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Did you get my Grease reference? Anyway, have you ever wanted to design your own yoga mat? Then check out www.yogamatic.com. You can create an eco-friendly yoga mat using your own photo or artwork. Put a photo of your baby/boyfriend/wife on a mat, so you can give them a kiss every time you move into Chaturanga Dandasana. Snuggle up with your pet during Savasana. The possibilities are endless . . .
If so, you'll want to visit Hands Om Crew ( www.handsomcrew.com), a crew placement agency that connects yoga and massage therapist practitioners with yacht owners. Hands OM Crew was founded by Denise Dobbs after she had retired from ten years of service in the yachting industry as a massage therapist. Has anyone ever worked on a yacht?
Yoga and surfing: two great tastes that taste great together? Totally dude, according to Liquid Yoga + Surf. And now is the perfect time to check out their New York-based classes, clinics, workshops, and camps. For more information, visit www.liquidyogaandsurf.com. On the West Coast, try www.yogaforsurfers.com or www.surfingyoga.com. Can the surfers out there recommend other classes or workshops?
Should yoga become an Olympic event? According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, members of the competitive yoga movement (many are Bikram yogis) hope to win over the International Olympic Commission in time for the 2020 summer games. What do you think?
Not just for kids, yoga action figures were created by yoga teacher Raymond D. Fogleman to help new students with their home practice. The "3-D Yogis and Yoginis Box of Poses" set is made with recycled plastic, paper, and cardboard, costs $29.99 and is available on Fogleman's website, www.rayzodyssey.com. Would you use these to help your practice, or maybe just to pass the time while on a long conference call?
I admit it, talk radio makes me cringe. But, aha!, here is something yogis might find interesting. It's a new radio program called Beat the Health Out of You (www.beatthehealthoutofyou.com). You can listen in on Sundays, from 1-2 pm central time, at www.710kcmo.com. The show is hosted by yoga teacher Sumya Anani. For more on Anani, visit www.sumya.com. And let me know if you listen in this weekend.
A Prevention article "Use Yoga to Stop the Clock," is getting renewed media coverage. It claims that yoga minimizes wrinkles, slows weight gain, eases pain, helps you sleep and keeps you sharp. Do you find this to be true? Do you look younger than people your age who don't do yoga?
A new film, EnlightenUp, takes a look at the world of yoga through the eyes of novice practitioner and skeptic, New York City journalist Nick Rosen. The film follows Rosen through mainland United States, Hawaii, and India as Boston-based filmmaker and yoga enthusiast Kate Churchill documents his increasing immersion in the world of yoga. Her goal is to prove that yoga can transform anyone, even Rosen.
The film was inspired by and has a substantial section filmed with Norman Allen, a renowned yoga guru on Hawaii's Big Island. Other teachers that make an appearance in the film include Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar, Sharon Gannon and David Life, Dharma Mitra, Rodney Yee, Cyndi Lee, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Alan Finger, Baron Baptiste, and Beryl Bender Birch.
EnlightenUp premiers at the Maui International Film Festival's Castle Theater June 12, and the trailer is available at www.enlightenupthefilm.com. Let me know what you think.
"Yoga for Runners" download is now available on iTunes. Created by Kimberly Fowler, "Yoga for Runners" is a 15-minute post-run workout, designed to improve a runner’s body alignment, open up tight hips and guard against hamstring injuries. It costs $5.99. Let me know if you try it or if you already have a post-run routine that works for you.
Sharon Stone is taking some major heat for a comment she made at the Cannes Film Festival about the earthquake in China and karma. Her comment is below. Does she deserve the current backlash? And was her use of the word "karma" correct? Dhammadassin, a teacher at the London Buddhist Centre, told the BBC, "To invoke karma is more to do with our desire to nail things down and find someone to blame. But that's not ours to do."
Sharon Stone: "I’m not happy with the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else, and so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that, because I don’t like that. And then I’ve been just concerned, oh, how should we deal with the Olympics, because they’re not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who’s a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, ‘Is that karma?’ when you’re not nice the bad things happen to you? And then I got a letter from the Tibetan Foundation that they wanted to go and be helpful, and that made me cry. And they asked me if I would write a quote about that and I said I would, that it was a big lesson to me. That sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even for people who are not nice to you."
