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

We know that yogis are a passionate bunch, whether it’s going to extreme lengths to secure time on their mats or in fighting for a cause they believe in. Now one yogi is putting his own endurance to the test to keep a dream alive. Will Baxter, a financial-advisor-turned-yogin-social-entrepreneur who is trying to launch a yoga-bag company that will also help native Guatemalan women weavers, is one-day into his personal telethon (of the YouTube variety) to walk nonstop on a treadmill until the funds needed to launch the company are raised or until the campaign ends Nov. 22. I AM , Baxter’s sustainable-business-model idea, will sell naturally dyed yoga bags and straps woven by the indigenous Mayan women of the country, sharing 50 percent of the net profit directly with their communities. The seed money for the company will come through KickStarter, the funding platform for creative endeavors. Baxter needs to raise close to $25,000 more of the project’s goal of $45,000 before the fundraising period ends next week. Not unlike brands like Jade , a backer of I AM, Baxter appears to be the next generation of  yogis who hope to pair a business idea with sustainability and social responsibility. A new form of yoga off the mat?

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The Jerry Lewis of Yoga?

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

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 news is everywhere, from USA Today to ABC: A study published on Monday shows that yoga helps with chronic back pain. Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study  showed that yoga and stretching equally help people with chronic back pain. In the study, 92 people took a weekly yoga class. Ninety-one took weekly stretching classes. Forty-five people got a book that gave exercise and lifestyle modifications. After 12 weeks, the people who took yoga classes and stretching classes both improved, while the “book learning” group didn’t. However, yoga wasn’t any more effective than stretching when it came to providing relief, which raises an interesting question: Is there a difference between yoga and stretching? Buzz asked Loren Fishman, MD, of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and  Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, who prescribes yoga to his patients.   “That is an excellent finding because it shows scientifically, and again, what we believed from our own experience all along–that yoga helps patients with non-specific back pain. And stretching does too,” he says. However, what the study didn’t measure–the psychological and behavior benefits of regular yoga–is what yoga practitioners know is unique about the practice. “It often takes more time for these types of positive changes to take hold.”

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Is Yoga the Same as Stretching?

While people everywhere are struggling to make ends meet yoga businesses continue to thrive, according to a recent report by CNNMoney . Low operating costs and growing demand are fueling the success of yoga studios, many of which are mom-and-pop operations that simply want to share yoga with their communities. Of course, the still-struggling economy and high unemployment rate are also good reasons for people to look for ways to manage stress and do some soul searching. The yoga and Pilates studio industry is expected to hit $6.5 billion by the end of this year, which is an expected annual sales growth of 9.5% between 2006 and 2011 according to reports by market research firm IBISWorld. But studio owners aren’t the only ones making a profit from yoga–just ask Asheville, North Carolina, entrepreneur Jason Scholder. Scholder is on track to make $1 million in annual sales by 2013 with his innovative yoga prop the Three Minute Egg, according to a recent article in the Asheville Citizen-Times . An alternative to traditional yoga blocks, the Three Minute Egg fits the natural curve of the spine. “I would like to see the Three Minute Egg in every yoga studio, in every Pilates studio, in every chiropractic office and physical therapy office in the world,” he told the paper. At the rate the industry is growing, it might be hard to keep up. Has the economy impacting how much you’re willing to spend on yoga classes and products?

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Yoga Biz Thrives Despite Economy

“What if you could be more virile than Hugh Hefner, more motivated than Tony Robbins, calmer than Buddha and cooler than James Bond?” Got your attention? That’s the hook for a new yoga conference just for men. Activation: Yoga for Men Conference will be held in San Francisco Nov. 11-13, and, as the flier predicts: This is not your girlfriend’s yoga. The conference, a collaboration between the International Yoga Therapy Conference and the Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend, is an effort to introduce this ancient practice to modern men, providing them with tools that the conference organizers believe are exactly what today’s men need. Presenters Scott Blossom, Ed Harrold, Carl Speizer, Antonio Sausys, and Mark Schillinger will tackle topics including focusing willpower, improving sexual health, increasing masculine wisdom and spiritual strength, and creating healthy daily routines. “Since yoga was once primarily the domain of men, we believe the way to lure men back is by creating confidential and sacred spaces where they can reveal themselves unmasked,” organizers Sausys and Schillinger explain on the event website . “This will give men the opportunity to practice yoga in ways that meet their unique psychological, physiological and anatomical needs.”

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Not Your Girlfriend’s Yoga

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

photo: J.T. Liss (Photography for Social Change) More people are taking their yoga off the mat and onto the street–Wall Street, that is. Since the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement on Sept. 17, yogis Russell Simmons, Deepak Chopra and Michael Franti have joined the masses and lent their voices and celebrity to the cause. Yoga teacher and activist Seane Corn joined the chorus this morning, leading nearly 200 yogis in a practice of community, solidarity, and change. “This gathering [on Wall Street] is not about being ‘against’ something or someone. It is about being ‘for’ unity, freedom of speech, and justice,” Seane Corn explained on her Facebook page on Saturday. Corn founded Off the Mat, Into the World , an organization “that uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious, sustainable activism and to ignite grass roots social change,” according to the group’s website. “OTM supports all societies rights to express dissatisfaction and ask for change. This is what we GET to do and is a right that we should cherish and protect. I am not for the 99% and against the 1%. I am for the 100% getting our shit together and remembering we are ONE.”

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Seane Corn Occupies Wall Street

Photo credit: Jasper Johal for ToeSox From the wide cultural misunderstanding of tantra yoga to controversial ads by some yoga-product companies, sex and yoga is a hot-button topic. The fire was stoked again last week in a series of news stories and blog posts. First, a post on The Daily Beast explored the topic of spontaneous orgasms during yoga class. While it’s no secret that people say their sex lives improve after a regular yoga practice, this was, well, perhaps a little too much information. Then, a group of high school girls in Loveland, Ohio stood up for their right to wear yoga pants after school administrators banned the stretchy pants as too revealing and thus a possible distraction from school work. The girls, dozens who said they were sent home or forced to change their clothes, maintained that the pants are comfortable and no more revealing than a pair of jeans. What do you think? Is it really possible to have an orgasm in yoga class? Are yoga pants too sexy for schools? Are there too many stories about sex and yoga in the media? And does any of this have anything to do with the practice of yoga?

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Sexy Yoga News

Photo: J.T. Liss (Photography for Social Change) Sun Salutations in the late-afternoon sun. Hawks soaring high above. A light breeze cooling down the day while gentle drumming keeps the tempo. Around me, 60 yogis, woman and men, arch into Up Dog, faces radiant as they gaze skyward. Such was the idyllic scene at the recent Mind, Body, Spirit and Wine event at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, California. Leading us through the practice was the lovely Suzanna Spring from Cosmic Dog Yoga studios. And co-teaching on this perfect autumn day was Yogadork, the delightful and prolific New York yoga blogger and teacher. The event marked the confluence of passions for yogin-winemaker Karl Wente, whose love of the practice is something of local legend. Around the winery, Wente is known for his spontaneous expressions of asana, busting out an arm balance to make a point or kicking into headstand when too-long tasting sessions start to dull his senses. Yoga, he says, makes him a better winemaker, helping to cultivate the Beginner’s Mind that allows him to approach each wine anew, fully experiencing every nuance. Watch Wente discuss his yoga-and-winemaking philosophy here . Pairing yoga with wine is a relatively new trend that stirs some debate in yoga circles. But on this day, yogis flush from fresh air and asana happily sampled the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah Wente had chosen for a post-class tasting. Whether or not you agree with mixing your yoga with wine, it’s hard not to like outdoor yoga. Your inhalations feel deeper; the exhales extend further. Reach for the sky; bow to the earth. No walls, no boundaries. Practicing under an autumn-blue sky, surrounded by grapevines? A votre sante!        

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Yoga Under a Big Blue Sky

Any woman with an Internet connection has access to the voices of today’s most influential yoginis, thanks to the Divine Feminine Yoga Telesummit . The free program, which launched with a week of live calls in mid-September and is now available online, embraces the idea that there is tremendous power in owning and cultivating feminine (source) energy and wisdom in your life. Featured teachers on the summit include Sally Kempton, Shiva Rea, Sara Avant Stover, Chandra Easton and others who draw upon the Divine Feminine in their yoga, their teaching, and in their own lives. The summit is the creation of yogi, activist, and former director of the Green Yoga Association , Laura Cornell. “I see the Divine Feminine as a medicine for us as women, and a medicine for our times,” she says. “”It’s just one more piece of pulling together the awareness of women in yoga and celebrating women, healing and empowerment. If we can heal women body and soul, we can heal the world.”

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Where Technology Meets Divinity

