In our Yoga Blog we will report on yoga news, trends and happenings throughout the world.
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Wednesday, August 08, 2012 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga for Weight Loss? The Latest
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Several blogs
recently cued the yoga blogosphere’s perennial debate: yoga for weight loss.
Yet while a vocal minority of yoga practitioners do lose weight, does this
represent everyone’s experience? Is weight loss even desirable for some
overweight individuals (here, we use overweight to also refer to obesity)? And
is yoga actually effective in fostering weight management? In this two-part
series we clarify some routinely-cited myths.
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At one point in my life I was stuck in a dark
depression for close to a year. Though I was the only person who could free
myself from it, I was too numb and empty to even try. Anyone who has ever
suffered from depression, knows exactly what I’m talking about and may have
found themselves in the same place at times. Adhering to my own narrow misconception
about depression, I thought I was the only one suffering. However, my entire
family and close friends had to suffer from my
depression as well. I know that when I’m in a happy and healthy place I’m
generous with my love, fun to be around, forgiving, and my actions and behaviors
are positive. On my ‘dark days’ I’m completely useless to the people that are
close to me, and it becomes very obvious to them that I am not myself. On the yogic path I am
beginning to explore, my meditation practice is a beautiful but constant
struggle. However, I can honestly say that in the little time I’ve been
practicing, I feel more grounded and content than I have in a very long time.
And this has broader, sweeping effects on my relationships and everyone close
to me.
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Friday, August 03, 2012 by Kathleen Bryant
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Sadhana: Practice Makes Perfect
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Anyone watching the London Olympics can’t help being
inspired by the athletes’ dedication to perfection. We all know that they have
gotten where they are through hard work and practice, practice, practice. As
yogis, we are familiar with the importance of practice. In his Yoga Sutras
(I:12), Patanjali stated that practice, or abhyasa, was one of two ways to
still the waves of the mind. This echoes Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna in the
Bhagavad Gita (VI:35).
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Friday, July 27, 2012 by Kathleen Bryant
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Kickstarting the Roots of Yoga
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Yoga scholars Mark Singleton and James Mallinson have taken
their dream—publishing a single comprehensive resource of yogic literature—to
the next level by bringing it to Kickstarter,
the web-based company that facilitates funding for independent creative
projects. They’ve asked for $50,000 to fund The
Roots of Yoga, and with the clock ticking down toward their August 10th
deadline, they’ve raised nearly half that amount. A growing list of yoga
luminaries is rallying behind them: Georg Feuerstein, Richard Rosen, Judith
Lasater, Elena Brower, Kino McGregor, Danny Paradise, and Frank Jude Boccio.
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Friday, July 20, 2012 by Kathleen Bryant
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Restorative Yoga: Sweet Surrender
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Restorative
yoga is a gentle practice designed to promote relaxation. Like more
familiar yoga asanas, restorative poses can be sequenced to move the spine in
all directions—backbends, forward bends, twists, and inversions. But in
restorative poses, gravity becomes your partner, gently encouraging release and
openings while you are completely supported by bolsters, blankets,
pillows and other props. It’s a recipe for surrender.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012 by Amber Baker
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Facebook Firing Highlights Imbalances
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Breaches of yoga etiquette happen all the time,
and are usually quickly forgotten. That is far from the case with a recent
incident that happened during a class at Facebook. Not only did a student in
this class demonstrate that she felt her phone deserved more attention and
respect than her practice, the instructor or the other students, she felt it
was necessary to complain about the look the instructor gave her for her
behavior. In an equally dazzling disregard for the entire yogic discipline, the
instructor was fired for the incident.
The story has blazed across the Internet as an amusing and sad commentary on
our addiction to constant stimulation. Underneath the absurdity of this
scenario lies a common human weakness: we are often strongly drawn towards
practices that perpetuate our imbalances rather than address them.
