This year, hundreds of people may join in asana practice in the overstimulating junction of Broadway and 7th Avenue in NYC: Times Square.It's unclear how yoga and the solstice go together: pagan holiday meets sometimes-spiritualized exercise? The Times Square Alliance website doesn't help to clarify the connection:"…we are, on the longest day of the year, drawing on the full force and energy of the sun and are ideally at the height of our creative powers. We have more potential to draw strength from nature than on any other day and, perhaps, like the ancients thought, we are even more fertile (Times Square has always been about sex, right?) "Okaaaayyyyy.... Nature? Times Square? What you say ‘bout my fertile parts? Instructor Douglass Stewart puts it better, "...why not explore [yoga] in the most challenging of environments? In the midst of Times Square, find PEACE..."Visit the Times Square Alliance website for a list of classes and teachers on June 21. All classes are free and there will be goodies—mats, T-shirts and the like. (Followed by the Times Square Kiss-In later in the summer (these people really have sex on the brain).)
"Yogi, Take Me to a Higher Place"
I'm thrilled to have another piece published in the New York Times' Thursday Styles section. "Yogi, Take Me to a Higher Place" appeared on May 29, 2008.Read the full piece here.It was a pleasure to research and write this piece. I spoke to many, many inspired teachers and students who were eloquent and insightful. Would that there had been room to publish even half of their words. I love how people give so much in interviews. A 1200 word piece is a tiny space for the kinds of things one wants to say about advanced practices.Here are some of great quotes that didn't make it in:Linda DiCarlo, President of the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the US defines “advanced” as having facility with the physical poses, a nuanced understanding of the body, and importantly, a deep and sustained meditative focus during practice.“Beginners are counting the seconds until it’s time to come out—more advanced students will come into that same pose and take 30 seconds or so to refine it. Then they stay. During that experience their nervous system doesn’t jolt them to come out.” In fact, DiCarlo describes the subsequent effects on the intellect as meditative, soothing and delicious.“Advanced is a little asana a lot of pranayama and then you sit—that’s the ultimate yoga practice,” says Annie Carpenter referring to meditation. “That’s when you get connected and changes happen in ourselves and we bring that into the world.”“As you get more advanced that narrows the field. And it’s hard if there’s no guru in your town. ” Kino MacGregor’s teacher is in India.“We have working people rearranging their schedule to come at 9:30am on Friday,” says Anne Phyfe Palmer, director of 8 Limbs Yoga Centers in Seattle. Richard Simone, 45, managing partner of the Global Capital Partners hedge fund in Manhattan, arrives early every day so he can make the advanced classes at Kula Yoga Center nearby. The classes start at 4:15.Read blog comments about it: MahaMondo: "I've been thinking about being a senior practitioner and its connotation as my teacher mentioned in passing last Saturday that it was MAHA I had brought my SENIOR energy to a studio full of newbies ( & their inseparable water bottles , chug-a-lug) . And on my way out of class this evening, I was asked, "How long have you been doing this ? " My response being " going on 7 years, but I'm still learning ." Peter Alejandro is based in LA.Darren Main: Darren, a senior teacher based in SF, posted the piece in its entirety on his resourceful site.Sophieherbert.com: Sophie Herbert says, "My teachers in New York and India, who I respect so deeply for selflessly and devotedly pursuing the path of yoga over a course many years, would never label themselves as accomplished or “advanced”."A Dissertation on Disillusionment: Blake Cooper grasps the issue of spiritual materialism implicit in the piece: "The duality below: the practicing of and passion for health and yoga vs. the perceived need to spend and accumulate in order to achieve its progress..."
Yoga Business in Vancouver: Can They Keep to Roots?
Nettwerk Music is big if you're small--it represents indie musicians who get good play in Canada--Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne. But now CEO Terry McBride is catching the yoga biz bug. According to the May 29 article in The Vancouver Sun. McBride says that, "yoga hasn't received the marketing it deserves."
Even with gyms jumping on mainstreamed yoga's promise of luxurious and exotic well-being, it still surprises me that a music CEO wants a slice of the pie.
