Heavy Hitters of Yoga Biz at First YJ Conference

I walked around my Brooklyn neighborhood tonight trying to come back to earth. Breathe! I just got done with the 2-day "Business of Yoga" workshop at Yoga Journal's first conference in New York. I am way overstimulated.Judging from my texts and tweets from Thursday and Friday, I am super glad that I do not run a yoga studio. What a headache! I'm a writer not a marketer!

And yet, I do run yoga retreats, and I do want to write more about yoga and business (and the business of yoga).What I learned: the (global) recession doesn't stop people from opening yoga studios. When Bob Murphy of MindBodyOnline (the next inline to be a big stats provider to the yoga world) asked who was planning to open a studio, about half the people in a room of, oh, 50 -70, shot up their hands. Jeez.

Average annual profit at a yoga studio: 17%. Yes, ladies and gents, it's still a labor of love. And as Connie Chan, founder of Levitate Yoga (which, at 7 months pregnant, she just sold) outlined, owning a studio means dealing with: lawyers, accountants, landlords, NY State, and the Feds, and that's even before you've auditioned teachers, painted your walls, and installed check-in software. Oy! And then there are the licence centers that offer teacher training programs. (See Yoga Dork's astute rundown of the complex---and exceedingly compromising (perhaps crippling)---issue.)

People have come from Russia, Poland, Germany, Canada, Brazil and other parts of South America to learn how to either run their existing business better or how to start on the right foot. Charlie Barnett who left finance in America to open Yoga Flow in Sao Paulo said he couldn't imagine doing some of the (very practical) things that the (very experienced) presenters were suggesting---such as drawing up a budget for his studio. In Brazil, he said, things are about 15 years behind. (Not to mention that you have to monitor the banks down there (money disappears from your accounts) and internet service (including networked servers) cut out at least once a day, leaving you, jack-of-all-trades to get systems up again). As has been the case til recently in the US, in Brazil mingling money and yoga is very much frowned upon. But still a studio's gotta survive.

Ganesh Das, managing director of Jivamukti Yoga School, suggests thinking of money as necessary energy, "At Jiva, money is a form of energy that the center needs so we can use the school as a platform for change in this world. Therefore, you have energy coming into our school through purchases that keep operations going, and it goes to teachers as energy that then goes through their teachings and then comes back to us in a circle."

In fact in the US, says Brent Kessel, financial analyst, ashtangi and YJ columnist on money, says we're moving away from an Innocent/Idealist/Caregiver dominated way of running studios. As more people make career changes midlife, they're bringing more level-headed (Guardian), entrepreneurial skills (Empire Builder) attitudes to running yoga studios. (For example, see Yoga High and Mala Yoga in New York.)Ana Forrest's marketing manager Lynann Politte showed us how to brand: color! image! message! consistency! and Beverley Murphy (Bob's wife) demoed guerilla marketing techniques---yes, those postcards *do* have an effect; yes your most dedicated students are worth your love and attention; yes, you do need to have specials if you want revenue.

All in all it was a pretty interesting couple of days, but as I drift towards bed I've got dollar signs in my eyes where there used to be meditating yogis. Guess that's the bottom line talking, huh?

Yeeehaw! Cow Girl Yoga

Cow Girl Yoga

Every year there are articles about doing yoga outside. I've written about it, too---as a detractor. B.K.S. Iyengar says we need a clean, open space, free of bugs and other distractions to practice yoga--this often does not describe the great outdoors! Flies and bees buzz around your head, needles and leaves fall in your eyes, creepy crawly things appear from the earth and then swarm your feet. On a New York rooftop, the noise of horns, engines, and shouting is often unnerving. But here's a kind of outdoor yoga I might get into: Cow Girl Yoga! In Montana! Horses! Meadows! Wildflowers! Smell of saddle soap! Big Sky Yoga Retreats in Bozeman, not far from Yellowstone National Park, offers 5 days in the wilderness to "improve your saddle skills" (hello!) as well as your asana practice and overall well-being. Photo by Larry Stanley c/o Big Sky Yoga 

BSYR says, "Imagine a week of yoga and horses - a girl's dream come true. Explore how both can put you in touch with your potential and teach you a lot about yourself. We'll practice yoga, spend time with horses, and kick up our heels in cowgirl-friendly Bozeman." (Sorry, guys. Seems like this fun's for girls only right now.)

