Long time yoga blogger, YogaDawg, announced yesterday that he is calling it quits to pursue his passion for painting.
For years his blog, My Itchy Third Eye, and website, YogaDawg.com, have provided us with hilarious yoga satire that reminded us not to take our yoga too seriously.
We'll miss you, YogaDawg! You are a true ARTIST in every way.
Today, The New York Times City Room blog posted that Bryn Chrisman, a vinyasa flow yoga teacher in New
York City, will be responding to readers' questions "about her path to
yoga, her current job, her practice, kirtan and other matters of
interest."
I think anything like this that gives yoga teachers exposure and lets
them explain their story is great. But when I scrolled down to look at the
questions that were asked I was a little surprised to see questions
seeking answers to serious medical questions (how to lower high blood pressure?), spiritual guidance, and how much
meditation practice is required to be "be a good yoga practitioner." (Check the City Room blog again on Wednesday to see her answers to some of these questions.)
I'm sure Ms. Chrisman is very knowledgeable--but surely she doesn't have the answers to all of those questions! Who does!?
It just makes me wonder, why is there such a big misconception out there out there that all yoga teachers are experts in all things medical and spiritual? Do you trust your teacher enough to ask him for medical advice? Where do you draw the line?
If you've ever had a sleepless night, you know how frustrating it can be to lay in bed wide awake, mind spinning or body aching, when all you want to do is sleep. Insomnia affects 54 percent of adults in the United States at one time or another. Luckily, studies have shown that yoga can help—and you don't even have to get up out of bed to do it, says a recent article on TheGlobeandMail.com. Try reclining poses like Balasana (Child's Pose), Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose), or Viparita Karani (Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose) if your bed is beside a wall.
"It's not a magic button," Graydon Moffat, a yoga teacher who suffers from insomnia, told The Globe and Mail. "But I know that I'm not just
lying down there and tossing and turning - I'm restoring my body."
Have you ever tried doing yoga when you couldn't sleep? What poses helped you most?
Possibly the biggest debate in the yoga community is around food, ahimsa (non-harming), and health. Today's New York Times includes an in-depth article on the wide range of ideas and philosophies surrounding yoga and food. Can you be a yogi who also appreciates a burger every now and then? What about wine? Chocolate? Some say yes, some say no... The debate continues.
No matter where you stand on the issue, it's hard to argue with this quote by Dave Romanelli: "What yoga teachers do and what chefs do is not so different. We take everyday actions like moving and eating, and slow you down so
you can appreciate them." Achieving stillness and peace amid the
distractions of life, he said, has always been the higher goal of yoga.
Last week, I posted a great video of local news anchors doing yoga. This week, I thought I'd follow up with an adorable video of a CBS news anchor practicing desk yoga with Kristin McGee. If you're sitting at your desk while you watch, give these stretches a try!
This weekend, there is no reason not to get your asana to a yoga class!
Saturday, January 23rd is Yoga Day USA, which means there will be lots of opportunities to practice yoga for free or at reduced prices.Yoga Day gives people new to the practice an incentive to give it a try, but we can all take advantage of a free class.
Find a participating studio or teacher near you. Try a new studio or a new teacher. Bring a friend who wouldn't join you for a class otherwise. Then, please remember to come back here and share your experience with the rest of us.
Today, the BBC reported that inmates in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh will be released from 15 days early for every three months they spend practicing yoga. "The authorities say the lessons help to improve the prisoners' self-control and reduce aggression," according to the article.4,000 inmates are taking advantage of the program, and many of the prisoners go on to become yoga instructors after they are released.
That sounds like a good deal to me. In the Yoga Journal offices, we get a lot of letters from prisoners across the U.S. who seem to be really dedicated to practicing yoga while they do their time. It's hard to measure how big the impact really is on aggression and self-control, but a little self reflection (yoga style) can only be a positive thing, right?
What do you think? Obviously there's a lot of controversy about the perks inmates should receive while they're in jail. Would you support this kind of program if it were to be proposed here in the U.S.?
The following clip, featuring yoga teacher Rainbeau Mars, recently aired on a San Francisco news station. Not only does it share yoga's immunity boosting benefits with a wide audience, but it also shows that you can do yoga any time (even when you're at work and wearing a tie!).
