Want to find more clarity, contentment and resilience 
in this complicated world we all live in? ​
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"Self-awareness is the foundation needed to build an understanding of yourself, your concerns, and how you move through the world. As a keen observer of life, I’ve seen first hand how a lack of self-awareness gets in the way of navigating life’s ups with contentment and the downs with clarity and resilience. I’ve been using this five-layer model for myself and with my students and clients, for well over 20 years. The model comes from an eastern wisdom tradition from 3,000 years ago. I wanted to share my understanding of it in a contemporary, easy-to-read (sometimes humorous) book. That’s how Enlighten Up! came to be.

Enlighten Up! offers you a 360-degree view of self and takes you on a nine-step journey through your five layers of self–awareness to help you move through life from a calm center no matter the swirls, whirls and storms that will inevitably surround you. Reading about my journey and those of my friends, colleagues and students will help you with yours."  -Beth
Cultivating self-awareness on a practical everyday down-to-earth level is the first step. When we lack self-awareness, it gets in the way of navigating life’s ups and downs. 

Enlighten Up! presents a contemporary view of the five layers of self-awareness, based on a 3,000-year-old model, that provides a broader foundation for self-exploration than the more well-known mind/body model. 
Author Beth Gibbs uses humor and stories to teach you to recognize the influence these five layers have on your life.
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  • Your physical body and environment.
  • Your breath and energy, which makes up your life force.
  • Your thoughts, beliefs and emotions.
  • Your intuition, which acts with compassionate, nonjudgmental wisdom.
  • Your connection to something larger than yourself.


Learn how to apply this model of self-awareness to your own life through the tips and simple yoga practices shared in this book. 

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​Endorsements

I have just read the final lines of Beth Gibbs’ book Enlighten Up! Like the finish of any worthwhile journey, I am both enriched and sad to see it end! The author’s sharp, and clever sense of humor, her real-life revelations and her fascinating perspectives bring to life the 5-layered “kosha” model from the Yoga tradition as a map to better living that would otherwise seem inaccessible and strange. Whether you are new to yoga-based lifestyle “medicine” or a long-time practitioner, through Beth’s perceptive eyes and words, you will be engaged, entertained and, dare I say it, enlighten up! I’m already looking forward to diving back in for a second go around and putting all the practical tools for a more satisfying life into daily use. Won’t you join me on the adventure?


– Baxter Bell, MD
co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging
Love, peace and happiness are not external goals; they dwell within us. Enlighten Up! shines light on the koshas, or five-layers of self-awareness, to arouse self-inquiry and observation of the multiple levels of being beyond blood, bone and tissue. Gibbs’ essays on each of the five koshas are expressed in down-to-earth and honest language and written from her personal and professional perspective and experience as yoga therapist, teacher and long-time practitioner. She has seen and digested much along her journey and generously shares her insights. Yoga philosophy and Sanskrit terminology can be difficult to explain. However, the stories in Enlighten Up! demystify the metaphysical interplay between body, mind and spirit that impact the choices we make in life and inform how we feel about ourselves and others. When we understand the energies of the koshas, we possess the keys to self-mastery to fulfill our greatest potential and cultivate inner peace.  This book is an invitation to “know thyself.” Best of all, Enlighten Up! has stories for everyone regardless of age or ability. It can be enjoyed by the yoga neophyte, seasoned practitioner and the skilled teacher. It is a valuable tool for living yoga off the mat.


–– Jana Long
Executive Director, Black Yoga Teachers Alliance
I can’t imagine a better person to take us on a journey through the koshas! Beth Gibbs has 50 years of yoga practice under her belt plus hard-won wisdom from life lived in the real world. Add in her teaching experience, her easy to understand, accessible writing style, and her awesome sense of humor and what you get is an entertaining read that provides you with deep understanding of how you can use the koshas to better understand your everyday life in the modern world and to navigate through its inevitable ups and downs with greater ease and contentment.


—Nina Zolotow
Editor in Chief of the Yoga for Healthy Aging blog
and co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging
Ms. Gibbs seeks to help the reader understand oneself as opposed to fixing oneself. She has clearly spelled out the layers of awareness and shares her journey to enlightenment through her many stories. The book is enriched with yoga exercises that a beginner like myself was able to appreciate.


– Marilyn Martin, M.D.
The Resource Group
Enlighten Up! The Five Layers of Self-Awareness is a book of hard-earned wisdom that will make a difference in your life. It’s already made a difference in mine, especially the chapter called “Bitchcraft,” which not only outlines Gibbs’ evolution in turning fear and anger into assertiveness but outlines protocols, self-inquiry and practices for us to do the same. In fact, every chapter has guidance for us to rise through those layers of Self-Awareness. Don’t be fooled by the title into thinking that this is just another spiritual book. As a black woman just past a tormented menopause, Gibbs’ story is her own, yet she uses it to shine light on our own blind spots. Enlighten Up! is deeply and profoundly spiritual and oh so human, written with compassion and ever-expanding self-awareness. As you read, you are nodding, saying, “yes” to the truth of being a woman in a “complicated world.” As you read, you say “yes” to the author as a guide through the deepest wisdom of yoga as a lived experience. As you read, you are saying, “yes” to Beth Gibbs, because she feels like your new best friend. Enlighten Up! will be one of those books I will turn to again and again for inspiration.


– Amy Weintraub
Founder, LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute and
author of Temple Dancer
In Enlighten Up! Beth Gibbs manages to condense years of practice and teaching into a book that can uplift yoga practitioners and teachers alike. She uses humor, storytelling, science, and yoga wisdom to enlighten us and help us navigate our lives using the ancient tools of yoga.

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— Jivana Heyman
Director, Accessible Yoga, and author of Accessible Yoga