First Cow Girl Yoga retreat of the year is May 31 - June 5. Followed by 3 more through the summer, as well as several long weekends. The only downside is the expense ($2,750 for 5 days, plus travel and car rental) and the corporateness of it. It is after all, Cow Girl Yoga™. And you know how the combo of corporate and yoga gives me the willies.

(But then they just go over the edge by partnering with Dude Girl ---an outfitting company for dudettes on horses and yoga mats--!)

Yoga Beneath the Whale

AMNH Whale

Not news so much as---wow!Take Adrianna Gyorfi, 23, entry level exhibitions travel coordinator at the American Museum of Natural History. Just got to New York. Landed a job. Doing yoga. Well, doing yoga beneath a multi-ton plaster cast of a life-size blue whale, hung from the museum's ceiling.

Care of the New York Times:

"Among her job’s perks: yoga beneath the museum’s famed suspended blue whale."

Here it is. Imagine: nose to nose.

Adrianna says: "I came here and I’d taken four yoga classes in my life; I’m not a Zen sort of California resident. I got a museumwide e-mail and signed up for yoga classes. We had it in the Hall of Plains Indians, but when we couldn’t have it there, we had it under the whale. That was amazing. It was after-hours and very relaxing."

After hours and extra super beyond terrestrial. Oceanic!

May Brings World Laughter

yoga laff in the park

I didn't understand one iota of Laughter Yoga at all until I saw scenes of it in Kate Churchill's movie, Enlighten Up! (A small group of older Indian men and women stand around doing simple stretches and laughing helplessly. It was absurd---but also sweet and simple, and utterly harmless.) Yesterday in Central Park under changeable skies, the New York chapter of Laughter Yoga celebrated World Laughter Day. Who knew?According to World Yoga Day's web site laughter, "directly impacts one’s electro-magnetic field and creates a positive aura around that person. When a group of individuals laugh together, they create a collective community aura."Back in New York, the New York Daily News reports: "There's certain things you can't do while laughing: fighting, arguing, being mad."  True!"For two hours, the group convulsed with laughter, ignoring trivial problems like the economic crisis or the flu pandemic." A good way to spend your time!According to Wikipedia, after 11 years in existence, Laughter Yoga now has 6,000 clubs spread over 5 continents. Its originator, Dr. Madan Kataria, of Mumbai, India, says that laughter can unite the world and bring world peace.Yeah--a lot better than a a bag of anthrax could. Laugh away!

50 Years of Yoga: The Author of "The World's Religions"

Huston Smith

Huston Smith has done yoga every morning for the last 50 years. Sorry---who?!?! According to Newsweek, Huston Smith is, "arguably been the most important figure in the study of religion over the past five decades." So go look that up. Okay, since I know you won't, I'll tell you: In 1958, as a professor of religion, Smith authored a survey of major belief systems--Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and indigenous religions. Hence, The World's Religions."...in his day, Smith was doing something revolutionary. Without oversimplification or condescension, Smith introduced Americans to the notion that the world is full of all kinds of believers and that an educated person might learn a thing or two from another's faith. "The World's Religions" has sold 2.5 million copies since publication. It has been reprinted more than 60 times."A decade or so later he started doing yoga. In fact, Newsweek reports that he practiced forms from each of the religions he explicates---yoga, Islamic prayer, Zen meditation, Christian prayer, etc---believing all are viable and lead to the same source. And pretty fun to try, too!He used to demonstrate lotus pose on TV.But now, at 90, with osteoporosis, he's grateful to get into half lotus.