Do you think your yoga practice has helped you avoid a cold this season? What poses do you practice when you're feeling under the weather?
In the aftermath of Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, many yoga studios, teachers, and practitioners have forces to send aid and help soften the blow of the tragedy. We encourage you to lend your support--monetary contributions, participation in relief events, raise awareness, or simply dedicate a yoga practice--to the people of Haiti.
Below is a list of just a few yoga events that aim to help with the relief effort in Haiti. I know there are many more all over the country. I need your help to publicize other opportunities to get involved!
Please add the list by commenting below with local events or efforts in
your community-- please include dates, times, and URLs.
Yoga Tree Benefit Class in San Francisco, California -- January 17, 4:30pm; Studio will match donations.
Piedmont Yoga Studio Clothing Drive in Oakland, California -- through January 17
Haitian Relief Class with Spiritual Gansters 305 in Aventura, Florida -- January 17, 10:30am
River's Edge Yoga Classes for Haitian Relief in Alexandria, Virginia -- January 18, 11am, 12:30pm, and 6:30pm
Blue Lotus Yoga Studio in Raleigh, North Carolina set up a fundraiser page with Mercy Corps
By Donation Yoga for Haiti Core Strengh Vinyasa Master Class in New York, New York -- January 24 12-2pm and Benefit for Haiti with FELA! and other celebrities on January 22nd
Your Yoga Community Center in Hamden, Connecticut will donate the proceeds from classes on January 16 and 17th to Doctors without Borders or Americares.
What prevents people from jumping on the yoga bandwagon? According to a new survey conducted by Yoga Alliance, several misconceptions could be what's keeping non-yogis from trying their first class.
The research sought feedback from people who have never stepped foot in
a studio as well as those who have made yoga an essential part of their
lives. It found that, despite growing "buzz," there are many Americans
who know little about yoga or, worse, have incorrect assumptions which
inhibit them from participation. The three most common misperceptions
are that yoga:
Is religion-based. 57% of those who do not currently practice yoga believe that it requires mantras or chanting related to a form of worship.
Requires flexibility in order to practice.
Nearly 3 in 5 Americans - 59% of respondents - who do not practice
yoga think that it requires a person to be in at least "decent" shape.
In truth, however, anyone - of any size, shape or physical state - can
benefit.
Is not reallyexercise. Half of men who have never practiced yoga believe it "isn't a workout." In contrast, 73% of people who do practice believe it is just as effective as running, swimming or weight lifting."
That confirms my suspicions about why some people are simply not interested in yoga. I think it's a shame that misinformation about the practice has led so many to shun something that so many have found beneficial. It makes me wonder, what are we, as a community, doing wrong? What can we do to help people understand more clearly what yoga is really all about?
Kelly McGonigal, PhD, a yoga teacher, health psychologist at Stanford University, editor in chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy, once suffered from debilitating headaches
that made her wonder what it would be like to live one day without pain. Now, as the author of the new book, Yoga for Pain
Relief, McGonigal is sharing her tips for dealing with chronic pain through yoga and meditation. The following interview with McGonigal tells about her struggles and how yoga helped her.
Tell us a little bit about how you became
interested in using yoga for chronic pain. How has yoga helped you cope with pain?
I do live with
pain, but it is a pale shadow of what it used to be. For many years I had daily
headaches, often debilitating. My doorway
into relief came first through mindfulness meditation. I took a class for
people with chronic pain and learned a whole to new way to relate to sensation.
It was something no one had ever said in any of the yoga asana classes I had
taken. I learned how to focus on my breath and feel sensations without
resisting them. I remember the first time I tried breath mindfulness during a
bad pain episode, and it helped. I went back to the next class so excited to
explain to everyone how the pain had been so intense, and yet I had the experience
at the same time that it was OK, that I was OK, and I could handle it. What a
revelation!
I started
applying mindfulness acceptance of sensations to my yoga practice. Practicing
mindful yoga extremely useful, because the poses created so many intense
sensations! It was a perfect way to learn a new way of relating to discomfort.
Now, my pain is extremely mild and not daily. I only get a few debilitating headaches a
year. The pain isn't gone, it's just a completely different experience. It has
no hold on me, my emotions, and what I am able to do. And I almost never have
to take pain medication, whereas I used to take it daily. But it's actually
kind of a miracle.
