Need a Spot? Yoga on the Great Lawn, June 22

YogaGreat Lawn

Be one of the 10,000 people moving your asana on Central Park's Great Lawn next Tuesday (1 week folks!) June 22 for a HUGE group yoga class.Flavorpill sponsors Elena Brower (who' s done previous events at MoMA and The Standard Hotel) plus 20 live acts including musicians to lead an evening of yoga and New York City sweaty fun.Be one of the first 5 people to leave a comment on this post (or DM me on Twitter: "@Yoga Nation") and I'll guarantee you a spot! (be sure to leave me your email address)To take your chances in the open lottery (remember, they expect to overflow 10,000), register here and invite your friends.See you there!

Yoga is a Religion? Right?

Yoga is a religion---at least according 57% of non-yoga-ing Americans polled by the Yoga Alliance last Saturday, Yoga Day USA. The (semi-)regulatory organization was gathering  Americans' opinion of the sport (?) to see what stops more people from trying it out.According to its press release, inspite of the ubiquitousness of this multi-billion dollar industry that's firmly routed in the material ($$) world, many people still think of it as New Age or only for the very nimble. (Sometimes it seems that way, depending on what center you go to and what style you practice...)

"there are many Americans who know little about yoga or, worse, have incorrect assumptions which inhibit them from participation. The three most common misperceptions are that yoga:

• Is religion-based. 57% of those who do not currently practice yoga believe that it requires mantras or chanting related to a form of worship.

• Requires flexibility in order to practice. Nearly 3 in 5 Americans – 59% of respondents - who do not practice yoga think that it requires a person to be in at least "decent" shape. In truth, however, anyone – of any size, shape or physical state – can benefit.

• Is not really exercise. Half of men who have never practiced yoga believe it "isn't a workout." In contrast, 73% of people who do practice believe it is just as effective as running, swimming or weight lifting.

All events are free on Yoga Day USA which is sponsored by the Yoga Alliance. Attitude adjustment might cost extra---maybe as much as a monthly membership to a local center.

LuLu or Cult: Clothes Call?

The NYTimes Style section today (The Critical Shopper) goes after the LuLu culture, focusing on the boppy, sunny, perky, happy, can-do, yes'm attitude of the staffers. The writer walks into the flagship store in Manhattan (sounds like the set-up to a joke) and "A nanosecond after I entered, a spunky girl greeted me with a “Hi!” as if she were my life coach or wife." His take is that it's all a bit culty. Not just out on the LuluLemon-covered streets (which is what New York Magazine's juicy LuLuLemon article this past summer was talking about), but in the store itself.LuluLemon works hard to create such boppy attitude in its educators, with personal growth coaching that sometimes includes a session at Landmark Forum.

This is not very “yoga,” but it is to be expected if you are to create a brand that appeals to the public on a global scale. Lululemon understands that we like our enlightenment to be results-oriented, self-esteem boosting and comfortable so that we can flop on the couch after doing our inner work and watch “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Hmm, true: how many of us like our enlightenment to be results-oriented? Many, I'd guess, though we'd never say, "Oh, checked in with Brahman, supreme cosmic spirit from Hindu Vendanta philosophy this morning, cross that off today's to-do list."Aside from using the word relentlessly relentlessly (well, twice, gad zooks! "relentlessly sunny", "relentlessly cheery"), he also does his bit to give the back story on Chip Wilson and review the clothes. He likes the selection of men's clothes. He seems to practice yoga himself. He's a fair reviewer, not beneath a bit of ribbing:

Some of the get-ups are insanely garish. Run Ultra pants have black and white swirly striped panels over purple fabric and look like something Patricia Heaton wears on one of her 14 sitcoms; cropped bottoms with green plaid fabric around the waist is fine if you want to look like a Scotch tape dispenser while you are in Uttanasana.

Any Lulu article must discuss the unusual materials in their clothes, and Albo obliges. And, like the NYMag writer, he takes a shot at the purpose of wearing those hot pants anyway (hint: it's not all about "wicking away moisture"):

The materials, with names like Silverescent and Luon, are obsessed with wicking away sweat and therefore suit the typical yoga-goer’s secret mantra: I am willing to bow to an elephant-headed god, but I refuse to look skanky when I walk to my car after class because there might be a hot guy around.

It seems we can't get enough of LuLu, even if we're making fun of her: she's an easy entree into yoga culture for, well, people who perhaps relate more to the lifestyle aspect of yoga than the, say, sutra-studying aspect. And she provides an opportunity to play in the entertaining contradictions in this yoga-saturated moment.

September is Here! Ack!