Upper East Side: Hands Off the Crackberry

Pure Yoga May 2009

Stress levels on Upper East Side are rising, the NYTimes reported on Friday. Impulse buying is down, as is luxury shopping. And while yoga is doing quite fine, thank you, bad behavior in classes is on the rise. Put that crackberry down, Suzie! The NYTimes reports from Pure Yoga, the Asian-inspired yoga boutique owned by Equinox Fitness: "Ms. Demus has been battling a growing number of people trying to check their BlackBerrys and take cellphone calls in the middle of yoga sessions. Her instructors “gently” tell them to switch them off and perhaps take a break from their worries. “It’s great for them to realize that the world will continue spinning,” Ms. Demus said, “if they let go for an hour.”Image: Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Or maybe it's the space-ship lighting at Pure Yoga making them frantic?

Ocean Breezes for Navy Lady

Paula Puopolo in old flight suit in her Florida garden

Photo Credit: Mackenzie Stroh

Phew, this one's heavy--with a happy ending.

From the Wall Street Journal. In the early 1990s, Paula Puopolo was a trained anti-submarine helicopter pilot rising through the ranks in the Navy. Impressive.In September 1991, she accompanied her boss to a military convention at which 200 fellow aviators---as a part of a sketchy hazing ritual---ambushed her as she came out of the elevator. They passed her from man to man, groping and fondling her in a drunken, testosterone induced hysteria. (Oh no!)Puopolo's complaints did not see justice done---in fact she was transferred and ignored until she went to the press. This was the early 1990s, remember. The military wasn't so willing to deal with sexual harassment and assault. Paula Puopolo meditating in her Florida garden, wearing her old flight suit. Military career ruined, Puopolo sued for damages. Though she ultimately won the case and a respectable settlement, Puopolo spent much of her life in tears, taking prescription pills. She suffered the defense attorneys' slanderous accusations as well as the hostility of her home town and naval comrades. That's when she started doing yoga. “I figured if I could trade 10 seconds thinking about my hamstring for 10 seconds worrying about the trial, it was a good swap,” she says. As the trial progressed, her yoga sessions grew longer: “It became a 90-minute window in the day when I didn’t cry," says Puapolo, in the WSJ.

Eventually, in 2008, she used money from the settlement to open Ocean Yoga whose mission is "to empower our students to find and explore their path to health and well-being so they may feel better through safe, compassionate yoga teachings. "Something she knows about first hand, I'd say.In fact, she says yoga---inspired by John Friend's Anusara Yoga---helped her stop taking medication and eased her anger at the attackers.  “The philosophy opened me up to the idea that I could really stop hating so much stuff.” “Everybody’s got a story, everybody’s got something that really deeply informs the way they move for the rest of their lives,” she says. “In yoga you can work through the story to your benefit, you can use it to rise up. But in the Navy, those events? Tough s—, keep moving.” "In teaching yoga she says she does much the same thing as she did in the military---strives to be "a good leader and to get the best  from the people around her."A tough row to hoe, but lucky students of Ocean Yoga.Hari Om Tat Sat, Paula.

Yoga Teacher: Speed Eater!

Cupcake eating contest winner

This is one of those can't-believe-it stories.Yesterday, a gorgeous, long-awaited spring day, Bay Ridge, NY's Ivy Bakery held a cupcake eating contest. Who won? A yoga teacher! How did she do it? Discipline! Focus! Metabolism! The New York Daily News reports: "Nancy Cummings, the first-place winner, said that her role as a yoga instructor gave her what it took to be the champion. "I am disciplined and focused and I can digest them faster," said the slender 31-year-old brunette from Bay Ridge, who dipped each little chocolate cake into a glass of water before shoving it whole into her mouth. "Yoga mama, you are all that and then some. Love the dipping strategy. Raccoon-like!

