DJ Dave and the crew from Fog and Smog films (makers of the very clever ” Whole Foods Parking Lot ” video) are back, taking on yoga–and on the make for yoginis–with ” Yoga Girl .”  We spot Vinnie Marino and DJ Drez. Who else makes a cameo?

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Rapper’s Yoga Video

Canada’s Globe and Mail Report on Business magazine has named Lululemon Athletica’s Christine Day CEO of the year . This news comes after the Vancouver-based company was criticized in the media for its new “Who is John Galt?” shopping bag (a reference to the Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged). Day, who came from Starbucks and has served as Lulu’s CEO since 2008, has overseen tremendous growth during her tenure. “Lululemon saw its stock climb to almost $60 this fall, up over 280% from when Day joined the company, and a whopping 250% gain year over year,” according to the article. Day points to the company’s stated values as a driving factor in that growth. “Investing in your health will pay big dividends for individuals and society,” she told the magazine, “elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness.” Of course, the anti-mediocrity sentiment led to Lululemon’s controversial use of the Rand quote . “I believe in a culture of personal accountability and not compromising your values,” Day said. “Atlas Shrugged is both about not accepting mediocrity and being personally accountable for the life you are creating.” But Lululemon has always used inspirational (or what the magazine calls “communitarian”) messages for their logos, such as, “The pursuit of happiness is the source of unhappiness” and “Friends are more important than money.” It’s this selling of ideals, and not just yoga pants, analysts say, that has fueled the company’s enormous success. “Compared to more price-driven products, Lululemon apparel gives its customers the feeling that they’re purchasing a lot more than mere ‘value,’” the article states. “Buy a Cabin Long Sleeve T-shirt and you’re involved in bettering yourself. Pick up one of those cute Lucky Luon headbands and you’re joining a community of like-minded people. … It’s a thing of virtue. Budget in other spending categories if you must, the brand seems to whisper, but don’t stop taking care of your body and building a better society.”

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Lululemon’s CEO of the Year

There are lots of things to love about the practice of kirtan. It’s a chance to practice devotion, experience a meditative trance, or even explore your connection with the world and a higher power. For some people, one of the most alluring aspects of kirtan is the opportunity to connect your voice with the voices of others–to really experience being a part of a community. This is exactly what Kirtan Central founder Daniel Tucker had in mind when he asked people from the kirtan community to submit videos of themselves singing the Krishna Das Classic “Ma Durga.” “As I pored over the videos, two things became evident: first, these people LOVE this song! Whether’s it’s love of Krishna Das, love of kirtan, love of Durga, love of singing, love of God… what’s obvious is the love, joy, and tenderness captured in each video clip,” wrote Tucker in a blog post. “And second: how deeply we crave to be part of something larger than ourselves! There was so much excitement to be part of the “choir,” and I believe that’s one of the places kirtan is healing us.” He accepted submissions from 108 people from around the world and the result is this awe inspiring video. Do you practice kirtan as a way to connect with your community? What are other ways you connect?

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Kirtan Chorus

Football, beer, poker … yoga? Let’s face it. In our country, yoga doesn’t exactly top the list for macho, masculine activities even though the practice was designed for men thousands of years ago. But several male yogis are working to make yoga more accessible (and possibly more culturally acceptable) for men. Last month, we told you about Activation: Yoga Conference for Men , which took place Nov. 11-13 in San Francisco. Last week, an article in the Boston Globe examined a different type of yoga geared toward men. BROga (the word combines the words “bro” and “yoga”) is strongly based on the physical aspect of yoga and shies away from using Sanskrit terms and the esoteric, less familiar parts of yoga. “This is not a dumbed down version of yoga,” BROga cofounder Robert Sidoti, who trained with Lulubandha’s Kira Ryder, told The Globe . “There’s a lot of movement linking the postures, but adding push-ups and variations of squats. People see the name ‘Broga’ and they think it’s just a bunch of idiots. But there’s integrity.”

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Downward Facing Dudes

How does a Bond girl get in shape for the rigors of her duties? Yoga, of course. The blogs are abuzz about Naomie Harris, the actress who follows in the footsteps of many before her– a Bond girl in the mold of Jane Seymour to Halle Berry. As part of her training regimen to get in shape for playing a field agent Eve in Skyfall , the 35-year old actress told the audience at a London press conference her secret: “I’ve been … driving cars and I’m stunt-fighting, and [doing] yoga to get my body really toned, and I’m firing guns: machine guns,” she said.

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A Spy’s Secret: Yoga

Leslie Kaminoff never expected his humble yoga book to make a splash in 2007. But that’s not what happened. The book, Yoga Anatomy , co-authored with Amy Matthews, sold out its first printing in a month and shot to Amazon’s Bestsellers list, where it’s been ever since. The book is in its eighth printing, is sold around the world, with over 200,000 copies in print. This week, the second edition of the book has been released. We talked to Kaminoff, also the founder of T he Breathing Project , about the book’s makeover: Buzz: Were you surprised that your book has become such a classic? LK: Yes, we had no idea how popular it would be. Buzz: How is the 2011 version different? LK: We’ve added some things that we didn’t add because of previous space and time constraints. Amy has always been the coauthor, and now she’s acknowledged. There are two brand new chapters, and a lot of new material based on the feedback we got. We tried to be clearer and make it easier to navigate. Buzz: Do you think it’s even more relevant today? LK: More and more people drawn to therapeutic work, whether students or teachers, so we’ve noticed quite a lot more demand for higher quality anatomical information than people get in their regular teacher training programs. Buzz: What do you make of the book’s popularity?  LK: Anatomy cuts through a lot of the secular conversations that tend to go on in all of the different schools of yoga. The one thing we all have in common in our body. The function of the body is universal. Buzz: What is your goal for the book? LK: To be a resource for students and for anybody who works with the body. My greatest hope is for it to continue what it’s been, a success far beyond what anyone imagine, Kaminoff offers an online version of his anatomy courses at www.yogaanatomy.net.

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Yoga Classic: New & Improved

The little pink ribbons are everywhere this month. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and yogis around the world are honoring the month with fundraisers, events, and campaigns. It makes sense: Studies show that yoga helps with lymphatic flow, breaks down scar tissue, and can help cancer survivors sleep better, feel more energetic and cut back on sleeping pills. “Overall, we know that women with breast cancer have an altered stress response, and yoga helps with this,” says Sara Gottfried, a yogi and Harvard-trained gynecologist. “If you have too many stress hormones flying through your bloodstream, we’re talking cortisol mainly, yoga has been shown to be one of the best tonics. Yoga will lower your high cortisol and raise your GABA, which is nature’s Valium.” Last weekend, yogis raised over $43,000 during Yoga on the Steps in Washington, DC. But it’s not to late to participate. At the middle of the month, yoga events are still happening around the country, with a focus on healing, education, and raising money for research. New York City; Columbia, South Carolina; and Garland, Texas: Pose for Pink events in these cities feature donation-based classes for survivors and other students to benefit T he Libby Ross Breast Cancer Foundation . On Oct. 23, for example, Pure Yoga East teams up with Zobha to host an afternoon class led by Kay Kay Clivio. All of the suggested donation of $40 will go to the foundation, and all attendees will receive a limited edition Zobha tank. On Thursday, Oct. 20, the Long Island Yoga Association will host a 7pm screening of YogaWoman at the Elwood Theater in Elwood, New Jersey, with guest host Tari Prinster, who is featured in the film. See the full list of Pose for Pink events here .   Los Angeles: On Oct. 29, Prana Yoga Center is holding a fundraiser from 12-1:30 led by Claire Petretti, a breast cancer survivor and Yoga for Hope activist. The suggested donation of $15 will be donated to City of Hope. Seattle: At Bria Pilates and Wellness Studio, people who bring in a recent mammogram will get 10 percent off of anything they buy. To honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the studio will be accepting donations during all of our classes and sending them to the the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. If you can’t get to an event, you can still help: When you buy a Jade Pink Yoga Mat, $5 will be donated for breast cancer research and education.

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Yoga and Breast Cancer Awareness Month

An organization doing some amazing work helping wounded veterans has just added another warrior to its ranks. From Nov. 4-6, Ana Forrest will hold public workshops in Tampa, Florida, to benefit the Exalted Warrior Foundation (EWF), a non-profit that has taught adaptive yoga to wounded warriors in military and veteran hospitals since 2006. On Nov. 7, Forrest will accompany EWF teachers to Tampa’s James A Haley Veterans Hospital, one of the largest spinal cord and trauma units in the United States, to meet and work with the wounded there. If you’ve even studied Forrest Yoga, you know that the classes emphasize being fierce, cutting through fear to get to the truth. Working with wounded vets fits right into to this philosophy. “Ana believes that warriors have a powerful place in a culture and society,” explains Elizabeth Pope, a Forrest Yoga teacher who volunteers with the Exalted Warrior Foundation. “In the Native American tradition, the warrior is a very honorable path. Anybody who takes care of the path should be honored.” Students come EWF classes with a range of injuries, including  amputations, brain and spinal cord injuries, and post traumatic stress disorder, and a host of other conditions. Classes include gentle breathing, gentle to more intense stretching, and meditation. “Faced with the demands of both a physical and emotional recovery, yoga allows newly disabled veterans to reconnect both with themselves and their loved ones,” the EWF website states. “These methods of yoga exercises, relaxation, and meditation are keys to wellness that the warrior can practice for a lifetime … [and] will help the warrior reintegrate into their community after leaving the care of the military, returning home to a potentially fuller and more productive life.” EWF works in military hospitals and rehabilitation centers around the country, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Portsmouth Naval Hospital, and Brooklyn VA Hospital.

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Ana Forrest Pairs With Organization to Help Wounded Vets

If you’re looking for an easy way to give back to the world through your yoga practice, this year’s Yoga Aid Challenge might be just the opportunity for you.. On October 1-2, join yoga students across the globe to raise money for yoga nonprofit organizations that are making a difference in the world. Last year, the event raised more than $100,000 at more than 35 events across the county. This year the organization, hopes to double that! Proceeds will go to one of five deserving yoga nonprofits that are working to bring the practice to those in need from inner city schools and incarcerated youth to poor communities in Africa. How can you help? Find a Yoga Aid Challenge event near your by going to http://www.yogaaid.com/usa . Raise money for the charity of your choice, then participate in a two-hour class. If there’s nothing in your area, you can support one of the participants by making a donation. We want to know: How do you share your yoga with the world?

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Give Love: Take the Yoga Aid Challenge

Deepak Chopra will be releasing a video game in November that promises to “enhance the mind-body connection” through interactive full-body motions and breathing techniques. Leela , which is a Sanskrit word that means “play,” will be available for both Nintendo Wii and XBox 360. It uses interactive meditations and exercises to help players relieve stress and find balance, and visual imagery to help facilitate these goals. You can also create personal mandala though the program. “I wanted to explore how you can use games to not only have a good time, but to increase that experience of flow and actually maximize your physical and mental capacity,” Chopra said in an interview with CNN. Would you buy a video game that guides you through meditations and breath exercises?

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Deepak Chopra Creates Video Game

This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of September 11. Across the country, yogis are gathering together to reflect, remember, and honor the people who lost their lives and the families and communities who live with the effects of that tragic day. “I feel like I needed to get the word out that it’s never too late to lend a hand to those affected,” says Ashley DiMeglio, who organized a music and yoga event in Congers, New York, on Sunday.  ”Coming together as a yoga community not only heals with our yoga practice but brings us together to share in our hearts how we can unite together for this cause,” she says. For the class, whose proceeds go to September 11 Families’ Association , she asks people to bring a picture of a loved who who died or otherwise affected by events of that day. “The reason for this is to place the picture on their yoga mat to dedicate their yoga practice to them and to send healing energy out to those that need that it.”  Many other teachers and studios are offering free classes, or hosting fundraisers. Here’s just a sampling of the events happening on Sunday. If there’s nothing in your area, why not find a park, gym, or living room to be together, and remember? New York By Love Alone , a free day of meditation on Governor’s Island hosted by The Interdependence Project, the Shambhala Center, the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn, The Village Zendo, Won Buddhism of Manhattan, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and other  meditation and spiritual communities. Some of New York’s leading meditation teachers will provide guided instruction throughout the day. San Diego Yoga for 9/11 is a 3-hour yoga-and-meditation practice to honor the heroes and victims of that day, with proceeds going to the International Association of Fire Fighters Disaster Relief Fund. New Hampshire A 10th Anniversary Yoga Celebration at Zaanti Yoga and Meditation Studio in Wilton will benefit the New Hampshire campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace, and include meditation, mantra, and asana. Seattle Village Yoga is offering a free afternoon yoga class in honor of the day.  

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Reflect and Remember: Yoga on 9/11

You may have seen the video of Yoga for Wine Lovers , which features an agile yogi practicing advanced poses while simultaneously downing a bottle of red wine. We’re not sure when it happened, but yoga and wine have become a popular pairing. Yoga teacher Dave Romenelli has carved a niche with foodies and wine lovers with his Yoga + Wine classes. Connecticut’s Chamard Vineyard hosts summer yoga classes outdoors in view of the vines. At the Wanderlust yoga-music festival, you can take a break from practice for wine tasting. And that’s only the beginning: other yoga-wine events are popping up at vineyards, studios, and yoga gatherings around the country. We are always fascinated at the way modern yoga integrates other aspects into the practice. But what does traditional yoga have to say about this particular combination? We asked James Bennitt, a Tantric vinyasa yoga teacher in Chicago, and a student of Rod Stryker.  ”There is no mention of alcohol in the yamas or niyamas,” says Bennitt. “However in Chapter 1, verse 59 of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, probably the most important text as far as the physical aspect of yoga goes, there is a list of ‘foods’ that are to be avoided by the yogi and, sure enough, alcohol is one of them.” Bennitt continues: “Believe me, I’m not happy about this as I love craft beer.” He doesn’t say that everyone has to follow these guidelines, but they work for him: “Personally, I have finally come to the conclusion that I feel better if I avoid alcohol all together.  Even small amounts on a regular basis are hard on your kidneys, adrenal glands and liver.  A glass of wine or beer once in a while isn’t the worst thing in the world, but when it becomes a habit, it is depleting to the system, not to mention clouds your judgment.  For me, yoga is very much about building energy as well as clarity–not depleting yourself of them.” How does alcohol fit in with your yoga lifestyle?  

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Buzzed: Yoga and Alcohol

If you’ve ever browsed a Lululemon Athletica store, you might be surprised that so many different looks could be created from stretchy fabric. From basic and simple to complicated and fashion-forward, the designers at Lululemon always seem to be dreaming up interesting new yoga wear. Whether you’re a fan or not, their designs are on often on the forefront of yoga fashion trends. Have you ever wondered how they come up with those booty-shaping yoga pants? The Lululemon Lab, located on the corner of West Broadway and Cambie in Vancouver, British Columbia, houses new design concepts, designers working on patterns, and even a team of 20-plus sewers putting together the next season’s clothing. Customers who visit get to see first-hand what goes into the designs, try them out, and provide feedback about the garments, which designers factor into their next creations. “The lab creates, makes, and sells its own line of clothing using the same Lululemon fabrics you know and love,” according to Lululemonlab.com, a website that shares photographs of the lab’s designs and interviews with the collaborators. “Its exclusive forward-thinking line is conceptualized by its very own team of designers, whose inspirations are rooted in local and international fashion as well as guest and athlete feedback.” The lab only makes between 10 and 100 of each piece, and only sells those garments from the lab’s showroom in Vancouver. A select few of these experimental pieces do make their way into the Lululemon stores everywhere. But the feedback that consumers offer influence the creations at the lab and the company as a whole. “Lululemon is based on guest feedback–this is a huge influence in creating our product,” says Lindsay Walsh, a product coordinator and designer for the lab. “The lab is our opportunity to collect that feedback on a daily basis.”