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

The latest entry in the popular field of yoga memoirs is a wickedly funny book with one of the most memorable titles ever: “Yoga Bitch: One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment.” The book chronicles a 25-year-old yoga student’s quest for enlightenment via a teacher-training program in Bali. For anyone who has ever fantasized that yoga could instantly transform them into a serene, lithe, uber-flexible and wise-beyond-their-years yogi, only to be rudely awakened to your real-time self doing a face plant on your mat, this story is for you. You’ll commiserate, cringe, and laugh out loud. Buzz recently spoke with the author, Suzanne Morrison, a writer and solo performer, who, 10 years later, is far less cynical but still has a lot to say about transformation, the marketing of yoga, and some of the more fringe elements of the practice. You went to this teacher training seeking transformation. Do you feel that you were transformed by the experience? I do. But if you go home from a yoga retreat believing yourself to be completely transformed, you should have that checked out. Your friends are probably making fun of you behind your back. That’s what Yoga Bitch is about, in many ways: it’s about waking up with yourself again after believing yourself to be transformed. Transformation is a long-term game. It’s something you can’t really see until you look back far enough. But I don’t think spiritual effort is ever a waste of time, even if you don’t see immediate results. One day you’ll touch your toes, having tried to get there for two years. Five years later you might notice that you’ve been slipping into meditation with less drama than you once did.  Last week my new favorite yoga teacher talked me into actually holding Side Crow for five seconds, and that made me feel like a whole new person–until I fell on my face, and then I recognized myself again. Looking back on your time in Bali, is there anything you wish you could have appreciated more that you didn’t at the time? Oh jeez, yes. I wish I had been able to notice that my ego was running amok after my first big spiritual breakthrough. I wish I had actually gotten enlightened. I wish I had seen the face of God while meditating and then marched into the future feeling great about myself. I wish I had thought to ask for the recipe for the amazing and forbidden coconut vanilla milkshake I became obsessed with. Most of all, I wish I had known towards the end of the retreat that 10 years later I would look back on my teachers in Bali and know that they were the best teachers I have studied with. They gave me a foundation in yoga philosophy that opened some incredible doors for me, both spiritually and intellectually. Physically, too–before Bali I looked like a dying dog in Plank Pose. Now I merely look like an elderly dog. Since you did your teacher training 10 years ago, yoga has become even more mainstream. Any thoughts about the yogification of popular culture? Well, it’s fascinating! I have an older friend who recently had a stroke, and his doctor prescribed yoga to help him regain some lost mobility in his legs and arms. I think that sort of development is pretty awesome. I am still conflicted about the way yoga has been used as a marketing device in order to sell everything from herpes medication to insurance plans. We are a nation of consumers, and right now many of us are deeply invested in consuming a particular health-and-wellness lifestyle. We all must be very exhausted or something, that we respond so profoundly to these yoga images, these wellness promises. But we do: if we are told a new car is going to make us feel nourished, calm, at one with nature and spirit because a woman in white is doing yoga next to it, a lot of us buy in. That image is seductive. It sometimes makes me feel like a huge chump. If I see a sun-drenched advertisement featuring a woman with perfectly clear skin meditating while her all-organic flax seed granola waits patiently for her, nestled in a beautiful ethnic bowl, I find myself wanting that granola. That granola, I’m convinced, is going to calm me the fuck down. I’m a total stooge. Then again, maybe it will calm me down. Maybe that granola has special powers. I want to believe in the power of the granola. During your program, you experienced kundalini rising, which for many practitioners is a kind of yogic Holy Grail. Have you ever recaptured that feeling?   I haven’t, although I did get overheated and pass out in the tub once, and it was kind of a similar experience. Seriously, though, I have deliberately backed off a little on meditation and pranayama. That was such an intense experience and I think there’s a part of me that is afraid to repeat it. Which is odd, because it was an amazing, spectacular event. I felt like I could bond with plants, suddenly. But I’ve tried to belatedly take the advice my teacher gave me in Bali. Lou said to let it go. He said that I shouldn’t try to repeat my kundalini experience or try and hold onto it or else it would actually hurt my meditation practice. And he was right: in Bali, I tried to hold onto that feeling for a long time, and it made meditation impossible, because I was always trying to recapture something lost. Now when I meditate I try and approach it as something new. I try not to compare today’s meditation to yesterday’s. This is actually good for my writing, too–one good writing day and you want them all to be like that. Without giving too much away, there’s a part in the book that discusses the health-preserving benefits of … urine therapy. Have you kept up with the practice? Hell no! Once was more than enough for me. Just the thought makes me gag. Interestingly, I recently spent time with my old roommate Jessica, who plays a significant role in Yoga Bitch , and she told me that she doesn’t do it anymore, either. She was hardcore. If she’s stopped doing it, I don’t think there’s a lot of hope for urine therapy to go mainstream. Read more from Suzanne Morrison at suzannemorrison.blogspot.com .

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A Q+A with the author of Yoga Bitch

There are many ways to live your yoga out in the world, but one of the most profound is to dedicate yourself to the service of others. If you’ve ever been drawn to the yoga of service, but wondered how one person can make a difference, consider the work of Paige Elenson, Baron Baptiste, and the Africa Yoga Project . The Africa Yoga Project began when Elenson was in Kenya volunteering as a yoga teacher for two months. When a civil war broke out there, she realized she wanted to stay and make a difference. Her teacher, Baron Baptiste, became a co-founder and offered his support to the program. “I’ve been to Kenya twice to lead teacher trainings for over 50 teachers who work for AYP,” Baptiste told Buzz. “They all now earn a living wage through teaching yoga and sharing their stories in their communities in Kenya.” Today, AYP offers more than 200 free classes a week to the people of Kenya through programs that serve young urban Kenyans, women, and others who need the practice. “This is really just the beginning of seeing how yoga can be seen as a global practice of empowerment and possibility and creation in our environment,” Elenson said. Elenson is one of several experienced Baptiste teachers who will be teaching at the Baptiste Power Flow Immersion at Yoga Journal’s Colorado Conference Sept. 19-21. The immersion, which is open to both experienced and beginning yoga students and teachers, offers the chance to study closely with Baron Baptiste and deepen the understanding of the Baptiste Yoga method. Classes like Elenson’s are designed to inspire and educate students about the transformations possible through yoga. “They are some of the most highly-skilled, deeply inspiring, and from-the-heart vinyasa teachers on the planet,” said Baptiste of the teachers involved in the immersion. “I’ve been close with each of these teachers for a long time and have watched the impact that their individual teaching has had in the lives of the many people they touch.” Have you ever wanted to change the lives of others through your yoga practice? What challenges have you faced?

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Africa Yoga Project Inspires YJ’s Colorado Conference

Does your yoga practice need a little artistic inspiration? Or does your museum-going need a little yoga? Either way, you might find yoga classes at an unlikely place–a nearby art museum. This summer and beyond, museums around the country are offering yoga classes as part of their programming. It makes perfect sense, according to the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Regina Carswell Russo. “The art museum is a place of reflection, a place to find solace and to go inside as you look at the beauty around you,” she says. “What better place to pair these two art forms: going inside to see the beautify within and coming into the space to see the beauty around you?” Russo, herself a beginning yogi, says that yoga at the museum is just another example that yoga should be adaptable. “People see that you can do a practice at home on your mat, in the park, in a studio, or at the museum,” she says. “It’s good to be able to find different and creative places to practice.” At San Francisco’s Asian Art museum, yoga classes are aligned with the museum’s goal of educating people  about Asian art and culture. “Some of our most successful programs are more spiritual, meditative programs, we have an incredible collection for that,” says the Asian Art Museum’s Allison Wyckoff. “We wanted to offer a yoga class to really get people thinking about the connection between our collection and this time-honored practice.” The classes, part of the museum’s family programming, also gives museum-going exposure to little ones. “It’s a great way to encourage families and kids to come to the museum,” says Wyckoff. In July, the Brooklyn Museum offered a three-series class to correspond with a current exhibit about Vishnu. While it doesn’t have any regular yoga classes, it is planning a screening of the film YogaWoman on Thursday, August 25. Museum yoga class locations vary widely: some are held in sculpture gardens, galleries, and rotundas, while others are held in community rooms and even reception halls. Here’s a taste of museums where you can find yoga. The Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida:  Yoga + Dali Classes, held every Sunday, take place in a room with a waterfront view. The Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, New Jersey: No Sweat Yoga Held every Sunday, you can pay per class or for a 6-class series. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco:  Yoga Flow Classes are part of the museum’s family programming, so everyone over the age of five is welcome. Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina: Yoga Every Thursday, yogis gather to breathe and sweat.

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Yoga at the Museum

Wanderlust , the popular outdoor eco-yoga-music event enterprise that has spawned road-trip destinations for adventurous yogis, this year expanded its three-day outdoor festival offerings to include mini Yoga in the City Festivals in cities around the country. Now Wanderlust has added one more to the mix: Las Vegas. To be held in September at The Cosmopolitan, a 3,000-room gaming resort, the event features Anusara Yoga founder John Friend (the Elvis of the yoga world?), Wanderlust cofounder and Kula Yoga NYC creator Schulyer Grant, and musical group Thievery Corporation. Being Vegas, it also features burlesque shows, “dance party beats,” and poolside wine tasting, according to a press release. We’re happy that all those Sin City visitors, tired from binge gambling-smoking-drinking and doing all that other stuff that stays in Vegas, will be exposed to some good clean yoga fun. But we were puzzled about Wanderlust’s “commitment towards making the most socially and environmentally conscious event of its kind” with this location choice. Wanderlust’s founders have set a high bar for their events as being models of sustainability–with comprehensive composting and recycling programs among other laudable efforts. Las Vegas, on the other hand, is a city where 90 percent of the power is generated from non-renewable resources . Its main water source, the man-made Lake Meade, is estimated to be sucked dry , via drought and increased usage demands, by 2021. It’s basically a city that wouldn’t exist without imported water, electricity, and well, just about everything else that makes a place sustainable. We asked Wanderlust cofounder Jeff Krasno about the choice to bring the festival here. From a creative standpoint, he explained, the Wanderlust brand is about being playful and unexpected. Vegas fits well into that notion. He envisions a raised platform where “people walking down the Strip will look up and see John Friend and 400 people doing yoga.” As an event planner, it just doesn’t get much better than that.   And as folks in the business of promoting a healthful, yogic lifestyle, “we like the idea of bringing a shot of inspiration and enlightenment into a place not usually associated with those things,” he added. As for Vegas’ reputation as a place lacking any kind of sustainability inclinations, Krasno said he was surprised to discover that there’s more here than meets the eye. The dancers and performers who work in the shows are active, healthy people, many of whom do yoga, he said. There are even a slew of Whole Foods Markets in the area. And when he went seeking local support for the event, “we got like 15-20 yoga studio partners in a day.” “There’s a scene for it there, underneath all the glitz and glamour,” he said. We applaud Wanderlust for bringing yoga to unexpected places–and heck, the spirited, creative vibe of the festival is quite Cirque du Soleil-esque. And maybe, just maybe some of those collective Oms will help raise the energy of the place. Come to think of it, perhaps Wanderlust is exactly what Las Vegas needs. Doesn’t Celine Dion’s run at Caesar’s Palace end sometime soon?   We just hope that the same Earth guardian spirit so beautifully celebrated at Wanderlust’s Lake Tahoe, California, and Vermont events, doesn’t get lost in the drive for playful and unexpected.  Keep it real, Wanderlust!