Paying
attention to my body in yoga also helped by making me more aware of how other
things, like food and sleep, influence my pain. It's given me more mindful
awareness of cause and effect in my body and mind. This lets me make better
choices about how I take care of myself. People
with pain often feel betrayed by their body, and this was certainly true for me.
Yoga can help you restore trust in your body, and learn how to listen to your
body.
Why is yoga a good idea for people who have chronic
pain as opposed to other treatment options?
Yoga is so
helpful because chronic pain doesn't play by the same rules as acute pain from
a recent injury or illness. It is more strongly influenced by stress, thoughts,
and emotions. And the pain doesn't necessarily reflect a single identifiable
"problem" in the body, like a compressed disc or an infection. It usually
reflects a systemic change in how you experience pain that may involve your
muscles, nerves, hormones, and brain. So chronic pain is rarely "fixed" with a
single medical intervention like surgery. It is usually a more gradual process
that requires a holistic approach, including medicine, social support, and
mind-body or psychological approaches.
How is the approach in yoga for chronic pain
different from approaching any other kind of pain?
The biggest
difference is you're not looking to fix some part of the body. It's not a
"stretch your back to get rid of your back pain" approach. It involves every
possible tool of yoga, including breathing, relaxation, movement, meditation,
philosophy, and self-reflection. It's recognizing that yoga's healing power
comes from it's ability to change the way your breathe and move, yes, but also how
you feel, think, and relate to yourself and to pain. It's being open to the
possibility that meditation or breathing has a good a chance of reducing your
back pain as a stretch!
How can you use meditation as a tool to help? Can
you share an example of a meditation you might advise a chronic pain patient to
use?
One of my personal favorites is mantra meditation--repeating a healing phrase in your
mind. It gives you something to focus on, which shuts down the usual cascade of
thoughts that make pain worse. It provides a rhythm for the breath. This makes
it easier to slow down and deepen your breath, which can calm the stress
response and make the body and brain less reactive to pain. It gives you a
sense of quiet control, the exact opposite experience that typically goes with
pain or stress. I also like the idea that the mantra itself has a healing
power. I use a Buddhist mantra that resonates with me, and it is believed that
the sounds of the mantra spontaneously awaken the heart and mind. When I work
with students who have pain, I help them choose an English phrase or a yogic
mantra that feels meaningful to them.
Earlier this week, domestic diva Martha Stewart taped an episode of The Martha Stewart Show, dedicated entirely to the practice of yoga. During the show, which airs tomorrow, her guest Trudie Styler, a famed yogi and wife of musician Sting, leads the audience of 51yogis though an empowering Warrior workout. There's also an overview of the different kinds of yoga.
2009 was an amazing year for yoga news. There were lots of great stories--inspirational, shocking, significant, and trivial.
Yoga was portrayed positively and negatively in movies and reality TV shows. The debate about state licensing of teacher training programs generated grew as more and more states began to ask yoga schools to get licensed and more teachers fought back. Celebrities of all shapes and sizes found their way into yoga studios. Swami Ramdev made outlandish claims about yoga's ability to cure homosexuality. And, of course we all debated the difference and likenesses between yoga and religion (multiple times).
But this blog is not about 2009.
2010 is sure to be an even better year. It's already off to a great start. If news stories are any indication, everybody and their brother has resolved to do yoga this year. A recent blog post on Chicagonow.com predicted a rise in digital yoga, yoga gyms, and more gyms offering yoga.
What do you think will happen 2010? What was your favorite yoga news story of 2009?
I'd like to personally invite all of you yoga bloggers out there to take advantage of any holiday down time to put together a pitch to become the next Yoga Journal blogger. At YJ, we believe that each individual has a unique experience on their mats. And we can all benefit from hearing about the struggles and triumphs you face as you practice daily.
The Yoga Journal editors will choose one lucky blogger to become a regular guest on our Yoga Diary blog for six months. If you think you've got a compelling story to tell, please submit your information along with your blog concept to http://www.yogajournal.com/blogcontest.
If your choice to be vegetarian or vegan has anything to do with the yogic principle of ahimsa, or non-harming, you probably think you're doing less harm to living things and the environment by choosing to eat plants instead of animals. But how often do you consider the harm you're doing to the plants--also living beings--when you eat your vegetables?
