease.

Martin’s style is honest and often humorous, as when she reflects on her early experience with yoga: “I thought I had finally reached that yogic state everyone talked about. I was calm, happy, and I could fit back into my skinny jeans. I thought I was totally enlightened. Okay, not really, because the jeans were Levi’s and everyone knows that enlightenment comes from True Religion.” She connects often challenging yoga philosophies to the actual experience of the chronically ill. For example, she states the traditional definition of Asteya as “non-stealing” but connects it directly to the shared experience of people with a diagnosis. She writes, “Asteya in our world means not stealing our precious energy from one day to the next.” Writing from a place of shared experience, she constantly reminds the reader that they are not alone—truly embracing the word “yoga,” which means “in union.”

As a fellow yoga teacher, I found myself nodding at her clarity in describing the yoga philosophies and asanas. I share her philosophy of encouraging students to be curious in their own bodies and appropriately challenge themselves. But Martin deepened my understanding of what it means to live in a body that requires closer attention, when consequences to ignoring the body’s signals come with higher stakes. While her book clearly speaks to people with illness, it is a wise prescription for any person looking for a skillful way to address the inevitable pitfalls of being human. Life is hard, and every day is different. Martin whispers in our ear, “Try yoga. Just try it and see if it doesn’t make a difference in this body you call home.”