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Lululemon Lab

If you want to be a Forrest Yoga teacher, you’ll have to do more than enroll in any ol’ 200-hour yoga teacher training. You’ll have to train with Ana Forrest herself. Then, you might be mentored by one of 20 Forrest Yoga Guardians, who have been handpicked and trained by Forrest to become ambassadors of the practice and mentors to less experienced teachers. A recent New York Times article described Forrest Yoga as a “rigorous style with no less a goal than curing the ails of the modern world.” Forrest Yoga Guardians help Forrest spread that message. “Each Forrest Yoga Guardian has gone through intensive training with Ana to learn the skills required to be a mentor for teachers,” explains the Forrest Yoga website, ForrestYoga.com . You can be certain that when Ana Forrest says “intensive training,” she’s not joking around. She’s the shamanic-high priestess-of-healing in the yoga world, blending Native American and other spiritual teachings with a warriorlike fierceness to, as she says on her site, “help people embody their Spirit, not go through life fragmented.” Forrest Yoga Guardians complete a rigorous training program. Erica Mather, 35, who lives in Harlem, told the Times that she had done a 200-hour training with Forrest, 400 hours of field work, a nine-day advanced teacher training, and a one-week Forrest Yoga mentorship training. She also meets with Forrest annually and serves as a mentor to others who are in the process of training. To many students, such high teacher-training standards gives Forrest Yoga credibility, but others are turned off by yoga styles that are so closely tied to one teacher’s persona. “Ugh! More proprietary yoga!” was the response to the article from Twitter user gogoyogini, a yoga teacher in Las Vegas. Read the full article . Photo credit: Federica Villabrega

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Yoga Intensive: Ana Forrest in NY Times

From Seattle to Syracuse, classes combining yoga and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) are catching on with both yoga and water sports enthusiasts. News stories are popping up all over about the combination, which promises to offer a challenging twist on the practice of yoga. From what we can tell, it’s exactly what it sounds like: Yoga poses on a giant surf board. It looks like fun, but can it enhance your yoga practice? According to Austin, Texas yoga teacher Stphany Heeren, yes. Doing yoga on the water works your core in a different way as you try and keep your balance with challenging poses like Side Plank or even Headstand, she told NBC affiliate KXAN. It challenges your balance, forces you to be present, and gives you a chance to be enjoy nature. It sounds like a winning combo us. Not to mention, it would give you a great answer to the question, “Where’s the craziest place you’ve ever practiced yoga?” Watch the video below for a preview. Yoga paddle boarding becomes new craze: wane.com What do you think? Would you be willing to practice yoga on a stand up paddle board? If you have tried it, what did you think?

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Is Paddleboard Yoga the Next Big Trend?

It’s a winning trifecta: Yoga. Nature. Free. This summer, it seems like everyone wants to be with the trees, wind and sky while they practice. There’s nothing like balancing in Tree Pose, humbled and inspired by the real thing all around you. And even better, many outdoor yoga classes are free, many as an offering to the community. Across the country, yogis are busting out of the studio and onto the fields, parks, and lawns. Here’s just a few examples: New York: Taking Central Park by Storm Storm Yoga, a nonprofit that runs free classes in Central Park, wants to make yoga accessible to all: The classes are free, but yogis are encouraged to make a donation to a local charity that  runs yoga programs for under served communities. San Francisco: Yoga on the Farm Five days a week, San Francisco’s Hayes Valley Farm offers free yoga, weather permitting. Just show up with your mat at this urban farm.  Los Angeles: Canyon Asanas All yogis are welcome at Fire Groove’s weekly, free yoga classes at Runyon Canyon. The evening starts with an all-level donation-based class and ends with a DJ spinning tunes for a Spin Jam.  Austin: Full Moon Yoga For the 14th consecutive year, Charles MacInerney offers a monthly free yoga class that includes a hatha practice, meditation, and socializing to the light of the full moon. 

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Free Outdoor Yoga Classes

The summer is halfway over. You might have a major trip planned, or a staycation where you while away the hours at home. You might have, like us, a list of books from the year that you just haven’t gotten around to. Whatever you choose for summer, a good book can make the summer just as memorable as a family trip to the beach or a double-decker cone. Here’s a few books that we think yogis will enjoy: For the creative. Writing Yoga : A Guide to Keeping a Practice Journal (Rodmell) by Bruce Black. An introspective book that explores where yoga, writing, and life meet. For the lighthearted. Downward Dog, Upward Fog (Alignment) by Meryl Davids Landau. A lighthearted novel about a woman who just can’t seem to stay on the spiritual path — something most of us can relate to.   For the balance-seeker. Yoga for Emotional Balance: Simple Practices to Relieve Anxiety and Depression (Shambhala) by Bo Forbes. Forbes, a therapist and yoga teacher, gives practical advice for working with both the body and the mind to address the blues.  For the scientific. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (Penguin): The author’s fascinating journey in the U.S. Memory Championship sheds light on the nature of the human experience. We want to know: What’s on your summer reading list?

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Summer Book List for Yogis

Back in 1991, while living in New York City and working as a television journalist, Suzanne Bryant took a yoga class to help counteract the stress of her daily life. Nine years later, she had enrolled in the ISHTA teacher training program, realizing that the calm and clarity the practice gave her was something she wanted to share. But it wasn’t until she learned that her mother had terminal breast cancer, and moved back to San Francisco to be with her, that yoga became more than an adjunct to her life–it became her best friend.  After her mother’s death, and still carrying her immense grief, she set out to explore yoga, from its roots to its modern application, to better understand the transformative powers of this mystical practice. Yoga Is is Bryant’s documentary of this exploration. It led her to India where she studied Ayurveda in Kerala, practiced Ashtanga Yoga with Pattabhis Joi and his daughter Saraswati, and met with Neem Karoli Baba’s son and learned about Bhakti Yoga, and back to the U.S., where she met with prominent Western yoga teachers such as Alan Finger, Shiva Rae, Dharma Mittra, Baron Baptiste, and many more;  Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman; and celebrities like Russell Simmons, Christy Turlington Burns, and Michael Franti, who have embraced the practice. At the heart of the film is the earnest search to understand what this ancient system of asanas, meditations, chants, and more, can offer each of us as we navigate through our lives. Yoga Is has screened in New York and Boulder, this week opens in San Francisco, and is slated to play in numerous other cities throughout the U.S. and the world in the coming months.

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"Yoga Is" Documentary

Back in 1991, while living in New York City and working as a television journalist, Suzanne Bryant took a yoga class to help counteract the stress of her daily life. Nine years later, she had enrolled in the ISHTA teacher training program, realizing that the calm and clarity the practice gave her was something she wanted to share. But it wasn’t until she learned that her mother had terminal breast cancer, and moved back to San Francisco to be with her, that yoga became more than an adjunct to her life–it became her best friend.  After her mother’s death, and still carrying her immense grief, she set out to explore yoga, from its roots to its modern application, to better understand the transformative powers of this mystical practice. Yoga Is is Bryant’s documentary of this exploration. It led her to India where she studied Ayurveda in Kerala, practiced Ashtanga Yoga with Pattabhis Joi and his daughter Saraswati, and met with Neem Karoli Baba’s son and learned about Bhakti Yoga, and back to the U.S., where she met with prominent Western yoga teachers such as Alan Finger, Shiva Rae, Dharma Mittra, Baron Baptiste, and many more;  Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman; and celebrities like Russell Simmons, Christy Turlington Burns, and Michael Franti, who have embraced the practice. At the heart of the film is the earnest search to understand what this ancient system of asanas, meditations, chants, and more, can offer each of us as we navigate through our lives. Yoga Is has screened in New York and Boulder, this week opens in San Francisco, and is slated to play in numerous other cities throughout the U.S. and the world in the coming months.

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"Yoga Is" Documentary

How do you put your spiritual practice to use in the face of danger? This is the fundamental question behind Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets WIldfire at the Gates of Tassajara, written by former Yoga Journal senior editor Colleen Morton Bush. The book tells the tale of California wildfires that swept through California’s Ventana Wilderness surrounding Tassajara Zen Center . When the fires threatened to destroy the property, the center was quickly evacuated. Five monks, however, decided to risk their lives and stay. With meticulous detail and an open heart, Busch recounts the story of how these senior monks applied their Zen training, using mindfulness, presence, intuition, and faith to stay and guide the fire, in spite of grave danger.  We talked to Busch, a longtime Zen and yoga practitioner, about what she learned in recreating this emotional story, a process that generated more than 100 hours of interviews. “Zen is more about unlearning than learning, getting back to our innate clarity, compassion, and wholeness,” she says. “In working on a project that involved so many people, what I practiced with the most was how our relationships with one another are just as essential, and every bit as dynamic, as our relationship with our own minds on the meditation cushion.”

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Mindfulness in Action

Summer’s here. This means extra time with kids, lazy days at the beach. Why not give them some books on the themes that yogis hold dear? We Are Like the Sky by Elisabeth Rose Wilds was inspired by the author’s own mindfulness practice and her work at a youth homeless shelter in Manhattan, where she has set up a healing arts center.  “I felt that there was a real need for children and youth to see the world through the eyes of love and learn to open their hearts,” she says of her first book, illustrated by Brian Dorr (also the illustrator of her current book.) Recently, we caught up with WIlds: Q: Tell us how you became a children’s author using spiritual themes? A: As I started teaching mind-body programs and mindfulness practices, I saw that the youth were receiving real benefits. For the first time they could remember, many of them expressed an experience of  peace and quiet.  It became very clear to me how powerful and life changing mindfulness practices can be, and how wonderful it would be to teach these concepts to younger children. The youths that I work with still have some emotional storms to endure, but they have some tools to help them “reset”  – mindfulness is one of these wonderful tool Q: How did yoga/meditation influence the words and the pictures? A:  A key to mindfulness practice is finding that quiet place within, which allows us to observe our thoughts. In the book, the quiet place within is represented by the sky (feather) and our thoughts and resulting emotional states are depicted by weather patterns. The book teaches that we can we can always find that quiet place within, regardless of the storms that our thoughts are producing.  We can regain our balance, and begin again, living with greater awareness on a moment by moment basis.  Q: What is your hope that children take away? We hope that children will develop an awareness of how their thoughts impact their emotional well-being and learn how to access that quiet place within to rebalance and begin again.

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We Are Like the Sky

Yoga and Buddhism stem from the same Indian lineage yet remain distinct spiritual paths. Still, there’s natural crossover between the two disciplines, and mutual respect among practitioners of each. This relationship is beautifully celebrated at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center–an oasis of mindfulness nestled some 20 miles inland from California’s Big Sur coastline in the Ventana Wilderness. Photo of Tassajara’s yoga studio courtesy of Margo Moritz margomoritz.com While Tassajara primarily serves as a Zen teaching monastery, from April through September, its doors open to the public to enjoy the site’s natural hot springs, abundant hiking trails, meditation instruction, and some seriously delicious vegetarian food (mealtime is a much-anticipated event here). Guests attend workshops that explore mindfulness as it relates to relationship-building, cooking, art, writing–and yoga, which has become one of the most popular workshop themes. The folks behind Tassajara, a branch of the San Francisco Zen Center, have made such a commitment to its yoga program that they just built a gorgeous eco-friendly studio, complete with cork flooring heated by piped hot-spring water, solar electricity, tons of natural light–it’s even stocked with Manduka Eko-Lite mats.  On a recent visit, I had the good fortune to test-drive the just-opened studio in a class with San Francisco’s Diego del Sol, who was teaching a three-day yoga and Zen retreat with Tassajara’s head of practice, Greg Fain. The class was great, and pretty intense. I’ll admit, somewhere during our umpteenth Sun Salutation variation, my mindfulness strayed into a daydream about a post-class soak in the hot springs.  But then, Savasana. Pure sensation. Nothing but idle awareness of the sound of Tassajara Creek rolling by and dappled sunlight playing across my closed eyelids. I think I reached a Zen state! Combined with endless surprises from the world-famous kitchen (what 1970s vegetarian didn’t own the Tassajara Bread Book , not to mention the center’s gorgeous contemporary cookbooks ), stunning natural beauty, and absolute serenity, this is a destination yoga retreat center well worth the drive.  And what a drive it is. Tassajara is located in a canyon, 14 miles down a winding, unpaved mountain road. (There’s a shuttle for those without 4-wheel drive or who are squeamish about off-road adventures.)   Three years ago, the center was threatened by a summer wildfire that swept through Big Sur, eventually taking out 162,818 acres . The fascinating story of a heroic band of Tassajara residents who stayed behind to defend the property is chronicled in a new book, Fire Monks , out in July. Lucky for all of us, Tassajara still stands, ready to share its bounty with anyone willing to venture deep into the forest–and into their own hearts.  

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Where Yoga and Zen Meet

Stories of corruption, tear gas, and police action don’t usually end up in Buzz. But this was the scene this weekend in New Delhi, as the popular Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev embarked on a hunger strike to end government corruption . Tens of thousands of people across India, Europe, Africa, and the United States joined Ramdev in a strike that began on Saturday in protest of alleged Indian government corruption. On Sunday, the police responded with tear gas into the crowd of more than 40,000 Ramdev supporters. Police detained Ramdev, guru to millions of followers in India, then later deported him back to his ashram in Haridwar and banned him from entering Delhi. Now on his fifth day of not eating, the spiritual leader said he wouldn’t eat until the government returned millions of dollars illegally stashed abroad and imposed tough penalties on those who continue to put their money in safe havens, and, in a seemingly un-yogic twist, has threatened to arm his supporters.

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Yoga Guru Protests Corruption

The blogs are buzzing about the identity of the father of January Jones’s baby. We don’t care about that. We just love it when we spy celebrities like the “Mad Men” star, who is featured in the upcoming X-Men movie, star clutching a yoga mat. We hope that this gets people buzzing about the benefits of prenatal yoga instead!

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January Jones Does Prenatal Yoga!

“For some yoga practitioners, the body is a sacred vessel that should not be tainted. For others, the skin represents a blank, movable canvas for tattoos displaying thoughts, texts and deities that inspire and inform their practice,” Emily S. Rueb writes in the forward of  “A Moveable Canvas,” a photography portfolio in The New York Times, showcases the devotional artwork of yogic tattoos. Piotr Redlinski’s lovely black-and-white photos feature Jivamukti Yoga School co-founder David Life and other yogis who wear their passion for the practice, literally, on their skin. 

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Yogis Bare All

In the age of YouTube, it’s fun to sit back and watch a video of twins talking or a cat using the potty. But KarmaTube wants videos to do more than entertain: they view video as a medium to inspire action–either in the world or in your own heart. The website features videos that both pull your heartstrings and make you want to jump out of your seat and do something: Recent ones showed how some creative kids in Thailand started their own football team; a project that provides handmade hats to orphans in South Africa; and how one woman found art to help heal after the loss of a child. After each video, KarmaTube suggests ways you can create change based on what you just saw, whether this means thinking about tackling a problem in a new way, or volunteering in your community. Visit here to watch a video, suggest a video, create a video, or spread the word. We want to know: What do you do that inspires Karma Yoga (the yoga of action) in others?

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KarmaTube: Be the Change

It isn’t often that your doctor takes off his coat, puts on shorts, and leads a yoga class. Unless your doctor is  Loren Fishman, MD. Fishman is the medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York City, author of several yoga books, and a pioneer in the treatment of piriformis syndrome, rotator cuff tears, and back pain. And twice a week, Fishman, who studied directly with B.K.S. Iyengar, personally teaches therapeutic yoga poses to small groups of patients. Fishman, who recently spoke at the1st International Conference on Yoga for Health and Social Transformation in Hardiwar, India, also conducts yoga therapy webinars with Ellen Saltonstall. Their next, “Creating a Safe Yoga Practice: Keys to Preventing and Healing Shoulder Injuries,” will play May 2 and 9. He recently spoke to Yoga Buzz.   Q: What immediate benefits do you see after a patient does yoga with you? A: It sounds almost corny, but after about 10 or 20 minutes the patients have better color and look younger. They become more willing to try poses they wouldn’t have dreamed of before. It’s amazing to watch people who have been in pain and feel lousy become decidedly more upbeat. Less pain and anxiety, better balance and range of motion almost always accompany the first session. Q: Tell us a success story with one of your patients. A: Lorraine had been teaching yoga in New Jersey for 10 years, but had been unable to raise her right arm beyond 60 degrees for seven of them, due to rotator cuff syndrome. I showed her a maneuver derived from the Iyengar teaching of Headstand and she was able to lift her arm painlessly to 180 degrees within 2-3 minutes. Eighteen months later she was still raising her arm completely, painlessly and happily. Q: Do you see a future where yoga is universally prescribed for back pain? A: Back pain is a symptom with many causes, with different, sometimes contrary treatments. Identical examples of severe sciatica may be caused by spinal stenosis and herniated disc. Flexion is good for spinal stenosis, and dangerous with herniated disc, while extension is good for herniated dIsc, but dangerous in stenosis. So you need to know the diagnosis; prescribing yoga or surgery or anything depends upon that.  Therefore my crystal ball has people that can identify the cause of back pain properly prescribing yoga for it. And quite frequently! Yoga therapists need to learn a good deal of medicine; medical people need a lot of practical information about yoga. Visit YogaSpirit for more details about Fishman’s webinars. We want to know: Are your medical doctors aware of yoga’s benefits?

