YogaWhat I Learned from Vanda Scaravelli

A self-published book in 2024

(English – 92 pages with illustrations)

My book is being translated into Italian by Edizioni Mediterranee and is expected to be published in August 2026
In the twelve years that I studied with Vanda, I took notes after my lessons. I wanted to remember the experience of being with this remarkable woman, and not only her instructions on Yoga. I copied her words verbatim many times. I didn’t want to forget her them. I also recorded some of her precise, succinct instructions, her telephone conversations, her advice, and a few idiosyncrasies of this loving person. Her exact words are printed in blue italics. They carry the same energy and force now as they did twenty-seven years ago.

It has heartened me to receive the following two messages from her family.

Her daughter, Paola Cohen, never stopped encouraging me to begin and finish this little book. When she read the published edition, she wrote: “I was moved by your book because I could vividly visualize my mother. It was wonderful how you blended her personality with her approach to Yoga. You somehow managed to capture her philosophy of life and made it shine throughout the whole book.”

Her grandson, Lorenzo Cohen, wrote me:
“It was a great joy to hear Vanda’s words as they jumped off the page. I could hear them and her voice in my head!!!”

A “non-Yoga person,” as she called herself, wrote this: “As a teacher, I appreciated Vanda’s teaching methods. Her wise words benefit me not only in my physical therapy but also in my life.”

Loving and Living Yoga: Reflections of a Yoga Teacher

A self-published book in 2019, available on Amazon

(English – 106 pages with illustrations)

This is a composite of episodes in journals written over the years, and of pictures and illustrations regarding Yoga. I have lived Yoga as a practice, but also as a consciousness, where it permeates everyday experience. Therefore, these notes relate to experiences with my family, food preparation, trips when the beauty of the unexpected affects me in a meditative way, personal stories, and are all linked to my being and who I am, shine forth because of my Yoga.

Saluto egiziano al sole e yoga – The Egyptian Sun Salutation and Yoga

M.I.R.Edizione, 1998,
A bilingual (English/Italian) book with variations of the Sun Salutation.

I spent days studying photos of statues taken at the Cairo Museum, trying to understand how it was that their backs were so straight and at the same time so relaxed. It was obvious that they understood gravity in a unique way. Where was the origin of their movements that could convey such majesty and ease? Imitating them, I incorporated Egyptian ”suggestions” into this ancient practice, and so it seemed natural to call these variations Egyptian.
The book may be purchased by contacting Elizabeth.

Yoga: A seven day workbook of relaxing practice

by Elizabeth Lutz Pauncz

This is a 25-page spiral-bound workbook in either English or Italian. It is complete with illustrations and explanations incorporating a self-help approach of seven full days of simple suggestions of enjoyable asanas (positions) and pranayama (breathing exercises).
It may be purchased by contacting Elizabeth.

This workbook has come about for a simple reason. Students have often told me that in spite of many years of doing Yoga, when they are at home trying to repeat something we have done in class together, they are at a loss about how to begin, what to do and whether they are doing it “correctly”. As a result, requests have often been made for some kind of a daily program to act as a guide.

People who have been doing Yoga with me will recognize asanas that we have done many times together. However, movements, although repeated, are never the same because we are always changing. The challenge, therefore, is to stay open to new beginnings and possibilities. This is one of the great lessons Yoga teaches us. Krishnamurti said: “The first step is the last one.” Let’s walk.