Livin' the Moment

Okay, I despise the idea of a self-help book. But, I bought Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin' the Moment because the author, David Romanelli, is my favorite yoga teacher of all time. (By all time, I mean all of the 7 years I've been doing yoga.) When I found out he had invented workshops called Yoga & Chocolate and Yoga & Wine, I knew he was the yogi for me! With his goofy and irreverent sense of humor, this is not your typical self-help book. He described it as Eat, Pray, Love with an attitude. While the underlying message is to enjoy the present moment and to find pleasure everyday, he communicates this message through ridiculous stories about farting in yoga class, using manufactured pheromones to pick up women in a club, and--my favorite--a guru who combines all the current fitness crazes into yogaerobalatetate (pronounced yog-aroba-lahtay-tah-tay, in case you were wondering). Yes, most of this is made up. In fact, I'm surprised the book doesn't include some kind of James Frey-style disclaimer.

But, among the silly stories are gems of advice about slowing down and living a meaningful life. He includes many poignant quotes, like this one from the nineteenth-century clergyman Henry Ward Beecher: "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs--jolted by every pebble in the road." And "Being rich is a measurement of how much money you have. Being wealthy is a measurement of how much time you have." Yes, there are many books that spew similar wisdom, but Dave intersperses enough humor in the book that you can digest it without wanting to gag.