Summer is my season. When the weather turned over the weekend, and the sting of September was in the air, I admit I felt heartsick. My season was so short, and so weird this year. I didn't quite get enough. Never even made it to the beach!But, September is here and yoga nation is back. My impromptu dog-days hiatus from blogging is over (you can even need a vacation from blogging and from Twitter), and I'm ready for a fall season of yoga news, yoga quirks, and yoga love. Watch for my upcoming piece on YogaCityNYC about celebrity yogis! Up next week. In this space, I'll have news from the American Viniyoga Institute (where I'll be over Labor Day), plus a video of John Friend trying slackline yoga, an interview with the makers of the next yoga film---and more, folks, and more, and coming your way....Namaste!

New York Times Reports on Licensing Issue

Alison West

Today, none other than Arthur Sulzberger's 28-yr old son, A.G., reported on the still hot-ticket issue of licensing New York yoga studios. Thank you, A.G.! Your press helps the cause.

Yoga Association of New York (YANY) was officially ratified on Wednesday, at OM Yoga, at its second official meeting. For more news on what's been happening since I last wrote, see my upcoming post on YogaDork. (I'll remind you!) Alison West, president of the newly ratified YANY, teaching at her studio, Yoga Union. Photo for NYTimes by Ruby Washington.For now, Sulzberger, who attended YANY's first meeting, traces the origin of the conflict to the very creation of the Yoga Alliance in 1999. This attempt at self-regulation, according to Leslie Kaminoff of the Breathing Project, made yoga studios a sitting duck for cash-flow challenged government looking for new sources of income. (A government that thinks yoga's popularity means that studios are raking in the big bucks.)

“We made it very, very easy for them to do what they’re doing right now,” said Leslie Kaminoff, founder of the Breathing Project, a nonprofit yoga center in New York City, who had opposed the formation of the Yoga Alliance. “The industry of yoga is a big, juicy target.”

Sulzberger continues, "In New York State, though, teachers fought back, complaining that the new rules could erode thin bottom lines, contradict religious underpinnings and, most important, shut down every school in the state during an eight-month licensing period."

“It basically destroys the essence of yoga, to control and manipulate the whole situation,” said Jhon Tamayo of Atmananda Yoga Sequence in Manhattan, shortly after receiving one of the warning letters from the state. “No one can regulate yoga.”

The dispute is far from over. But there's a sense that YANY, at least, is in it for the long haul. And, in the immediate, there is some light at the end of the tunnel---stay tuned for my report via YogaDork! (With pics and docs)

(On another note, A.G. Sulzberger's piece marks a nice departure from the usual isn't-that-weird tone that a lot of articles on yoga take. Thanks again, A.G., for taking the cause seriously.)

Since It's An Official No-No....

Date your student

Since it's an official no-no to date your student (or, perhaps to date your teacher), this SF Chronicle story from the end of June is especially naughty, and a little bit delicious.Though yoga instructor Laura Camp began on cue---saying no, no, no to that fluttery feeling she had when her future-hubby first came to class---it eventually got the better of her---and him.

"I had rules about not dating students," she adds. "It was the first time in 15 years of teaching that I felt an 'uh-oh.' "

Read the cute article here.

It has all the fixin's of a true-romance, including hedging, misunderstandings, dinner, making out, and a performance-art wedding. On their first quasi-date: "... within minutes of his arrival at her home, the two were intertwined (and not in a yoga sort of way). Minutes later, Laura abruptly announced that Aaron had to leave. The suddenness of their intimacy was too much. Two days later, however, they were back together and have been so ever since."

"Aaron: "We should have met years ago."

Laura: "That's my only regret."

(For the other perspective (what can and does go wrong when romance flares) check out Ogden, the Inappropriate Yoga Guy. Yikes!)

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois--The Big Memorial

On May 18th, one of the three biggest influences on yoga in the West, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915 - 2009), passed away in his home of Mysore in South India just short of his 94th birthday. This is no longer news. However, the outpouring of memorials and testimonials from every corner of the yoga world continues to be news. (Update, June 8: Pattabhi Jois remembered in New York Mag's Intelligencer section this week, too.)

From BKS Iyengar and his most senior teachers in the US, to yoga bloggers and more Americanized yogis (like Madonna? that link was to a blog called, "Absolute Madonna"), many have been paying homage to this larger-than-life man who not only exerted enormous influence on what has become Western yoga, but liked to shop on Canal Street and wear Calvin Kline breifs.As New Yorker writer, Rebecca Mead, said in her 2000 article, The Yoga Bums, Jois "is perhaps the last person you would expect to own a framed photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow." Jivamukti Yoga School in New York held a fire ceremony the day after his passing, led by the inimitable Manorma, followed by 12 days of continual chanting.

