Never Stop Learning

April 17, 2013

teachingIn the last couple of years yoga injuries have come to the forefront of conversation. Many articles and blog posts have been written about how to stay safe. Perhaps the best piece of advice is to make sure you’re studying with a teacher who is experienced and has enough training to safely guide you. A single 200-hour teacher training might not be enough, so continuing education is important for both teachers and the students they teach.

Yoga Alliance, the nonprofit governing body of yoga that regulates the training programs and specifications in the U.S., requires that teachers take at least 30 continuing education units (CEUs) every three years, from the date they first registered as yoga teacher (in addition to teaching at least 45 hours during that time, as well). While in-person trainings are the best, through workshops at your studio or at yoga conferences, teachers can also get CEU credits through non-contact hours. One CEU hour is credited to teachers for every five hours of non-contact study, which could be studying through yoga books, magazines, DVDs, participating in webinars or online courses, publishing your own work on yoga, or even creating class materials.

Of course, even if you’re not a teacher, these resources can help you dig deeper into your practice. Here are a few convenient options for continuing education.

Yoga U Online
Yoga U is what its name says: a university for yoga. You can find online courses, webinars, articles, and downloads on all things yoga (from yoga therapy to yoga nidra) at this great, thorough website.

Teachasana
This is an online educational resource by yoga teachers for yoga teachers. Teachasana is home to weekly articles written by yoga teachers from all over the world, reviews of products for yoga teachers, free online workshops, and even suggested playlists to use in your classes.

My Yoga Online
Developed in 2004, this first online yoga school offers one of the largest and most diverse Mind-Body video and article libraries in the world. Teachers include Shiva Rea, Cyndi Lee, and Mark Whitwell. This site also has a page dedicated to teacher education.

YogaGlo
This online yoga school allows you to search specifically for videos and workshops by style, duration, specific use or body part, and experience level. YogaGlo features trainings being taught by teachers such as Jason Crandell, Kathryn Budig, and Seane Corn. The YogaGlo blog also has regular blog posts with teaching tips from Jason Crandell.

Yoga Journal
Yoga Journal’s website has an entire section devoted specifically to teachers. You can find everything here from live downloads of courses and articles on yoga therapeutics and philosophy, to how to conduct your yoga business.

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Documentary Explores Meditation

April 15, 2013

  Elena Brower in On Meditation

There have been studies galore cropping up recently about the benefits of meditation, supporting a wide array of claims from health benefits and higher test scores to even how meditation affects political views. It’s clear that meditation is an amazing tool that helps people in many ways, but no matter how many studies prove its benefits for so many who know little about meditation  it can seem daunting and out of reach. A documentary called “On Meditation: Documenting the Inner Journey,” which is now in production, aims to change that by telling the stories of people with very different backgrounds who have one thing in common: their meditation practice helps them cope and makes them better at what they do.

“Through these portraits, we begin to understand that meditation isn’t something that can only happen in a Buddhist temple after years of study; anyone can meditate anywhere,” says the Kickstarter page attempting to raise $50,000 for the project. In keeping with the mission to make meditation mainstream, for every advance copy of the film backed through the Kickstarter campaign a copy will be donated to an institution serving  people who might not have access otherwise. The money raised with go toward production of the first five interviews, which producers say will be the first in a series of documentaries on the topic.

Film producers have already interviewed author Peter Mattheissen, actor Giancarlo Esposito, Buddhist monk the Venerable Metteyya, yoga teacher Elena Brower, and Congressman Tim Ryan, who recently described his meditation practice to The Columbus Dispatch. “You realize how much better your days are, how much better your relationships are because you’re actually there for them,” Ryan said. “Then you start to realize how much energy you can waste by fretting about future or regretting things in the past that we just carry with us.” Film director David Lynch and author Gabrielle Bernstein have also agreed to be interviewed.

Brower, who is an executive producer on the project, recently wrote about her meditation practice on The Huffington Post. “Sometimes my meditation happens in my son’s room, surrounded by his toys after he’s fallen asleep,” she wrote. “The locale is of no consequence; it’s the intent to be quiet and receptive that matters.”

Do you think getting a glimpse at how meditation helps people in many different stations in life will inspire more people to take up the practice?

Visit onmeditation.com for more information and to receive updates.

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Creating Jobs through Yoga in Kenya

April 12, 2013

ONeill-Africa-Nov14-Print-018_mediumphoto by Robin O’Neill 

It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “yoga changed my life,” referencing the practice’s stress-relieving, mind-quieting, health-promoting benefits. For a group of yoga teachers in Nairobi, Kenya, yoga has also provided them with the means to support themselves, thanks to the non-profit organization, Africa Yoga Project.

A profile on NPR’s Morning Edition describes Nairobi’s “burgeoning yoga scene,” depicting a noontime rooftop yoga class where honking horns rise up from the traffic below and women stepping around the yoga mats to hang their laundry. The teacher, Sophia Njoki, teaches five classes per week. Training to become a yoga teacher, she told NPR, was exactly what she needed to deal with the stress of living in the city and to help her stop using drugs and alcohol.

Since it was founded in 2007, Africa Yoga Project (AYP) has trained more than 70 local yoga teachers and offers 350 free classes a week. It gives local teachers like 25-year-old Francis Mburu a viable career option. “I’m from the slum, but I go to teach in someone’s mansion,” Mburu told The Guardian in a recent article.

AYP, which was co-founded by Baron Baptiste and Baptiste Yoga teacher Paige Elenson, is funded by donors, volunteers, and yogis in the West. Forty more teachers will go through the training in an 8,000 square foot facility in Nairobi this year.