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Wanderlust Goes to Sin City

The producers of Yogawoman have announced that Academy-award nominated actress and yogini Annette Bening will narrate the film, which will premiere in major North American cities in September. Yogawoman illuminates the global phenomenon of how modern women have embraced yoga. Eighty-percent of American yogis are women. Yet most of the teachers who bought the lineage here are men. The documentary explores how the current generation of female yoga teachers are taking the practice and making it their own–empowering their female students every step of the way. That’s why the people behind YogaWoman recently launched their website, a portal for yoginis, says co-producer and director Kate Clere. “Yogawoman.tv is designed as a resource for all yoga women around the world to come together and share all their thoughts, writings and research on how yoga is changing women’s lives,” she told Buzz.  “It will be a one stop shop to find out what is going on with classes, retreats and workshops that support women with their practice.” As a community resource, the website also tells you how you can pre-order a copy, host a screening, and find out where the film will be showing at a theater near you. We want to know: How do the women in your life support each other’s yoga practice?

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New Yoga Film Lands Star

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?

Is yoga blogging the new jnana yoga? At the Yoga Festival Toronto (August 19-21) a few of the most vocal yoga bloggers in the blogosphere will attempt to answer this question during a panel discussion called “Yogging Heads: The Cutting Edge of Yoga.” (Get it? Yoga + blogging = yogging.) Carol Horton of the Think Body Elastic blog, It’s All Yoga, Baby blogger Roseanne Harvey, and Elephant Journal yoga editor Bob Weisenberg will talk about what blogging about yoga means to each of them and discuss what it could mean for the yoga community as a whole. We’re all spending more time online these days and social media gives us an easy avenue to share meaningful information (often in the form of blog posts) and debate important issues. In a recent blog post, Horton suggested that the yoga blogging community could be adding a more spiritual element to a practice that in the West has largely been focused on the physical practice. “I believe the yoga blogosphere’s already proved itself to be an important development in the evolution of contemporary yoga, and that it has tremendous potential to become even more so,” she writes. If you read Yoga Buzz regularly, you are a part of this evolution she’s talking about. So, we’d love to hear what you think: Why do you choose to participate in reading/commenting/writing yoga blogs? Do you view it as entertainment, a way to socialize, or a meaningful way to express your views on yoga? Could be changing the way we think about yoga? Last, check out Roseanne’s video below as she demonstrates (with cutting edge technology!) how the Yogging Heads panel discussion might go.

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Is Blogging Revolutionizing Yoga?

It used to be that if you weren’t near a yoga studio, you’d have to be creative about your own home yoga practice or pull from your personal library of DVDs. But with the proliferation of online yoga classes, self-directed yogis have their pick of classes, teachers, and technologies. The latest in the mix is NowLesson , a site that offers one-to-one classes where people can do yoga (or learn to play the mandolin lesson or speak Spanish!) over video chat with a live instructor, for $40 per class. Students find a teacher they like and arrange for an interactive class to fit their needs.  Have a teacher you already love and can’t bear the thought of missing your weekly class? Many teachers today are willing to teach privately over Skype. And for those of you who want to experience different teachers and styles  (and pay less money) there are numerous options, including streamed videos from a studio setting ( Yogaglo ); thousands of free instructional videos on YouTube, including those on the newly relaunched Yoga Journal YouTube channel; and, of course, there’s Yogajournal.com for free podcasts, Livemag videos, and more! We want to know: Do you download or stream yoga videos?

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Yoga Class Right at Home

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

More than three months ago, a murder at a Bethesda, Maryland, Lululemon Athletica store rocked the local community and the yoga world. At first, a coworker of the slain victim, Jayna Murray, reported that the incident was the result of a botched robbery attempt by a masked gunman. But slowly, her story began to unravel. Eventually, the same coworker, Brittany Norwood, was charged with the murder. Although the loss will never end for the victim’s friends and family, one chapter in this tragedy has come to a close. In honor of the victim, hundreds of people gathered on a promenade across from the Bethesda store on Saturday for an outdoor yoga class in memory of Jayna Murray. “She was such a positive person; she would not want us here being sad. There is no question about not mourning, but just living on with good, forward-moving energy,” yoga instructor Adam Pearlstein, who led the Saturday class, told Gazette.Net. Lululemon Athletica, which closed the Bethesda store after the murder, was eager to put the incident behind it. On its website, the clothing company announced the store’s reopening:   The re-opening will embrace the theme of “love” in honour of Jayna Murray. More than ever, we remain committed to the people of Bethesda and look forward to continuing to share with this community the same love, passion and grace with which Jayna lived her life. We want to know: How has the yoga community supported you during a crisis?

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Lululemon Honors Slain Employee

Over the past three months, a bizarre story has unfolded involving a murder at a Bethesda, Maryland, Lululemon Athletica store. At first, a coworker of the slain victim, Jayna Murray, reported that masked gunmen came into the store for a botched robbery. But slowly, her story began to unravel. Eventually, the same coworker, Brittany Norwood, was charged with the murder. Although the loss will never end for the victim’s friends and family, a chapter has come to a close in this tragedy. In honor of the victim, hundreds of people gathered on Saturday for an outdoor yoga class to remember her. “She was such a positive person; she would not want us here being sad. There is no question about not mourning, but just living on with good, forward-moving energy,” yoga instructor Adam Pearlstein, who led the Saturday class, told Gazette.Net. The clothing company, who closed the store after the murder, was understandably eager to put the incident behind them. On their website, they announced the store’s reopening:   It is with warm and grateful hearts that we are announcing the re-opening of our newly renovated Bethesda store on Friday, June 24. The re-opening will embrace the theme of “love” in honour of Jayna Murray. More than ever, we remain committed to the people of Bethesda and look forward to continuing to share with this community the same love, passion and grace with which Jayna lived her life. We want to know: How has the yoga community supported you during a crisis?

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Yoga Practice to Honor Slain Lululemon Employee

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

James Fox began teaching yoga to prisoners at San Quentin State Prison in California nine years ago, where he founded the Prison Yoga Project . Recently, he’s been traveling around the country training others how to teach in a prison setting. We caught up with James before his June 18-19 training in New York City, “Working with Incarcerated Communities,” where he’ll instruct people about how to teach yoga in prisons, addiction recovery facilities, halfway houses, and other rehabilitative facilities. Are your trainings just for yoga teachers? They are for serious yoga practitioners. They may not necessarily be a certified teacher,  but they want to be of service in some regards. Why is there so much interest in teaching yoga in prisons? The yoga community in general is looking at karma yoga as the next step in their personal evolution. They know they are getting a lot out of the practice, and at a certain point, a part of the yoga is tradition is to give it back. I know that’s been my path. I’m always interested in going to populations who haven’t been exposed. There is a whole economic paradigm shift in this country, where it’s becoming more and more obvious that the under served populations aren’t being afforded the same opportunities for health and well-being. And here we are with this incredible practice, and yogis are stepping up. How did you end up teaching at San Quentin? I was contacted by the Insight Prison Project to set up their yoga and meditation program. I still teach for the Insight Project. While they focus on rehab and the whole restorative justice movement, I focus on yoga. What are the benefits for prisoners? The big focus in on impulse control. How does a yoga practice assist those whose major issues are addiction and violence? It all comes down to impulse control, to learning how to pause, learning how to deal with difficulty. If you are experiencing difficulty in a pose and coming up against your limitations, how do you work it out and work through it? Anything else they take away? Another focus is in really understanding yourself as a whole person, [and] yoga really helps support integrating the mental, emotional, and physical. It leads to a greater understanding that we are this whole person, not just thoughts going through our heads, but feelings going through our hearts and sensations going through our bodies. We hear these things in a yoga class, but populations like prisoners need to hear this kind of thing. It’s simple wisdom that they can apply to their lives. To me this really brings it home, to the core of one’s healing. If you can’t get to the Prison Yoga Project training in New York, look for future trainings in San Francisco. Or pick up Fox’s book:  Yoga: A Path for Healing and Recovery or sign up for the Prison Yoga Project Facebook page. We want to know: How does yoga help you with impulse control?

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Yoga in Prisons

Wanderlust photo by Tinywater It used to be there were yoga conferences and there were music festivals. But now, yoga music festivals are road-trip destinations for yogis, activists, and music lovers to converge and celebrate their shared passions. Here are a few hot-ticket events on our radar this summer: Hanuman Festival: With teachers like Seane Corn and musicians such as Suzanne Sterling, the Hanuman festival adds yoga, music and seva to the mix in Boulder, Colorado. June 16-19 Wanderlust: The popular destination festival that started in Lake Tahoe, California, this year also rolls into Bondville, Vermont.  Krishna Das, Michael Franti, and Andrew Bird will entertain the masses, while and John Friend, Rodney Yee, and Seane Corne will get you bent into shape. Deepak Chopra will even be there. A month later, the festival returns to California with a similar lineup. And If you can’t make either festival, the show goes on the road, with Wanderlust events around the country. Bondville, Vermont: June 23-26;  North Lake Tahoe, California: July 28-31 Liberate , also in Vermont, is a 3-day outdoor camping extravaganza. Lower key than Wanderlust, Liberate is family-friendly event that has non-stop music and more than 15 yoga workshops. August 18-21 Evolve Fest , a “4-day celebration of the creative human spirit” happens in Vernon, New Jersey, with a mission of raising consciousness through yoga, music, art, and meditation. September 2-5

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Season of the Yoga Music Festival

Last October, yoga teacher Lisa Rueff headed to Haiti to help out after the earthquake.  “Haiti has truly captivated my heart, she told Buzz. “The Haitian people exemplify gratitude, strength, and perseverance.  Amidst so much heartache, the Haitians choose to celebrate life, hope, and love as they continue to sing, dance, pray, and embody faith.” Inspired by her visit, Lisa and her global volunteer organization YogaVentures are heading back from June 20-16th to help build the Jacmel Children’s Center, a collaboration between Haitian community leaders and Americans like Rueff. The Center, primarily for kids who were orphaned by the quake, will be an eco-efficient place that will provide food gardens, housing, class room facilities, recreational areas and dining facilities. Rueff talked to Buzz about the transformative experience: “Inspired by their courage and love of life, I wanted to make a difference, but knew I could not do it alone,” she says. “As a yoga teacher, I invited my yoga community to join together and help make this children’s center a reality.” Get involved.  Join the Haiti Yoga and Volunteer trip , attend a fundraising event like the Collective Hearts Yoga for Haiti event in Rueff’s hometown of Marin County, donate to the Jacmel Children Center by purchasing a “Brick of Love” for any denomination or join the Collective Hearts Facebook page. Says Rueff: “I am amazed and beyond grateful for the enthusiasm, support and heroic effort of the yoga teachers, practitioners, studios and sponsors who have joined together to share in the vision of The Jacmel Children Center.” We want to know: What are you waiting for?