"Just because we humans can't hear them doesn't mean plants don't howl," writes Natalie Angier in a recent NYTimes article about the ways plants fight off their predators. For example, plant scientists have found that plants release chemicals to attract large predatory insects in hopes that they will eat the smaller insects that prey on the plant.
It's a compelling argument. Maybe plants really do want to live, but we have to eat something to survive. Is eating plants the lesser of two evils? Or are we doing harm either way?
Americans are taking a pick-and-choose approach to religion these days, according to a recent Pew Reseach Center study. The study found that "more Americans nearly six in 10 Americans from all religions mix their faith with New Age and Eastern beliefs, like astrology, reincarnation, and the spiritual - not just physical - benefits of yoga," reported ABC news.
One of the biggest debates in yoga today is whether the practice can be considered a religion. I think most would agree that there's a spiritual aspect to yoga, but isn't that different than religion? What do you think?
If you're looking for serious holiday gift ideas for yoga practitioners you won't be interested in this blog post. (See "Gifts of Love" in our December issue, or click here.) The following gifts are my favorite silly yoga holiday gifts. They really have very little to do with the practice of yoga, but they're all cute and will put a smile on anyone's face.
For example, these gingerbread men are awesome! I think part of what makes them so adorable is how wrong the alignment is. (Check out that Warrior I Pose.) To buy go here.
This is a magnetic pad of paper that actually hangs on my refrigerator. I've been making grocery lists, leaving notes to my husband, and using it as scratch paper for the last two years. It was a holiday gift from my mother-in-law two years ago. I still think it's funny--in a really ironic sort of way.
Since the holidays fall so close to New Year's, a calendar is always a popular gift. Sure, you could go for a beautiful, awe-inspiring YJ calendar. Or you could get the pet lovers' version.
Since the recession began, there have been many stories about how people have turned to yoga to help with unemployment. First, yoga studios saw an increase in students. Then, as unemployment numbers sky-rocketed so did retreat enrollments. Unemployment has definitely impacted the yoga community, and it does not seem to slowing down any time soon. The latest news, is that a former Bear Stearns broker, who was inspired by yoga during his time job searching, decided to completely change career paths to open a yoga studio in New York City called Yoga Vidya NYC.
It might be a bad time for the economy, but it seems like the recession is giving people more time for yoga. In my book, that's a big positive! What do you think?
Yoga has been proven to be an effective tool to enhance a weight loss plan. Even when the practice is gentle and doesn't burn tons of calories, practitioners are less stressed and more mindful which contributes to reaching a healthy weight. The mind connection is what three yoga instructors and hypnotherapists were hoping to enhance when they combined yoga with hypnosis to create Hyp-Yoga.
According to the Hyp-Yoga website, the practice combines hatha yoga with positive visualizations that speak to the subconscious mind to impact the conscious.
Have any of you experienced Hyp-Yoga? If so, did you notice a big difference from a regular yoga class? Do you think it would be more effective at aiding weight loss than yoga alone?
This time of year there always seem to be a plethora of articles and news reports about how to deal with the stress of the holiday season.
Take, for example, this video by a news station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota:
We all know yoga can help us deal with stress from the holiday season--or any other stressful time for that matter. What else do you do to help you keep your calm during the hustle and the bustle?
Prizes include a spa vacation in Vermont,
a stained-glass window depicting the seven energy centers of the body,
Yoga DVDs, a yoga vacation in San Francisco and more...
Long time yoga blogger, YogaDawg, announced yesterday that he is calling it quits to pursue his passion for painting. 
I'd like to personally invite all of you yoga bloggers out there to take advantage of any holiday down time to put together a pitch to become the next Yoga Journal blogger. At YJ, we believe that each individual has a unique experience on their mats. And we can all benefit from hearing about the struggles and triumphs you face as you practice daily. 
Americans are taking a pick-and-choose approach to religion these days, according to a recent Pew Reseach Center study. The study found that "more Americans nearly six in 10 Americans from all religions mix their faith with New Age and Eastern beliefs, like astrology, reincarnation, and the spiritual - not just physical - benefits of yoga," reported 
Yoga has been proven to be an 
yogajournal.com
vegetariantimes.com
backpacker.com
optimumwellness.com
wholefoodsmarket.com
betternutrition.com
