Yoga for Life ─ A Journey to Inner Peace and Freedom

From a rebellious young woman with a dangerous heroin habit to a globe-trotting fashion model to “First Lady of Yoga” (The New York Times), Colleen Saidman Yee tells the remarkable story of how she found herself through the healing power of yoga—and then inspired others to do the same.

I’ve learned how to extract the beauty of an ordinary day. I’ve learned that the best high exists in the joy—or the sadness—of the present moment. Yoga allows me to surf the ripples and sit with the mud, while catching glimpses of the clarity of my home at the bottom of the lake: my true self.

The very first time Saidman Yee took a yoga class, she left feeling inexplicably different—something inside had shifted. She felt alive—so alive that yoga became the center of her life, helping her come to terms with her insecurities and find her true identity and voice. From learning to cope with a frightening seizure disorder to navigating marriages and divorces to becoming a mother, finding the right life partner, and grieving a beloved parent, Saidman Yee has been through it all—and has found that yoga holds the answers to life’s greatest challenges.

Approachable, sympathetic, funny, and candid, Saidman Yee shares personal anecdotes along with her compassionate insights and practical instructions for applying yoga to everyday issues and anxieties. Specific yoga sequences accompany each chapter and address everything from hormonal mood swings to detoxing, depression, stress, and increased confidence and energy. Step-by-step instructions and photographs demonstrate her signature flow of poses so you can follow them effortlessly.

Yoga for Life 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.

Colleen Saidman Yee is an internationally respected yoga teacher who has been teaching since 1999. For twenty years before that, she was a top fashion model working around the globe, represented by Elite and Ford Models. Colleen opened her first studio, Yoga Shanti, in Sag Harbor, New York, and she and her husband, Rodney Yee, have studios in New York City and Westhampton Beach, New York. With Donna Karan and Rodney, Colleen created and runs the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program, which is utilized in healthcare facilities around the country. Saidman Yee has been featured in The New York Times, New York magazine, Vanity Fair, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among many others. Mother to a daughter and three step-children, Saidman Yee teaches retreats, workshops, and conferences around the world, but calls Sag Harbor her home.

Susan K. Reed is former Editor-in-Chief of Golf for Women magazine and a writer whose work has appeared in Golf Digest, The New York Times Book Review, Conde Nast Traveler and other publications. She is the co-author of the book Yoga for Life: A Journey to Inner Peace and Freedom with Colleen Saidman Yee. An avid recreational golfer, Susan lives in Sag Harbor, New York.