With so many great natural products on the market -- lotions, facial cleansers and soaps-- I'm often disappointed by shampoos and conditioners that tout their chemical-free properties. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, such products leave my hair feeling stripped, dry and the conditioners often do nothing to add moisture or silkiness.
But recently I learned about a Los Angeles-based company called Lamas Beauty that only manufactures products that are vegan, free of Parabens, Propylene Glycol, Dyes, Sodium Lauryl and Laureth Sulphates, DEA, TEA and Petrochemicals.
I tried the Soy Balancing Shampoo and Conditioner, and was pleasantly surprised. They worked better than the other salon-quality products taking up space in my shower and they smelled terrific (rose geranium), which is a big plus in my book. The products are available at Whole Foods, select salons and on the website.
Any great natural hair products you can't live without? Do tell because we could all use a good hair day.
This week I was walloped with a flu. The kind where your skin hurts so badly pajamas feel like spandex and it seems like your internal organs are having their own mini sweat lodge.
Some say that sickness like this is a "cleanse"--the body burning off extra emotional and/or physical toxins. So here are some ways to heal and take advantage of the pending flu/cleansing season, locally. (Disclaimer: Listen to your doctor, not me.)
1) Get Juiced
I generally buy the alkaline/acid theory of illness--that the body should be more alkaline than neutral to fight disease. You can get a Ph level pee tester at High Vibe, a great little raw supply shop in the East Village. But more immediately, start slamming the green juice--it's alkalizing and has the minerals you need. There's a sweet health food store on Flatbush & St. Marks, New York Naturals, that makes a lovely organic all-green. And in Manhattan there's the pricey but manna-like pressed green juice at Liquiteria. A good green is hard to find.
2) Supplement
Someone recommended Source Naturals Wellness Formula, and I like to think that those gigantic, smelly horse pills did accelerate the healing. You could also go to the amazing Kamwo Chinese herb emporium in Chinatown--for acupuncture in their clinic and advice on what might help the snot party.
3) Read
You're open and releasing the old. It's the perfect moment to digest that tome of spiritual wisdom you may have picked up at the newishly renovated East West Books or Quest in Midtown. My fave is Pema Chodron--right now I'm digging on a little pocket book of hers on lovingkindness. She is the perfect partner in sickness or distress of all kinds.
4) Stretch
Now that you're a smidge better, you can go to yoga class without infecting your fellow yogis--but best to bring your own mat or one of those grippy towel mats everyone's toting around. Integral's Gentle Hatha class is super-mellow. All that is expected is your presence.
5) Notice
It's amazing how when I'm feeling craptastic I become screechingly sensitive and aware of things that whack my immune system. Sugar, the way I handle a long-delayed subway (keep staring into the dark tunnel or pull out Pocket Pema?), over-riding my intuition, etc. So take advantage of this hyper-attenuated moment to see how your surroundings and mindset give you energy or take it away. Then leave this mad town. Kidding. Mostly.
What do you do--or avoid--when you're sick in the city?
Despite the fact that this initiative is being sponsored by all of the major yoga mags and some of the big studios—and being supported, in some way, by celebrities like Sting, Madonna, and Tiger Woods whose photos are on the Yoga Month website—I have seen little about it in the general (or even not so general) media. But, come on. This is a big deal. There are only 12 months out of the year, and it's been declared that one of them is ours! (OK, so when I checked, I learned that it is also National Food Safety Month, National Sewing Month, National Preparedness Month, and National Chicken Month . . . but that's beside the point.)
According to the Yoga Health Alliance, which brings us Yoga Month, 20 million adults practice yoga in the US, and 250+ million adults practice yoga worldwide. And while the feds aren't about to give us a day off from work or school to celebrate the undeniable impact yoga has had, there's a lot we can do locally to promo our practices. This Saturday is a good place to start. All proceeds from the event benefit health education for children. Here's what you get for an all-day pass (which is $125, but is being offered at a special low price of $39 on some days this week):
+ All day classes with teachers like Leslie Howard, Hemalayaa, Scott Blossom, Dr. Timothy McCall, Katchie Ananda, and Headstand's Katherine Priore (read my recent blog about Headstand) + Benefit concert featuring Suzanne Sterling, Wade Imre Morissette, DJ Dragonfly and MC Yogi (read our NY blogger's recent post about MC Yogi)
And even if you can't go, write in and tell us how you celebrated, or plan to celebrate, Yoga Month!
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By the way, one of Stacey Rosenberg's students posted some awesome photos from last weekend's beach cleanup. Thanks so much, Ginger! Check them out here, and please send your own photos in at any time!
Last week, Krista Tippet interviewed Los Angeles' own Seane Corn on her Peabody award-winning radio show Speaking of Faith. In the candid Q&A, Corn shared how yoga helped her deal with OCD and how spending time on the mat eventually led her to work as an activist, advocating for children.
You can download the podcast at the Speaking of Faith website, which is one of my favorite destinations. Tippet has phenomenal interview skills mostly because she just knows so much. Her interviews of spiritual thinkers like Thich Nhat Hanh, mind/body scientists like Esther Sternberg and yogis like Matthew Sanford, are always an illuminating click away on my IPOD.