Love the Pink Jumpsuit

Bette Calman

Bette Calman2

Bette Calman 3

Bette Calman 4

In March 2007, I met Tao Porchon-Lynch, a 93-year old yoga teacher in Westchester. Not only did she teach yoga, she taught it at.... Equinox gym! Where she was a very popular teacher!  I took her class.  Though I could barely hear her whispery voice above the gym's thump-thump-thump, she was fascinating company.

Last week, Tao's contemporary in Australia, Bette Calman, turned up in the news. At 83, Bette is still popping into crow pose, lotus, and headstand. Doesn't she look smashing in that pink jump suit? And--great hair. Above, the honorable Mrs. Calman in peacock pose.London's Daily Mail reports, "While others her age complain about aches and pains, Mrs Calman focuses on getting tough balancing manoeuvres right..... She can also put her head between her knees and hold her ankles, putting her inflexible grandchildren to shame."Oh, those inflexible grandchildren! Call Bikram Choudry posthaste! (Yoga Dork reports on yet another oldy-but-goody--this time a 90-yr old yoga teacher, in Tom's River, NJ.)

Mine and TIME's--Too Close for Comfort?

Last Sunday, in a fit of paranoia, it seemed as if the Yoga Journal blog, Yoga Buzz, had scooped my post on the AskMen.com issue (whether meathead dudes should do yoga).But a friendly note from Yoga Buzz online editor Erica Rodefer clarified that it was just a coincidence. Great blogging minds thinking alike etc etc. Okay, that's cool.However, it quickly became clear that I had sensed the future (putting my yogic skills to work!).On Wednesday, April 15, Time Magazine's article on Yoga and Psychotherpay cited many of my sources and clearly drew from the story structure of the piece I wrote for GAIA Magazine in November 2008!!! ACK!Read and compare:  Mine and Theirs Too close for comfort? I thought so.I'm flattered to be imitated but this goes too far.For now, my complaint has reached the Time Mag health editor and I hope to hear her update on the situation this week. If journalists don't take pains to avoid stepping on each other's toes, what are we doing exactly?[UPDATE: Moving on from the toxicity of the situation, I edited the original post. After the sting faded, there were some interesting meta questions embedded here: journalistically speaking, must mainstream trendspotting rely so heavily on the legwork of others? As a friend pointed out, at what point does one venue's coverage become a stolen idea for another venue? Also implicit here is the question of what happens when yoga bounces into the mainstream? No longer rarified, what are the parameters of representation? To be continued...]

Yoga Clothes Go Starbucks

Yoga Army

After reading Yoga Dork last week, I have to admit that my love affair with LuluLemon must come to an end. It's embarassing. The clothing is so well made, lasts forever, fits well, breathes well, but it's just too trendy. When LLLMN set up shop in NY in 2006 (I wrote about it for TimeOutNY), I knew my time was running out. True to form, they quickly swept the city. As a Canuck, I'd already begun wearing their clothes in 2002, when no one here cared. (Vancouverites cared though; my friends called it attire for teeny-boppers. They couldn't believe I wore it; they wouldn't go near it themselves.) But now it's like I'm a freaking ad. It's just not cool. (And you can't black out that ubiquitous shiny silver logo, I've tried.)