If you know anything about mindful eating, you are probably familiar with the Indian term rasa, which literally means taste. More subtly, rasa is defined as the "juice" of any object, its "marrow" or "sap." A new phenomenon, called "flavor tripping" by gawker.com, defies the very idea of rasa. "Flavor tripping" involves ingesting a Miracle Berry, which contains an active glycoprotein molecule. When the berry is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue’s taste buds, causing bitter and sour foods consumed later to taste sweet. This effect lasts between thirty minutes and two hours. Parties, where guests first eat a berry then sample lemons, limes, grapefruits, pomelos, rhubarb, dill pickles, and cheeses, are growing in popularity. For more info, visit www.miracleconnect.com. Have you tried a Miracle Berry? Do you want to?
This just in: yoga and horoscopes can lead to possession by Devil. "Father Jeremy Davies, exorcist for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, says that activities such as yoga, massage therapy, reiki or even reading horoscopes could put people at risk from evil spirits," reports The Daily Mail. In his new book, In Exorcism: Understanding Exorcism In Scripture And Practice, which is published by the Catholic Truth Society, Fr Davies writes: "‘The thin end of the wedge (soft drugs, yoga for relaxation, horoscopes just for fun and so on) is more dangerous than the thick end because it is more deceptive – an evil spirit tries to make his entry as unobtrusively as possible." Do you think this is funny? Sad? Offensive?
 Nintendo released the Wii Fit game on Wednesday (see my original July 25, 2007 post). Players use a wireless balance board, which is reminiscent of a bathroom scale, to practice yoga, strength training, and aerobics, in addition to balance games such as Ski Slalom and Tightrope Walk.
My husband found the review copy on our doorstop Wednesday morning, and had it hooked up in 45 minutes and had gone running and skiing before I even had a chance to look at it. Naturally, I was most interested in the yoga component. But first, I chose a Mii character that would be my on-screen personality (Gema) and completed a body test that revealed my BMI (20) and my Wii Fit Age (eight years younger than my actual age. Yahoo!). Then it was on to yoga. There are 15 yoga poses, but only four were “unlocked.” I needed to practice for a certain amount of time before the next yoga pose was available to me. After doing Deep Breathing, Half Moon, Warrior, and Tree Pose two times each, I was allowed to practice Sun Salutation and Standing Knee pose. But after 65 minutes of practice, I still didn’t have access to the other nine poses, which was frustrating. Even though I executed the poses “perfectly,” I could not move to the next level until I had exercised the required amount of minutes.
As I did each pose, the game could tell if I was balancing correctly or if I was favoring one leg or another. In fact, it is easy to become more focused on the Balance Indicator than doing the pose properly. At the end of each pose, the game gave me a ranking of Yoga Newcomer, Yoga Novice, Yoga Trainer, or Yoga Master. It also ranked me against my past performance and other yogis who used the game earlier. My friend, Grace, didn’t like this feature. It made her feel too competitive, she said.
The balance board is two inches high, and it was a little strange doing Warrior Pose with one foot elevated on the board, and the other on the ground. But at the end of the day, I do think Wii would be a fun way to help beginning to intermediate level yogis develop a home practice. Wii Fit, with the Wii Balance Board, retails for about $90. To play Wii Fit, you must first have the Nintendo Wii game system, which costs about $250.
Funnyman Christopher Guest, best known for his mockumentaries such as Best in Show and This is Spinal Tap, has contributed to yoga teacher Cyndi Lee's new CD, OM yoga Mix 2. Guest has started a new band called the Beyman Bros and together they created the song "Tulong" for the CD. There are also two tracks by chanting legend Krishna Das. To sample the CD, visit www.dharmamoon.com/OMYM2.html. What's next: a yoga mockumentary?
According to India's Economic Times, many Russians are turning to yoga, particularly Iyengar Yoga, to combat the stress of their increasingly fast-paced lifestyles. "Iyengar Yoga is propounded and promoted across Russia and former Soviet Union-ruled regions. It is a common sight to see thousands of Russians attend yoga workshops in St. Petersberg, Moscow and Yekatarinburg." Has anyone ever taken (or taught) a yoga class in Russia??
Nancy Portuga Jamello teaches yoga to teenage students at the California School for the Blind in Fremont.
Many of the students slouch because the constant fear of running into objects and losing their balance can produce an over-arching spine. Yoga gives them the chance to not only work on their posture and balance, but also to exercise without worrying about the space around them. "The students can't necessarily play a sport or go for a run in the park, but they can practice yoga on a towel in their rooms," Jamello told The Mercury News. "They can work up a sweat in one spot." Has yoga helped someone you know who is sight-impaired?