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When Medicine and Yoga Meet: Q & A with Loren Fishman, MD

You voted, we listened. The yogis with the most votes have been named the top five finalists in Yoga Journal’s Talent Search. They are: Shannon McGee Paducah, Kentucky Casey Van Zandt New Orleans Marcelo Tessari New York Vanessa Pattison Sacramento, California Mark Gonzales San Francisco Read more about them here . From these five, Yoga Journal’s editors will choose a winner who will be flown to our San Francisco office and participate in a photoshoot to be featured in the pages of the September issue. Make sure to pick up your copy to find out who it is! Thanks to everyone who participated. We had almost 3,000 talented, passionate yogis submit their photos and share their stories with us, and with all of you. We are awed by the amazing yoga talent out there. Congratulations to everyone. Namaste!

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You Picked ‘Em! Talent Search Finalists Announced

People around the globe jumped into action to support relief efforts and aid to the victims of Japan’s devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and those efforts continue. Yogis have been helping in their own unique ways, with donation classes, fundraisers, and even a Bakesale for Japan , which raised almost $125,000 and counting. For her part, Sarah Baroni, a yogini and jewerly designer in Arcata, California, decided to create the Healing Pendant and donate 100 percent of the net proceeds from its sale to the organization Direct Relief International. “We make jewelry, it’s just the most logical thing for us to do to do our small part to help,” Baroni says. The pendant’s three charms–a dove, a Biwa pearl, and amethyst–represent peace, regeneration, and inner strength, qualities that Baroni wishes for the people of Japan right now.  “I wanted something that felt really healing and peaceful,” she says. Have yogis in your community pitched in to help Japan?

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Yogis Aid Japan’s Tsunami Victims

For the fifth year in a row, Shambhala Mountain Center will host “Courageous Women, Fearless Living,” a retreat for women touched by cancer. With meditation instructor Acharya Judith Lief, integrative medicine physician and professor Victoria Maizes, yoga instructor Linda Sparrowe, and yoga and sacred movement teacher Sofia Diaz (all shown below), the workshop includes include mindfulness meditation instruction, integrative medicine, and yoga and movement classes. The program started in 2006. “Originally we talked about creating a program for women with breast cancer, but quickly realized that breast cancer gets the lion’s share of research money as well as public recognition and support,” says Sparrowe. “So we made the decision to reach out to any woman touched by any kind of cancer. We wanted something that blended Buddhist meditation (specifically in the Shambhala tradition), yoga, nutrition, info on holistic therapies, being in nature, and the power of coming together as women.” The program, which runs Aug. 23-28, is open to a wide range of women dealing with cancer: Those who have just gotten their diagnosis, who are in the middle of treatment, who are in remission, and women whose cancer has returned. “Because of the nature of the retreat, we encourage caretakers to come as well,” Sparrow says. “We’ve had women bring their sisters, their best friends, the moms or daughters,  and their hospice workers. We’ve had as many as 65 women and as few as 36.” Partial scholarships are available for those who are unable to bear the program cost, which ranges from $745-$1,495, depending on lodging. “Eileen Fisher has contributed every year and this year has given us a whopping $10,000. We’re hoping to match that,” says Sparrowe  To get an application or donate, visit Shambhala’s site.

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Courageous Women, Fearless Living: A Healing Retreat

“Yoga is the union of mind, body, and spirit, resulting in expanded awareness,” Deepak Chopra told me yesterday. Well, not exactly directly to me. I was watching a new app on my iPhone called Authentic Yoga . In bite size pieces, the app delivers yoga’s philosophical side by Chopra, who explains everything from higher states of consciousness to raja yoga. Then with Chopra narrating, superstar Yogini Tara Stiles models the asana sections, with routines for back pain, tight hamstrings, tight shoulders, and less stress. It also offers different routines for beginner, intermediate, and advanced practitioners.   I haven’t spontaneously dropped to my mat, iPhone in hand, to do the poses yet. But it is nice to have 5,000 years of wisdom in my pocket: Next time I’m having a hard day, I might just access it: “When you are in touch with your spirit, when you are in touch with your soul, in touch with your divinity, then you have a state of consciousness that is called Grace,” says Chopra. “Nature supports you, God supports you, you have spontaneous fulfillment of desire, and you harness the power of attraction.” Who couldn’t use a reminder once in a while? We want to know: Do you mix technology and yoga?

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Authentic Yoga at Your Fingertips

Every night, I give my five-year old son a blessing based on the Buddhist loving kindness prayer. May you be safe and protected from harm. May you be happy with peace in your heart. May you be healthy, able, and strong. May you go easy through sunshine or storm. He usually rolls over, and goes to sleep. But last night, he looked at me and seemed to have decided that I, too, needed a little love. He put my chin in his hand, and brought his mouth to my ear. Then he proceeded to say the blessing back to me. It was a profound moment. Incredibly, had never thought of actually saying this nightly blessing to myself! I put so much effort into taking care of my kids, the house, my husband, my work, and my home. Sometimes I forget that I need, I deserve, the same kind of love right to come flowing back to myself. Today, I’m going to try to show myself the same love that I show everyone around me. I think it just might pay off. We want to know: How can you show yourself love in everyday moments?

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A Nightly Blessing: Love Thyself

As yogis, we wish for all people to be happy, safe, and healthy. A touching story from Nashville Public Radio talks about how yoga helps wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afganistan piece their bodies and their lives back together. For many veterans, yoga is a subtler and gentler approach toward health. Beyond visible physical wounds, many soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which the stress relief, body awareness, and serenity of yoga can address: “At first, I was skeptical because I liked running six or ten miles a day, just doing it the 101st way,” says Spec. Michael Stefan. “But the positive thing is for me to focus on what I can do to overcome symptoms of PTSD, rather than getting stuck in a rut, self-centered, ‘oh me’ mentality, which I used to have.” We want to know: What aspects of yoga do you think could benefit veterans the most?

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Yoga Helps Wounded Soldiers

” Eat mostly plants, especially leaves .” Everyone has certain “food rules” that they live by–including bestselling The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan. After his wildly successful book last year, Food Rules : An Eater’s Manual, which gave us nutritionally sound, easy-to-remember gems such as eat your colors and the whiter the bread, the sooner you will be dead , he’s calling for submissions for an expanded version. His newest tome will include food rules submitted by readers.   Submissions are due by Sunday, February 27. Winners will be credited with their “rule” and receive a signed copy. Yogis, have any rules to share? Submit your food rule here We want to know: What’s your favorite food rule?

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What Are Your Food Rules?

“This sh** is hard,” says one NBA player when describing yoga in an article in the online magazine Slam about the growing interest of yoga in the NBA. Some teams have on-site teachers during the season, while others direct their players to practice during off-season. In the piece, author Kyle Stack talks about how yoga helps NBA players deal with the intense stress and strain of their job–and the clash of cultures that can happen when yoga meets the money, fame, and pressure that goes with professional sports. ” That there is even one NBA team which has a yoga instructor on the payroll is fairly surprising,” he is quoted as saying. “Yoga has a fundamental association with nature and soft music and showing one’s sensitive side. That doesn’t jive with an NBA environment that is filled with aggressiveness, even ruthlessness. ‘Soft’ doesn’t work; NBA players can read through someone trying to tap into their inner self. ” We want to know: Should yoga adapt itself to its environment or remain true to it’s original format?

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Yoga in the NBA: Culture Clash or Savior?

Yoga is more than a practice; it’s a cultural phenomenon. So I love when yoga shows up in the news. And it can’t get any higher-profile than the Oprah Winfrey Show. To celebrate Oprah’s birthday, actress Jennifer Aniston showed up with a yoga mat–personalized with Oprah’s five dogs! Before giving her the mat, Aniston says: “You know how you give out your favorite things? Well, one of my favorite things is yoga!” We want to know: Do you think moments like this give yoga more exposure? And that it’s good for advancing yoga in America?

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Aniston to Oprah: A Yoga Mat!

Last week, I started walking through the door of my Pilates class. Just as the door almost shut behind me, I heard the sound of funky world music coming from another room. I gave the teacher an apologetic glance, backed out of the room, and found myself in a huge roomful of people laughing and dancing and moving en masse to a really loud Afro-Cuban beat.  The moral isn’t to shun your Pilates class. (I went back the next week.) But for me, it’s clear that I need to have more fun. Since then, I’ve been trying to practice The Art of Silliness. Even though I often feel weighed down with responsibility, I’m trying to find small ways that I can bring a silly, childlike quality back into my life. Here’s my modest Art of Silliness list:  1. Host a nightly “dance party” with my kids before bed. 2. Go out with my girlfriends–even when I’m “too tired.” 3. Smile with joy during a tough asana practice instead of grimacing.  4. Play charades. We want to know: What’s on your Silly List?

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The Art of Silliness

Many people can get up in arms about yoga being used to sell products. But I think that we yogis can laugh at ourselves, too. And laugh is what I did when I saw this advertisement from PEMCO, a Seattle-based insurance company. PEMCO, has brought yoga into the fold, with Type A Yoga Girl, one of five characters in their new ad campaign. The moment the meeting ends, she’s off — with hair in a ponytail and a yoga mat wrapped so tightly under her arm it’d take two downward facing dogs to rip it away from her. She’s going to find her inner peace. So don’t even consider getting in her way . We want to know: Is there truth to this stereotype? Do you think Type A personalities are more attracted to yoga than other types? Does this ad offend you–or make you laugh?

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Type A Yoga Girl?

Did you ever wish you had a more solid foundation of knowledge about yoga philosophy? After all, yoga isn’t only about a healthy body–it’s really meant to be a vehicle to liberate the mind, elevate consciousness, and reach greater states of expansive awareness. Even if you’ve gone to a teacher’s training, you probably have only scratched the surface of the vast body of yoga philosophy. That’s why I love the idea of the certificate in yoga philosophy offered by the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, which starts again in February. The course focuses on everything I wished I knew more about, including the Eight Limbs of Yoga, a historical overview of modern yoga’s move from East to West, classic tantra philosophy, and the Bhagavad Gita. The faculty is a yoga dream team, including Sally Kempton, Carlos Pomeda, Gary Kraftsow, Scott Blossom, Laura Cornell, Kate Holcombe, and more. Of course, not everyone interested in yoga philosophy can get to San Francisco, but there are other options for study under the tutelage of some great, learned teachers. Christopher Key Chapple, a professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, created the  Yoga Philosophy Certificate Program there. There are also some trusted sources for home study, including the distance-learning programs developed by scholar and author Georg Feuerstein’s Traditional Yoga Studies , and Nicolai Bachman’s The Yoga Sutras: An Essential Guide to the Heart of Yoga Philosophy . Now, yoga philosophy isn’t lightweight stuff. It helps to have the guiding hand of a teacher versed in the tradition and the camaraderie of people with whom you can discuss what you’re learning. Why not start a yoga philosophy book club, starting with books by these experts? The effort will be worth your while. Learning about the foundational aspects of yoga will enhance your practice–and enrich your life. What are you favorite ways to learn about yoga philosophy — books, DVDs, classes, or classes, or workshops?

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Go to Yoga Philosophy School

Aadil Palkhivala , former student of BKS Iyengar and founder of Purna Yoga, always manages to distill the essence of yoga eloquently and passionately. Recently, I asked this master teacher a few questions about his new book, Fire of Love: For Students of Life, For Teachers of Yoga. Q: You’ve said that ”yoga is not to be performed: Yoga is to be lived.” What does this mean? A: Performing yoga is aggrandizing the ego. When yoga is done for perfection of posture, it is done for somebody else, the show, the façade, the appearance. When we live yoga we are working for the very reason our spirits took birth in human form. Therefore, performance is a waste of time. Living yoga alone is meaningful.   Q: As yogis, how can we bring what we learn onto the mat into our lives? A: While practicing asana on the yoga mat, we learn how to focus, how to be nonviolent, how not to cheat one part of our body to favor another part. We learn how to do the bandhas to control our sexual energy, how to be content with what we can do today and not be forever greedy. These are the lessons of the yamas. Bringing these lessons into our life makes the practice on the mat meaningful. Q: Can you explain the title of your book, “Fire of Love?” A: During deep meditation, when I look inside myself, I see several fires burning. They include the fire of creativity, of passion, of power, of expression, of thought. To me, the most sacred of these is the one that burns in my Heart Center, the Fire of Love.  Hence, the name of my book.

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Aadil Palkhivala’s Fire Burns Bright

Before you buy another mug or pair of salad tongs, remember it’s not too late for a meaningful gift that someone could actually use. The right book can inspire, teach, or just add a little humor. Here’s a few ideas: For the kid in your life: Watch Me Do Yoga (Rodmell Press) by Bobby Clennell . A delightful children’s book written and illustrated by this seasoned Iyengar Yoga teacher. For someone who could use a good laugh: Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses (Farrar, Straus,and Giroux) by Claire Dederer. The best kind of yoga memoir: witty and inspirational. For that person at a crossroads: Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience (Sounds True) by Sally Kempton. With a forward by Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, this riveting book explores practical ways to love yourself. We want to know: What will you read over the holidays?

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Holiday Book Gift Guide

I love the energy of the yoga community. Like a flash flood, a flash mob comes together like a FLASH!, flows through Sun Salutations–and then, it’s gone. This Saturday, three flash mobs are happening around the world. In London, Nairobi, and Los Angeles, yogis will come together to raise awareness about the upcoming documentary Yoga for Unity , which highlights the work of the Africa Yoga Project and explores how yoga can be used to combat tribalism, violence, and poverty. A powerful testament to yoga’s ability to transform. Baron Baptiste, executive producer on the film, will be speaking at the LA event, which is taking place at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Stay tuned for the video of these three events edited together. We want to know: Do you think of your yoga as activism? If so, in what way?

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Saturday: Global Yoga Flash Mob

How do you stay sane, healthy, and green for the holidays? Try practicing Holidayasana .  With so much overindulgence on the horizon, the social media masterminds at Social Workout  have a challenge for you:  Practice yoga 20 times during the month of December.  Eat 25 super healthy green meals. Do one hour of volunteering. Don’t use any disposable plastic bags.  Not an easy task for the month of overindulgence. Fourteen yoga studios like Jivamukti, Om Yoga, Pure Yoga, and YogaWorks are supporting the cause, which includes a free class for new students and help promoting the challenge. The result isn’t just a healthy and clean you. People who finish the challenge can get goodies like a month of free yogurt, or some cool yoga clothes.  What are you waiting for? S ign up today.  We want to know: Of these four challenges, which is the hardest challenge for you — and why? 

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Stay Healthy for the Holidays

Yogis have known for centuries that a yoga practice makes us feel calm and centered. But science is finally catching up with what we’ve all experienced on the mat and the cushion:  yoga changes our brain chemistry, which in turn helps improve mood and decrease anxiety. A new study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary medicine reports that yoga triggers the release of the brain chemical gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a chemical in the brain that helps to regulate nerve activity. The findings establish a new link between yoga, higher levels of GABA, and improved mood. The study, led by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine (the lead researcher is a yogi!), brings us one step closer toward harnessing yoga’s power of prevention and relaxation.  Who knows: maybe this can lead to a wider acceptance of yoga in the medical community as a tool to help people struggling with anxiety and depression.  Prescription for yoga, anyone? We want to know: Do you think it’s important for yoga to get “legitimized” in the medical community? Do you think yoga should be a first defense against anxiety and depression instead of medication?