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Yoga Teacher Helps Heal Haiti

Hunger. Reincarnation. Yoga. Cooking. Prayer. Restraint. Family. Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice , a new book of insights and meditations by yoga instructor and Oberlin College creative writing professor, Kazim Ali, touches on these parts of the human experience. Writing about the Islam occasion of Ramadan, Ali articulates the process of fasting from dusk to dawn: “Twenty-nine or thirty days to explore the line between the interior of the body and the surrounding world, to think about what is brought to us and what we owe,” he writes. He also compares the process to yoga. “[Yoga] is a practice, not unlike fasting, that allows us to practice linking the inside-the private experiences of the body and the mind-with the outside, the pulsing, breathing, actual world.” Even if you’ve never fasted in your life, Ali addresses the other way we deny our appetites–something most human beings can relate to. We want to know: Have you ever denied your appetite? What was the result?

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Mediations on Fasting

Anusura Yoga founder John Friend has announced the fall opening of an worldwide center for Anusara Yoga in Encinitas, California. Friend told Buzz that the center will include an 8,500-square-foot state-of-the-art studio, a soundstage for talks and concerts, and plenty of workshops, trainings, and gatherings, and will host visiting scholars and master teachers of other disciplines.  Friend invites yogis of all kind to come and “co-create some positive energy during this critical time on the planet.”   Friend calls this California outpost the realization of a lifelong dream. Encinitas has been a spiritual magnet for modern yoga, the place where Paramhansa Yogananda wrote the iconic Autobiography of a Yogi, and that has attracted many of yogas modern leaders, including  Pattabhi Jois and Tim Miller, and even George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Friend, who has licensed 300 certified teachers and 1,000 Anusara-Inspired teachers, seems to be the next in line.  Watch John’s video explaining the center here. We want to know: Do you believe certain places carry higher spiritual energy?

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Anusara Yoga Heads to Encinitas, CA

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

Yogis around the globe will be celebrating Earth Day on Friday. After all, yoga and caring for the Earth go hand-in hand. As Green Yoga Association founder Laura Cornell tells Yoga Buzz, “Yoga starts with the Earth. Period. Our bodies are made from the elements of the planet, our blood from its waters, the air we breathe from its atmosphere. We are not separate. When we recognize this deeply, we are on our way towards the first step of yoga–ahimsa.” . This Earth Day, take your love of the planet one step further–and take action. Many studios are offering up free and donation-based classes, live drumming, and community events. Here are a few other ways you can thank the Earth: 1. Become a Yoga Energy Activist. Shiva Rea invites you to respond to the ongoing energy crisis by commit yourself to becoming an Energy Activist Watch the video here. 2. Practice Yoga Outside. Feel your feet connect with the ground, the wind in your hair, and give gratitude to Mother Nature. 3. Unplug . Forsake television, turn off the lights, cell phone and computers, and spend time with your friends or family instead. 4. Reduce Water Consumption. Think before you flush and cut five minutes from your shower. 5. Dedicate Your Practice. Set an intention for your practice, and send lovingkindness to the Earth. To read these ideas and more, visit Shiva Rea’s Yoga Energy Activism , Green Yoga, and Global Green We want to know: How will you celebrate Earth Day?

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Yogis: Take Action On Earth Day

D oes yoga steady your heartrate? A new study out of The University of Kansas shows that yoga decreases episodes of cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat whose symptoms can include chest pains, dizziness, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath. The research was conducted by Jeannie Drisko, MD and Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, MD. (The latter grew up in India with a yoga-teacher father.) Here’s what they did: Participants with arrhythmia spent three months doing their normal exercise routines. Over the next three months, they attended three yoga classes a week, which included pranayama, asanas, meditation, and relaxation. At the end of the study, not only did the frequency of irregular heartbeat episodes decrease, but the participants also reported less anxiety and depression. Lakkireddy says: “These findings are important because many of the current conventional treatment strategies for atrial fibrillation include invasive procedures or medications with undesirable side effects.  Success with these therapies varies widely, and they are often only modestly effective in controlling heart rhythm. It appears yoga has a significant impact on helping to regulate patients’ heart beat and improves their overall quality of life. Any intervention that helps in reducing or controlling the arrhythmia burden in atrial fibrillation can have a huge impact on public health.” We want to know: What health issue has yoga helped you with?

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Yoga May Help with Irregular Heartbeat

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

Designer Donna Karan has long ties with the yoga world. But the latest connection is a plea from yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar to change the way she does business. The animal activists at PETA report that Iyengar recently wrote Ms. Karan a letter asking her to stop the practice of using rabbit fur in her designs: “Being a devoted student of yoga, undividedly practicing my method and compassionate at heart, may I request you to follow the principles of yamas and oblige by dropping furs, which are violently removed from the living animals, so that those animals which have the right to live, live in peace. ” So far, PETA hasn’t heard back from the designer. “We think it’s really contradictory that she is contributing to one of the more heinous industries in the planet,” says PETA’s Ashley Gonzalez. “We have footage of animals being electrocuted and skinned alive. I would think these would go against every principle of respecting the earth, the environment, and life that goes along with practicing yoga.” We’re be very curious to see how the influential American designer and yogini responds not just to PETA, but to the great Iyengar himself.   We want to know: As a public figure and a yogi, do you think Donna Karan has a responsibility to stop using fur?

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Iyengar to Karan: No More Fur

Photo of Russell Brand and David Lynch by Evan Sung for The New York Times We love it when meditation–such a solitary pursuit–gets some public recognition. That’s what happened in an article  by Irina Aleksander from The New York Times, which centers around how British comedian Russell Brand has discovered Transcendental Meditation (TM). In doing so, the article touts the benefits of meditation, including lowering blood pressure and reducing stress, and then quotes celebrity meditators such as Dr. Mehmet Oz and Susan Sarandon about why they meditate. Brand said that he meditates twice a day for about 20 minutes each session. He’s not the only one, apparently: The article says that the numbers of TM practitioners has tripled over the past three years. “Transcendental Meditation has been incredibly valuable to me both in my recovery as a drug addict and in my personal life, my marriage, my professional life,” Brand said. We want to know: How has meditation benefited you?

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Russell Brand Meditates!

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

In a bit of political news, the topic of yoga recently reached our country’s capital. California Republican Darell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is proposing amendments that would ban government-funded studies on health issues, including whether video games improve the health of older people, the impacts of a soda tax–and the effects of Integral Yoga in treating hot flashes for menopausal women. At this point, no one knows if they will be passed. According to an article in Politico : Typically, the lawmaker argues that the study is a waste of taxpayer money and the administration–or the researcher who won the grant in question–counters that the research is important for disease prevention or treatment. We want to know: Do you think it’s important to have government-funded yoga studies such as these?

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Giving the Ax to Yoga Studies?

It used to be that a big part of succeeding in the business world meant schmoozing with higher-ups on the golf course or after work at the bar. But according to writer Dana Schuster in The New York Post , yoga is the post-modern, post-golf way to get ahead with your bosses and climb the corporate ladder. At least in Manhattan. Explains corporate consultant Amy Hedin in the article:  “An executive might use golf as an icebreaker with a potential or existing client; it’s really more about drinking and socializing in a relaxed atmosphere–but yoga makes more sense for an executive seeking to take a pre-existing relationship to the next level.” Jamie Schutz goes even further in his praise for intra-office Bikram, which he started doing three months ago with two colleagues. “It creates a loose environment so that the next day at work, you’re a cohesive unit,” says Schutz, a  director of business development. “It is a healthy experience, as opposed to going out to a bar.” We want to know: Have you ever done yoga with your bosses? Have you done yoga to get ahead professionally, and if so, how did it go?

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Is Yoga the New Golf?

In our culture, we associate one day of year with love, Valentine’s Day. We most often direct this love toward another person. But us yogis like to practice Bhakti Yoga–known as the yoga of love and devotion–every day of the year. More than just a single day, bhakti is an entire practice dedicated to love. It teaches us that we can have union (the meaning of word yoga ) when we devote ourselves to connecting with love. This love could come from anywhere, explains San Francisco yoga teacher Rusty Wells. “Bhakti is the yoga of love and devotion to the god of one’s own unique understanding,” says  Wells, who teaches a style he calls Bhakti Flow. “There’s no dogma involved. If you have devotion in your life, you know where to put your attention, whether it’s to a god, person, nature or anything else.” Loving ourselves is the first step. Instead of looking for love, remember that we are love. When we can unconditionally ourselves, we can unconditionally love the object of our attention. We want to know: How will you practice Bhakti Yoga this Valentine’s Day? Where will you put your devotion?

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The Bhakti of Valentine’s Day

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!

Science has spoken. A new study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging shows that subjects who meditated 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. According to an article in The New York Times, “How Meditation May Change the Brain:” M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress. A control group that did not practice meditation showed no such changes. We want to know: Meditation improves your memory, makes you feel better about yourself, and reduces stress. What is holding you back from meditating?

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Study: Meditation Changes Your Brain

From February 4-6: His Holiness The Dalai Lama will initiate The Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya is the Buddha of Universal Love, and the goal of this teaching is to bring abundance, peace, and joy to the planet. For this event, taking place at a monastery in India and documented by Elevate Films , The Dalai Lama has called ten thousand monks from around the world. Of course, most of us can’t attend. But you can do your part, thanks to  Do As One. This site hosts online “breathing rooms,” where people can sign in and join others breathing; current breathing rooms include Laughter Room and Om Room, among others. “I had a vision of having a billion people breathing together synchronously,” says Do As One co-founder Rabia Hayek. “And then I realized with the Internet that I could actually do it.” The goal is 10,000 people breathing together at any given time. For this week’s happening, Hayek encourages everyone to log in and join the Universal Breathing Room anytime during the 4th, 5th, or 6th to take part. We want to know:  Do you think breathing together has an effect on the planet?