Now, just to cement my fears, Forbes announces that Christine Day, former head of Starbucks' Asia Pacific Group, is heading up LuluLemon as CEO, making the standardized latte culture--standardized yoga culture link ultra clear. Uh oh.Forbes says, "Lululemon fits Day’s easygoing personality and seriousness of purpose. And, like the one-time coffee juggernaut, the yoga-centric clothing company focuses on cult-like customer loyalty; thorough, mandatory staff training on new products and customer service; and innovative marketing. "Sigh. Innovative, yes, but just a bit too clubby.Luckily at Easter brunch today I heard about Yoga Army, an LA-based yoga wear company. Only problem is, none of their dresses look like anything I could wear to class. Yoga Army is a "yoga look" for out on the town. "Yoga street," as one of my brunch companions noted. (But how "street" is a red-silk, one-shoulder dress at $594? Or a fringed-leather vest for $200?)Yoga Army was smart: it dispensed with the yoga.Not so for the LA labels Beyond Yoga (at the mind-bending URL, www.iambeyond.com), OmGirl (includes a T with a charity bent), all mentioned in Los Angeles Magazine, March 2009, where lifestyle and yoga creepily creep together.And once-small companies such as Blue Canoe and Hyde (Hyde has product endorsement from Deepak Chopra front and center on their home page) seem to aspire to similar ends as the now gigantic LLLMN---so does that make buying them just the same sin under a different label?(And speaking of labels, the price-tags on all of these organic, single-source, almost edible threads are s-t-e-e-p---no cheaper that the Big Lemon's.) So, what's a non-label-loving girl to do? Take refuge in American Apparel and call that anonymity? Wear Nike like a rebel?

Doga... Done.

I'm suprised that the NYTimes ran the Yoga for Dogs piece: this topic has been done, done, done. That's all I have to say. Doga in Seattle. Photo by Stuart Isett for the NYTimes

Men & Yoga: Lovers, Hater, Boobs

On AskMen.com, the relationship columnist and the fitness columnist duke it out on why men should---or should not---do yoga . It's a real-men-don't-eat-quiche kind of discussion with dumb-ass humour, dude stereotyping, and the assumption that men are compulsively two-dimensional. Both pro- and con- columnists seem to be protecting some faked-up fragile male ego that could be emasculated by words like "teacup" and phrases like, "how do you feel?" All pretty ridiculous considering that yoga was originally conceived by men for men. It just seems like these writers don't actually do yoga. Here's a quote from the pro-yoga, fitness writer Kevin Neeld: "Before we're tarred and feathered by women in leotards and men that own all of Yanni’s CDs, hear us out. We love yoga, but it’s a tool to be used for very specific purposes." Yeah, we know who's the tool here, Kevin. Also: "A well-designed yoga routine provides a great dynamic stretch and muscular activation series to use before other forms of training or just to mix into your day to get you out of a chair for a few minutes." Please don't call that yoga.

The anti-yoga writer, Chris Illuminati, relies on jokes that revolve around 1. getting some and 2. not getting laughed at by the guys. But he does manage to list four reasons why men shouldn't and don't do yoga (Yoga Journal, are you listening?). They are dumb, but they might be a little bit true:1. Real men don't carry mats. Okay, point taken-- I don't like to carry a yoga mat either.2. No man should bend that way. Illuminati writes, "A workout should involve the release of aggression through the movement of weights or the scoring of points." Should is a strong word, Chris.3. There are too many phrases to remember. "Men don't like to think."4. Yoga makes you look like a stalker. "Even if you are 100% interested in actually taking yoga, you will just look like the creepy guy in the back of class who might just be staring at every woman’s backside." Dude, see Ogden (last post).We've got all these issues covered, over here in the yoga world, boys. Which makes me wonder: what are you doing over there at AskMen?Oh, I know. Thinking about boobs."It might be a little more guy-friendly if the instructor said “bend over like you are picking up a quarter” or “react like you just threw your back out and can’t stand straight.” If an instructor is telling me to get in the downward dog after a tittibhasana, I’m just going to lie down on my stomach, because those words conjure up naughty thoughts, creating what is frequently referred to as the “living wood.”