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New Research Says Yoga Changes Brain Chemistry

I’m continuously impressed by the creative ways people find to bring yoga to those who can really benefit. The latest example is from Yoga Bear, a non-profit organization that promotes yoga for health and wellness to the cancer community and beyond. For the next month, the organization is presenting Cinemasana , an online yoga film festival, which anyone with a video camera and a computer can enter. The idea is to encourage yoga instructors to create videos of specific sequences that can benefit cancer patients and encourage them to start a home yoga practice. Anyone interested can go online and watch the videos. On December 15, the festival’s organizers will look at the videos with the best ratings. Creators of the top five videos will be showered with swag from sponsors like Lululemon Athletica, Numi, Satya Jewelry, Dr. Hauskchka, and more.  Whether you are a yoga instructor, know someone with cancer, or are part of the cancer community, I urge you to take advantage of this creative–and beneficial–challenge.   For more information, and instructions on how to post your video, visit http://www.yogabear.org/page/cinemasana-1

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Film Festival Brings Yoga to Cancer Community

Did you know that the wings of a butterfly flapping in Bali have an effect on the Gulf Coast tornados in North America? This incredible cause-and-effect is the inspiration behind yoga teacher Twee Merrigan’s international Butterfly Effect Tour. After the gulf coast oil spill, Merrigan wanted to raise money and awareness about the cause. With the help of other yogis and activists, she created the Butterfly Effect Tour, traveling around the world teaching dynamic vinyasa flow workshops — and donating the proceeds to clean up the gulf. The tour, which included stops in Bali, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York, raised more than $3,000 for the gulf and other charities in just one month. But Merrigan wants more than just an event that comes and goes. So she’s incorporating Butterfly Effect classes into her workshops and events around the world. Here, students have an open forum to talk about ways they can positively change the world, while raising money for local and global charities. “It’s not just a response to a clean up or an earthquake or a tsunami,” says Merrigan, who has been living and teaching on the road for the past three years. “But it’s on-going awareness and action to continue the yoga in our ‘matless’ world.” Her next stops include Bali and Sydney.  To see the full schedule, or learn more, visit butterflyeffecttour.com We want to know: In what small ways do you positively change the world? How does your yoga practice help?

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The Butterfly Effect

Fame. Fortune. Commercialization. Is this where’s modern yoga headed? Or what it’s already become? This is the big question tackled by a Boston article called What’s Happened to Yoga? The article opens with a scene from a yoga class, where two students are busy texting away to the dismay of their teacher, Natasha Rizopoulos. Then it touches on the serious issues keeping modern yogis up at night–mainly monetization and commercialization. For this reason, among others, Rizopoulos is aligning herself with some of the country’s foremost yoga teachers who are trying to take back yoga from the masses who they believe are running afoul of the traditions of a 5,000-year-old spiritual, intellectual, and physical discipline. The underlying idea of this “movement” is a studio called Down Under Yoga, which held a summit last weekend to discuss modern yoga, including ways yogis can stay aligned with yoga’s roots in modern times. We want to know: Is modern yoga too big to generalize about? What aspects of modern yoga enhance the practice? And what aspects diminish it? Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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What’s Happened to Yoga?

Obsessing about what you didn’t say at a job interview. Wishing your partner acted differently. Believing that you aren’t smart enough. This is the way the mind works. Or is it? I’ve been thinking a lot about these stories we tell ourselves. My book club just finished the fascinating book My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. If you haven’t heard about it, she is a brain scientist who tells the story of her stroke. After the stroke, she has experiences of bliss because the part of her brain that governs judging, language, and ego is damaged. She just feels totally at peace and connected to all beings. What she learns is profound. After her recovery, she writes: Now that my left mind’s language centers and storyteller are back to functioning normally, I find my mind not only spins a wild tale but has a tendency to hook into negative patterns of thought. I have found that the first step to getting out of these reverberating loops of negative thought or emotion is to recognize when I am hooked into those loops . . . Learning to listen to your brain from the position of non-judgmental witness may take some practice and patience, but once you master this awareness, you become free to step beyond the worrisome drama and trauma of your storyteller. As yogis, we know how to become a witness to our mind. We know how to move beyond obsessive thoughts, story telling, and negative thought patterns. We know–but sometimes we forget. Choose happiness. Start today. We want to know: When do you call on your practice to choose happiness? Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Choose Happiness

Five years ago, every time a yoga story appeared in The New York Times , I’d get dozens of emails from friends and family who knew I was a writer in “the yoga world.” That doesn’t happen anymore–because yoga stories are now de rigueur for the Paper of Record. I love that these stories are so frequently popping up in The New York Times , giving a little cultural commentary on what’s happening beyond my neighborhood. This Sunday, my morning paper-reading ritual included two entertaining articles that shed a little more light on the yoga scene nationwide. In ” Their Lotus Can’t Take Root on a Yoga Mat ,” noticed.html Mary Billard illuminates the trend of forsaking one’s yoga mat for a mat-free practice. “The ecstasy of yoga can’t be contained by a mat,” said Dana Flynn, a director of Laughing Lotus, a yoga studio in New York and San Francisco. Many teachers at her studio have done away with mats and practice solely on the hardwood floor. “The lotus flow is a devotional dance,” she added. “The rubber just got in the way.” That last part made me laugh. In the City Room section, an article by Lizette Alvarez called ” The Jocks Throw Down Their Mats ” chronicles her visit to Jivamukti, where she noticed an uptick in the number of men surrounding her in class. Lately it seems that the number of guys stretching and twisting beside me–at least in some studios–has risen quite a bit. And I mean the kind of guy who advertises his jock credentials and shamelessly checks out the women in class. The sort of dude who not too long ago derided yoga as a chick thing–like going to see “Eat Pray Love.” We want to know: Do you use a yoga mat? Do you notice more men in your yoga class? Does the New York Times accurately reflect what you see happening in the yoga world? Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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The New York Times Hearts Yoga

Who doesn’t want a little more peace and love? That’s the idea behind The World Peace & Yoga Jubilee happening on October 21-24 in tranquil Loveland, Ohio. Billed as four days of peace, yoga, food and music, the Jubilee will gather an international group of yogis, foodies, activists, and peacemakers from around the world. The theme of the first-ever vegan yoga conference is Find Your Voice Speak Your Truth, and will feature teachers like Sharon Gannon and Lilias Folan, yogi musicians on the scene like MC Yogi, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk, and master vegan chefs. The organizers also partner with the Deaf Yoga Foundation and have signers available. Co-founded by yoga teacher Anna Ferguson and vegan chef Mark Stroud, the festival is basedon the teachings of Will Tuttle, author of The World Peace Diet (who will speak at the conference) to educate, encourage, and promote a plant-based diet to create a more peaceful world. Achieving world peace might seem like a lofty goal, but not to Stroud and Ferguson, who believe that world peace starts with the food we put on the table: World Peace Earth is a foundation with a mission to “create world peace one lifestyle change at a time.” World Peace Earth makes a positive difference in local and world communities through service, education and a dedication to peace in action. Educating, encouraging, researching and promoting a complete plant-based vegan lifestyle to create a loving, kind and respectful relationship between animals, people and the earth contributing to world peace.” For more information, visit www.worldpeaceinc.com/home/jubilee.html . We want to know: Do you see vegetarianism as the first step to world peace? Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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The World Peace & Yoga Jubilee

The city of Cambridge has stretched its views on parking tickets. Last week, city officials began issuing parking tickets illustrated with a series of calming yoga poses. According to an article in The Boston Herald by Laura Crimaldi and Ira Kantor, the city printed 40,000 yoga parking tickets as a part of a public art project by artist-in-residence Daniel Peltz. The artist says: “I started this process by wondering what would happen in a world where I received them [parking tickets] with a set of graceful postures: a clean bend at the waist, a gentle lift of the windshield wiper . . . I’m going to get the ticket either way, my only choice really is how I’m going to receive it.” We want to know: Would an image of a yoga pose make you feel less annoyed at receiving a parking ticket? What daily hassles would be improved if they included a gentle reminder about yoga’s relaxing principles? Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Cambridge Institutes Yoga Parking Tickets

Teaching yoga should be accessible to anyone called to do it. That’s the idea behind a unique teacher training starting on November 16th in Northern California. Accessible Teacher Training (ATT) is a 400-hour Integral Yoga teacher training certification program that is specifically designed to train people with disabilities who want to become yoga teachers. The innovative program–available to people who have paralysis, a disability, chronic illness, or physical limitation–is the only one of it’s kind that meets national standards. Integral Yoga instructor Jivana Heyman started Accessible Yoga in 2007 after a student with MS dropped out of his regular training because he fell behind. “It began with the idea that anyone who loves yoga can share it, and that a physical limitation does not limit spiritual growth,” he says. For more information visit accessibleyoga.org .  Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Accessible Yoga

The folks at the Australian-based YogaAid have dreamed up a large-scale nationwide yoga event on September 18th and 19th to coincide with National Yoga Month. The two-hour yoga classes around the country will be taught by 12 local yoga teachers to benefit charity. While the biggest events are being held in Chicago, New York, Miami, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco, organizers say that more than 20 others will happen around the country. Participating in a Yoga Aid Challenge is easy: Log on to www.yogaaid.com and click the red button for the United States Yoga Challenge. Here, you can register to create a profile page.Then people can visit your page and donate–all online. The idea is that students raise money for charity in advance of the free class. (Many well-meaning charity events actually lose money, because the cost of putting on an event eats into the profits.) YogaAid’s model is funding the event so that all of the money raised goes directly to the chosen charities: Off the Mat, Into the World, Africa Yoga Project, 4OneWorld, and Yoga for Youth. Beyond raising money, the organizers hope that the event will have a ripple effect, sparking the desire in each student to serve in their community. Karma Yoga (the yoga of service) is one of yoga’s eight limbs. How do you find ways to serve in your family or community? Let us know. And to get you in the giving mood, Yoga Aid and MC Yogi have paired up to create the tune, “Give Love.” Download the MP3 for free by going to yogaaid.com and clicking on the blue box at the bottom right hand corner. Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Give Love! Join a Nationwide Yoga Aid Challenge

Yoga teachers often feel the need to inspire others to live consciously. Depending on their intentions and methods, they may or may not be successful. As students, we come to class to feel refreshed, renewed and challenged. Again, depending on our mental state du jour, we may or may not feel much shift. A teacher of mine once said that once the student is advanced enough he or she is able to find that every class is the perfect class. No matter how preachy the teacher, how off-putting the music, or how sweaty the neighbor, an advanced student adeptly extracts the lesson from each situation. But what about those of us just getting in to yoga? There are clearly some teachers who take advantage of their position of power (a roomful of open ears for 90 minutes) to climb onto a soap box and impose their views. Is this ok? As a student, do you find your zen or protest the violation of your space? As Neal Pollack (author of the new book Stretch: The Unlikely Making of  Yoga Dude ) writes for salon.com, it’s not so much about whether or not you’re irritated, but about how you handle the irritation: “The teacher had preached, didactically and unpleasantly. But what I’d done in response, I finally realized, had been totally wrong and disrespectful. It took months for me to understand that I’d gone blindly into one of the founding studios of modern yoga, thrown a fit worthy of a toddler so far gone that no shiny object could distract him from his rage, and left with nothing in return. Before the yoga, I’d behaved that way fairly often. It was about as far from my best self as I could get. In fact, I’d even go so far as to call it my bad self . But even serious yogis, I was learning, are often tempted to get down with their bad selves. This was the true yoga practice, the real discipline and dedication, and getting there, I began to understand, would take a lot more practice.” Have you ever had a class or a teacher that really irritates you? How do you notice it and make it your practice?

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When Yoga Teachers Turn to Lifestyle Preachers

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Sadie Nardini

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Samin Nosrat

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Erica Rodefer

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Jessica Berger Gross

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Kristin Shepherd

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Sarana Miller

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Stacey Rosenberg

It doesn’t really matter where you practice, as long as you do. Right? Right. But having practiced yoga everywhere from a church basement to a plush studio to a mountaintop on the outskirts of Katmandu, there’s something to be said for creating a welcoming atmosphere for spiritual practice. The same goes for creating a nurturing and inspiring place for our children to hang out and play and sleep. When Neil and I had Lucien, we were temporarily living in a sublet in Brooklyn. Arranging Lucien’s “nursery” involved setting up a co-sleeper next to our bed. (He ended up sleeping in our bed those first six months, nestled between a yoga bolster on one side and mommy on the other.) Next, we moved to Vancouver and rented a furnished one-bedroom apartment. Neil set up Lucien’s crib in the walk-in closet of our bedroom, and I put some decals on the wall – an airplane, a pink moose. While I loved exploring new places (we were in New York for Neil’s academic leave from Harvard, and moved to Vancouver for his new job at the University of British Columbia), I couldn’t wait to settle down and make a proper nursery for Lucien. The truth was I was completely envious when I walked into my friends’ baby rooms in Boston and Los Angeles. Poor Lucien in his closet!  Of course, he didn’t care or know the difference. At that age he just wanted to be close to his mama and dada.   When Lucien was almost one, on Halloween, we moved into our house – a fixer upper that came filled with character, potential, and a never ending to do list. My first priority was Lucien’s room. We painted the walls with a non-toxic pale green and yellow paint, bought an  IKEA rocking chair   for his nursing corner, and got him some rolling see-through containers for his toys and books.  Since then, I’ve added and subtracted to the room. At  Collage Collage , where I take Lucien for art class, we picked up posters from local artists. Now that Lucien has weaned, the rocking chair is in the living room, and on our summer vacation on Vancouver Island I came across a super cheap stash of vintage children’s chairs, a handmade wooden table, and some old school books and toys that are now my favorite things in his room. Just as I feel at home and at peace in my upstairs yoga corner, Lucien seems content to hang out in his room for hours- playing, singing, reading books, and just generally chilling in his pajamas. Where in your house or apartment do you – and your children – feel most comfortable, most creative, and most inspired?  Jessica Berger Gross is the author of  enLIGHTened:   How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse),  she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Making Room

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l What’s new with the Oil Spill in the Gulf? It’s plugged, it’s leaking, there are underwater plumes the size of Rhode Island, the oil is lost? The headlines are kind of confusing, and it’s been a few months so I know it is starting to go out of vogue for the mainstream media, but there are at least a handful of yogis in LA who are keeping it on their radar and are ready to help. Brock Cahill is a surfer and a yogi with a plan. The way he sees it, we can make the most impact if we focus our efforts. His focus, the turtle. His plan: get to the gulf, get a boat, and get to work saving the turtles. He has partnered with Yogis Anonymous and the Insights Foundation to get this grass roots movement off the ground.   Here are a few words of his own on why he chose the turtle and founded Kurmalliance: A s many of you know, kurma is the Sanskrit word for turtle. Sanskrit is the ancient language of India, Hinduism, and yoga–roughly translated our project, Kurmalliance, is yoga for the turtles!  Beloved Kurma is also the second avatar of Vishnu, who, in my humble opinion, is the coolest god in the Hindu trinity. In an age old story, Vishnu comes in earthly form as Kurma to save humanity by hoisting a great mountain up on his shell, churning the seas, and distilling the elixir of life. That was the first time the turtle saved the world. The second is now. The turtle is the totem of this revolution. He is the preserver, the dude who comes to the rescue, and the dude we need now!    He is providing the motivation to get involved and fight for what is right. He saves humanity once again by getting us involved, recognizing that the nectar of life lies with the ocean, and if we continue to kill it, we will be faced with our own death and extinction. Wonder how they knew 5000 years ago that the turtle would play such a huge role in our potential evolution, or our possible extinction. If you want to get involved: to donate . For more information . Join on Facebook . Share with us if you know of any grass roots movements to get people involved in saving the gulf. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

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Save the Turtles!