Tidbits from Guruji's biography:

The first Westerner (not an American) studied with Pattabhi Jois in 1964; the first American in 1972. In 1975, Jois and his son Manju made their first trip to America. His web site says that, "Guruji has, for 63 years, been teaching uninterruptedly this same method that he learned from Krishnamacharya in 1927." Tias Little, founder of Prajna Yoga, writes, from a workshop in Antwerp, Belgium: "His passing is indeed a considerable loss to the yoga world, for not only did he have mastery of the yoga asanas and have the shakti to transmit this extremely formidable and rigorous practice to all those who walked into his shala, but he was a master of the language underlying the yogic teachings. ... With Pattabhi Jois' passing not only do we lose a great hatha yoga master, we lose a solid link in the chain of direct transmission of scripture learned by heart."

Eddie Stern, founder of Ashtanga Yoga New York, who invites us all to join next weekend to remember his teacher, writes: "Among the great joys of the last years of his life was that he became reacquainted with his contemporaries, including Mr. Iyengar, Mr. Desikachar, A.G. Mohan, and Swami Dayananda.  In the spirit of the renewed friendships of these great yoga masters, we would like to extend and invitation to you, and to every yoga school in the NYC area, to come join us on June 14th, at 6 p.m., in remembering and celebrating the very great flash of lightening that was Pattabhi Jois.  In doing so, we honor the spirit of yoga which, in the scriptures, is compared to a great tree that provides shelter and shade to all who stand under it."

So here it is. Deets for the Big Memorial in New York: June 14, 6pm at 711 Greenwich Street in the West Village. Please contact Alexandra Seidenshaw (201-259-9933, seidenshaw@mac.com) to RSVP. Everyone will be there. Be there, too! Witness a piece of yoga passing into history. Tasmai Shri Gurave Namah Salutations to that GuruPranamah

"It's Not About the Money"

Lakshmi

One of the things I enjoyed at the Yoga Journal conference in New York, May 14 - 18, was coming across new, brilliant manifesters of yoga. One was Brent Kessel. After his presentation, I bought his book. I took it on vacation. I read it on the beach. I love him.True, possibly only I could read a book called It's Not About the Money while supposedly relaxing. But I did find his ideas exciting (and he's a good writer). I loved the notion that we live out unconscious stories about money---and we don't need to. As in yoga, we just need to wake up!As an experienced financial planner and a long time ashtanga yogi, Kessel is in a rare position to speak to yogis about money---and be heard. We yogis don't really seem to want to talk about brass tacks. Unless we're forced to, by, say, opening a studio, or trying to make a living as a yoga teacher. But the aversion to seeing---with eyes wide open---that our yoga exists in a money-driven world, is just a form of avoidance. In fact, in some images of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of abundance, she is surrounded by gold coins.Our (Westerners) discomfort putting money and yoga in the same thought seems to work us up into a knot. Do we understand why? Not really. So, I'm looking forward to Kessel's workshop tonight at East/West books in Manhattan, from 5:30-9:30. Now that I understand his system, I'm ready for the experience. What money type am I? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What stories do I tell myself about what I can and cannot have? How are they holding me back? To me, this seems as yogic a workshop as meditation or pranayama.I wish everyone abundance and prosperity---and freedom from whatever stories are driving you. Even if we don't care about being rich, we do want to get free, right?

East/West Books:212-243-5995, 78 Fifth Avenue @ 14th Street

Several new studios find recession not a big deterrent to opening, strangely

Players big and small, fearless of lean times, falling revenue.

In Williamsburg, Sangha Yoga Shala by Alanna Kessler and Cory Washburn. This studio will mix Iyengar and Astanga traditions. 107 N 3rd, between Berry and Wythe.  Classes start April 13. 

Fierce Club "yoga to kick your asana," from "Core Strength" Sadie Nardini and partner Shannon Connell. Opens for classes first week of March. 

In Soho, Exhale Spa. "Located within a light filled temporary space at 68-70 Spring Street between Crosby + Lafayette, enjoy our signature Core Fusion®, Core Fusion® Sport and Core Energy Flow® classes while our permanent Downtown New York City flagship spa is being constructed. Exhale is pleased to be partnering in a condo conversion in a historic building that will be green (LEED gold standard) that is underway at 200 Lafayette Street in Downtown Manhattan."

Soon on the Upper West Side, Pure Yoga numero deux.

And also in Soho, Yoga Works, Soho. "Our Soho location will be the latest addition to the YogaWorks family. It’s innovative, cutting edge, environmentally friendly and the best thing to happen to yoga since the yoga mat. This is the perfect opportunity to find out how yoga can work for you."

Ready, set, eat your heart out, folks.