Inappropriate Yoga Guy "Edits" Yoga Journal

To mark April Fool's Day, Yoga Journal sent out a fake press release announcing that Inappropriate Yoga Guy, the crotch-grabbing, breast-oggling liability called Ogden, would be installed for a 6-month editorship at Yoga Journal, the giant of yoga magazines. Of course, it's a traffic-driving spoof to get a younger demographic on to the magazine's site. It's also an ad for the 5-part web series on Odgen at the helm at YJ. View the laugh-out-loud trailer here:Beginning last Wednesday, the first episode of the series is available on the YJ Web site. See episode 1 here. ( See episode 2 here!) Notable excerpts from the YJ press release: "Tough times demand creative solutions. In a surprise move that is already rocking the magazine industry, Yoga Journal Magazine announces it has hired Ogden, also known as "The Inappropriate Yoga Guy," as its new editor.Ogden, the YouTube sensation, already has millions of fans who have watched him bumble his way though yoga classes, offending his female classmates and annoying those around him."Anyone who can dream up the cover line 'Yoga and Knives: What Took Us So Long?' is truly a publishing genius," says Patricia Fox, Yoga Journal's General Manager."It's no secret that in this economy, magazines have taken a hit. We are certain that Ogden's unique character and consistent record of thinking outside the box will not only increase revenue, but also bring tens of thousands of new users and readers to our website and magazine."With Ogden's high-jinx now front and center on the ultra-yoga corp's site, maybe we'll see a jump in the number of dudes doing yoga. Or, ahem, checking it out.(FYI about 700,000 more men were practicing yoga in 2008 compared to 2004, according to---you guessed it---Yoga Journal's own demographic studies.)

Enlighten Up! The Quest for a Story

“At teacher preview screenings so far there’s always someone who gets angry,” says Kate Churchill, writer, director, and producer of Enlighten Up! A Skeptic's Journey into the World of Yoga, a yoga documentary that premieres in New York on April 1, 2009.

By teachers, she means yoga teachers.

In 2004, Churchill, a die-hard yogini, chose yoga-skeptic Nick Rosen to go in search of answers to the questions many people ask about yoga: what is yoga? and what can yoga do for me? Kate directs Nick's quest, selecting places to visit, books to read. The journey becomes an accelerated initiation that progresses from first yoga classes in Manhattan to the homes and ashrams of sages worldwide. Both Kate and Nick wonder: will Nick shed his skepticism?

While there is also a lot of laughter at the teacher screenings, Churchill says, some yoga teachers think the film is superficial. “They think the movie is belittles yoga.”

You just want to say, lighten up folks.

Personally, I found the device (skeptic against believer) effective—and probably the best way to make yoga appealing to non-enthusiasts. Still, I wondered why Churchill didn’t make a documentary of herself searching for these gurus?

Churchill, who began making documentaries for TV in 1995, is a long-time yoga practitioner (4x a week under normal conditions, every day under stress). However naively (she says herself), some time before 2004 she wanted to find a truly enlightened being. This yogi would be the last word in yoga and would put her on a direct path to samadhi, or as the Buddhists call it, nirvana: enlightenment.

When the opportunity to make a film arose, she considered it a chance to find that being. The only tiny little teensy-weensy obstacle would be shaping her own quest into a compelling story, while using something -- or someone -- else as a subject that everyone could relate to.

When Nick Rosen, a 29-year old journalist, agreed to be her guinea pig, and executive producers (who she had met while practicing yoga in Boston) already on board, Churchill began what became a 5-year odyssey.  It wasn’t what she’d bargained for.

I spoke to Churchill on a Friday afternoon, a few days before the April 1, 2009, premiere (see interview following).

For full disclosure, I will say that Nick’s interview with Iyengar, the Indian sage, basically sums up my feeling about yoga (you can get the spiritual benefits from the physical practice; benefits come slowly for some, quickly for others, there is no rush, keep practicing) which gave me a warm fuzzy, feeling inside.

But I also had a few problems with the film. First, why was Kate being such a bitch to Nick? He seemed willing enough and, for a skeptic, pretty reflective. "We've been throwing around the word 'transformation' a lot," he says. A reasonable comment. (The yoga world often does toss out big concepts without defining them or even understanding them.) Still, Kate's not pleased.