If you’ve been reading my blog regularly this summer, by now you know I’m more than a little obsessed with taking my son Lucien swimming. Being in the pool with him is a joy. The cool water, the feel of his body intertwined with mine – it’s delicious. For months I’ve been looking forward to the opening of a new neighborhood pool here in Vancouver, part of the deal the city made with its citizens for hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.   Vancouver already has some amazing city pools, and this new one promised to be the largest and best yet, and just a fifteen minute walk from my house. (Not to mention affordable, as it’s part of the city parks and community center system.)  I crossed my fingers that Lucien would like it and not be overwhelmed by the sprays and jets and water cannons and lazy river, not to mention the 70-person hot tub. To my surprise and delight, Lucien loves the new indoor pool paradise. So here we were in the pool, having a mommy baby pool party. The first time we visited we spent a record breaking (for us) two hours in the water. On this, our second visit, it seemed like we’d be there all day – fine with me. I noticed though that even in moments of mommy-son bliss in the shallowest end of the hot tub (more like a hot tub river) I kept asking Lucien if he wanted to go see the next big thing in the pool – journey down the lazy river or back to the bubbles or waterfall area. But Lucien was perfectly happy just to be. To sit in the shallow end of the hot tub and look at the families playing, chat with me, sing his repertoire of songs, and be one with the warm water lapping over us. Looking at Lucien, I remembered what had drawn me to yoga asana and philosophy back when I was an ever-searching twenty-something. As Ram Dass famously wrote, “Be Here Now.” I didn’t need to explore the rest of the pool, or teach Lucien how to swim that morning, or even go into a deeper section of the hot tub. I just needed to follow my yogi-in-training’s lead and be here now in that hot tub. And so I did. And it was a time-stopping moment of peace and oneness and through-and through-contentment. Until I noticed them. Tiny brown pieces of toddler poop bubbling up from Lucien’s diaper and into the 70-person hot tub river. Yikes! I felt a wash of panic and then shame come over me, but tried my best to stay calm. I gathered Lucien, ran to a lifeguard, and rushed a howling don’t-want-to-ever-get-out-of-the-water-and-certainly-not-to-change-a-dirty-diaper toddler to the change room and shower. I felt horrible for the other patrons of the pool that day. It’s one thing to deal with your own child’s poop, but nobody wants to encounter other children’s poop while relaxing in a hot tub.  Oy. Needless to say, everyone in the hot tub was evacuated with a whistle as an entire section of the pool was closed off, drained, and cleaned. Once he was clean and dry, Lucien was un-phazed by the events of the day. He just figured he had a dirty diaper – not realizing the hot tub had become a HAZMAT scene. On our way home, I heard employees talking about the “emergency.” Triple yikes.   Enlightened Motherhood Lesson of the Day: Be here now and take each situation in stride. Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Be Here Now

I spent some time in Los Angeles this week, and one day visited the set of the new Shiva Rea video. While there, I had a powerful conversation with the director, James Wvinner. We discussed the importance of media, both social and store-bought. Specifically, we talked about how it’s really helping the world gain access to yoga and to the teachings of great instructors like Shiva, who can’t possibly get to all the students who want to study with her. James related a funny story told to him by another teacher who was recently leading a training in Bulgaria. A student came up afterward and said, “Do you know Sadie Nardini? I study with her!” Now, I’ve never been to Bulgaria, but I bet my YouTube videos have. Wherever I go, I meet students who have studied with me for years, without my even knowing it! This is just one example of what I’m now calling Conscious Media. Anyone with a video camera and a YouTube account can employ these channels to spread the word about how simple and effective it can be to get happy, be healthy, and to rock your awesomeness from the inside out. Before I made DVDs, wrote a book, or did anything else that now comprises my income, I was using social media to create virtual kulas , or communities of the heart and spirit. There are so many ways for each of us to speak our core values, and to a wider audience than just our partners, friends, and students. By reading this blog, you are directly benefiting from my choice to step outside my comfort zone and share my views in a public forum. It’s a vulnerable place to be, letting others see you and, at times, judge or disagree with your offerings.  But I endure this aspect of the job in order to do what I consider to be much more important: Speaking my piece in a way I feel is constructive to both our humanity and divinity. In this day and age, when we’re being bombarded with negative imagery and fluff, the media-sphere is crying out for substance and soul. And it’s crucial that conscious people go first to light the way for those who may not even know they want to watch this mind/body stuff, or understand how much they need it. Who will do this if we don’t? In fact, I feel that as we awaken to our possibilities and become aware of the tools available to transform ourselves toward balance and passionate living, we have a responsibility to really put ourselves out there and lead by example. Now, you may not be a yoga teacher or committed to raising awareness of the joy of cultivating wellness on all levels, as I am. But I’d wager that you have some skill, some creative voice you’d like to add to the mix. You can do this for yourself, so that you live each day as the rockstar you really are, and also because you just might inspire one person to dig deeper and step forward with more confidence to be their best. The amazing thing is, with conscious media, your one voice turns into thousands, and your single moment of sharing becomes a constant message. When it comes to changing the world in a positive way, I say let’s each do what it takes to turn our quiet, inner voices into a beautiful chorus that can be heard all the way in Bulgaria, and beyond. Core Pose: Lion’s Lunge To help you access and then amplify your voice, you’ve got to make some noise. I use Lion’s Pose with a lot of my core poses, to open the channel between my foundation, my core, and the courage it takes to express myself so that people can hear. The muscle meridian closest to our skeleton, called the Deep Core Line, moves from the arches of the feet; up through the legs, hips and spine; and ends at the tongue. Doing Lion’s Pose draws energy and tension up and out through this line, which is why it’s considered an immensely detoxifying pose on a very profound, pranic level. Life force and your ability to speak from your inner knowing will increase as you dissolve obstacles to your inherent freedom and flow. Come into a High Lunge with the front knee over the heel and the back leg long behind you, supported on the ball of your foot. If you want more stability, step your feet sitting-bone-distance apart. Inhale through your nose and reach your arms either back behind you or up into the air, fingers wide. Exhale through your mouth as you stick out your tongue and say “Aaaaaaaaahhh,” as loudly as you can.  Really get into it, letting the sound be another way to say what you really need and want to express from your deeper creative center. Repeat 3-5 times or more. Then take Dog Pose or Child’s Pose for a few moments, and move to the other side.  

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Creating Conscious Media

We’ve been playing a game  all week. Maybe you’d like to play with us. If you were stranded on a deserted island-it’s a beautiful island, great weather, great food somehow, great books, just no other people-and you could only do one yoga pose for the entire month, what would it be? After much hand wringing and general hoopla, we’ve decided that Savasana is a freebie. You can do all the Savasana you want. And one other pose. Another thing. In this game, you’ll be completely healthy at the end of the month. Flexible, strong, peaceful, and beautiful. So the pose you pick is just about the happiness it’ll give you, not about, “oh, god, if I don’t do the shoulder openers, I’ll look like Hulk Hogan by Friday” (no offense to Hulk). Here’s what we’ve got so far: My sister picks Upward Dog, because it looks so beautiful. My lovely man says The Plow. He’s just gone back to it in class and it’s exciting to be able to do it for the first time in decades. My friend Paul chooses Triangle Pose. I think he’s crazy, but free choice is a part of the game. (He did ask if we were allowed to come out of the pose at all, or whether we have to hold the pose for an entire month. The answer, with rolling eyes, is yes, you can come out of the pose.) I will do Downward Dog. I love everything about it: the inversion, the use of my entire body, easily a month’s worth of interest. And if we play again next month, I’ll pick handstand, because it makes me feel like a goddess. And you? What pose? Why? Hoho! I can hardly wait to hear. Thanks to yoga for being so interesting, and so much fun, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, speaker, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  These games thrill her inordinately.  Join her on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd, on Twitter at kristinwonders, or at kristinshepherd.ca

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The Game

In the September issue, we published a letter written by the esteemed yoga teacher and Yoga Journal co-founder Judith Hanson Lasater, which expressed her disapproval of advertisements featuring naked women. It’s been a hot topic ever since, and it seems appropriate to offer a few thoughts. First, I greatly respect Judith and her concerns. Over the years, we’ve had conversations about the magazine, the business, the community. More than once, she has called me to share an opinion, in her trademark direct style, and we talked about her September letter before I published it. I appreciate her frankness. I interpreted Judith’s formal note about ads that she feels “exploit the sexuality of young women in order to sell products” to be a message both to the folks at Yoga Journal who make advertising decisions,  (I am responsible for editorial direction only, I have no authority over advertising)–and to the larger community, including the creators of the ads. Clearly Judith’s letter struck a chord, and I’ve read the opinions of many people who agree with her views. Others have written specifically in support of what they see as the artistic beauty of the ToeSox ads ,  in particular, which feature the talented yoga teacher and frequent Yoga Journal contributor Kathryn Budig demonstrating poses in the buff. The diversity of reader opinion isn’t surprising, given the diversity of the yoga community today and the highly subjective nature of the matter at hand. But somewhere in all the heated blog posts about whether nudity equals exploitation and about what Yoga Journal ’s advertising policies should be, I’ve seen a fair bit of frustration and misunderstanding about Yoga Journal’ s role in the community. Over the past 35 years, Yoga Journal has evolved from a nonprofit publication aimed at yoga teachers to a popular magazine read by more than 2 million Americans and supported by national advertising. Perhaps the biggest difference between the magazine Judith founded and the one I edit today is that while Yoga Journal continues to be a source of instruction and insight on yogic practices, it is now also a chronicle of the ever-evolving yoga scene–a scene that didn’t exist 35 years ago and one that some old-time practitioners would, quite frankly, find un-yogic. Yoga Journal doesn’t intend to be a textbook of ancient practices, nor an arbiter of yogic morality. It’s a magazine that introduces people to a world of ideas–sometimes profound, life-changing ideas that they might not otherwise be exposed to. It’s a messy time to be in the business of covering yoga. Some yoga publications that offered a purist’s view of the practice are no longer in print, while “workout yoga” is popular on the newsstand. Yoga Journal remains devoted to bringing a full spectrum of teachings to a wide audience, and it does so while walking the age-old line of art and commerce. Spiritual teachers often say that while monkhood requires practicing austerities, it is actually easier to live in a cave than to practice yoga while living in the world; it’s tough to maintain a quiet mind when deadlines loom, when the kids meltdown, when all kinds of distractions beg for your attention. Yoga Journal lives out in that world–tackling real-life issues of finances, politics (yes, politics in the world of yoga!), and the sometimes-clashing ideals of the yoga community. I’m proud that amid all the chaos, the magazine continues to focus on delivering wise teachings and practical tools for bringing the essence of yoga into our daily lives. We are grateful to have the support of the teaching community, including Judith and the many other dedicated teachers who share the depth of their knowledge through our pages, and the support of our advertisers, which enables us to continue offering world-class instruction, insight, and inspiration for practice. As always, we hope that the magazine we work so hard to bring to you, serves you well. –Kaitlin Quistgaard Editor in Chief , Yoga Journal

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Naked Truths: YJ’s Editor-in-Chief Responds to the Nudity Debate

The other day at the swimming pool I overheard a conversation that made my heart break. A dad, who seemed well intentioned enough, was trying–at all costs –to get his five-year old son into the water. Now, I understand where this father was coming from. As I wrote about in a recent post [link to swim camp post?], I’ve had my own challenges this summer getting Lucien comfortable with swimming pools.  I’ve tried everything from talking to him about his fears, using music and games, and, I have to admit, even the inducement of a trip to Whole Foods with promise of a wheat free muffin after a swim excursion. But this dad, after offering his own food related reward lost what little patience he had left, and told his son, “Just get in the water! Don’t be a baby!” Needless to say, it didn’t work. I saw something similar at bike camp last week. (Bike camp = three and almost three-year-olds practice on their tricycles or balance bikes for an hour a day for one week, taking lots of breaks for coloring and playing helmut hide-and-seek.) Lucien’s camp mate did not want to get on her bike. The first day she was with her nanny, an older woman who seemed nonplussed by the situation and let the girl be. The next day, Mommy came. And Mommy was bound and determined to have her daughter get on that pink tricycle and take it for a spin. She began with positive inducements (how proud Mommy would be) but quickly went downhill, so to speak, from there.  “If you don’t ride your bike,” she said, “Mommy is going to have to leave you here all by yourself.”  The bike camp counselor and I (she happened to be a young yogi and massage therapist) bit our tongues. I felt awful for both children and was reminded of a yoga class I took in a foreign city that shall remain nameless. Fresh off the plane on my first day in said city I hightailed it to a yoga center in the style I study. Instead of finding a home away from home and relief from tight shoulders post flight, I found an instructor who cajoled, prodded, intimidated, and even occasionally raised his voice at his students. I remember in particular one exercise at the rope wall where I couldn’t quite figure out how to arrange myself. (I’ve never been good at math or driving or spatial relations and my big yoga challenge is arranging my props!) This “teacher” made fun of me to the class–I was shamed, horrified, and though I should have left right then and there, I stayed for the two hour session, feeling worse and worse every minute. That evening, I came down with the flu. Enlightened Motherhood Lesson of the Day: Intimidation and name calling never ever ever work. Should I have said something to that father at the pool or the mother at the bike camp? Would there have been a gentle, yogic, way to offer alternatives to threats and name-calling?   Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Don’t Be a Baby: And Other Things Not to Say to Your Child (Or to Your Yoga Students)

testing code to pull most popular entries from blogs. In the right column you will find six lists… three each from Yoga Buzz and Beginners Blog. Each blog has a list for Most Popular of all time, Most popular since July 1 (could be quarterly), Most popular this week. They have been intentionally left un-formatted.  With a little formatting and perhaps including an excerpt, they could be powerful drivers.

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Test: Most Popular List

America’s red-headed sweet heart has been seduced by the spiritual lures of India. Julia Roberts told Elle that she is “definitely a practicing Hindi” after her time in India filming the upcoming Eat, Pray, Love . USA Today followed up on the cover interview with a story Sunday. According to a 2009 Associated Press story relying on The Times of India newspaper, Roberts’ children have been given Hindu names. It quoted a Hindu priest, Swami Dharam Dev, as saying : “I have named her twins Hazel and Phinnaeus as Laxmi and Ganesh, while Henry will be called Krishna Balram.” No word yet on whether or not Roberts’ practices yoga, since of course being Hindu does not require it. USA Today was also quick to distinguish the difference between practicing yoga and practicing Hindism, but couldn’t resist posting an image of Sarah Palin in Tree Pose as an argument for the “poses don’t have to be spiritual” side. (We couldn’t resist either.)   ” Yet, we have been doing Hindu-Lite for years, sampling of the flavor , images and style of a 6,000-year-old faith but with no actual theology involved. Anywhere you look you can find loose chatter about dharma (a way of living leading to spiritual advancement) and karma ( the “neutral, self-perpetuating law of the inner cosmos,” Hindu monk Sannyasin Arumugaswami, editor of Hinduism Today magazine, said in 2006) . Yoga Journal estimated at that time that nearly a third of folks who try the 5,000-year-old Hindu physical and meditative discipline, say they’re seeking ’spiritual development.’ ” Is yoga spiritual for you, or is it simply a good work out?

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Pretty Woman Converts to Hindu Woman

This is the first of a series of blogs by yoga teachers on tour. Join them as they find inspiration to practice all over the world! Seven years ago a friend invited me to his hometown of Haines in Southeast Alaska. I had never considered visiting Alaska and didn’t give it much consideration; however, he didn’t give up easily and started sending me pictures of the river and mountains that persuaded me to visit  the little borough of Haines (pop. 2,400) for a week.   I fell in love with Haines at first sight and have returned every summer since. The people are friendly and generous and the natural beauty unparalleled. I started teaching a yoga class or two at the local community center that also houses the public radio and theater, and now have expanded into leading a full weekend workshop and evening kirtan. An incredible family (Beth MacCready and Gregg Bigsby) who practice yoga and meditation host me at their unique 15-acre waterfront property where the river meets the ocean. I stay in a yert, pictured above. Eagles fly overhead, seals and whales swim by, an occasional moose or bear wander in, and  snow-capped mountains rise out of water as far as the eye can see. It is here, by the sea in southeast Alaska that I have precious time to recharge my battery that gets worn down from living in an urban environment the rest of the year. My month here is a time for me to remember the practice of slowing down, the importance of rest and the healing power of mother nature. My singing, mediation and asana practice have plenty of space to unfold in this unique natural setting.   I plan my workshop with nature as a theme: trees rooting down to grow up toward the sun.  We practice rooting down into the earth with our feet and drawing energy up from the earth through the spine and out the crown of the head, allowing it to open and expand from the sky. We practiced this in Tadasana and through the standing poses. I gave the students a “home play” assignment to practice this extension as they stand and walk throughout the day.  I invite you to join us in this practice as well! Where do you go to recharge your battery? And what makes you feel connected to nature? Sarana Miller is trained in the Iyengar and Forrest Yoga traditions and is currently studying the Sarah Powers style. A student of Jai Uttal, she teaches yoga and leads kirtan in San Francisco. 