And while you're visiting, poke around the website and read Tippet's blog about her new yoga practice as well as stories and comments from yogi listeners around the country.
Any other Tippet fans out there? Or any other podcasts we should know about?
Next month is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Aside from a tide of pink consumer goods that donate varying amounts to the cause, the month also brings some cool-sounding yoga-related programs.
Om yoga has two big things going on. One is a free class on Tuesday afternoons for women before and after treatment for any kind of cancer. In association with the Libby Ross Foundation, the class is billed as gentle, balancing, and restorative.
The studio is also offering a cancer-related teacher training for already certified yoga instructors October 17-19th. Teachers will learn to address specific physical concerns of survivors as well as give appropriate emotional support.
As a survivor of cancer myself (lymphoma), I found yoga an invaluable part of my healing. I took a class at Integral Yoga, which was part restorative practice, part group sharing. It was wonderful to be in a nurturing environment with people who were thinking about illness in a similar framework as I was--more "how can i grow from this?" than the "why me?" I encountered in other groups. And all the subtleties of yoga seemed larger because I was so sensitive and physically fragile--pranayama and gentle stretching made such a difference.
Please pass this on to teachers and survivors who might be interested. Has the potential to be a great service--there's certainly not enough of this kind of thing around.
San Francisco: Attention Surfers and Beach Lovers!
Yogis are beach people. While most of us don't practice on the beach—at least not on any kind of regular basis—we find ourselves there for beach burns, surfing adventures, and mellow walks in rolled up pants along the edge of the water. There's something about the ocean that simply feels yogic and inspires a meditative mood.
If you are a yogi who loves the beach, this weekend is a great time to show it. Saturday is California Coastal Cleanup Day and there will be beach cleanup spots all along Ocean Beach. What's even better is that Anusara yoga teacher Stacey Rosenberg is offering a pre-cleanup all-levels class, from 8am-9am, on the beach at the entrance near Fulton Street and the Great Highway.
The class is free, and the cleanup starts right afterwards at 9am and goes till noon. Breakfast will be provided by various sponsors, including Whole Foods, and there's an added incentive for getting up so early: Those who come to Stacey's class will be entered in a raffle to win class passes from Yoga Tree, a Yoga Journal magazine subscription, and Prana and Jade yoga mats.
The California Coastal Commission will supply everything you need for the post-yoga beach cleanup—all you need to bring is a mat, some warm clothes to practice in, and a reusable cup for coffee or tea. Last year more than 60,000 people came out to Coastal Cleanup Day, and disposed of or recycled more than 900,000 lbs of trash. It really does make a difference!
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Also, this week: Check out Yoga Journal's new online community, where you can create a profile, meet other YJ members, or even start your own blog! If you want to "friend me" on the site, my username is KarenYoga :)
Visit the International Day of Peace site to to find out about what's going on in your area or participate in these local Los Angeles events:
Jane Goodall's organization Roots & Shoots brings people from all over the world together to craft Giant Peace Dove Puppets from reused materials and fly them in their communities. In Los Angeles, gather in Griffith Park at the merry-go-round from 11-4.
Walk for Peace. Meet at the Santa Monica Pier parking lot at 9 a.m., register and walk south to Venice Beach. Raise awareness and money for the campaign to help establish a U.S. Department of Peace.
If you love yoga and baseball (or know someone who does), you've got to join this eBay auction. Annie Appleby, the founder of the Burlingame-based yoga clothing company YogaForce, has teamed up with Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to raise money for Stand Up To Cancer. Together, along with corporate sponsors, they are auctioning a package on eBay that includes a one night stay at the new Intercontinental San Francisco (plus private yoga instruction with Appleby), a gift basket of Johnson & Johnson skin care products, and a special tapered YogaForce Mat (shown below) signed by Selig. The value: more than $1,000.
So how did Appleby, a San Francisco native whose yoga clothing designs have been sold by some of the country's top boutiques and seen in high profile movies and TV shows (like Sex and The City), get involved with Stand Up To Cancer? The answer is simple: Appleby is a skin cancer survivor. And so is Selig. (Appleby regularly auctions YogaForce yoga mats signed by big celebrities to benefit cancer-fighting organizations.)
This eBay auction is a part of a two week fund-raising effort by Stand Up To Cancer that started with a telethon last Friday night, which ran on all the major TV networks and raised more than a hundred million dollars. (Involved, says Appleby, was "every movie star on the planet" and BOTH presidential hopefuls.) All proceeds from the auction are tax-deductible and will benefit the nonprofit.
The bidding starts today and goes until September 15. To find out more about Appleby's clothing line or her other auctions, check out the YogaForce site. And if you want to meet Appleby in person, she's teaching a yoga class at this weekend's Sunday Streets event, from 10:30-11:15am at Ferry Park.
This is so cool: Sun Salutations for world peace! You can do a whopping 108 of them with your fellow yogis and yoginis on Sunday, September 21 for the Global Mala Yoga for Peace Event.
