Colleen Saidman Yee

“There are so many maladies that keep the body and mind from working optimally. Colleen Saidman Yee tells us her story and how yoga has unraveled the knots that have been stored from different traumas and everyday life. The yoga solutions she offers are a first aid kit that we should be schooled in. This book is a must for your library of home health.” —Mark Hyman, MD, Director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and author of #1 New York Times bestseller, The Blood Sugar Solution 10 Day Detox Diet

Highly sought-after, superstar yoga teacher Colleen Saidman Yee is called the “first lady of yoga” by the New York Times. Her classes are over-subscribed and mat-to-mat filled. Now, she shares her popular yoga method for the first time in a book, along with the remarkable story of how she overcame early rebellious years and a heroin habit to become an internationally sought fashion model, and then a globally respected teacher and activist. She attributes her success to the healing power of yoga.

In YOGA FOR LIFE: A Journey to Inner Peace and Freedom (Atria Books; June 2015), Colleen Saidman Yee tells how she found clarity, fulfillment, and her true self and voice, and continues inspiring others to experience the deep and lasting change yoga can nurture.

“Women are strong and beautiful, and we are also in pain—physical, emotional, and psychological—stemming from past or present trauma,” says Colleen. “Yoga gives us tools to overcome the obstacles that exist between us and freedom, joy, and gratitude. I see why women come to yoga; they want to reclaim something in themselves. It’s beautiful to watch.”

Candid and revealing, Colleen covers her coming of age, drug addiction, modeling career, navigating marriage, divorce, and motherhood, and learning to cope with a frightening seizure disorder and grieving a beloved parent. She discusses how yoga has helped her understand her true value as a person and meet the right life partner, as she found her way in her lightning-rod relationship with her husband, Rodney Yee, another powerhouse yoga teacher. She also imparts perceptions from her time in India with Mother Theresa’s sisterhood.

Colleen presents personal anecdotes, compassionate insights, and practical instructions for applying yoga to everyday issues and anxieties. Specific yoga sequences address everything from hormonal mood swings to detoxing, depression, stress, and increased confidence and energy. Step-by-step instructions and 100 photographs demonstrate her signature flow of poses so you can follow them with ease and begin to experience the benefits that transformed her life.

Colleen Saidman Yee is an internationally respected yoga teacher. For 20 years, she was a top global fashion model, represented by Elite and Ford Models. She and her husband, Rodney Yee, another world-renowned teacher, lead the premier studio Yoga Shanti, with locations in New York City, Sag Harbor, and Westhampton Beach, New York. With Donna Karan and Rodney, Colleen created and runs the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program, utilized in healthcare facilities around the country. She has been featured in The New York Times, New York magazine, Vanity Fair, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among many others. She lives in Sag Harbor, NY.

Yoga For Life, written with Susan K. Reed, offers techniques to bring awareness to every part of your physical and spiritual being, allowing you to feel truly alive and to embody the peace of the present moment.