Yoga clothing manufacturer Lululemon took Wall Street by storm on Friday, despite an otherwise rocky market. Lululemon (on Nasdaq under LULU) stock opened at $25 and rose to $27.01. It raised $328 million in its IPO. The Vancouver company was founded by Chip Wilson who has 20 years experience in the surf, skate, and snowboard businesses. Do you wear Lululemon clothing? Thinking of investing?
Yogis attending class at Downward Dog studio in Toronto got a surprise visit from Sting earlier this week. The musician, in town for the Police reunion tour, dropped into class a few hours before Monday's gig. "Everyone was quiet for a minute when Sting walked in, and then it just calmed down," says Leigh Anne Dunn, who has practiced yoga at the studio for five years. Has a celebrity ever attended one of your yoga classes? Was it a distraction? Inspiring? Energizing? Annoying?
An upcoming video game from Nintendo called Wii Fit, which will be in stores in early 2008, will come with a pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board (to stand on) that will guide users through an array of activities, including yoga. Is this something you would consider using?
According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a chemical found in curry, specifically turmeric, may help the immune system clear away brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. Only 1 percent of elderly Indians suffer from Alzheimer's, which prompted the study. How often do you eat curry or other Indian cuisine?
New research shows that yoga can relieve both psychological and physical symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. It also appears yoga can lift levels of an antidepressant-like hormone, allopregnanolone, typically low in chronic sufferers. Dr. Ratna Sharma, a physiologist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, in New Delhi, told the World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne, "The fact that [yoga] appears to influence symptoms and also change levels of an important hormone is very significant indeed." Sharma said women with the worst psychological symptoms benefited most. Do certain asanas or pranayama help you with PMS?
Swami Ramdev, who has a large following in India and is best known for teaching pranayama, is holding six-day "yoga camp" at the Alexandra Palace in London from July 27 to August 1. More than 4,000 people are scheduled to attend. Georgie Wolfinden, founder of glowgetter.co.uk, said: "It will be the biggest ever yoga event in the UK. It will be amazing."
The Asian Classics Input Project, an organization dedicated to locating, cataloging, and disseminating Tibetan and Sanskrit manuscripts, has created a CD of yogic texts including the Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita, and more. The CD was given away to 1,000 yoga teachers and is also available online: ACIP Great Books Of Yoga One
Yoga is being used help children who have apraxia, a condition that affects their speech and fine motor skills. Patients don't just do asanas, they also make sounds in coordination with their breathing. Yoga has also been used to help kids with asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Asperger's syndrome. Has a child you know benefited from yoga?
The Papworth method, developed 40 years ago, has recently been proven to relieve asthma symptoms, depression and anxiety according to an article published in the journal Thorax. The technique includes a sequence of breathing and relaxation exercises developed in the 1960s at the Papworth Hospital in the U.K. Despite its anecdotal success, no research had been conducted on the method until a recent study by Drs. Elizabeth A. Holloway and Robert J. West, from University College London. Have you used this method or another yogic breathing method to control asthma?
Public schools in Oakland, Calif., and Lancaster, Pa., have started teaching meditation to elementary school children, reports The New York Times: "Stress-reducing techniques drawn from Buddhist meditation are wedged between reading and spelling tests." Although this may be a good way to teach kids how to focus and be mindful, does it blurr the line between church and state?
According to the New York Post, yoga teacher Rodney Yee and his wife Colleen antagonized Sag Harbor, NY, police by holding a class in Marine Park without a permit on July 3. "As the class started, cops descended and threatened to arrest the couple, but were talked down and the group was allowed to disband without a violation being issued," reported the Post. According to Yee, however, the story was exaggerated -- he was approached simply by a park supervisor. Despite his best intentions to facilitate yoga to overflow students from Colleen's nearby studio, the supervisor forced the spontaneous class to disband. A bit of an extreme reaction by the authorities, no?
By now you may know that traditional yoga mats, made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), can be hazardous to your health and the environment. The manufacturing of PVC products releases harmful dioxins into the atmosphere, and even more dioxins can leech into the soil when these products end up in landfills. Phthalates, added to PVC mats to make them pliable, have been linked with cancer. Mats made from rubber and other natural materials are now readily available. How many of you have made the switch? What did you do with your old mat?
Yoga will now be mandatory for students in Kerala, India. "Taking into consideration the widely accepted advantages of yoga and its effect on individuals, the education department would soon see that this is made part of the school curriculum in the state," said Education Minister M.A. Baby. If there is any grumbling, someone should explain American gym class dodgeball to them. Will yoga ever replace gym in the U.S.? Should it?
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