You'll be down-dogging and up-dogging to live kirtan in Battery Park to create a "mala" of asanas--108 beads on a mala, 108 poses in the park. Afterward, the (remaining) participants will form a giant human mandala, or "peace wheel" to "establish a feeling of peace and wholeness." Integral Yoga Institute and Jivamukti are supporting the day in NYC.
The $20 cost of participation will be donated to an organization that's about peace (they don't specify which one). And this is a simultaneous-ish (give or take a timezone) global event happening everywhere from Iceland to St. Louis to Tokyo.
You'll need to bring all your own supplies--mat, water, snacks, etc. And organizers emphasize going at your own pace and stopping when you need to. (Which for me might be after, um, five? Maybe 10 since it's world peace.)
And afterward--if you're able to move--there'll be a kirtan with Krishna Das at Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew.
This week the Iyengar Institute inaugurated their new home with an updated schedule and enthusiastic students.
I went to class this morning and was immediately pleased to find abundant parking (a source of stress at the old Third Street locale), brand new sticky mats, blocks and squeaky clean blankets. The rope wall was pristine and the bamboo floors pleased the eye and the feet.
All that said, the space has more of a neighborhood vibe, as folks coming and going from the L.A. Fitness club adjacent, poke their head in the door to see what's going on. I'm sure the new student promotion is hard to pass up: two weeks of unlimited classes for $27.
If you have never taken an Iyengar class at the Institute, now is the time to check it out ($27 is hard to beat). And if you do, let us know what you think. Oh, and don't miss the opening party celebration on October 12th.
It's a big time for celebration in the yoga community as this week marks the birthday of our favorite elephant-headed boy, Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. (If you feel like you're bumping into a lot of walls these days, it's a good time to have a private conversation with him.) But this week also marks the start of the new nationally recognized Yoga Month .
Yoga Month is a new initiative that has been deemed a National Health Observance by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion within the Department of Health and Human Services. Translation: It's totally legit. There are lots of ways to celebrate, including a San Francisco Yoga Health Festival at the Herbst International Exhibit Hall coming up on September 27. The festival includes a full day of classes and lectures by fabulous local yogis like Timothy McCall, Scott Blossom, and Katchie Ananda. The classes are very reasonable—at the moment, it's only $88 for a whole-day pass and $25 for individual classes. You should go if you can—I'll be there to blog about it, too.
The festival's not for a few more weeks, but there's another great way to celebrate this auspicious month: Do yoga at Power to the Peaceful. The music festival, which happens this weekend, features Michael Franti and Spearhead, Ziggy Marley, and a whole line-up of others. There are ample opps to do some yoga, too, from the free morning yoga sessions on Saturday to the all-day Yoga Jam that happens on Sunday. See the full yoga schedule here .
So, go and get your Ganesh on. And then report back and let us know it was!
I spent last night boogying at Omega Institute to a long list of A-list chanters--Deva Premal & Miten, Wah, KD, et al. The big surprise of the "ecstatic chant" evening was MC Yogi, my new favorite, hilariously fun kirtan-ist--think Beastie Boys meets Krishna Das. And lucky you, he's having a CD release party at Jivamukti in a couple of weeks where you can hear some tracks.
I know all those Buddha Bar albums and plenty of people from Madonna to Sting have merged pop and yoga, but MC Yogi (a.k.a. the adorable Nicholas Giacomini) is the first that I've seen merge kirtan and hip hop. And he's got quite the posse as backup: Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, and Bhagavan Das. And last night Sharon Gannon chanted along with him.
Sample lyrics: "Ganesh makes everything possible because elephant power's unstoppable... He writes the pages from the sages chants, dropping Vedic science so we can comprehend all the many ways that we can to transcend, singing jai to Ganesh who's a yogi's best friend... If you think Ganesh is super fresh when I say jai, you say Ganesh!"
Even though this kid is from California, this short new album feels like the ultimate fusion of yoga and NYC. It's also surprisingly educational--he makes rapping about Hindu deities little learning opportunities as well something to awaken your inner Fly Girl.
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Yoga DVDs, a yoga vacation in San Francisco and more...
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This week I was walloped with a flu. The kind where your skin hurts so badly pajamas feel like spandex and it seems like your internal organs are having their own mini sweat lodge. 
A few weeks ago, 
Next month is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Aside from a tide of pink consumer goods that donate varying amounts to the cause, the month also brings some cool-sounding yoga-related programs. 
Yogis are beach people. While most of us don't practice on the beach—at least not on any kind of regular basis—we find ourselves there for beach burns, surfing adventures, and mellow walks in rolled up pants along the edge of the water. There's something about the ocean that simply feels yogic and inspires a meditative mood. 
This is so cool: Sun Salutations for world peace! You can do a whopping 108 of them with your fellow yogis and yoginis on Sunday, September 21 for the 
It's a big time for celebration in the yoga community as this week marks the birthday of our favorite elephant-headed boy, Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. (If you feel like you're bumping into a lot of walls these days, it's a good time to have a private conversation with him.) But this week also marks the start of the new nationally recognized 
I spent last night boogying at Omega Institute to a long list of A-list chanters--Deva Premal & Miten, Wah, KD, et al. The big surprise of the "ecstatic chant" evening was 
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