In the last ten years the world of fitness, health, and general well-being has transformed itself from nothing but curls and calorie counting to an exercise more encompassing of mind and spirit, as well as body. While some still continue to obsess about flat abs, there’s a definite movement toward acknowledging that being a whole and healthy person means recognizing the role of the mind and the power of the spirit.

This evolution began in the mid-1970s when Herbert Benson upset the medical community with his suggestion that the mental relaxation brought about by techniques such as transcendental meditation and Christian prayer resulted in positive physiological changes. He called these changes “the relaxation response,” and his 1975 book by that name remains the seminal work on the subject. (The Relaxation Response [Harper, 978-0-380-81595-1], updated in 2000.) However, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the mind/body connection—always a major part of Eastern health practices—began moving into the American mainstream thanks to new scientific research corroborating the links between thoughts, emotions, and physical states.

The mind/body connection

The link between mind and body achieved popular credibility with its adoption by reputable medical institutions. One such was the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University Of Massachusetts Medical Center, which employed meditation and Hatha yoga as healing modalities. Clinic founder and former director, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness (Piatkus, 978-0-7499-1585-8), and Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (Hyperion, 978-1-4013-0778-3) remain perennial favorites. Kabat-Zinn is still contributing to the genre as one of four authors of The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (Guildford Press, 978-1-59385-128-6). And another early pioneer of the mind/body movement, Joan Borysenko, is having her revolutionary 1987 book, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind reprinted by Da Capo Press in November 2007 (978-0-7382-1116-9).

Caring for the body can become a way of nourishing the soul. Conversely, the sense of well-being that comes from a guiding principal—religious or secular—has enormous positive health effects. Most experts agree that healthy diet and exercise programs remain the keystones of physical fitness, but research is showing that connections to others and a system of belief are important components of total wellness. There are those who go further, espousing the view that not only does there need to be a spiritual component to health, but that it’s a hunger for spirituality in our society that’s behind the epidemics of obesity and the eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.

This new relationship between health and spirituality has unleashed an avalanche of books, making veritable superstars of doctors like Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Christian Northrup, and the medical intuitive Carolyn Myss, who have taken this approach to wellness. Secular and new age followers also have embraced, and often pioneered, the concept. One of the growing disciplines is Nia (neuromuscular integrative action), a movement practice that combines some Eastern martial arts with Western dance. Its founders, Debbie and Carlos Rosas, call it “movement as medicine.” The Rosas have written a book on the subject, The Nia Technique: The High-Powered Energizing Workout That Gives You a New Body and a New Life (Broadway, 978-0-7679-1730-8).

East meets West

In looking for solutions, the vast majority of the books that take a spiritual approach to physical health employ Eastern techniques and philosophies. And why not, as there is several thousands of years worth of material to tap into. This is evidenced by the overabundance of books on yoga. According to a 2005 Harris Poll commissioned by Yoga Journal magazine, over 16.5 million Americans practice yoga—and there just might be a separate book for each of them! There are yoga books for individual body parts; babies through seniors; and various illnesses. Want to do yoga in the office? On a plane? There are books for that. There’s even yoga for dogs. A 2007 Nautilus Book Awards winner, Contact: The Yoga of Relationship by Tara Lynda Guber and Anodea Judith, Ph.D. (Mandala Publishing, 978-1-933784-02-1) uses poses for couples to do together.

Every conceivable niche seems to have been filled, so it’s little wonder that some mainstream publishers report that they are holding the line for a while. Yet, there’s one area where yoga books are reportedly doing well, and that is in tomes for serious practitioners. B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga: the Bible of Modern Yoga (Schocken, 978-0-8052-1031-6) is Amazon’s bestselling yoga book after twelve years. And according to publisher Healing Arts Press, The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice (978-0-89281-764-1) by T.K.V. Desikachar has actually shown increased sales every year since its publication ten years ago. Another that continues to be popular is the 700-paged Asanas: 608 Yoga Postures by Dharma Mittra (New World Library, 978-1-57731-402-8). In fall 2007, New World Library is adding another potential classic to its catalog with Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy (978-1-57731-606-0) by Australian Gregor Maehle. The book is already a bestseller Down Under.

Both the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Council on Exercise (ACE) forecast that yoga, and tai chi in particular, will continue to gather steam. One of the reasons may be purely pragmatic. Baby boomers who have led more active and sporty lifestyles than any previous generation are reaching the “arthritis years” younger and therefore will suffer longer. These gentler physical disciplines place less wear and tear on the body than more hard-core exercises and sports, and also can be restorative for the ill or injured.

Younger fans are also tapping into the spiritual component. Although this approach to athletics is not new (the classic The Zen of Running [978-0-394-73038-7] by Fred Rohe came out in 1974), hipster sports get the same treatment in The Inner Glide: The Tao of Skiing, Snowboarding, and Skwalling by Patrick Thais Balmain (978-1-59477-160-6) and coming from Destiny Books in fall 2007. Snow sports, suggests the author, can be a path to higher spiritual awareness.

Ecstatic dancing, as in belly dancing, Indian dancing, and yoga/dance fusions, tribal and freeform is another burgeoning market in mind/body/spirit. Relying as much as they do on specific music to forge the connection, they are difficult subjects to cover in books. It’s here that instructional DVDs have picked up the slack. Among those coming in fall 2007 is Sensual Belly Dance with Bianca; Fluid Precision: Contemporary Tribal Belly Dance with Kassar (StratoStream); and Fluid Power Vinyasa Yoga (Acacia) with Shiva Rae, one of the leaders in the ecstatic dance/yoga field.

The God Factor

While most body/spirit books look to the East for inspiration, Christian publishers have begun to test the waters with books such as Faith and Fitness: Diet and Exercise for a Better World by Tom P. Hafer (Augsburg Books, 978-0-8066-5331-0) and The Hallelujah Diet by George Malkmus and Peter Shockey (Destiny Image Publishers, 978-0-7684-2392-1). Joining them in December 2007 from Harvest House is The Busy Woman’s Guide to Total Fitness: Strengthen Your Body and Spirit in 20 Minutes a Day by Laurette Willis (978-0-7369-1995-1). Willis is also coming out in December with a DVD called PraiseMoves, a Christian alternative to yoga. Moorhouse will be releasing Grace on the Go for Dieters by Barbara Bartocci in the fall; and from Seabury Books, The Forgotten Touch: More Stories of Healing by Nigel W.D. Mumford (978-1-59627-066-4).

The idea of spirituality as good medicine cuts across all cultures, ages, and beliefs. On that note, perhaps the last thought should come from internationally respected psychopharmacologist Candace Pert, a leading scientist whose research in the late 1980s demonstrated the phenomenon of mind and body connectivity that now overwhelms our bookshelves. Pert, who espouses the view that science plus spirit is precisely the paradigm for achieving total wellbeing, chronicles her outlook in Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d (Hay House, 978-1-4019-1059-4).