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Moose, Yoga and Alaska!

We’ve all had days like Alexander’s in the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. In case you haven’t read it (you should) one thing after another happens from the moment he wakes up: from finding gum in his hair, missing out on the cereal box prize to fighting with his big brother, a trip to the dentist, and having a broken nightlight, Alexander wishes he could forget this mess and simply run off to Australia (me too!)–they don’t have bad days there. As adults, and as yogis, we hopefully have outgrown some of these limited belief systems–but somehow it seems like this “bad day” allowance issue still comes up. We wake up and know this day is going to be off, so it is written off as such. What does science, and yoga have to say about that? Steve Schwartz of LifeHacker checks it out: The brain’s facility to simplify, in most contexts, is very useful and beneficial. Our brains develop symbols, or abstract representations of complex ideas, that allow us to connect the represented ideas with other ideas, and to build upon them, without having to keep the full details of every complex idea at the forefront of our minds. In other words, simplification clears our minds, freeing our brains to draw additional connections and conclusions from complex ideas, data, and experiences. But what happens when we simplify experiences with the wrong symbolic conclusion? This is precisely what happens when we conclude that we are having a bad day. We blame our misfortune on factors outside of our own control, in order to avoid analyzing the real reasons things happened as they did (or perhaps even to eschew our own responsibility). Hence, it is easy for us to believe we’re having a bad day. The obvious downside is that once you accept the convenient conclusion that the entire day is for naught, it will actually cause the rest of your day to go horribly awry. Experiencing the world with negative expectations is like viewing reality through a muddy water glass. Your view will be distorted and you won’t like what you see. Schwartz offers a four-step program on how to not have a bad day any day, most of which sound pretty much like yoga to us. In summary: 1.Reflect on the negative feeling you have right now. (Presence) 2.Re-evaluate the situation or events that lead to this stress. (Perspective) 3. Remember that the outcome of the previous minute is not indicative of the outcome of the next minute. (Avoid Samskaras) 4. There is no number four…get on with your life already! (Yoga is now!) Next time you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, try being present and changing your expectation–just like we do in yoga–and see if you have a wonderful, awesome, not bad, very fantastic day. Because some days are still going to seem like that, even in Australia.

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Got a Bad Case of the Mondays?

My mother and I were at the same family gathering on the weekend. Which is not a big deal if you come from someone else’s family, but my mom and I only see each other once a year or so. And that’s a huge improvement after two decades of down right difficult, then jaw-clenchingly tense, and now tentatively willing relationship. (There’s a mouthful.) She looks beautiful. One bionic hip, and two hearing aids (which she’d forgotten at home), but a soft, gentle face and a kind of high, croaky, older woman’s voice. Once planted on the couch, she stayed put. I brought lunch to her while she watched her kids mingle and her grandkids fling themselves around the room with my dog. She did yoga when I was a kid. That was my introduction to yoga, to meditation, to the whole idea of looking inward as a form of health care. It astounds me, writing this, when I consider how central this looking inward is to everything I believe now. It is the core of my work in health care, in theatre, in parenting, and in all relationships. My mother doesn’t do yoga any more.  She can’t get down to a floor and has no local chair yoga classes. More than that, she’s lost the oomph it would take to do yoga at home. When we talk about it, she says, never, never stop doing yoga. It was the best thing ever, she says. People make their own choices. I know this. And yet, if I had one wish today, it’d be that my mom could still do yoga. Or that somehow, I could do it for her, while holding her closer and closer to this croaky heart of mine, which, I hope, is growing more flexible over time. Is there anyone you’d love to hold during your practice? Thanks to yoga for looking inward, to my mom (love, love, love), and to you for the conversation.

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Holding my Mother

Two interesting, and strikingly different articles caught my eye in Sunday’s New York Times . The first, a book review by Pankaj Mishra that somewhat negatively reviews the rise of yoga in the United States. Whether in the streets of Mysore or on Fifth Avenue, yoga cannot be disentangled from specific histories or specific cultural and economic practices. Of course, the more vulgar aspects of its inevitable commodification in the United States, like $1,000-a-night yoga cruises, ­ought to be deplored. Certainly, the civic or political virtue that results from limber, yoga-toned bodies is not yet measurable. And it would be nice if American followers of yoga, who increasingly define the future of this Indian discipline, would at least occasionally seek something like spiritual transcendence. And the second, a glowing interview with Anusara founder John Friend by Mimi Swartz . The first time I encountered John Friend was at a workshop at a Woodlands community college nearly 10 years ago. At the time I was practicing a stricter form of yoga, and Friend’s joke-cracking and mind-boggling acrobatics — he is famous for his handstands — were something of a revelation. Yoga could be . . . fun ? As Friend led us through the poses, he spoke in a soft voice, insisting that we contain divinity within ourselves and must discover and express our inner goodness to fulfill our obligation to better our world. How to do so was never expressly stated — except for practicing yoga, of course — but I left the workshop feeling better physically, mentally and emotionally. I didn’t know at the time that this was my introduction to what others call “the cult of John.” If Friend could be compared with anyone outside the yoga world — and I am not sure he would like this comparison — it would be Joel Osteen , the magnetic evangelical megachurch minister with the feel-good message and a book-and-television empire. Osteen’s God is loving and forgiving. Osteen doesn’t get hung up on dogma, and thus everybody is welcome. I, for one, am happy to see yoga being discussed in the mainstream media. Glad that it is a part of our culture and open to debate. It’s good to know that people are thinking about these things and that makes it more likely to reach a deeper stream in our society. What do you think? ps- John Friend (@anusarafriend) plans to post his response to the interview today!

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John Friend and Yoga in America

This week my home practice happened at 5am one day, 3pm the next, and in spurts throughout the afternoon on another day. Not at all on two days. Occasionally I feel disappointed in this, wondering whether I’d finally be able to grab the toes of my left foot in triangle pose if I just applied myself with greater consistency, greater diligence, greater drive.   These same feelings come up when I hear friends say things like, “I haven’t missed a day of yoga in 2.7 years. It only takes 27 years to form a good habit. Only 270 days of boot camp and you’ll be a new woman.”  Etc., etc., etc.  Hearing these things, I slump into a kind of anti-achievement stupor. I have set the bar too high to make the leap and all I want now is a bag of chips and a lousy movie. Same thing goes for every area of my life. Extraordinary colleagues who make Tony Robbins look like a slacker, volunteers who single-handedly bring clean water to very thin children in very small villages, friends who climb absurdly high mountains in Peru for fun and charity dollars. I know these people, and watching them from the comfortable chair in my living room, I sometimes do a little dance with discouragement. Here’s my response to discouragement and disappointment when they’re doing a nasty tango with me: 1. Lower the bar. This may not be Tony Robbin’s advice, but it works for me. If an hour of practice feels like too high a climb, do thirty minutes. If thirty minutes feels daunting, do one downward dog. I mean it. One. 2. Adore myself for doing one downward dog, for giving myself one glass of water (the children in the village may come another day), for giving every little bit of love I can to myself and my fellow human beings. A well meaning hello with eye contact can save us all, some days. 3. Dream, dream, dream. Of the hamstrings I will have some day, the peace of mind, the work and workplace I’d love, the people I’d love to play with all day long. I do this because of an absolute conviction that dreaming serves to pull these things toward me. 4. Ask myself what one, small thing I’d love to do right now that would take beautiful care of me. Do that one small thing and forget everything else. These work for me. My guess is that you have your own wonderful thoughts.  I’d love to hear them. Thanks to yoga for putting all of this in my face this week, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, speaker, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd.

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Lowering the Bar

Last week I took Lucien to swim camp. Now, “swim camp” when you’re two involves getting into the water with your parent or caregiver and practicing the most basic skills like kicking and blowing bubbles into the water. I wasn’t exactly dropping him off for sleep away camp. But, on the first day, my guy was terrified of getting in the water, even though we swim together in one of the public outdoor pools in Vancouver. He refused to go in. Lucien’s fear and resistance reminded me of how I feel when I’m in yoga class and it’s time for backbends, specifically Urdhva Danurasana. Give me a chair backbend or an Ustrasana and I’m happy, but when it comes time for wheel, I have a hard time not heading for a bathroom break. But when, despite my urge to flee, I force myself to stay and work through the tightness in my upper back and shoulders and the voice in my head saying “No! I’m scared. I don’t want to do that pose!” I end up feeling a sense of freedom and elation that only come from breaking through a mental or physical block. Back at the swimming pool, it was seriously touch-and-go for a few minutes (major crying and “No, I am NOT a fish!” on Lucien’s part, and some serious cajoling–um, make that supportive encouragement–on mine).  Eventually we made it into the water. As you can imagine, Lucien loved it once he was in. The water felt great on a hot day, and the songs and games his teacher used to encourage comfort and familiarity with the water worked like a charm.  By Friday morning, the fifth and last class of the “camp” session, Lucien refused to get out of the water! All in all a huge success.   Sometimes, you have to force yourself to stretch. Which pose makes you say “No, I’m scared!”?     Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Swim Camp

In a recent Anatomy of Yoga class with Leslie Kaminoff, we watched a video that I’ll never forget. And hopefully, neither will you. And, trust me, this all has a heck of a lot to do with your yoga practice! It features anatomist Gil Hedley explaining The Fuzz. You can watch it yourself, but be aware that it shows him working with a cadaver. Yet it’s such an important piece of knowledge that I’d like to define this incredible concept for you, and you can choose to view it or not and still take it forward into your daily life. Each night while we sleep, or any time we’re still for long periods, like sitting in a car on a long road trip, our body begins to build collagen fibers. They look a little like cotton candy, and are just as sticky, causing friction between what should be smoothly sliding muscle surfaces. The end result is the stiffness you might feel in the morning getting out of bed or standing up after watching a three-hour movie. Now, this is usually no big deal for those of us with a consistent movement practice. We feel creaky, we do yoga, we’re good. But if you don’t lubricate your joints and move your muscles to break up the fuzz regularly enough, it begins to knit together. Over time, the normal, subtle stiffness becomes limited movement, and even pain as the spider-webbed, bound body tries to move against resistance. Instead of confronting the fuzz, to avoid discomfort, many people simply move less. It becomes a vicious cycle that we often chock up to aging, but really is a cumulative, and mostly avoidable, buildup of fuzz. Now, that’s not to say that all physical slowdown is due to the fuzz, and if we simply stretch more, we will never feel the effects of age. But there is much more we can do to keep our bodies–and therefore our minds–as open, vital, and free as possible. This parallels the yoga teaching about samskaras , the mental and emotional patterns that make up our conditioning. Samskara is a neutral word, indicating simply the actions we take that lead to certain results, but our habits can lead to either constructive or destructive outcomes, depending on our goals. The yogi seeks to strengthen those positive habits that maintain the full range of spiritual motion, and, importantly, dissolve the ones that have become diminishing and threaten to hold us back from reaching our potential of living from love, light, and joy. It’s exciting to see science finding that the same lessons apply to our actual body as well. In fact, I see the two as interconnected, since continual mental and emotional stress, for example, leads almost unerringly to muscle tension, which is a direct physical manifestation of the samskara of anxiety or fear. This is the mind-body connection the yogis have known about for centuries, and though sometimes yoga philosophy can get pretty obtuse, much of it can be translated into the real world as simply as you want to make it. That’s nice to know when you’re looking for tools you can apply today, right this moment, that can help you release what doesn’t serve you, and keep, even amplify, the things that do. Yoga doesn’t have to be confusing. It’s the art of living in balance, and taking actions that fuel your happiness, whatever that means for you. From there, you’ll be inspired to offer some of that goodness to the world through your creative self-expression, and with a burning desire to help those who are still suffering. This is the road map the samskaras offer us: What kind of a life are you carving out through your choices? Is it shaping up as you’d like? If not, then start chipping away at another way of being until it more closely resembles your heart. The next time you’re on the mat, or doing a few Sun Salutes just out of bed, you are not only solidifying healthy habits, you’re creating the potential for new ones to take root in your life in so many ways. Here’s a great all-in-one pose for dissolving restrictive samskaras, and, with them, the fuzz. Do it in the morning just after you get out of bed, and you’ll greet your whole day with more resiliency, flexibility, and freedom from all sorts of fuzz. Core Pose: Low Lunge with Cat/Cow Variation Come into a Low Lunge position with your right foot forward. Your front knee is stacked over the heel, not out in front of it, to avoid knee pressure. The back knee stretches comfortably behind the hip, not directly under it. The front foot and back knee are hip-distance, or about two fists-width apart. Keep your hands on the floor, framing your front foot at first. Take a moment to back off the hips, since you don’t want to sink too far into this pose. This can cause you to overstretch the connective tissue. Instead, lift out of the pose a bit until you can ground the foot and knee, draw in the low belly, and bring your torso upright, hands onto the knee or thigh. You should now feel a stretch in the center of your muscles, not in the back hip crease and front sitting bone only. Your legs are also working to maintain the buoyancy of the pose. Inhale, carve your tailbone long, and arch your spine. Keep the back of your neck long, and lift the chest sky-high. As you do this move, pull your shoulders back and slide your shoulder blades closer. Exhale and round your back. Remember to keep the length in your lower back and roll more through the upper back and shoulder area. Gently lower your chin for a mindful neck stretch. This pose is meant to lift through the back of your heart and spread the shoulder blades wider apart than it is to press out your lower back curve. So although you will activate the low belly fully on your exhalation, lift it in and up towards the chest, rather than squeezing it back towards the spine only. Repeat the spinal motion with your breath for 5-10 rounds, then return to a Down Dog or Child’s Pose, and repeat on the left side.

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Fuzz Buster

In a recent Anatomy of Yoga class with Leslie Kaminoff, we watched a video that I’ll never forget. And hopefully, neither will you. And, trust me, this all has a heck of a lot to do with your yoga practice! It features anatomist Gil Hedley explaining The Fuzz. You can watch it yourself, but be aware that it shows him working with a cadaver. Yet it’s such an important piece of knowledge that I’d like to define this incredible concept for you, and you can choose to view it or not and still take it forward into your daily life. Each night while we sleep, or any time we’re still for long periods, like sitting in a car on a long road trip, our body begins to build collagen fibers. They look a little like cotton candy, and are just as sticky, causing friction between what should be smoothly sliding muscle surfaces. The end result is the stiffness you might feel in the morning getting out of bed or standing up after watching a three-hour movie. Now, this is usually no big deal for those of us with a consistent movement practice. We feel creaky, we do yoga, we’re good. But if you don’t lubricate your joints and move your muscles to break up the fuzz regularly enough, it begins to knit together. Over time, the normal, subtle stiffness becomes limited movement, and even pain as the spider-webbed, bound body tries to move against resistance. Instead of confronting the fuzz, to avoid discomfort, many people simply move less. It becomes a vicious cycle that we often chock up to aging, but really is a cumulative, and mostly avoidable, buildup of fuzz. Now, that’s not to say that all physical slowdown is due to the fuzz, and if we simply stretch more, we will never feel the effects of age. But there is much more we can do to keep our bodies–and therefore our minds–as open, vital, and free as possible. This parallels the yoga teaching about samskaras , the mental and emotional patterns that make up our conditioning. Samskara is a neutral word, indicating simply the actions we take that lead to certain results, but our habits can lead to either constructive or destructive outcomes, depending on our goals. The yogi seeks to strengthen those positive habits that maintain the full range of spiritual motion, and, importantly, dissolve the ones that have become diminishing and threaten to hold us back from reaching our potential of living from love, light, and joy. It’s exciting to see science finding that the same lessons apply to our actual body as well. In fact, I see the two as interconnected, since continual mental and emotional stress, for example, leads almost unerringly to muscle tension, which is a direct physical manifestation of the samskara of anxiety or fear. This is the mind-body connection the yogis have known about for centuries, and though sometimes yoga philosophy can get pretty obtuse, much of it can be translated into the real world as simply as you want to make it. That’s nice to know when you’re looking for tools you can apply today, right this moment, that can help you release what doesn’t serve you, and keep, even amplify, the things that do. Yoga doesn’t have to be confusing. It’s the art of living in balance, and taking actions that fuel your happiness, whatever that means for you. From there, you’ll be inspired to offer some of that goodness to the world through your creative self-expression, and with a burning desire to help those who are still suffering. This is the road map the samskaras offer us: What kind of a life are you carving out through your choices? Is it shaping up as you’d like? If not, then start chipping away at another way of being until it more closely resembles your heart. The next time you’re on the mat, or doing a few Sun Salutes just out of bed, you are not only solidifying healthy habits, you’re creating the potential for new ones to take root in your life in so many ways. Here’s a great all-in-one pose for dissolving restrictive samskaras, and, with them, the fuzz. Do it in the morning just after you get out of bed, and you’ll greet your whole day with more resiliency, flexibility, and freedom from all sorts of fuzz. Core Pose: Low Lunge with Cat/Cow Variation Come into a Low Lunge position with your right foot forward. Your front knee is stacked over the heel, not out in front of it, to avoid knee pressure. The back knee stretches comfortably behind the hip, not directly under it. The front foot and back knee are hip-distance, or about two fists-width apart. Keep your hands on the floor, framing your front foot at first. Take a moment to back off the hips, since you don’t want to sink too far into this pose. This can cause you to overstretch the connective tissue. Instead, lift out of the pose a bit until you can ground the foot and knee, draw in the low belly, and bring your torso upright, hands onto the knee or thigh. You should now feel a stretch in the center of your muscles, not in the back hip crease and front sitting bone only. Your legs are also working to maintain the buoyancy of the pose. Inhale, carve your tailbone long, and arch your spine. Keep the back of your neck long, and lift the chest sky-high. As you do this move, pull your shoulders back and slide your shoulder blades closer. Exhale and round your back. Remember to keep the length in your lower back and roll more through the upper back and shoulder area. Gently lower your chin for a mindful neck stretch. This pose is meant to lift through the back of your heart and spread the shoulder blades wider apart than it is to press out your lower back curve. So although you will activate the low belly fully on your exhalation, lift it in and up towards the chest, rather than squeezing it back towards the spine only. Repeat the spinal motion with your breath for 5-10 rounds, then return to a Down Dog or Child’s Pose, and repeat on the left side.