I also wondered how any newbie would deal with such a fast-track to the yoga stars. In my first six months of practice, I was just happy I could do chaturanga with a herd of other sweating yogis. Flying around the world to meet the most influential men in yoga today could set the stakes freakishly high for anyone.

Lastly, I wanted to know more details from Nick himself about how his journey might have affected him—or not—in the long term. The film ended on a weak note. (post script, April 15 Nick writes his commentary on Huffington Post.)

Within the world of yoga documentaries and commentary, Enlighten Up! isn’t as acerbically insightful as Yoga, Inc, John Philps’ 2006 documentary on the entertaining contradictions of the yoga business. It isn’t as earnest as Gita Desai’s 2006 documentary Yoga Unveiled nor as funny as gentle mockeries from The Onion (see below), or McSweeney’s, nor as freakish as some of the stuff on YouTube such as  Kung Fu vs. Yoga.

But I enjoyed it. It was a humanizing look at a couple of impossible questions: What is yoga? We can’t really tell you. How can it work for me? You’ll have to find out for yourself.

© Copyright 2009, Onion, Inc.

Interview with Kate Churchill, writer, director, producer, Enlighten Up!

Yoga Nation: What benefit did you think you would get from Nick’s journey?

  Kate Churchill: I believed I was going to be exposed to encounters with these enlightened masters. In yoga, there’s a lot of talk of coming to a sense of peace and transformation—jivan mukti, liberation of the soul—I was caught up in the promise of yoga: if I could find the right practice I could get all these great benefits. At the same time I wasn’t on the line—the camera was pointed at someone else.

YN: At some point, it seemed you felt you had to push Nick to get him to say meaningful things. For example, later in the film, in India. What happened?

KC: In the beginning, I really thought this is going to be amazing to have this guy who is a challenge to yoga—he’s a really good writer and researcher—who would press hard and investigate. He’d bring his investigative skills to it—dig into and find great stuff. It began as a journey of mutual inquiry.

But through the journey, my expectations made me more and more antagonistic to Nick. I became more wound up and agitated about what was happening. Nick became more determined to cling to his own identity.

The relationship became more conflicted. I was not getting what I wanted.

At the time, we were learning really great lessons from yogis about letting go, about how no one else can tell you what to do, you go on your own trip. Yet there we were muddling along ignoring them.

YN: How does Nick think yoga affected his life? He doesn’t say much about it at the end.

  KC: What we tried to do with documenting this story is to ask, well, how do you think he changed? It’s open to debate. We like to let the audience decide.

YN: But the possibility of change runs throughout the film. I was wondering what Nick himself thinks of how he changed.

KC: Nick has said at other screenings that it’s inevitable when you step out of life and take a journey that it impacts you in many different ways, even in ways you can’t even recognize. I think the biggest was in starting to accept his mom….

He had a knee-jerk rejection of any spirituality. He associated it with his mom— she’s a healer. He moved more towards accepting his mom’s work instead of automatically dismissing it. He became more accepting of various practices that others are doing.

YN: How did making this film affect your yoga practice?

KC: When I started this film, I was bound and determined to find the one yoga practice that would work for me. What I realized is that no one practice that would work for me. No one had the ability to tell me what to practice, and I couldn’t tell anyone else what to practice either.

I had to go with whatever practice or teacher worked for me—and I couldn’t tell anyone else what would work for them either.

Are you a "Whole Foods Woman"?

Do you do yoga?

Do you have "eco-guilt" (it drives you to buy expensive products because they are green and good for you)?

Must you have a reusable water bottle?

Is buying conventionally-grown produce a betrayal of your core values (even when organic is twice as much)?

 If yes, then you might be a WFW--a Whole Foods Woman. 