Kate Potter's popular show, "Namaste Yoga," can now be seen in seven countries. "In all my years of teaching yoga, I never dreamed I would be reaching out to the numbers of people who are writing to me these days," says Kate. "My show is now seen across Canada, the United States, Asia, and now even in parts of Europe and Central America. I answer mail every day to people who tell me this show has moved them, inspired them, and even healed them." In the U.S., FitTv broadcasts "Namaste Yoga." (Visit http://fittv.discovery.com/fansites/namaste/namaste.html for more info.) Have you seen it?
Do you use yoga props at the studio or at home? In the past, yoga props usually meant a strap, a block, and a blanket. Now you can find all manner of back and toe stretchers, and more. At Gaiam.com, you can buy Yogacise Body Lift (for head stands), Back Wave (for back bends), or an Inversion Table. Yogaprops.net offers a Backbending Bench, a Shoulderstand Bench, and a Heart Block for chest-opening poses. Has a prop ever dramatically changed your practice?
An innovative yoga studio in Greenwich, CT, has started an online food co-op. Customers shop for local organic foods online then pick up their groceries at Greenwich Yoga once a week. "It was just another aspect of how we could get that community aspect going here," Gina Norman, co-owner of the studio, told the Greenwich Time. You can visit the co-op at http://coop.greenwichyoga.com.
Have you heard of slackline yoga? Created by Jason Magness with climbing partner Sam Salwei, it involves holding yoga poses while balancing on a rope. "Magness had tried to walk on the slackline, a hobby of his climbing peers. He had the balance and strength, but not the patience. As a yogi, he tried again. Over time, he learned to stand still until the line stopped vibrating. He started using it as a meditation tool. When he was distracted, the line shook. When he focused, it was still.," reports the Wall Street Journal. Critics say it turns yoga into a circus act, rather than a spiritual pursuit. What do you think?
This new Mac ad shows how PCs can frustrate even the most centered yoga instructor. Tell me what you think. Visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko3kg7FpKa0.
Baan Unrak is a community development project serving children and mothers in need in Sangklaburi, Thailand. The organization provides vegetarian meals and also offers yoga and meditation classes. Children perform in 'yoga shows' which are meant to help increase self-esteem. You can read more about Baan Unrak and even watch a video of one of the yoga performances at www.baanunrak.org.
If you live in San Francisco, you may have seen or heard about Tamara Standard (aka Yoga Girl) teaching yoga on the tough streets of the Tenderloin and Mission districts in an effort to bring yoga to people who might not have the opportunity to explore it. “My purpose in the Tenderloin has been to be an initiator into experiencing a new level of consciousness. It’s a privilege and a honor to share this unity,” she explains. You can watch Tamara at www.yogagirlsf.com. Let us know about other people practicing unique forms of karma yoga, or selfless service.
According to various press reports, actor Tobey Maguire (of Spiderman fame), who is a vegan, is asking visitors to his home to remove all leather items before entering. One guest to his house said, "I've seen women take off their shoes, belts, and even leave their $4,000 bags at the door. Tobey says the smell of leather makes him sick—he never has it around him."
"I don't judge people who eat meat, that's not for me to say, but the whole thing just sort of bums me out," says Maguire.
What do you think? Has Maguire gone too far or is this reasonable? Have you experienced similar requests in your life?
If so, you might enjoy Punk Rock Yoga, being offered in Boston, New York, Seattle and Toronto. "I love the different kind of music, and it really gets people who wouldn't go into a yoga study into a class because it's in a different environment," instructor Erin Bell told CanWest News Service . "Yoga is really about exploring things for yourself and so I find it goes along with that philosophy." Perhaps now New York's CBGBs can reopen and offer yoga classes. For more information, visit www.punkrockyoga.com.
A recent Yoga Journal "Yoga in America" study shows that Americans spend $5.7 billion a year on yoga classes and products, including equipment, clothing, vacations, DVDs, books, and magazines. This represents an increase of 87 percent compared to the previous study in 2004. How much do you spend on yoga? Do you think classes and products are fairly priced?
Yes, you read it right. You can buy t-shirts, flip flops, a yoga mat, and even a snowboard decorated with the phrase "f--- yoga." Barnaby Harris, founder of f---yoga.com, writes, " It started as a joke. My ex-wife was extremely passionate about her yoga practice. As a gag for her birthday I made each of us a f--- yoga t-shirt. She refused to wear hers. I wore mine for thirty-nine straight days and was stopped everywhere I went. A write up in The New York Observer and a photo in GQ Magazine got it rolling. " What do you make of it? Have you seen this merchandise before?