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Fuzz Buster

My office was burgled (what a lovely sounding word! It sounds like water pouring over rocks in a cool stream) on Friday, while I was in a back room speaking with someone. For the first two hours afterward, I thought, oh, this is just like trying to find the toothpaste on my bathroom counter. That substantial amount of cash is here somewhere. I just can’t find it. When the reality of it sank in, my gut writhed for a few minutes. Until–and this is the yoga part –until I realized this is what is. It is exactly like my hamstrings. They are short. No whining about that helps. No gnashing of teeth, no “why did this happen to me”, no “I should have done this or that”. My hamstrings are short. The money is gone. Can’t do much about it. Except. Except that I can look at the situation gently, and positively, and with a lot of love for myself. I can soothe my gut by contemplating the good things that might come from this. I can dwell on how lucky I am to be safe, happy, and engaged in work that will never land me in jail where the food is bad and my yoga props might be confiscated. A sense of humor comes back to me. Which, strangely, helps me wish my burglar friend well. For him (it turns out I met him before, which is why I know he is a him), I wish peace, well being, a relaxed gut, and good life choices ahead. In fact, I’ll go all out and say I wish long hamstrings for him. Somehow I know my own flexibility on this point will help both of us. Here’s what yoga is teaching me: What is, is. I do better when I let go. Looking at everything with peace and love makes it all better. It turns a burglary into water pouring over rocks in a cool stream. How cool is that? Has yoga done this to you, too? Thanks to yoga for the alchemy in this, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, speaker, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd.

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Burgled!

Feeling a little burnt out on your yoga practice? How about a little inspiration for your practice from a few of the greats? Check out Krisnamacharya’s totally zen moving Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)! And from Mr. Iyengar himself: Who, or what, inspires your practice?

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Old School Yoga

The other day, my yoga teacher said something I keep thinking about. “In class,” Louie said, “we practice how to practice. But at home, we practice.” Of all things, this made me think of my date night with Neil this past weekend. On Friday night we went all out–hired a babysitter, made a reservation at a Japanese tapas place by the beach, dressed cute (in a summery dress and sandals for me and a striped button down and jeans for Neil). We had a great time – talking and eating and planning and dreaming – but the bill and the babysitter added up. Then on Saturday, we had a no fuss date night at home. We put Lucien to bed early and I set the table and gathered vegetables (lettuce, kale) from the garden while Neil made black bean veggie burgers and yam fries. We wore shorts and t-shirts and were sweaty from a day out and about in the summertime sun. For dessert, we ate raspberries from the garden. Guess which one was more fun? As important as it is to be out in the world – or in the yoga center – at home with the ones you love is where true practice begins. Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Date Night

It’s my first week in a new town, having moved from NYC to Austin to focus on yoga, travel and all that it entails for me right now. It’s slower here, no doubt, with a local news story lamenting that the new city Metro system doesn’t have enough people riding it! I’ll soon be parking my grateful derriere on one of the new, cushioned seats (with actual airspace between bodies) on my way to a yoga class. I miss New York, but I’m interested to see what health and yogic possibilities lay ahead for me here. In this transitional period, where cardboard moving boxes vie for my attention along with daily responsibilities (as I write this blog, all my books sit next to me in U-Haul containers, awaiting their freedom), I can’t help but feel, well, empty. This is a specific kind of emptiness, not the windswept sensation after an emotional storm, or the primordial suspension of a deep meditation. It’s more like a mixture of mourning and excitement, so evenly matched that it generates the time-standing-still feeling you have while retaining the breath after an inhale, or letting the exhale slide into a silent moment of nothingness before inspiring again. And when I say, “inspiring,” I mean breathing in and getting back to the creation of my life’s work, my dharma.  This is the calm before the flood, when creative elements will sweep me forward. And I have to be ready to both direct the wave and ride it into places I can’t foresee. It is scary, yet wonderful. I wonder if this could be the Middle Path the Buddha spoke of, or the “field” between happiness and sorrow that Rumi wrote about so eloquently. I think of it as The Void, taken from the Runes, the ancient Viking stones etched with symbols used by those seeking clarity. Here’s one definition of The Void from the Book of Runes : The Unknowable represents the path of Karma–the sum total of your actions and their consequences, the lessons that are yours for this lifetime. And yet, this Rune teaches that the very debts of old karma shift and evolve as you shift and evolve. Nothing is predestined. What beckons is the creative power of the unknown. We all hit The Void at one time or another, sometimes multiple times a day. It’s that pause that seems hollow but that is actually pregnant with possibility, full of creative energy, or shakti, waiting for you to decide which action to take next to direct it into form. The Void itself is often what ignites fear: of the unknown, of letting go, of being alone, of moving to that next level of ourselves, and risking failure and public ridicule to do it. Many people never cross The Void, because of what seems an impenetrable closed door of “I can’t, I shouldn’t” or “I’m not enough” blocking the entrance to the bridge across.   Yet when we practice yoga with as much determination off the mat as we do on it, when we get present and focus on what really matters–living completely, passionately, and without regret–we take destiny back into our own hands, the doorway magically opens, and, Void or not … we leap. Here’s a pose that may help you understand how solid the Void actually is, as you begin to see that you’re always where you stand, and from there, you can channel this veritable ocean of energy towards your biggest, brightest goals. Core Pose: Ankle-to-Knee Chair(Eka Pada Galavasana Preparation) This pose leads to taking flight in the arm balance of Eka Pada Galavasana, but for our purposes, we’re going to start where we are. Running too fast into the Void can cause you to miss out on the information coming at you from the core, and from your environment, a conversation that needs your full attention. Come to the front of your mat, feet hip-distance apart. Bend both knees and generate as much lift from your lower belly as from your lower back. Keep your spine long as you ground into your left foot and lift your right knee mindfully into your chest. Don’t rush; rather, make every moment of this pose an opportunity to find balance again. Once you’re stable, cross your right ankle over your left knee. Roll the thigh outward so your right knee lowers, and sit down deeper. Bring your hands to the chest, palms together in anjali mudra, which celebrates your connection to the Divine, or universal energy. Offer your heart forward as the hips move back to anchor you in this new place of balance and freedom. Take 5-10 breaths here, then return to Chair Pose, and fold forward over bent or straight legs for a few moments before repeating the balance on the other side.      

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Filling the Void

Summer is busy. This week, my lovely man did a yoga session on a sheet of plywood covered by a raincoat. He said it was great. I have done handstands in my office, downward dogs on an enormous rock by the lake, and side planks at the public library while waiting for a meeting to begin. I sneak yoga while waiting for my car to be repaired. And I would do it in the park and I would do it in the dark and I would do it on a rock and I would do it on a dock Yesterday I hung in a forward bend at the grocery store while looking at cans of tuna on the bottom shelf. No one said a word. I was there for ages. Where will yoga show up next?  Where is your favorite place to sneak it in to your day? Thanks to yoga for being so delicious that we want to sneak it here and there, we want to sneak it everywhere, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, speaker, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd.

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Yoga Here and Yoga There

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Green Living Blog test

Testing Food Blog

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Testing Food Blog

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Testing Top Five Tuesday

You know your child is a yogi in training when: 1. He knows what a neti pot is and can explain how to use it and why. 2. She sings along to Krisha Das and Wah! 3. Not only can he do cobbler’s pose, he calls the pose by its Sanskrit name and prefers if you do, too. 4. When he wears his Ganesh T-shirt, he wants to “sing the song about Ganesh.” 5. He is MUCH more excited about the Babar yoga book than Toy Story 3. 6. Favorite foods include: avocado, peaches, quinoa pasta, steel cut  oatmeal, kale, and hemp milk. 7. The stuffed animals in your house play yoga rather than war. 8. He drinks chamomile tea in a sippy cup. 9. She gets really, really happy when she hears Mama’s off to yoga class. 10. He — see photo above — does a chair back bend off his high chair in the morning just because. How do you know your child is a yogi? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Ten Ways You Know Your Child is a Yogi

In May 1975, the first issue of Yoga Journal –all 10 pages and 300 copies of it–was born. YJ is 35 years old this year, and we thought it only fitting to celebrate with yoga, of course! Our Facebook fans submitted their daring arm balances from all over the world, which you can view in our Arm Balance Extravaganza slideshow . Founded in 1975 by members of the California Yoga Teachers Association (Rama Vernon, Ike and Judith Lasater, Rose Garfinkle, Jean Girardot, Janis Paulsen, and William Staniger), Yoga Journal was created to unite the growing yoga community and provide “material that combines the essence of classical yoga with the latest understanding of modern science.” Read the full story of YJ’s beginnings here. Keep an eye out for more on our Special 35th Anniversary Edition hitting newsstand this fall. Be the first to get sneak previews and other special offers by becoming a fan at www.facebook.com/yogajournal

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Happy Birthday Yoga Journal!

Getty Images Starting you kids out young in yoga sounds like a great idea, but would you bring your child to a hot yoga class? In case you haven’t heard, Bikram’s self-proclaimed “torture chambers” are a series of twenty-six postures in a 104-degree room for 90 minutes. It is an extreme workout. Instructors say it’s natural to feel nauseous, dizzy and maybe even black out. This blogger from MomLogic.com starts investigating after a mother brings her four-year-old to the weekend hot yoga class. “At the beginning of the class, this little yogi was trying each of the moves, naturally having trouble holding any pose. By 15 minutes into the class, the poor thing was playing with her water bottle, spraying herself and rolling around on her towel. I am in my mid-30s, and I can barely stay focused for the hour and a half. So I totally understood how this little one was bored out of her mind. As the class continued, she got up and down and tried more moves. Of course her mom kept trying to correct her, but the instructor insisted that she let her daughter learn on her own. Meanwhile, I was hot as hell and wondering, Is this healthy for the child? So of course, back at work, I just had to get an expert opinion. Pediatrician and momlogic expert Dr. Alanna Levine said the following: “I do not recommend that young children participate in Bikram yoga . Children handle high temperatures differently than adults. They have a higher surface-area-to-mass ratio, which means they absorb heat more than adults do. They also have a smaller blood volume, which makes it harder for them to dissipate the heat. Lastly, they have a slower rate of sweat production than adults, and sweating is a mechanism to cool us off. Children are not ‘mini adults’ — and should not be treated as such.” I thought it was only fair to call up the Bikram Yoga College of India and talk to someone there. Jessica, 32, has been a Bikram instructor since 2008. Here’s how our chat went: ml: Does Bikram have a minimum age requirement?  Jessica: There are no strict rules, as long as the child is quiet and well-behaved. There’s a youth category for the annual Bikram competition. Bikram, the founder, has three children, and they all started doing “hot yoga ” at a very early age. ml: How old was your youngest student ever? J: I haven’t have any younger than 9 or 10. Sometimes younger students wait outside during  the standing series and come in for the floor series. ml: How would you respond to our doctor’s claims that Bikram is unhealthy for kids? J: With any physical practice, you should have a doctor’s recommendation. A decision to do Bikram should be taken person by person. It’s case by case. What do you think? Do kids as young as 4 belong in a hot- yoga class? Have you ever brought your child to yoga ? What types of yoga are acceptable?” Read more here .

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Hot Yoga for Kids?

I think yoga is a sport, just like the World Cup. Hear me out. Tuesday was one of those days. I love yoga, love my home practice, love class, but there are some days, some weeks, even, when it all goes off the rails.   This is one of those weeks. I’ve been in hotels two weekends in a row, I’ve seen my share of drive-through windows over those weekends, and my hotel practice has been less thorough than my home practice. I’ve been away so much that my dog rolls her eyes when I come home. The result is that my body and spirit are tired, chunky, and unsociable.   It took Olympian determination to get myself to yoga class on Tuesday. It was touch-and-go all morning. I kept thinking, “I can go home for a break, I can eat, I can read, I can get some work done, I can sit here and stare out the window for an hour.” Most of these options looked much more appealing than going to class. (It’s possible some of you never feel this way. I am determined to like you anyway.) By the grace of Whatever, I get changed, get in my car, and drive to the studio. I lie down, and almost immediately I could cry, I am so happy. Class starts. My left hamstrings have shrunk considerably over the weekend, somehow, I have NO balance, my thighs and rear end burst at the inadequate seams of my formerly roomy yoga pants, and still there is no place I’d rather be. This is where the World Cup comes in.   When we go to class on these days, I think our teachers should welcome us at the door with big, glossy medals. “Would you like a medal today?”  “Yes,” I’d say. “Bronze, silver or gold?” “Are you joking? Do you have any idea how far I’ve come today?The French fries and pizza I have overcome, the hotel coffee, the hours in the car, the dog’s face, and lethargy the size of an oil spill? Give me the gold, absolutely. I am the champion of the world today.” There are days when we should all have medals around our necks. Thanks to yoga for making me show up, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, writer, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. KristinShepherd.