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Breathe with the Dalai Lama!

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

The creativity and loving energy yoga community never ceases to amaze and inspire me! A few weeks ago, we reported on the Yoga Flash Mobs happening around the globe to raise awareness about the Africa Yoga Project, whose goal is to create peace among tribes in Africa. From Santa Monica to Nairobi to London, through the snow, sun and in the streets, yogis young and old gathered to “lead the change.” Here’s the inspiring  video , featuring Baron Baptiste, that shows how yogis came together from around the world, to honor each other, and spread the simple yet profound message of peace.   To donate or learn more, visit The Africa Yoga Project. We want to know: How do you Lead the Change?

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Watch It: Yoga Flash Mobs for Peace

At age six, most kids are taught by some kind of teacher. But in an unusual role reversal, an Indian six-year old IS a teacher. A yoga teacher, that is. The Daily Mail calls Shruti Pandey t he world’s youngest yoga teacher: she’s been teaching since the tender age of four. Today, groups of 30 adults–businesspeople, teachers, and housewives–flock to her 5:30 am classes at the Swami Brahmachand Saraswati Kaivalya Dham Ashram in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh in India , to soak in some of her youthful wisdom.  “It feels good when people follow my instructions,” she told the paper. “I got interested in yoga after seeing my brother doing it. I tried picking it up myself, but it was too hard. So I asked my parents to send me to yoga classes.” We want to know: Do your favorite yoga teachers teach by intuition, or by experience? 

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The World’s Youngest Yoga Teacher?

As yogis, we aspire to work toward a deeper acceptance and understanding of ourselves, and to live healthy lifestyles. That’s why starting out the New Year with yoga can be a powerful and soulful way to bring in the year. You set the intention to be a bit more loving and accepting yourself, imperfections and quirks and all, while gifting your mind and body with a practice that helps you in every way. There are New Year’s classes happening at studios across the country to help you set this powerful intention. Or maybe even gather a few yogi friends for a powerful New Year’s day practice in your home. There are many ways to honor what is passing while welcoming the possibilities to come. Here are a few happenings in some major cities: San Francisco: Yoga Tree (shown above) is offering five workshops before, during, and after the New Year that include live music, kirtan, and a range of yoga classes. Cleveland: At Evolution Yoga , choose from Pilates, Jivamukti or restorative yoga classes on New Year’s day. New York Jivamukti Yoga has its 22nd annual New Year’s Eve celebration with Sharon Gannon and David Life, that includes a class, vegan dinner, kirtan dance party, and ending with silence to bring in the New Year. Los Angeles Start 20111 with Siddha Yoga ’s audio satsang, featuring founder Gurumayi Chidvilasananda teachings. We want to know: How can you love yourself just a little bit more this coming year?  

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New Year, Honor You

Sometimes we humans make things harder than they have to be.  I truly understand this while putting my kids to bed. If they are having trouble, the evening can go downhill, rapidly. I struggle to find a solution: Cry it out? Pacifier? A new blanket? I get irritated, and start to feel sorry for myself.  That’s when I remember Om. Slowly and in a soft voice, I start to chant OM.  It doesn’t matter if my kids are cranky, teething, pissed off, or overtired. Whatever their state, they automatically calm down when I chant OM.  Sweet simplicity. Sweet surrender. I sometimes think remembering is the only thing that matters. So I try to keep things simple, sweet. In my daily life–especially during the holiday season–I come back to OM. When I’m being pushed around in the supermarket, fighting for a parking spot, or just plain frazzled, I search for simplicity.  OM.  I don’t need a complex mantra. I don’t need  a 10-day vipassana retreat.  Om.  Simplify.  Only two letters.  We want to know : What happens when you remember Om?

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The Sweet Simplicity of OM

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

I love the energy and buzz of urban life. But I’ve notice that sometimes after a day out in my beloved city, I feel more drained than when I take a vigorous two hour hike in the mountains. So I wasn’t surprised to read about recent research from Harvard Medical School that shows spending a few minutes on a busy city street can affect the brain’s ability to focus and to manage self-control. That makes sense, because all of the stimulus takes up a lot of the brain’s processing power.  According to an article by Scott Edwards that appeared in On The Brain:  Directed attention fatigue is a neurological symptom that occurs when our voluntary attention system, the part of the brain that allows us to concentrate in spite of distractions, becomes worn down. People suffering from directed attention fatigue can experience short-term feelings of heightened distraction, impatience, or forgetfulness. When the condition is severe enough, people can exhibit poor judgment and feel increased levels of stress. What to do about it?  Next time I’m going to head for the streets, I think I’ll head for the hills instead. Research shows that only 20 minutes in nature is a remedy for getting the brain to recover from directed attention fatigue. When you are overtaxed, overstimulated, overwhelmed,  what will you do? 

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Study: City Living Changes the Brain

Want to experience rare private yoga classes with Jivamukti founders Sharon Gannon and David LIfe, a six-month membership to their studio, and “The Jivamukti Enlightenment Kit,” which includes books, CDs, mats, clothes, and accessories? How about a membership to Eddie Stern’s Ashtanga Yoga school plus one private a month for a year? Or Cyndi Lee’s “A Place to Call OM” package, which includes a 10-class card to her studio plus a weekend workshop?  Head to Tibet House’s annual benefit auction at Christie’s in New York City. This year, the items auctioned off include not only rare art and a safari for two, but also yoga packages from generous and prominent yogis in the community. The goal is to entice people to donate to Tibet House US, which is aimed at promoting and preserving Tibetan culture.  With famous yogis like Sting and Donna Karan as members of the honorary chair committee, portions of the proceeds will go to Tibetan Children’s Village, which educates poor Tibetan children in exile.  We know everyone can’t make it to the event (or the $175-$225 ticket price). But click here  to see other ways you can support the work.  We want to know: How are the yoga teachers in your community giving back? 

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Tibet House Auction Offers Yoga Packages

It’s starting. The creeping feeling of holiday time, where everything speeds up, whipping up into a final frenzy. As if things weren’t going fast enough already. During my meditation yesterday, I heard a voice loud and clear. A question, really. It asked “What feeds you?” I stopped and listened. “What feeds you?” it asked me again. The question pointed me toward the simple realized that I have been putting my energy toward too many things that deplete me and not enough things that feed me. So, I decided to make a list. From now on, when faced with a decision I’m going to ask myself: Does this feed me? If the answer is no (it’s not absolutely necessary), I’m going to do my best to skip it. What Feeds Me: 1. bodywork 2. sunshine 3. connecting with people 4. restorative yoga 5. sitting with my son after school while we have a snack What Depletes Me: 1. guilt 2. big muffins 3. too much socializing without quiet time to balance it out 4. saying yes when I really want to say no 5. feeling overly responsible for people around me We want to know: What feeds you?

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What Feeds You?

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

No matter how hard we try, we can’t escape the cycle of life and death. In Hinduism, this eternal cycle is called Samsara . This continuing loop of life, death, and rebirth is at the heart of everyday living. Lately I’ve been confronted head-on with this cycle. A sudden tragic death of a friend. The impending birth of a child. A life-threatening illness of someone I love. These things are the cycle of life. How do we deal with them?   It’s easy to get gripped by fear or grief in the face of death. But this is not the only choice. When looking at death, I’ve been trying to also savor life. And this is what I’m learning. All of the cliches are, in fact, true: Be grateful for the time you have. Appreciate each moment. As yogis, we can look death in the face–and accept it. We can understand that things aren’t bad or good, they just are what they are. And we can use our practice to strengthen our conviction to live in the present moment. We want to know: How do you live with death? How does this influence your day to day living?

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The Cycle of Life and Death

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

Joy is our natural state. When I say this out loud, it makes perfect sense. So what happens along the way? Feeling bogged down by responsibility, unexamined emotions, and a whole list of “shouldas,” it’s so easy to veer from this natural state. Writer Karen Talavera tackles the topic of joy in the second of her a two-part series in her blog, The Accidental Seeker. Talavera’s impassioned plea about following our bliss is nothing brand new, but it’s a gentle reminder to remember what is so easy to forget from day to day. She talks about what prevents us from joy–and how to recognize joy when it’s right in front of our noses. The next time you’re faced with a decision as mundane as whether to go to the grocery store or take a walk in the woods, or as serious as whether to move up a rung on the corporate ladder or start your own business, give it the “internal alignment” test.  Forget for a minute your external circumstances like money, image and obligation, and ask yourself one elemental question, which choice leads to joy? Your heart will tell you loud and clear. A yoga practice helps us tune into our inner voice, and connect with our hearts so that we can feel the joy that already exists in and around us. Ultimately, we can make the choices that support joy, even when life seems overwhelmed with sadness, grief, or pressure. For today, choose joy. We want to know: How does your yoga practice connect you with joy? What are the small choices you make that bring you joy?  

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Follow Your Bliss

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

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

Bhakti, the Sanskrit word for devotion or connection to God, can be an intimidating concept even for experienced yoga practitioners–if not for its religious associations, for its scriptural context within the ancient mythology of the Bhagavad Gita. If its namesake event, Bhakti Fest, a four-day celebration of around-the-clock kirtan, yoga, and the healing arts in Joshua Tree, California last weekend was any indicator, Bhakti is experiencing a modern-day renaissance. Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Sean Johnson, and Dave Stringer were among the musical headliners while Saul David Raye, Seane Corn, Krishna Kaur, and Dana Flynn led back-to-back yoga classes in tents and halls across festival grounds. Ram Dass made a video appearance and workshop content ranged from Ayurveda to yoga psychology and the symbolism of Hindu and Tibetan deities. The festival is certainly visionary in its mission to create a sacred space and vibrant community. The desert setting, a sort of surrealistic playground reminiscent of Burning Man, fostered a palpable air of magic as attendees of all ages from as far as Australia and Ukraine sang, danced, and constructed impromptu altars in celebration of the present moment. Bhakti Fest also featured an impressive array of raw and vegan culinary offerings and a healing sanctuary that appealed to my newest of new age desires. I felt my former analytical constructions of Bhakti dissolve to the sound of a drumbeat after a transformative session of subtle-body healing, lecture on the Mayan calendar and an hour or so of ecstatic trance dance with the festival’s Ombassador Shiva Rea. As Radhanath Swami explained in a Sunday address, “Bhakti makes no sense to the intellect, but perfect sense to the heart.”  Photo Credit: Julianne Reynolds Shannon Skillern is a yoga teacher, designer, macrobiotic cook and student of ayurveda.