"He wants to fill the need with YYoga, a business that incorporates restful tea lounges, infrared saunas, in-house yoga classes and other niceties he hopes will draw potential practitioners who might otherwise be frightened away by the prospect of trying to twist themselves up like pretzels."
As a long-time practitioner, it's hard to relate to this idea of the pretzel. But I know, I know, it's marketing...
"You should walk in and feel like you are in a spa," he said. "It should have people who work at the front desk, after class the teacher should sit and have tea for half an hour and the teacher should get paid for that. "You have to make it easy to practise yoga - have different classes for different studios."
He plans to expand to add more studios in Canada-and one in Seattle-- after another round of financing.
As reported in The Vancouver Sun.
Meditation and you: "Lotus Therapy"
The Science Times talks about the benefits of meditation in therapy. Some doctors--many who got turned on to meditation in the 70s--are now being taken more seriously in their fields. Yoga gets a mention: "Enhanced awareness through breathing techniques and specific postures. Schools vary widely, aiming to achieve total absorption in the present and a release from ordinary thoughts. Studies are mixed, but evidence shows it can reduce stress." Uh, yeah.
As #1 most emailed article for Tuesday, it's worth a look. Read it here.
Suburban Yoga commentary
A meandering "no drama" reflection on how yoga builds community and meaning for a middle aged physician from Westwood, MA. It's so hard to communicate the grit in yoga that keeps people coming back.
Published in the Suburban Diary section of the Boston Globe.
First NIH Yoga Week
The National Institute of Health initiated its first annual Yoga Week, May 19 - 23, in Maryland. The press release says, "Highlighting the science and practice of yoga, this five-day series of events will serve NIH employees and the public. Participants will not only learn about the benefits of yoga but also experience them first-hand through stretching and practice. "Speakers include Alan Finger, John Schumacher, Timothy McCall, an assortment of doctors, and representatives from Burt's Bees, and appearances by Weight Watchers, Honest Tea, Whole Foods, and the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation.Reminds me of Donna Karan's Urban Zen project.
Kundalini Comes to Small Town
Yoga in small-town USA is not news--but a major figure like Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, spiritual leader of little-reported-on Kundalini yoga, visits Long Island, NY and most of the town shows up--that's news.She radiated a tranquil aura as she spoke to the group who hung on her every word. "All the answers are within," she said.The event helped raise money to build the Peki Hospitality House in Ghana, West Africa.Read about Gurmukh's May 19th visit to St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Rockville Center, NY on Herald Online Community Newspaper.
Wii Fit, Ewwwww
Wii Fit: the idea of it just reeks of gadget joy for shopping-channel aficionados. And fitness industry insiders with their spreadsheets oozing sumptuous numbers. If you've ever tried to do yoga from a video you know that it's just hard--uncomfortable and imperfect--to do it outside of a live, real-time classroom. Do you really want to be rated on your yoga practice? And by a machine? Talk about feeling like a number...
So far the reviews are mixed. From Om Yoga's founder and director Cyndi Lee, to game theory reporter for the NYTimes the reviews are not hot at all.
Not to bash those like who might like Wii Fit, like women caring for small children at home, but ew.
Ew.
Yoga Slackers
Yoga slacklining--doing poses on a tight-rope (or, rather, a loose rope)-- must have come from California--where else would anyone have time or inclination to do yoga poses on a loose line--and also invent a whole system for how to do them?
Watch the associated video--cute. They show that it's not about perfection as the guy in the background loses it.
From the folks at theWall Street Journal.
Mac Ad with Yoga
Those clever folks at Apple find more ways to skewer PC and Vista users, this time with a savvy yoga scenario in their Get a Mac series. Here, the frustrated, independent studio owner struggling to balance the accounts loses her cool. Ring true?
How often does idealistic yogi and good business person go together anyway?
Not often enough.