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Champion Yogis

  I’m writing this post from Fairburn Farm on Vancouver Island, a working farm and guest retreat where Neil and I have brought Lucien for a week-long summer holiday. The farm is a bucolic, heavenly spot just a ferry ride from our house in Vancouver. The views of forest and mountain and sky from the windows of the cottage we’re staying in are spectacular, but the real reason we’re here, for our third summer in a row, is the food. The guest operation is run by chef Mara Jernigan, sometimes called the Alice Waters of Vancouver Island. Meals here are a true farm-to-table experience. Breakfast is a two course affair starting with to-die-for homemade granola and berry compote, followed by omelets (with eggs and herbs from the farm, and cheese by local artisans) or frittatas or light-as-air pancakes. Dinner stretches out for hours, with each plate a celebration of local, fresh ingredients: sockeye salmon cakes with lentils and greens and green goddess dressing; rich risotto or homemade pasta or fresh from the brick oven pizza; strawberry tarts and (if it’s hot) refreshing sorbets. For lunch (which Mara doesn’t serve) we stop at a bakery in town where they mill their own grain, and bring the bread to the cheese shop next door for sandwiches that we take on a walk into a nearby park.   It’s an idyllic week, and I’m so glad I’m at a place in my life where I can enjoy it. It’s taken me a long time to get comfortable with food indulgences like this. As mentioned previously, I struggled with food issues, and my body image, for years.   When I got serious about yoga in my late twenties, I lost the weight I’d accumulated over the course of my unhappy childhood, and finally learned to eat and like healthy foods. My diet came to consist of brown rice, tofu, vegetables, black beans, and fruit–great stuff. But I soon came to be overly attached to healthy eating. If I was traveling and what I normally ate wasn’t available, I freaked out. If I gave in to temptation and ate a chocolate chip cookie, or a scoop of ice cream, or a slice or two of pizza–even if these were made lovingly with high-quality ingredients–I felt that I’d slipped, and worried that I’d backslide and return to a regularly scheduled program of unhealthy eating and ten to forty extra pounds.   This made travel-and even eating out at new places-hard. It was no fun when I showed up at Thanksgiving dinner or a Passover Seder or even a dinner party petrified of three quarters of the menu.  Or when I’d have a panic attack about “getting fat” on an otherwise romantic (and of course bread filled) trip to Paris with my husband.   As a new mom, I resolved to approach food differently. I didn’t want the scale, or my fears, to rule my life anymore–or our family vacations.  As I practiced more yoga, and studied yoga philosophy, I came to realize that my food fears weren’t in keeping with yoga after all.  The Yoga Sutras say moderation is key, as is non-attachment (in this case to the precise number on the scale.) Becoming nearly phobic about fattening food was embodying neither principle. Through a process of self-study, and the help of a good therapist, I changed. Now I eat healthy most of the time–and enjoy to the utmost the occasional treat.   What indulgences make your life a pleasure? What do you still struggle with when it comes to food and body image? And, how do you model a healthy relationship with food for your child/children? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Food Loving Yogi

Sting just started out for a summer tour, and, unfortunately, the only buzz we keep hearing is about this mysterious scandalous tantra stuff. Allow Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, to explain themselves in Yoga Journal ’s exclusive interview . Stephanie Syman, author of The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America , also plans to set the tantric-yoga record straight once and for all in her Wall Street Journal blog: “Traditionally, Tantra refers to a loose and varied collection of practices detailed in the Tantras (Indic texts). Some of its most salient features are secrecy and worship of the female principle. The feature that has most intrigued and shocked observers–both Indian and Western–is that Tantra enjoins the aspirant to either visualize sex or engage in acts of ritual intercourse. The purpose of this conjugation, often depicted as the union of Siva and Shakti, is to reach Samadhi, a blissful state of consciousness devoid of any sense of personal identity. Succeed, and not only do you turn your mind into a “point of awareness,” as Ram Dass once put it, you obtain special powers (siddhis). You could say that we’re all Tantrics now since the most popular form of yoga today, Hatha Yoga, has been a central feature of Tantric practice, and its creators were affiliated with Tantric sects. But as with most cultural imports, our assimilation of Tantra has involved equal parts interpretation and invention. No wonder. Tantric practice is no quick route to sexual gratification. It’s traditionally demanding, complicated, highly formalized, and at times, tedious. And only some types of Tantrics (known as “left-handed”) engage in ritual sex at all. Tantra then presents a paradox: it can involve sex and yet its prerequisites mitigate the pleasure. And while you may enhance sexual performance via Tantric practices, the goal is not to get good at sex, the goal is to alter your consciousness so radically that embodied existence is no longer relevant.” Still curious? Read Todd Jones’ The Truth About Tantra. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

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Truly Tantric

I’m in Austin, Texas, and last night took a lovely yoga class at Black Swan Yoga. Hillary, the instructor, said something so simple, it was profound. After a difficult Eka Pada Koundinyasana (Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya) variation, which we were attempting during heat and humidity that created a slip-n-slide situation, we returned to a democratic Downward-Facing Dog. As we recovered, Hillary said, “If you were struggling in that last pose, then it’s good it’s over. You don’t have to think about it anymore, because it’s not happening now.” I know that I’ve said and heard countless variations on that theme in yoga classes I’ve taught and attended. Yet something about the straightforwardness with which Hillary spoke made it seem so simple to just let go of the past and along with it, all the weighty entanglements of suffering, guilt, and instant replays. Trying to change the past by keeping it running on a constant mental and emotional loop can end up frittering away your prana , or life force. Likewise, when you jet off into any scenario–imaginary or already played-out– than what is really happening in the here and now, I call it time-traveling.  We time-travel on the mat too, like when you mentally tell off an ex-boyfriend while in Crow Pose or go over your grocery list in Savasana. The danger in always traveling into what has been or what might never be, is that you lose the sensitivity it takes to stay in communication with your core wisdom. That root awareness can only reveal itself when you drop the baggage you’re carrying and turn all your attention toward accessing the tools you have right where you stand. At first when Hillary made that statement, I thought, “Yeah, easy to say, Sister, but try doing it.” Then I remembered one day a few years back. I was standing in the subway, having recently gone through a major breakup, and my heart was hurting. The world seemed colorless and tasteless, and still, everything stung. For no reason at all, I wondered why I was feeling so bad. Was it inevitable? Or was it a choice I was making?  I decided to see if I could put my broken heart on hold, enjoy a day out in the big city, and come back to the processing part later on. In literally one instant, my pain disappeared. Gone, nada , zip. I felt free, light, and happy to be alive and experiencing all that was in front of me. I had a wonderful time before, a little while later, I decided to re-enter the growth process, a sensation that would never again be as cutting or make me feel as helpless as when I thought I had no control over it. I didn’t know that it was possible to allow myself to step into the present so fully as to be immune from the poison of confusion and regret. I’ve employed this skill many times since, and you can, too. It’s as close as a decision, as gentle as an allowing, and as natural as relaxing into being who you want to be, right this minute. Yogis call this process dharana , or concentration. It requires pratyahara , sense withdrawal, another yogic skill of reigning yourself in from obsessively poring over the past or future, and from leaking your chi, or energy. I also call it core power, and when you practice using it to become victorious over the time-traveling mind and tidal heart, you will see more clearly, and without judgment, how you wish to proceed in the only time period that you can do anything about–the one you’re in. Sometimes even teachers need teachers to remind us of this. Here’s a pose variation that can quickly return you to the present; one that gets you grounded plus gives you a taste of all the strength and vitality you hold at center. From there, no matter how life comes at you, you can choose to come right back out at it with compassion, wisdom, and grace. Core Pose: “Core” Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) Stand with your feet about two fists-width apart. Bend your knees and reach your right fingertips diagonally out away from your right foot, wider than the right shoulder, and press them into the mat. At the same time, press your right foot into the ground strongly. On an exhalation, draw your left knee into your chest using your low belly to draw in and up toward your sternum. Begin to stack your left hip on top of the right and unfurl your left arm to the sky. Inhale as you maintain the tone in your abdominal muscles, and begin to lengthen your bent, left leg out behind you until it is parallel to the floor. Your bottom leg can remain bent or, if your flexibility allows, straighten it. Keep your standing leg firm and foot rooted even as you draw into and express from your center in the pose. Do 3-5 repetitions on this side then bring both feet back down into the starting position. Take a gentle forward fold, clasping opposite elbows. Find your Earth-to-core connection and repeat the pose on the left side.  

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Stop Time-Traveling

Two fantastic things occurred over the last 24 hours. 1. We experienced an earthquake yesterday. Very exciting. It lasted 26 seconds. The dog growled for a few seconds, and the antennae on the TV shook for a full minute. In fact, the quake shook much of the province, which was wonderful, because it led to phone calls with my mother in Ottawa and my sister in Toronto. It’s the kind of thing everyone wants to talk about.  2. I tried naked yoga this morning. My goal was to last longer than 26 seconds. There is no doubt I was shaken more by the naked yoga than the quake. If you haven’t tried it, if your dad is British, say, and you’re uneasy in short sleeves, if you wear flannel clown pants to bed every night and peel your socks off during the middle of the night as you become unbearably hot–if you do all of that–well, we can talk. (If this isn’t you and you’re the type who goes naked to the movies, you have no idea what I’m talking about. In my next life I’ll be just like you.) The first 26 seconds are spent dismayed by the complex surface of my thighs, which look as though they have undergone several earthquakes of their own. Then I forget about them, perhaps because it is hotter this morning than it’s been all summer, and as humid as cottage cheese. My first forward bend makes me sweat. I make it to 40 minutes, naked. I put my clown pants back on for seated postures, to avoid rug burn, I say to myself. I conclude that this naked thing is no big deal. And then something unexpected happens. I move off the rug and onto the wood floor for Savasana. And, oh, oh, oh, the floor is as cool as ice cream on my poached back, so cool that I take my clown pants off again for the last couple of minutes. I press my low back into the floor and when I relax it makes a deep, suction-y, rumbling, farting sound that is the best thing I have EVER heard during my practice.  A soft, funny earthquake of my very own. I am CERTAIN you have things to teach me about your naked (or not) home practice. My ears are quaking. Thanks to earthquakes, to cool floors, and to you for the conversation. Join Kristin at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at http://kristinshepherd.ca

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An Earth Moving Experience

The sigh with the first sip of coffee. The click of my mug when I set it on the coffee table. The grunt when I realize my left hamstrings are still half the length of my right hamstrings. Ujjayi breathing, when I remember to do it. Seagulls squawking outside. The yeah! yeah! yeah! I say under my breath with my handstand and anything resembling a back bend. Heaving groans that ease their way into regular breaths during side twists. The big, fat sighs that settle me into Savasana. Shanti, shanti, shanti, which I whisper to the lake (don’t know why I whisper at home). The tickety-tickety-tickety of Rosie, my dog, who hears me whisper and comes to join me after her own upward dog, downward dog series. It’s worth it just for the sounds, isn’t it? What are your favorites?   Thanks to yoga for the sounds and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, writer, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Please join me at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. KristinShepherd.

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The Sounds of Yoga

In the midst of wedding season, it seems like a good time to think about what we are committing to when we gaze longingly at our mat or wish we had more time for Namaskar-ing at sunset. In chapter five of the Bhagavad Gita : “The resolute in yoga surrender and gain perfect peace; the irresolute, attached to results, are bound by everything they do.” So, we’ve got to resolutely let go? Sounds tricky. Even if we can conceptualize this, how is it applied and how do we live this truth on and off the mat? Susan Piver at the Huffington Post seems to have hit it right on the yoga toes. Not sure if she does asana on a mat, but she certainly sounds like a yogi in this reflective blog written on her twelfth wedding anniversary. “It’s just now, 12 years later, that I’m finding out what, apparently, I said yes to. I said yes to the unfolding, impenetrable arc of uncertainty. I guess I thought that finding love was an endpoint, that some kind of search was over and I would find home. We would leap over the threshold together into whatever we imagined our ideal cottage to be. But really we stepped through a crazy looking glass. It seems that I committed to a lifetime of delight and sadness, inseparable from each other. Every time I look into my dear one’s eyes and feel how deeply we’re connected, the moment disappears before I can actually hold it–and I have to watch that happen. It’s excruciating. It’s much easier to do this with your thoughts when you’re meditating than with the feeling you get from his breath on your shoulder as you fall asleep. But now I get that I have to repeat this until the end of my life, and that somehow this is love’s road. I didn’t really understand that love does not arise, abide, or dissolve in connection with any particular feeling. It has almost nothing to do with feeling. (Nor does it seem to be a gesture, a commitment to stay, becoming best friends, or anything else I might have thought.) Love has become a container in which we live. Through time, riding mysterious waves of passion, aggression, and ignorance (and boredom), I think we began to live within love itself. At least I did. E ach time I have opened up, extended myself, accepted what was being offered to me, stepped beyond my comfort zone to embrace him, the structure has been reinforced. I no longer have any idea if I love my husband or not. I can’t imagine what the feelings I have for him could be called. I’ve even given up trying to love him. Our relationship is what gives us love, not the other way around. This is how it is. And if you’re looking for a crucible in which to heat compassion, this is a really good one. Someone once told me that compassion is the ability to hold love and pain together in the same moment. So at least we’re learning something, which is what I tell myself. When you find your true love, there is something inside that simply and inexplicably says hello to him. Yes to him. Of course to him. Certainly. Obviously it’s you. There is no choice. I do.” Are you ready to commit or re-commit to your practice?  What poses do you use to remind yourself to commit to surrender? I like Ardha Chandrasana for this balance. Whether you’re getting married this summer, attending a commitment ceremony or finaly ready to take the leap with yoga, this article on celebrating with meaning may help get you in the mood. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

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I do Yoga

  I just got back from Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana–my first-ever time away from Lucien and first out-of-town yoga workshop in years. When I got there I had a bad headache and a guilty conscience. Had I made a huge mistake in leaving my two-and-a-half year-old son? Was I a bad parent for ditching him while doing something–studying yoga–that was all about me? How would Neil and Lucien manage to survive a day without me, much less five?   Sure, I was there to study with one of my favorite yoga teachers in the world, Marla Apt. Yes, Neil and Lucien are as close as could be and Neil had half convinced me that I deserved this break. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow wrong for me to be there.   Then we began to practice. Three hours of asana in the morning, two and half hours in the afternoon of asana and pranayama, with time in between and after class to read, think, meditate, talk to Marla and the other yogis, and just be.   Marla is a gifted and generous teacher. Her sequences are magical, her instructions brilliant, her adjustments incredibly insightful. During our time together my asana practice took a serious leap forward. I came to remember something, too: how important asana is to me. As much as I treasure everything else yoga has brought me closer to–yoga philosophy, conscious living and parenting, healthy eating, the creative life–yoga asana is the daily tonic I need in order to make all that possible.   Each day at the ranch I felt calmer, more open, freer. My headache disappeared and my tense shoulders became soft. My guilty conscience eased. I felt more like me. I promised myself then and there I’d rededicate myself to my home practice and my weekly classes with my wonderful Vancouver teacher Louie Ettling in Vancouver. I also vowed to continue studying with Marla whenever possible.   By the way, Lucien and Neil did great. My “baby” didn’t cry once over his missing Mommy as I’d worried he might. According to Neil, whenever my name came up Lucien would smile and say “Momma’s at a yoga retreat! In Montana! Downward dog!” The truth is Lucien loves his Daddy, and feels just as comfortable with him as he does with me.    When the retreat was over, Neil and Lucien picked me up at the airport in Vancouver. “Momma!” Lucien said, and hugged me tight. “You seem so much lighter,” Neil said when he saw me, with a kiss.  I was beaming, breathing, easier in my body than I’d been in a long time.  And committed to staying that way. Do you make enough time for yourself? What part of you practice needs re-commitment? Sharing here may help you keep your intention!   Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Re-committed to Yoga

All this World-Cup-inspired team spirit reignites the debate about yoga as a sport. Bikram has been lobbying for a Yoga Olympics for ages. One need only watch the New York Regional Yoga Championship video from New York Times to conclude that yoga is VERY challenging and amazingly beautiful and fun to watch. There are of course pros and cons to having all this attention in the yoga world. Those opposed say yoga cannot be judged and that doing so misses the point entirely. Supporters say exposure inspires children to get involved at a young age.   What do you think about yoga as a sport?  And what about some of these crazy poses…is that even good for you? More advanced poses here: Extreme Yoga Poses Join the debate: Can that be Good for You?!

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World Cup Yoga?

What’s with the naked theme? I write a blog about loving home practice, and you, some of you, write in that you love naked yoga. I write a blog about favorite poses, and you write in about naked yoga. I write a blog about meditation or chanting or acting, for goodness sake, and some of you (is it the same people? The Naked Yoga Alliance? I don’t know!) write back that you love naked yoga. Billy Connolly, the marvelous Scottish comedian, writes that he loves an ordinary love life with his wife. A meat-and-potatoes kind of lover, he is.  He’s all about comfort. It takes some self-assuredness to admit that. I feel that way about yoga. I love yoga in my flannel pajama bottoms. I start with two t-shirts and peel one off as I warm up. Sometimes I start in socks. This naked thing? I don’t know. It’d be like grocery shopping while naked, or bowling while naked, neither of which is ever going to happen, so don’t feel you should write in about those. Besides, where I live, anyone in a canoe can see me unless I downward dog in the dark.   All right, all right! I’ll try it. I’ll try it in the dark (by the park, for a lark, with a shark. I’m going all Dr. Seuss in my nervousness.). I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the conversation, I think. Kristin Shepherd lives in North Bay, Ontario. She is a chiropractor, workshop facilitator, actor, writer, and parent of two grown children and a perpetually infantile dog.  Check her out, fully clothed, at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd. 

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Why Naked Yoga?