On December 5, I encouraged readers to visit www.volvoforlifeawards.com and vote for Matt Sanford. Well, guess what? He won! Matt will receive a $100,000 contribution to the charity of his choice. If you took the time to vote, I'm sure Matt appreciates it. Visit www.volvoforlifeawards.com for more on Matt.
The Laugh Angeles newsletter is giving away a list of 150 laughter exercises. To receive the list and for more on laughter yoga, visit www.laughangeles.com. How many of you have practiced laughter yoga?
Artist Marc Quinn has agreed to donate Red Sphinx, a white-bronze sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss in a "heart-shaped yoga pose with red lips," to an auction on February 14 for Red, the brand created by U2 star Bono to raise money to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, reports the Wall Street Journal. Another Quinn sculpture, Sphinx (not sure what the difference is between "Red Sphinx" and "Sphinx"), depicting Moss in what looks like Dwi Pada Sirsasana, received controversial coverage when it was unveiled in 2006 because Moss doesn't do yoga (a model posed for the artist) nor does she lead a very yogic lifestyle. Says Quinn, "Kate is a mirror of ourselves, a twisted Venus of our age." What do you think?
Have you heard of deeksha, or the Oneness Blessing? According to Arjuna Ardagh, author of Awakening Into Oneness, "Deeksha is a powerful transmission of energy, which rapidly accelerates the evolution of consciousness. Deeksha can be given by the Deeksha-giver placing their hands on the head of the receiver. It can also be given to a whole room of people at the same time, through intention, and it can also be given through the eyes." The oneness blessing was created by Sri Bhagavan who is head of Oneness University near Chennai, India. For more information, visit www.livingessence.com and www.onenessuniversity.org.
Financial powerhouse Dow Jones has launched dharma indexes "to track the stocks of companies that observe the values of dharma-based religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism," reports the Washington Post. "The principle of dharma contains precepts relevant to good conduct, but also the implicit requirement of mindfulness about the sources of wealth—and therefore responsible investing," said Nitesh Gor, chief executive of Dharma Investments, a firm that helped create the indexes. For more information, visit www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/index.cfm?event=showDharmaOverView, but know that the list of companies is not yet up on the website.
The Detour Yoga Bar hits store shelves today. The new energy bar, in two flavors called Blueberry Acai and Peach Mango, "includes lemon balm to help alleviate stress and promote a sense of calm while supporting strong, flexible muscle development with 11 grams of high-quality protein." Visit www.detourbar.com for a list of all ingredients. Is this something you would try? Do you eat energy bars? If so, before or after practicing yoga?
Some of Mohandas Gandhi's ashes will be scattered in the Arabian Sea on January 30, the 60th anniversary of his death, reports the Associate Press. "A small steel urn of Gandhi's ashes — one of dozens dispersed across the country after his death — was sent to a Gandhi museum in Mumbai last year by an Indian businessman whose father, a close friend of Gandhi's, had preserved the ashes. Trustees had planned to display the nonviolence leader's ashes in a memorial in downtown Mumbai, but Gandhi's descendants requested the ashes be scattered at sea, said Dhirubhai Mehta, vice president of the Mahatma Gandhi Museum. 'No one knows for sure how many such urns there are elsewhere,' Mehta said. 'The ashes were sent to Gandhi's followers wherever they requested it.'" Would you have liked to have seen the urn go to a museum?
In order to attract more people to Buddhism in Japan, three monks regularly perform at a Tokyo jazz bar, reports the BBC. After chanting for 20 minutes, the monks sit down with the audience to chat and.... make balloon flowers. "Many Japanese don't want to come to temple," says one monk. "They think Buddhism is very difficult, and deep and serious, but Buddhism is much more than that - exciting, funny even. I want to spread this kind of teaching." But the performances have upset some Buddhists. What do you think?
If so, check out the new podcast Buddhist Geeks (www.fallingfruit.tv/buddhistgeeks/), a weekly web radio show intent on introducing spirituality to a younger audience via interviews with Buddhist teachers and scholars. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the show is hosted by 24-year-old Vince Horn, a Naropa University graduate, and Ryan Oelke, a late twenties graduate student and teacher at Naropa. Let me know what you think.
Don't know what to give a fellow yogi? Want to make sure you leave class with the right yoga mat? You can buy a personalized, embroidered yoga mat at justmymat.com. Mats are made from TPE (Thermo Plastic Estomer) which the company claims is biodegradable and recyclable. They come in four colors and cost around $40. There are even mats designed for pets.
Whether you're just starting to study Buddhism or you're already on the path, "Ask a Monk, " an online information and advice service, can be an invaluable resource, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Ven. Shih Ying-Fa, the abbot of | | |