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Friday, July 13, 2012 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga As Battleground
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Two-Part Series (Part Two)
Why does disillusionment
sometimes occur after immersion in yogic practices, and why does it send
many of us running for shelter from our once-beloved practice? The answer lies
in yoga’s seminal scripture, the Bhagavad
Gita. Pandava prince Arjuna asks the Supreme Lord Krishna to drive his
chariot into battle, only to face the dismal
prospect of engaging in combat his family, teachers, and friends at Krishna’s
behest. At the Gita’s conclusion, Arjuna surrenders fully to Krishna and
takes up the sword. The Gita
teaches us that to engage in the path of yoga and align with the divine, it
will not be easy. Indeed, at times our inner state will feel much like a
battleground, as old mental patterns (samskara) struggle to reassert their
primacy.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 by Tosca Braun
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Falling Out Of Love With Yoga
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Two-Part Series (Part One)
Oh, yoga. We love it, we leave it, and some of us may
eventually come back to it with a deeper appreciation of its multi-layered
complexity. Yoga instructor, JC Peters, recently blogged
about going “on a break” from her yoga practice. She notes that it’s not an
issue of discipline (she flosses), or lack of love for the practice (she still
enjoys occasionally playing sweet tunes and rolling around on her mat for 10-20
minutes). Instead, she’s felt “insulted” by yoga: “She’s been bossing around my
hamstrings and poking me in the belly. She has started telling me I’m not good
enough the way I am, that I need to adjust the angle of my foot, or that I need
to draw my low ribs in more, or that I should be thinking about my bikini body
as summer comes.” For Peters, Yoga Barbie was the last straw.
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As yoga becomes big business, the average class is in danger
of pricing
out the average yogi. You can choose not to participate in the latest
designer yoga fashions, and a $15 mat works just fine, as do studio loaners.
Still, most of us are at the mercy of the yoga studio’s pricing scheme when it
comes to taking classes. The dilemma doesn’t fall only to students of yoga
though; developing an economically sustainable practice is a challenge that
affects students and teachers alike.
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Friday, July 06, 2012 by Kathleen Bryant
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Yoga for the Electronic Age
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The first yoga classes I attended were $3 each, guided by an
ashram-trained teacher in the dusty back room of a crystal shop. None of us had
a sticky mat (not yet widely available) to put on the concrete floor, and $100
yoga pants weren’t even a gleam in some marketer’s eye. Times have changed.
Classes today average $10-20, and most yogis would consider a mat a necessity.
No longer counter-culture, yoga has moved from backrooms and basements to spas
and studios, and it seems like everyone’s gone to the mat, from your best
friend’s mom to Hollywood celebrities. Though yoga practices are still
transmitted from teacher to student, technology has given us a myriad of ways
to “take” a class, from streaming video to Wii Fit.
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In a modern
yoga-scape littered with self-development lit and enlightenment-centric
teachings, some of yoga’s finer—and more beautiful—teachings may be overlooked.
Self-compassion is one such teaching
that’s particularly emphasized in the Kripalu Yoga tradition (Kripalu means
“compassionate, merciful” in Sanskrit), referring to a deep and affective acceptance of present
moment experience as it arises, as well as recognition that one’s suffering is
common to all of humanity.
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Friday, June 29, 2012 by Amber Baker
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The Benefits of Breath Control
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The breath is a reflection of our mental state and vice
versa, yet often this connection goes unnoticed, even when it is ruling our
behavior. If you have ever realized that you were holding your breath then
taken a few full breaths, you may know the feeling of softening places you
weren’t even aware were becoming tense. The connection between our breath,
body, and mind is beautiful, fierce, fragile, and sometimes less under our
control than we would like to believe.
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Though yoga is not yet an Olympic
event (thank goodness), there is a lot of striving and competition in yoga
classes today. As a culture, we’re goal-oriented and externally focused, and
our asana often reflects that. One way we can shift to internal awareness is to
practice the Pawanmuktasana
Series, simple joint movements or warm-ups that prepare the body for more
complex postures and focus the mind on coordinating breath and movement.
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Friday, June 22, 2012 by Tosca Braun
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The Inevitable: Yoga Teacher Barbie
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Barbie dolls: maligned for their tyranny of impossible
proportions, yet beloved by many, these
ubiquitous icons of American culture have reflected the popular Zeitgeist for
decades. When first created, the dolls sported demure fashions with their
eyes glancing sideways in a gesture of deference. In 1971, the eyes were
adjusted to look forwards, mirroring an increasingly direct female populace. In
2009, “Totally Tattoos Barbie” launched to the outcry of parents and experts.
And now, as part of a line of Barbies exclusive to Target stores, Yoga
Teacher Barbie has launched, reflecting the massive recent increase in yoga
practice in the US population.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012 by Kristin Andrews
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The Unlikely Yogi Begins Studying the Sutras
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I’ve started studying the Yoga Sutras, and I’m beginning to
think I might be a bit of a jerk. The thought of referring to myself (or anyone
else for that matter) as divine or in the pursuit of divine nature makes me
cringe. All my years of cynicism and egocentricity are catching up with me, and
what I read in the sutras is the exact opposite of how I’ve lived my life. To
be honest, these are the aspects of yoga I avoided for some reason, and I now
realize that by avoiding them, I have not been doing the work to make necessary
changes in my life. I lack devotion to both my yoga practice and myself.
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