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Divine Celebration

One of my first yoga teachers, Michael Cooper, had a playful way of teaching. In the midst of a pose, he’s stop, look confused and ask “What time is it?” During my very first class with him, I looked up at the clock and said “It’s 1:30.” The experienced yogis in the room chuckled. He asked again, a little louder: “What time is it?” After a beat, the yoga veterans all said in unison “Now!” This was ten years ago, but every single time someone asks me what time it is, I think of that expression. No matter where I am, it brings me back to his message: Presence of mind. At first, it was helpful when my muscles shook and balance tottered in Warrior III, but now it helps me when I’m in traffic or standing in line at the grocery store. I like to think of these ingrained reminders I’ve gathered over the years as my very own Yoga Jingle, a spiritual twist on those advertising tunes that we can’t get our of our heads. Instead of urging me to consume, however, my jingle reminds me to stay calm, stay present, and remember that everything is unfolding just as it should. We want to know: What’s your Yoga Jingle? How do you use it in your everyday life? Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Inspiration: What’s Your Yoga Jingle?

Stories about yoga in schools come across my desk all the time–maybe a weekly class after school, a teacher coming for a visit, or a rotation during gym class. But Headstand, a nonprofit with programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas really caught my eye: The folks behind Headstand have created a comprehensive 40-week curriculum that meets the state’s standards for physical education, making it a mandatory part of the curriculum. They currently have programs in three schools, with a full-time, Headstand-trained, staff yoga teacher at each. So far, the pilot program is operating in 3 KIPP schools, which are free, open-enrollment academic charter schools in underserved communities; the yoga programs range from elementary to middle schools, depending on the location. Headstand founder Katherine Priore, who teaches at KIPP San Lorenzo, California, told me a few things her kids have passed along about yoga’s impact: One boy said that when he gets really mad, he now uses his new mantra “yoga breaths, yoga breaths” and calms down. And recently, a fifth grader told her after Savasana: “I really think that was life-changing!” Along with San Francisco-based yoga teacher Stephanie Snyder, Headstand is working on a new curriculum. Sounds simple. But yoga can be so hard to define, much less systematize. We want to know: What do you think are the most important yoga principles to teach children? What do you wish you knew about yoga that might have helped you in school? Get involved: Want to donate to Headstand? Visit www.headstand.org/donate.html Want to know more? Visit www.headstand.org Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Yoga Goes Back to School

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Sadie Nardini

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Samin Nosrat

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Kristin Shepherd

The other day, my sister’s friend invited her to a different yoga studio for a class.  “I can’t do it”, said my sister. “I’d love to, but I’m not good enough. I suck.”   Fear shows up in funny ways. Tory pictures an entire class pointing at her and sneering.   This made me laugh for about four seconds. Then I realized that whenever a new challenge comes my way – going back to class after weeks away, trying a new kind of yoga, going to a different studio – my immediate, insane response is, “I can’t, I’m too fat.” This is obviously absurd. There is no sign posted anywhere in yoga that says Stay Out If You Think You Are Pudgy .  Nor have I met a yoga mat that hasn’t welcomed my solid thighs. (Oh my god, the mats are too small for my lardy bum! I’ll have to put four of them together!)  Nor, come to think of it, have I ever encountered a yoga teacher who raises one eyebrow and says, “Oh, you think so, do you? If you were enlightened enough to be in my class, you’d be thin.  Now stop crying. You can come to my Class For The Fat and Unenlightened .”    Absurd, excessive, twisted, completely un-constructive, I know. But these are the trolls that leap up from under my bridge when I’m facing something new and scary. Or old and scary for that matter. I like stating my fear out loud. It looks more ridiculous than ever that way. Gives it a loving kick in the head. I suck. I’m too this, too that. Do you have a fear that yoga brings to light? Would you like to kick it in the head? Thanks to yoga for showing me where and how I’d like to be more fearless, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (about All Things Wonderful) from North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd or on Twitter at kristinwonders.

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Yoga Trolls

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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When Ava, my manager, suggested that instead of flying in and out for my Los Angeles teaching gigs last week, we rent a car from Lake Tahoe and take a 16-day road trip through California, I thought she was crazy. That is, until she explained a) all the fun we could have, and b) all the people we’d be able to meet in person.   As a yoga teacher with students all over the world, I know the precious value of creating real relationships with those with whom we share a like-minded practice.   If I had just flown in for my weekend of workshops, and not explored for the week before and after, I would not have sat down with editors and publishers, helped a woman figure out what kind of poses she could do with her cranky knees, or witnessed a stockbroker come to an epiphany about his life over dinner. I would not have visited with my friend Ariel, danced in front of a fireplace, seen Shiva Rea’s video shoot, bonded with Ava, or so much more.   Ariel is a feng shui master. He has said for years that it’s not enough to make space to be who you are right now; you need to create the space for who you want to become. For example, if you want a love relationship to come into your life, you’ll want not only to get yourself ready for it, you also want to pull your bed away from the wall, put a nightstand there, and pour a fresh glass of water each night in anticipation of your new partner.   Energy loves a void, and when you make one in the shape of your ultimate goals, such as abundance, partnership, prosperity, love, or career success, it can start to pour in. If you’re still engaged in the same habits that got you where you are now, and are keeping you there, either resisting your greatness or maintaining the status quo, then new possibilities will have a harder time taking hold.   In this way, when Ava proposed a more intensive trip, but also one that left a lot of room to create new relationships and deepen ones I’ve already begun, I knew it was the right move. Things happened that neither one of us planned, like an incredible meeting that could skyrocket my teaching career and help millions of people be exposed to the healing benefits of yoga and mindful wellness. Sometimes, we want one thing to come into our lives, but the way we think, see the world, and act are not aligning with that which we say we would like to attract.   In yoga, we can easily practice working with this concept. When you breathe, you don’t actually pull air into your lungs. Your muscles pull the ribs apart, the diaphragm drops, the lungs open wide, and then the atmospheric pressure of the Earth pushes air in to fill the space you’ve created.   T.K.V. Desikachar, the son of Krishnamacharya, one of the founding fathers of yoga asana, says that prana , life force, cannot be controlled. We can only make the space it requires to infuse us, and remove obstacles to its flow.   This is why in yoga class, we begin by bringing attention to the breath. If it’s short, restricted, or choppy, we can be pretty certain that we are experiencing the same, on all other levels. The practice of yoga, therefore, is not to force openness, happiness, or health, but to seek out the places where we’re blocked from wholeness, and do the work required to remove those blockages.   In their place, we construct new riverbeds and banks, samskaras or habits, that serve us and take our prana in the directions we want it to go. Then, just like tearing down a dam, the streams and tributaries of circulation, central nervous system communication, lymph fluid, self-understanding, peace, and vitality will organically begin to irrigate your entire system, nourishing you for a lifetime from the inside out.     Core Pose: Making Space Breath   This is a simple breathing technique that will bring you back into harmony with the way the body actually breathes. Come into a comfortable seat. Close your eyes and direct your awareness to the tip of your nose. Without using the more yang Ujjayi breath (no Darth Vader here!), let the breath quietly but fully slide in as you flare your ribs wide in all directions. Note that as you inhale, the lungs fill from top to bottom. As you exhale, they empty out from everywhere at once as the ribs compress.     Listen to your body and notice the places in the side ribs, the front abdominals or around the mid and upper back where you find a jerkiness or stubbornness residing. Hold your breath in for a moment, and move in ways that help to release and resolve your resistance there. If you notice emotions or thoughts arising that cause the body or energy to contract, maintain the rhythm of your in- and out-breaths until they dissipate.   After two minutes of the making space breathing technique, you should feel a difference in the freedom and quality of your breathing, and in your body, mind, and heart.                    

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Making Space

One of you wrote a kind note to me recently in which you encouraged me to discover my “inner teacher” during my home practice. This might involve veering off the straight path I’d been on. What a beautiful idea! Originally, my home practice was basically whatever I remembered from class, in much the same order we do our asanas in class. Not much imagination involved. All hell has broken loose, since. This morning I thought, I’ve got to reign this in a bit or I’ll never be able to go back to class. Today’s practice looked like this: I’m in flannel pajamas, which are far more comfortable than my yoga clothes. I sing show tunes during my Sun Salutations. My secret desire (not so secret now, I guess) is to star in Big! Musicals! I picture some Famous! Broadway! Producer! driving down my very quiet street in Northern Ontario and hearing my voice Soaring! out the front windows, singing, Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better, from Annie Get Your Gun. It’s a tough fantasy to maintain given that I am terrified to sing in front of anyone but my dog. I maintain it nonetheless.   I put henna in my hair today for the first time. It’s mucky, it stinks, and the instructions say keep it on for hours, so I do my entire practice with a goopy head. Toward the end of today’s practice, which includes some completely invented dance moves (in case that Producer needs a Dancer!, not just a Fabulous! Singer!), I find myself saying, “Oh, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah”, with each forward bend and each spinal twist.  How did my practice become so loud? Savasana, at the end of all this, is a quiet relief. Is this my inner teacher at work? I don’t know. I understand that there is no mention of show tunes in The Upanishads, but something in my practice feels freer and more creative these days. Lighter. Do you have inner teachers?  Are they serious? Funny? Creative? Are they dancers? Singers? (Do you want to do a musical together?)    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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Inner Teachers

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!