The "Whole Foods" woman (in New York, at least) has existed since the supermarket/lifestyle chain opened its NYC location on 14th street in Union Square a few years ago. Once we got over the shock of having a centrally-located grocery store that was clean, offered edible produce, and wasn't overrun with rats, we started to develop preferences and tendencies never before possible. (Goji berries? Organic flax seed oil? Say wa?) 

WFW's counterpart, according to this article on Sigg water bottles, is the "Geek Chic" guy, who is still proudly into Radiohead and Converse sneakers (so over already). (Although, I think the write might be off about this pairing. The WFW seems like a single professional, whereas the GCG seems like he just graduated from high school. Or am I really in denial about the differences between men and women?!?!)

One thing the writer is definitely *not* off about is the crazy profits on Sigg water bottles. This Forbes article is  worth a read. Since 2005, Sigg has enjoyed 130% increase in sales each year. The article says, "At $70 million, the U.S. market represents over 70% of Sigg Switzerland's overall sales." Yikes, guys! We forget that doing good, going green, still makes someone a lot of money: We are all just consumers after all. Bummer.

And get this: they jacked the price by 25% to make us buy the damned bottles. Yes, we're all a little bit gross. 

True confession: I own a Sigg bottle. It is cute, but also heavy, and I don't love the narrow mouth. Maybe if I had the best-selling, Bollywood-influenced design called "Maha," though, I'd feel differently. For now, I prefer to sip from the wide-mouthed Nalgene when I'm at my desk.

(I'm just racking up bills pursuing my consumer rights to sample them all, aren't I?)

Fatwah on Yoga continues

This latest installment is from the NYTimes. (See my earlier blog posts.)

Bali, the Hindu island in Muslim Indonesia, defies the fatwa banning the practice of yoga with a week-long yoga festival. Different Indonesian cultural sects now fear crackdowns on their traditions because of recent edicts from the fatwa-loving religious council. Yoga is one of them, and especially yoga in Bali ('cause, you know, see Eat, Pray, Love).

A refresher on the issue, "The Muslim Council’s yoga ruling came in a package of fatwas issued in January. The council deemed the ancient Indian poses and exercises incorporating Hindu chanting or rituals a sin for Muslims. Similar fatwas have been issued in Egypt and Malaysia. In all three countries, the religious leaders said they were concerned that practicing yoga could cause Muslims to deviate from Islamic teachings."

The head of the council promises not to enforce the laws, but it's scary that they now exist.

Fierce Club Opens in Nolita...

On March 4, I attended a free first class at Sadie Nardini & co's new Fierce Club (a yoga studio) in Nolita, and on March 5 I dropped by the opening party. Wow, there were a lot of fancy people there. Yoga connections, artsy connections, just an all around "I-know-people" kind of vibe.

I got the sense that the Fierce Club intends to bring rock-n-roll back to downtown yoga. Both the class and the party reminded me of Jivamukti in the old days of butt-kicking classes, tiny changing rooms, and a fight to be seen.

Faramarz bartends opening of Fierce Club

In the photo above, FaraMarz, founder of Om Factory, serves up drinks with Dana (who I think I'm supposed to know, but don't) at the opening party bar. A band played, the awesome mural was admired, and we shouted at each other over our coconut water.

Culture of Kirtan

A NYTimes piece on the appeal of quasi-spiritual, sing-along kirtans.

Here seen in Montreal.... 

The Times says, "And an increasing number of Americans seem to be connecting with kirtan. At the Omega Center in Rhinebeck, N.Y., attendance to its Ecstatic Chant festival has doubled over the last five years. The numbers are also up at Integral. Jo Sgammato, 57, the center’s general manager, said the Friday-night kirtan would have about 25 participants 10 years ago; now the center will sometimes host 400 in a single weekend when kirtan stars like Krishna Das, Jai Uttal and Wah! perform. At the Jivamukti Yoga School in Manhattan, 700 people came last September to see Krishna Das, setting a record for kirtan at the center."

... here in NYC.