Baghdad Yoga

The Army Times reports that Maj. Michele Spencer, a medic in training, recently called to duty in Iraq, is now teaching 3 yoga classes a week in Baghdad.

According to the article, "Six months ago, when the reservist went to the Green Zone in Iraq with the 9th Brigade, 108th Division out of Charlotte, N.C., she decided the class could provide a calming effect for soldiers facing daily battles with stress. She said at least one other yoga instructor teaches at the embassy."

Spencer has an enthusiastic Web site, too, Baghdadyoga.com.

Laughter Yoga NYC

At first laughter yoga seemed confined to California. Okay. We know California is willing to try anything. But I just read about it in Montreal (see photo above, from the Montreal Gazette), and after a bit of searching, found a club in New York.

Here's what the New York site (www.grabbagiraffe.org) says about laughter yoga:

"The unique idea of laughter yoga clubs was discovered on 13th of March 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician from Mumbai (India). Any one can laugh for 15-20 minutes without depending upon great sense of humor, jokes or comedy. It combines laughter exercises (simulated laughter) and yoga breathing, which turns into real laughter when practiced in a group."

I still don't know why it's yoga. Why is this yoga?

Don't Sit Up Straight

More info on cultivating an aligned back. From the NYTimes.

"The Claim: Sitting Up Straight is Best for Your Back"
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

"Thirty years ago, scientists first showed this [that sitting up straight was bad for your back] by inserting needles into the backs of volunteers and measuring the amount of pressure created by various seating positions. They found that a reclining position was ideal, placing the least strain on the back and minimizing pressure that could lead to back problems. Since then, multiple studies have confirmed that finding."

Read the whole thing here.

Yoga for...

On Thursday, my article on "Yoga for Everything" appeared in Time Out New York (mysteriously titled "Goal Mate" by TONY).

On Friday, The New York Times ran this story, "Days of Wine and Yoga", about a yoga and wine workshop that's touring major US cities.

Hmmmmm, seems as journalists we're cementing a trend. (See what happened to the entrepreneur after she appeared in the Times.)

According to the Times, Yahoo.com is starting an entire "Yoga + " series that will pair yoga workshops with other kinds of learning and "indulgences." Yoga for chocolate is one.

I've watched some reactions to my little article. Yoga for dating raises eyebrows, but is by far the most talked about entry. Some people get indignant, some laugh, some are curious. The more sensible pairings, like yoga for running, or yoga for singers (after all, yoga tones the muscles of respiration and calms performance jitters) doesn't ruffle any feathers.

But what does yoga have to do with chocolate? Or wine?

I can see having a drink after a yoga class: when Go Yoga was still located in the Mini Mall, I used to enjoy stopping in at Uva Wines to taste the night's samplings.

But the Times shows yogis on their mats sipping wine. Mais, pourquoi? What benefit could there be from learning about wine in your gym clothes? (And possibly spilling it on the studio floor.) Is this a product of literal thinking or great marketing?

I think the answer is this: lifestyle.

Ahhh the fresh scent of the wave of the future.

bunch of hooey

Today, MSNBC's Mental Health page reports on weird new "laughter yoga"in the article, "Laughter yoga no joke for fad's followers."

Forcing yourself to crack up in a class sounds pretty odd--so does muttering gibberish for a cool-down (not kidding). And what does this have to do with yoga?

So far, this fad is restricted to Laguna Beach, California.

But I do have to laugh at the headline that follows this one. Remember, this is the mental health category on MSNBC: "Botched penis surgery ends in mailbomb to doc."

Freaky yoga, suicide, depression, schizophrenia management, and penis surgery--you'd think mental health (and by association, yoga) was just for psychos.

Fear of Yoga

Robert Love, faculty at Columbia's school of journalism, and former editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone, writes at length about the history of yoga as it's appeared in the American press since 1909. After an exhaustive and entertaining review of personalities, movements, and attitudes, Love concludes that yoga is a marketer's dream, a flourishing and trend-proof recreation (vocation?) that can sell anything and everything.

Read more in "Fear of Yoga" at the Columbia Journalism Review web site.

Taking Our Pulse

Hanna Rosin, former Style writer for the Washington Post and a current contributing editor for The Atlantic, takes the pulse of yoga in America in her December 2006 article "Strike a Pose." According to Rosin, the good old days of hard-core yoga--like that practiced by Jivamukti teachers and practitioners--have been superceded by the more mainstream yoga like Power Yoga taught by Baron Baptiste, a pragmatic blend of gym workout and church pep talk.

The article is not available online, but you can read a related interview with Rosin on The Atlantic's site here.