If you live or work in a city, you know how difficult it can be to find a moment of quiet. Between the buses, sirens, and people chattering it can seem like an impossible feat to even make a phone call, much less stop for a sun salute or meditation break. City noise is one of the reasons behind a new yoga class held at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. "There's very little quiet place left in the city," class organizer Rick Castro told CBS news. "This is a place where you really can just come and just be with yourself and meditate." (Please watch the video by clicking here.) "The spirits are with us," he added later. "They come through us." The class costs $20 and will take place every Tuesday at 7 pm.

What do you think? Does this align with the yoga philsophy on death and dying? Or is it creepy?

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I've been seeing a commercial for Yoplait yogurt on television a lot lately. It's kind of funny, but it also pokes fun at yoga students who twist themselves into all kinds of crazy positions because we believe it will fix everything--in this case, digestive health. It's like they're saying: "Silly yogis. Why would you want to do that when you could just eat this miraculous, yummy yogurt instead?"

My response? Silly advertisers.

Watch the commercial and let me know what you think.

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I'll never forget the time a yoga teacher looked at me in a pose (it was a variation of Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose), scowled, shook her head, and announced loudly to the entire class, "I can see we've got a LOT to learn!"

As former YJ Samadhi and the City blogger Valerie Reiss wrote in her latest post at Beliefnet.com, some yoga teachers are not interested in infusing our practices with warm, fuzzy feelings. And, whether they intend to or not, sometimes they can be just plain ol' mean. "Have I just been jaded by my old Bikram practice where the teachers often wear their harshness like a badge?," writes Valerie. "Or is it New York, where, frankly I have had some excellent teachers but very few I would call remotely warm or fuzzy?"

I don't think it's New York, Valerie. You can find grumpy people everywhere--even yoga studios. But that doesn't mean we can't learn a lesson from them--yoga, self-restraint, compassion, or perhaps even what NOT to do.

Have any of you ever had an encounter with a mean yoga teacher? How did you deal with it? Did you go back?

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Whether you like video games or not, you've got to be at least curious about the new Yoga for Wii game coming out later this year. As a Wii Fit enthusiast, I was definitely excited to hear that there was a game dedicated to the practice of yoga (as opposed to Wii Fit, which has a yoga component). According to the game's official website, which launched recently, the game will feature:

• Tips, photos, videos and a number of exercises by top model Anja Rubik.

• Your own customized yoga exercise plan.

• A wide range of yoga positions and the ability to use the Wii Balance Board

• Authentic Far-Eastern locations and buildings

• Dynamic monitoring of your own process

• 7 beautifully-designed levels with a huge selection of rooms

This all sounds great to me--especially the part about customizing your own plan. But I have to admit, I'm a little skeptical of receiving yoga tips from a fashion model who is simply "an ambitious yoga fan," as the website states. I just hope they got some help from an experienced yoga teacher.

Regardless, I still can't wait to try it out! What do you think?  

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A Columbia, SC museum is hosting a yoga class in the middle of an art gallery. Doing yoga among beautiful pieces of art enhances the senses says Rikki Donahue, the yoga teacher who will lead classes at the museum through September 9th. "You notice the vastness of the canvas, the colors and the mixture and your senses are so much more aware," Donahue said.

Would you take part in a class like this?

For more information visit wltx.com or watch the video below.

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Businessmanagementdaily.com recently posted a list of tips using yoga techniques to help productivity. It's something I can definitely relate to as I sit at my desk on a Friday afternoon. It's also a fabulous lesson in applying yoga to everyday life.

1. Drill your attention into the present moment. People mostly accomplish this through meditation, but you can get pretty close just by doing one thing at a time and focusing your full attention on it.

2. Turn an everyday occurrence, like walking down stairs or crossing a street, into a reminder to concentrate on this moment and think about what you're doing.

3. Breathe deeply a few times right before you go to sleep and when you wake up. Feel the oxygen spreading to your legs and brain.

4. Instead of drumming your fingers as you wait for a meeting to start, observe yourself and see how your thoughts and emotions affect your body.

5. Slow down.

I think the world would be a much better place if more offices encouraged their employees to slow down, breathe deeper, and live in the present moment. If it makes us more productive, that's just icing on the cake.

What do you do to stay focused on the present at work?

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

At $18 a class in some cities, it's no surprise that yoga studios are often a hub for financially secure spiritual seekers. It's the high price tags associated with yoga classes, retreats, and trendy yoga clothes that has some folks making sweeping generalizations about how yoga is a yuppie activity.

However, there's no denying the sector of the yoga community working to change all of that. A recent article in the Washington Post features several ways yoga teachers are donating their time and energy to help low-income students, HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and more by offering free classes.

It's nothing new. Those of us who are involved in the yoga community know that there are amazing people selflessly sharing yoga with under-served populations all the time. I'd love to hear your stories! What programs are available in your neighborhoods that offer yoga to people who might never set foot in a studio otherwise?

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Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, and people who eat mindfully are less likely to be obese, according to a recent study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The study, which was a follow-up on an earlier study that revealed middle-age gained less weight over a 10-year period than those who did not, confirms that the increased awareness that yoga practitioners often experience may play a bigger role in weight management than the yoga asanas themselves.

"The researchers found that people who ate mindfully - those were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full - weighed less than those who ate mindlessly, who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression," states a press release from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center released August 3. "The researchers also found a strong association between yoga practice and mindful eating but found no association between other types of physical activity, such as walking or running, and mindful eating." Click here to read the whole report.

Basically, yoga helps people be more aware of their actions, which helps them better gauge how much food they need and control weight. That sounds about right to me. Anyone else?

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

By YJ correspondent Nancy O'Brien.

Yoga Journal, tracking down furtive reports that a yoga teacher had been arrested in a Michigan crackdown on yoga teacher training programs, has learned that state police appeared at Dancing Feet Yoga in New Buffalo April 30 with a warrant for the arrest of studio owner Don Wenig. The charge: operating a proprietary school without a license, which carries a penalty of up to 90 days in jail or a fine not to exceed $1,000—or both.

 

Michigan's Proprietary School Unit had informed 28 yoga teacher training programs across the state of the need for licensing. "You have seven days to comply," the letter warned.

 

"A detective showed up during a class with a warrant for my arrest," Wenig told Yoga Journal Friday. At the studio, Wenig posted a cash bond of $250 with Detective Douglas Kill and was ordered to appear in Criminal Trial Court in May, according to Berrien County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mike Sepic.

 

"There were no handcuffs on his wrists. He wasn't thrown into jail," Sepic said, "but technically, it was an arrest."

 

Wenig pleaded not guilty May 28. His case was scheduled for trial July 9, but during a status conference three days earlier, Wenig changed his plea to guilty in an agreement that will wipe the criminal misdemeanor off the books if he completes the arduous licensing process within 60 days, according to Sepic.

Wenig said he's "working on it," adding with a laugh, "I'm glad to be free."

Freelance writer and editor Nancy O'Brien, a former Opinions editor at the New York Daily News, teaches yoga in New York, specializing in issues of illness and recovery and graceful aging. She has taught at Bellevue's World Trade Center Clinic, the hospital's Parkinson's support group, a Bellevue psychiatric outpatient program and the New York Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

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