Nude Yoga in the Movies
A Four Letter Word opened Friday, March 28 in Manhattan to a surprised endorsement from the NYTimes film blogger Jeannette Catsoulis.She writes that this romantic comedy "explores gay relationships with low-budget verve" and has "good-natured raunchiness--a nude yoga class is particularly diverting--that's explicit but never sleazy."Nude yoga class on film, hmmm. Easier than checking it out in person.Directed by Casper Andreas.
Evidence that not only white people do yoga
Black Voices, an online magazine sponsored by AOL, just published a blog post for its readership on the benefits of yoga.
While the entry itself is basic, basic, basic (as befits the venue), and "yoga photos" posted beneath the entry are downright confusing (*what* are they referring to?), it's nice to think that yoga might not continue to be dominated by white women.
Why is that, exactly?
Did the Beatles bring yoga to the West?
The answer is no, but they were cool about it. How Stuff Works website hosts two short articles on the Beatles and the Maharishi as well as the influence of Indian gurus like BKS Iyengar on the development of yoga in the west.
Read the articles here.
"Most Revealing Downward Dog in Yoga History"
Jeannette Catsoulis reviews film The Hottie & The Nottie, a Paris Hilton expose-a-thon. Wherein the shockable audience discovers said "most revealing downward dog in yoga history."Pass.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Passes
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the controversial Indian guru--briefly adopted by the Beatles--who introduced Transcendental Meditation to the West, died Feb 6, 2008 in the Netherlands. He was in his 90s.
"The Maharishi was both an entrepreneur and a monk, a spiritual man who sought a world stage from which to espouse the joys of inner happiness. His critics called his organization a cult business enterprise. And in the press, in the 1960s and ’70s, he was often dismissed as a hippie mystic, the “Giggling Guru,” recognizable in the familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged in a lotus position on a deerskin, wearing a white silk dhoti with a garland of flowers around his neck beneath an oily, scraggly beard."
Read the full obituary in the NYTimes.
Stuff White People Like blog spoofs yoga
The hilarious, tiresome, snotty, shallow, entertaining puhleeze, blog Stuff White People Like, (written by a white person in Canada, perhaps Vancouver) spoofed yoga in entry #15. You can't say that yoga wasn't asking for it.
An out take: "Yoga is also an expensive activity. It gives white people the chance to showcase their $80 pants."
See the Jan 22, 2008 entry, #15.
Iyengar, on Pranayama, 2006
Iyengar demonstrates a very long inhale and a very long exhale in front of a Western audience.
Sri Pattabhi Jois Speaks on Yoga
"Yoga is Universal"
"Internal exercise not external exercise"
"You means your self-knowledge"
Yoga Zombies
Amazing. I can't paraphrase. Read this from the NYTimes City Room blog, "Taking the Yoga 'Corpse' Pose Literally" by Jennifer 8. Lee:
"Have you ever wished you could do downward dog with a decomposing body? Well, City Room hasn’t (doing the crow with an intact body is still an insurmountable challenge), but this combination apparently has been a niche fantasy with some population of New Yorkers.
(Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
About 75 people showed up in Williamsburg’s East River State Park for an (online) open casting call for the filming of a yoga zombie video on Sunday. “The zombie blogs were only mildly interested in it, it was the yoga blogs,” said Jason Wishnow, the director of the video.
“The R.S.V.P. responses from the yoga blogs were like: ‘I love yoga and I love zombie movies. I’ve been waiting for this!’ It was the chocolate and the peanut butter thing for all these people.
”While the crew had a make-up artist on set, many of the yoga practitioners showed up in their zombie get-ups, ready to go. Mr. Wishnow was impressed by his extras, saying: “Everyone took zombiedom very seriously. There was a lot of groaning and discomfort of their decomposing bodies as they would attempt yoga maneuvers.”
Wow.
Gawker catches yogis in the buff
It's true--some yogis--mostly men-- like to practice in their birthday suits. The studio in New York (Hot Nude Yoga) has been open for 7 years, making this niche hardly a new one. But still, who knew?
Gawker's take might be more along the lines of what you're *really* thinking (like, naked? wtf?)