During my visits to Haines, Alaska these past several years I have had the good fortune to attend the Southeast Alaska State Fair. It is a sweet fair organized primarily by volunteers that has a wonderful homey feel and also displays a great deal of talent and creativity. The fair has everything from a petting zoo with goats and llamas to a vegetable and pie contest. There is also a world-class puppet show (in its own log cabin) and a line up of incredible musical acts from around the country. This year, I decided I wanted to contribute as well. I have been receiving the benefits of the hard work of the community and I decided a little seva, selfless service, on my part was in order. So, I signed up to work the Hospice of Haines Pie Booth and registered myself to teach a yoga class that included kirtan. Both turned out to be special in different ways.   At the pie booth, I got to receive and sell the dozens of pies as they came in from the woman of Haines. A freshly baked wild blueberry pie is a beautiful site. I knew the woman who made it spent hours picking berries and lovingly making that pie. I was so touched by the love and care that went into each pie, all going to raise money for Hospice. This is yoga in action. I was a little nervous about my yoga class, it being my first time teaching at a fair. I asked my good friend, Bruce Blake, if he had any advice for me. He said, “Just pretend you are at Burning Man.”   Yes, then I got it. Offering a respite from all the activity of the fair and a chance for students to connect in with their breath and their sense of center and home was all I had to do. We were fortunate to have a small dome for the class, and I opened with a short kirtan which droped us all in. From there, I had students connect in with their breath as I lead them through a slow supine hip opening sequence. Little by little I could feel them letting go, and the sounds of the fair (like the train that honked every 15 minutes) around us became just like little bells to remind us to connect back with our ever present friend of the breath.   As my dear friend and mentor Thomas Fortel says of the breath, ” In times of challenge we breath deeply and come into the moment. In times of joy, we also breath deeply and come into the moment.” So there, in that little white dome, amidst the frenzy of the fair, we all joined each other in connecting with our breath and coming home into our bodies.   I give thanks for all the people that made the fair possible and to the practice of yoga, my friend and companion on this journey of life. Sarana Miller lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sarana is trained in the Iyengar and Forrest Yoga traditions and is a graduate of the Piedmont Yoga Advanced Studies Program and the Forrest Yoga Teacher training program and is currently studying the Sarah Powers method. She also sings and studies kirtan with Jai Uttal.

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Puppets, Heart-Felt Blueberry Pie, and Yoga at the Fair

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

Opinions run hot about nudity in advertising and Yoga Journal’s role in contemporary yoga culture. 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

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

Last week, my friend and manager, Ava, and I left Wanderlust and took a road trip from Lake Tahoe through Napa Valley and into San Francisco, where I was scheduled to teach a workshop.   Taking a trip like this was fun and freeing–something I hadn’t done since college. I’ve traveled, sure, but mostly on airplanes and highways. It’s been a long time since I’ve stopped to smell the roses, literally, or walked through vineyards, wandered without an agenda, and taken my time getting where I needed to go.   When I left more space around the journey itself, rather than seeing it as useless time between my starting place and my destination, a whole new world opened up. We turned off the highway and into local communities and had adventures I never would have had otherwise, like singing impromptu karaoke into a straw at a local pub or eating an incredible meal at Bouchon in Yountville. A few times we turned off the GPS and just tuned into where our hearts told us to go next. We were led unerringly toward something life-affirming and just right.     It was an experience similar to the one I aim to offer my students during yoga class. I’ve often asked them to pause and even play during the transitions between poses, those moments we often rush through on our way to the “goal” pose. The word “tapas” means “heat,” but it also symbolizes the space we make with the energy and awareness we bring to the present moment. When we release our grasp on achieving the goal and wake up to what’s going on every step of the way, we begin to see how fully we’re surrounded by exactly what we need to evolve, to be happy and fulfilled, and to love our lives.   What you do before you get into a pose dictates its quality once you arrive. It’s the same in your life: The millions of smaller actions you take will determine the strength–or shakiness–of the foundation underneath the more showy milestones of your life.   In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that if you’re not bringing a consistency of mindfulness, spaciousness, and quality action into your transitional periods, you may not reach your goals after all.   If you want to be a financial advisor, but you’re irresponsible with your own money, it’s unlikely that any clients will trust you with theirs. If you do reach your goal on a shaky foundation, it’s far more likely that your dreams will crumble around you, undermined from the very roots (hello, Bernie Madoff!).   Instead, what we yogis practice both on and away from the mat, is making sure that we pay attention to the entirety our lives, not just the parts; and doing so most of the time instead of just sporadically. It’s as simple as taking a deep breath and reminding ourselves that we’re here now. We stop time-traveling to the past or future when we learn that the only thing that will determine our future movement is what we do right now.   This inner road trip is the key to living out loud and enjoying your life holistically today. Not when you have the man, the cash, or have lost that last 10 pounds. Why wait? The power you have to self-generate satisfaction is waiting for you to see it, claim it, and act from it. When you stop, look around, and listen to your deepest wisdom in the space you’ve created, you will suddenly, sweetly realize:You are everything you need.   Here’s a transition that I’ve made into its own pose, to exemplify that every moment is pivotal, not just the flashy, more obvious ones. There’s a whole universe of strengthening and freedom to be found right here, on the journey within.   Core Pose: Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose) with Core Circles Variation   When you go straight into Side Angle Pose from Warrior 2, the tendency can be to enter the asana with a over-curved lower back, front ribs jutting forward, and the back body constricted. To re-enter the pose with a more centered alignment and free the habitual hip, low back, upper back, and shoulder tension it can create, we need to exit it, or as I often say in class, back off to move forward.   First, come into the pose from Warrior 2 with your forearm on the front thigh and your other arm over your ear. Notice how your lower back and shoulders feel. Are you core-connected or are your shoulder blades, back muscles, and legs doing most of the work?   Begin to circle your top arm back behind you. Take it down toward the floor and, as you do, turn your torso toward the floor and draw your low belly away from your front thigh and upward, into your sternum. This will activate your core strength, bring length to the tailbone, support to the lower back, and also open the gateway of your front hip joint. You’re not pressing out the low back curve at all with this move, but supporting it from the front of the spine as well as from the back.   Continue to sweep your arm forward now and back up over your ear. Press your feet down strongly; maintain the stability, shoulder fluidity, and core awareness you cultivated during the transition; and enjoy new strength, freedom and areas of stretch releasing in your new, more intentional goal of a pose.                      

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The Road Within

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!

Two historical events occurred this weekend on opposite coasts. Chelsea Clinton got married in New York, celebrating with  more than 300 guests. Meanwhile, a few thousand miles to the left, more than 8,000 yogis celebrated yoga, rock and roll and dance at the Wanderlust Festival at Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe, California. I attended the latter.   My Wanderlust journey began with Annie Carpenter’s 8am class Thursday morning. Smiling volunteers welcomed us to the first class of the festival. Next up on the line-up was Shiva Rea with live DJ Bom Siva and the Mayapuris, who lead us into an ecstatic dance and yoga practice as an informal opening ritual to the festival. We raised the vibration to the level Shiva and co-founder Jeff Krasno (other co-founder Schuyler Grant) dreamed up over 2 years ago while lounging on the terrace of Shiva’s Malibu home. The celebration continued into the afternoon, where Shiva hosted a sold out river rafting party with live music. As we lazily drifted down river in the summer sun,  we soaked in Mayapuri’s kirtan and Steve Gold’s rhythm and blues melodies.   This uniquely epic experience raised the collective conscious vibration of the planet with it’s diverse line up of world renowned yoga teachers and musicians raising awareness of sacred activism including a Yoga Aid event that spilled off the yoga floor onto the hot tarmac; funds were raised for Seane Corn’s Yoga Off the Mat; Baron Baptiste and Paige Elenson’s Africa Project; Shiva Rea’s Global Mala Project; Brock Cahill’s Kurmalliance (Rescuing Turtles from the Gulf Coast Oil Spill). Moby’s Speakeasy talk, “May All Beings Be Free of Suffering: Why I Am a Vegan,” moderated by Kaitlin Quistgaard editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal , was also an event to remember.   Celebrity sightings included world-class sport climbing champion Chris Sharma and Nick Rosen from the Enlighten Up! documentary.  And “non-celebrity yoga celebrity,” John Friend made a surprise appearance on Saturday afternoon, days after The Yoga Mogul appeared in the New York Times , stepping off Beaver Theodosakis’ private Prana plane in time to participate in the Yoga Aid event taught by Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste and Shiva Rea. Ecstatic dance parties included (music headliner) Moby’s epic Friday night performance, a breakout dance session in front of the Natural High booth during Base Nectar’s Saturday night performance (which almost burst open the fences with record attendance), and literally climaxing (a t 8,200 feet) on Sunday afternoon at the pool at High Camp, the ultimate chill-out zone where relaxing yogis and families made way for DJ Dragonfly’s spinning extravaganza. What a weekend!   For more information, go to www.wanderlustfestival.com .    Twee Merrigan is senior teacher trainer of Prana Flow and a sacred activist traveling through America this August to raise funds for the Gulf Oil Spill Clean Up on her Butterfly Effect Tour. Wanderlust was a stop on the Tour to raise awareness and inspire sacred activism.

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Wanderlust Wows with Music, Dance and Yoga

Okay, what is it with triangle pose???? (Those of you who are experts need not read this one. Go back to practicing your one-armed handstands with your legs in full lotus. I adore you, I do. I worship your accomplishments. But today’s thoughts are not for you.) Triangle pose. Pretty basic. Do the triangle thing and reach forward to grab your first toe. For the entire 10 months of my gorgeous, intensive involvement in yoga, this is exactly what happens with my right leg. I reach down, gently grab the first toe of my right foot, and look up to the ceiling. I breathe slowly and evenly. I don’t care if Rob and Cristina (my teachers) count to 29 on this one. Happiness. Not so with my left leg. On my left side, I reach down, all the while thinking, I am so flexible, I am flexibility itself, I am flexibility incarnate and reincarnate. And my hand reaches mid-calf. Not an inch lower. Makes me crazy. I know, I know, patience, kindness, acceptance of what is. Even if what is is a daily reminder of my exaggerated imbalance. All I wish for is balance, I tell myself. So guess what happened this week? For no reason I can think of, my triangle pose has changed! But not the way you think it might. Not the way it happens in fairy tales and romantic comedy yoga videos. Now neither of my hands can reach my toe! I mean it. I just tried it again before sitting here to write. Both sides to mid-calf. Not an inch lower. My thoughts? Be careful what you wish for. I wanted balance. I got it. Is there a pose that drives you crazy? (Okay, if it’s the one-armed handstand with full lotus, you can play, too.) Thanks to the yoga poses that drive us crazy, 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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Poses That Make You Crazy

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?

This summer in my house, nap time is yoga time. The best feeling in the world is listening to my “baby” sleep off his hard morning of play while I settle into my practice upstairs. Then there are the days when he skips his nap.  I go into Lucien’s room, change his diaper and offer him some water, and then it’s back in the crib to try and sleep. I head back upstairs to my yoga corner, feeling exhausted at the prospect of a long, hot afternoon with a tired toddler. I have a few minutes to practice before giving up on the nap completely. It’s one thing to practice yoga when he’s sleeping soundly, but quite another to practice when the monitor is all lit up and red. Here’s a quick sequence* for when you’re tired, and time is short.  It should take you about 30 minutes, long enough for your baby or toddler to have a chance to fall asleep, but short enough so that you can feel refreshed and like you fit in a decent practice–even if a nap is just not happening today. Supta Bahhda Konasana (Take a good five to ten minutes here.) Downward dog Sirsasana  (If headstand is a regular part of your practice–no need for stress today!) Chair Shoulder Stand Ardha Halasana with Chair  (My all time favorite nap-time pose.) Savasana  (Enjoy a long and luxurious rest once your child falls asleep.)    *Sequence inspired by one of my favorite asana books, The Woman’s Book of Yoga and Health by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden    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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Five Poses to Beat the Nap-Time Blues

After moving into my new apartment, the first thing I did, after unpacking, of course, was to place a statue of Ganesh at the entryway. My friend, feng shui master Ariel Towne, says that besides a fountain, the other necessary item near your front door is the little elephant otherwise known as the Remover of Obstacles. When you don’t let negative, sticky energies in, they don’t have a chance to affect you. “Cutting them off at the pass” is a phrase that might apply to what Ganesh is doing there at the front door. Aside from that massive job, Ganesh is also the Lord of Thresholds. Threshold . What a beautiful word. It reminds me of watching wind ripple the wheat fields during my Midwestern childhood. Yet, the concept itself has different meanings, not only describing the doorway itself, but what the doorway represents: a starting point, the beginning of any new journey or transformation. Ganesh is not some magic statue, without which you would have no protection against resistance, doubt, and fear–three of the biggest obstacles of all. It’s the act of placing Ganesh that brings awareness to our own desire to remain free of anything that diminishes or limits our potential to fly. In that sense, he represents that aspect of ourselves that is ready to swing open the door to our next adventure–and ready to step out of our own way long enough to clear the path straight through it. Henry Ford said, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” You see, we have the power to either turn our experiences and truths into obstructions, weights tethered to any possible rise in self-esteem, greater awareness, and health; or to remove them.  Yogis have fabulous resistance-busting tools. We can get on the mat and practice, opening tight places and dissolving emotional and mental tension. We breathe, switch our thinking, learn to see more clearly and, by deciding to love ourselves a little more, we begin to widen the very doorway into our own hearts. By applying awareness to each situation we encounter, we open a threshold to our core, allowing our deepest wisdom to sweep through, and away, into the world in the form of our most courageous, conscious actions. In my classes, any time I want to clear the threshold, I ask my students to focus on hip opening. I call the hips “the Gateways,” because they can allow, or block, the energy moving from you foundation into your core. If the gateways are closed, the posture is incomplete and with it, the opportunity to gain the full benefits of the asana is lost. Try the following pose any time you feel a little closed yet feel ready to  make the space you need to cross the threshold into that next, most incredible state of being who you really are. Core Pose: Funky Lunge   This posture clears a common tight area–the side leg and outer hips–all the way from the foundation to your center. When you open this gateway, issues like sciatica may recede, since the piriformis muscle at the side of your pelvis often compresses it. As well, you’ll open the IT band, making this a wonderful way to free yourself from over-closure of the gateways of the hip muscles and joints and, quite literally, be able to walk through any threshold more freely. Come into Down Dog. Step your left foot to your right thumb. With this crossed foot placement, you’ll bring the right knee to the mat. Center your hips, and come onto palms or fingertips, on the mat or on blocks, so that your hands are under your shoulders. Begin to roll onto the pinky toe edge of your left foot. As you ground the foot down, and resist it back towards your hip, roll the outer left hip and upper thigh back and down so that it’s not hiking up toward your ribcage. Inhale, lift your lower belly and wave long through your spine. Exhale, and fold at the hip creases as you bend the elbows to your capacity. Play your edge of flexibility as you begin to straighten your front leg until you begin to feel sensation. Breathe and soften there before moving further into your stretch. If you want more of a challenge, try tucking the back toes under and lifting the back knee as in a Low Lunge. Your hands will walk back to remain under the shoulders for support. Breathe here for one minute, taking small spinal waves on the inhalation, and deepening your fold on the exhalation. Return to Dog Pose, and switch sides.    

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Clearing the Threshold

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

As yogis, we all struggle to keep our practice consistent. We get distracted by life and make excuses to skip one day, then the next, and pretty soon we find ourselves making a lasting indent into the couch–we are too defeated for that one down-ward dog that could turn it all around. It seems like perfectionists catch the worst of this cycle. We like to feel like we are “being good,” “making progress,” and “on track.” Self-proclaimed perfectionist and yogi blogger Daniela Velázquez at TBO.com says “Yoga helps me cope with much of that fretting – until I stop practicing. Then all of the anxiety creeps back and makes me want to crawl in bed instead of working it out on my mat.” And she’s not the only one who struggles with this all-or-nothing mantra in her yoga practice and exercise routine. “‘It makes it hard for people to stay motivated – they have to be perfect in their diet plan and/or exercise plan,’ behavioral psychologist Dean Anderson says. ‘When they inevitably aren’t, they start getting down on themselves. They figure they’re never going to do it,’ says Anderson, who writes for the weight-loss website SparkPeople.com under the pen name Coach Dean. ” Velázquez  says ” Lately, I have learned to let the problem remain what it is and nothing more. Eating a cookie or skipping class is simply that – not an excuse to send myself over the edge. That’s what I have always loved about yoga. Sure, I geek out when I do something I couldn’t before, like my first on-the-wall handstand a few weeks ago. But the emphasis for me has always been on the journey of the practice and the progress I have made to become a happier, more whole person. Once you’re able to do something new (like a handstand), there’s always a slightly more complicated pose to work on (a one-handed handstand). And with more than 1,000 poses in yoga’s repertoire, you won’t ever be able to master them all. And that’s OK. Because each time you practice, you gain a little more wisdom about yourself and the world. It’s about the process of changing, not about each individual event. Perfectionists focus on the outcome, and if they don’t get a perfect outcome their motivation collapses. ” Next time, start with reminding yourself that you are inherently full or whole–lacking in no way. Then press on to practice with willful intention and non-concern for results and see if it feels different. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

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Yoga for Perfectionists

My vegetable garden is officially off the charts. It’s all thanks to two people: My good friend Lise who inspired me last summer with her backyard garden, and my green-thumbed next door neighbor Ellen who taught me what to do–from getting my garden beds together, to planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting.  I’m hoping it’s not just beginner’s luck–and that Ellen will help me again next year–because Neil and I are getting seriously spoiled by eating out of our backyard. “The farm,” as we have taken to calling the plots, is ripe with peas, kale, broccoli, lettuce, beets, carrots and cucumbers and scallions and zucchini, with the very beginnings of tomatoes and corn peeping through.  The process has amazed me, reminding me both of motherhood (seeing those tiny seeds blossom into full grown plants) and yoga (with a little time and attention every day, and some   patience, you’ll start seeing results). How does your (yoga) garden grow? 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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In Season

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

As an urban yogi I often day dream about coming to a bustling, messy street square and seeing–instead of garbage and taxi cabs– hundreds of yogis. Wouldn’t that be a sight? Well, Bay Area yogis are in luck because you are all invited to yoga it up in Union Square on August 7. Stephanie Snyder and Darren Main have signed on as volunteers to lead the masses, and just to add a little agave-flavored icing to this holy granola treat; registration fees benefit City of Hope . Here’s the spiel: Yoga for Hope is an event for yoga beginners and experts alike to bring awareness to the benefits of yoga practice for patients with life-threatening illnesses. Join City of Hope’s efforts to expand awareness of the importance of the mind-body-spirit connection is when battling cancer, diabetes or HIV/AIDS. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for Yoga Journal’ s sponsor booth to get a goody bag and magazine. There are also prizes and incentives to raise donations above the registration fee, for more information visit Yoga for Hope. Who says New York yogis get to have all the fun?

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Yoga in Union Square

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

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

testing top five tuesday

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Testing Top Five Tuesday

testing entry for Challenge Mondays

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Monday test

Parent-baby and parent-toddler yoga classes seem to be growing in popularity, but does it really help the children find their center? Shivani Vora from the Wall Street Journal reports. “A growing number of classes around the U.S. and DVD programs insist kids can reap all the benefits of yoga–but in a less-structured format. They say that yoga is calming for children, teaches them more awareness about their bodies and even helps with their development. But Punam Kashyap, a senior developmental and behavioral pediatrician at the Institute of Child Development at the Joseph Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack, N.J., says there is very little evidence that the practice can have a positive effect on young children. “It’s a theory, not a fact that yoga can calm babies,” she says. “That said, as long as your child is having fun in a class, it’s not going to harm them in any way.” As parents, we were curious if yoga would do anything to mellow out our small children. We tested three classes and a DVD for comparison. (Read the entire blog for the details of the “experiment.”) Our daughter paid attention for at least half of the DVD before her attention started to waver. She attempted a few of the poses and was fascinated by the animal and nature sounds like a hissing snake and barking like a dog. We aren’t sure if it made her any calmer, but she did have a good time and now keeps asking to “do yoga” to her disc. While the children didn’t seem noticeably more chilled out in the end, yoga did amuse them and introduce them to a practice they can use to de-stress when they’re older. For us, that makes yoga for kids a keeper.” What do you think about kids doing yoga? Are they old enough to reap the benefits?

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Is Yoga for Kids any Good?