While yoga is not yet as popular in Africa as it is in the U.S., the teachers there share some of the same challenges that teachers here face. Christian students have shown skepticism toward chanting and other spiritual parts of the practice. “To us, this was devil worship or someone trying to convert us,” Billy Sadia, who attended one of AYP’s first trainings told The Guardian.

While the classes emphasize the physical over the spiritual aspects of yoga, they offer many so much more than physical exercise. “What yoga did was give me a choice,” Mburu said.

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Chess & Yoga

April 10, 2013

yogachess-1

Photo: Nerissa Sparkman

The strategic game of chess and the meditative practice of yoga may not appear to have much in common, but a new essay on Chess Life Online, the United States Chess Federation’s online magazine, begs to differ. The author of the essay, Melinda J. Matthews, is a regular contributor to the site, as well as a yoga teacher and the chess mom of an accomplished teenage chess player.

“My 16-year-old son, Nicholas Rosenthal, is a serious tournament chess player with three national scholastic titles under his belt,” Matthews told Buzz. “[The connection between yoga and chess] is just something that has always tickled the edge of my mind.” She adds that she has been able to relate to Nicky’s deep love of chess because she feels the same way about yoga. “They seem to ignite similar delights in us.”

In her research, Matthews learned that two actually have more in common than one would think. For example, the word “chaturanga,” which comes from the Sanskrit chatur (four) and anga (limbs), was also the name of an earlier version of chess, which was based upon the four divisions of a Vedic army: elephants, chariots, horse cavalry, and foot soldiers. In her essay, Matthews also compares yoga to chess, as both are generally solitary practices that help you learn focus, deep inner listening, and non-attachment.

Yoga, writes Matthews, can also serve tournament chess players in numerous ways. She suggests yoga postures for relief from sitting at a chess board for long periods of time (Ardha Matseyendrasana will relieve players’ low-back tightness, she says), balance postures to help build concentration, and Savasana to relieve post-tournament stress.

“Chess and yoga have lasted through the centuries for one very good reason: They answer a deep-seated call in us, firing up our synapses in a way that goes far beyond data collection and scientific studies,” Matthews writes. “Even though yoga doesn’t speak to Nicky the way it does to me, his enjoyment of chess shines through him the way my passion for yoga radiates within me. It’s the same love taking different forms.”

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NYTs Profiles Yoga’s “First Lady”

April 8, 2013

saidman_yeeAn article published yesterday in the New York Times named yoga teacher Colleen Saidman Yee the “First Lady of Yoga.”

Saidman Yee has brought to yoga “glamour, sensuality without the creepy overtones of recent yoga scandals, and unapologetic commercialism, endorsing wine and posing for Vanity Fair,” the article states.

A glimpse into Saidman Yee’s life reveals celebrity clients, endorsement deals, and a sometimes-tumultuous personal history. A model in the 80s (she still does some modeling for the likes of Eileen Fisher), Saidman Yee lived a wild life. Her relationship with Yee, one of the first superstar yogis, ended both of their previous marriages and caused waves in the yoga community. The two married in 2007.

Since then, the couple has to find a great deal of success and influence in the yoga world. They direct fashion designer Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Integrative Therapy program, make yoga DVDs, and teach at retreats and yoga conferences around the world. They also plan to open a new yoga studio in New York City. Meanwhile, although she may be known as half of a famous duo—Colleen and Rodney often teach together—she has proven herself as a talented and in-demand yoga teacher in her own right, especially for women.

But her life hasn’t always been all East Hamptons and luxury travel, the article says. She was a drug addict. She suffered a series of injuries—she was struck by lightning, had seizures, and broke her ribs—which ultimately led her to take her first yoga class. “I walked out and I felt high,” she told the Times. “Like everything was clearer and crisper and I could hear better. I hate the word spiritual, but it was a very spiritual moment.”

Whether you agree that Saidman Yee should be the “First Lady” of the yoga community or not, her story is an interesting example of how even the most well-known teachers have struggled. “Oh, my God, I am so not pure,” she said. “I never want to be called a guru. All I want to do is guide women into their own bodies so they can be more content.” Read the full article.

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Scholar Collects Marilyn Monroe Yoga Photos

April 5, 2013

MarilynMonroe-239x300Marilyn Monroe is easily one of the most iconic stars in American history. Though she was famous for her beauty, you might not know that Monroe was an avid yoga student, too–and during a time when yoga wasn’t exactly a popular practice.

Monroe made everything look glamorous–and her interpretation of yoga poses made for some awe-inspiring photographs.

Yoga scholar Eric Shaw recently compiled 21 images, which he believes is a complete collection of all known photographs of Monroe doing yoga. He also provided some fascinating historical context in a recent blog post.

“I am interested in the yoga practices of famous people generally because they give authority to the practice and humanize it for all of us,” Shaw told Buzz. “Marilyn began doing yoga when it was still a very novel thing to do.”

Monroe died in 1962, four years before B.K.S. Iyengar published Light on Yoga, a book which drastically changed the way people in the U.S. thought about yoga. “He made yoga an artistic form,” Shaw wrote. “But Marilyn beat B.K.S. out of the gate.”

Though, as Shaw points out, some of the images could just look like yoga poses by coincidence. “Nonetheless, because she studied yoga (by some accounts, very intensely) she showed the awareness and poise it creates even when she did not expressly display yoga asana,” he wrote.

In any case, it’s one of the most compelling celebrity endorsements for yoga we’ve seen in a while.

To see the rest of the photos visit Shaw’s blog at prasanayoga.com.

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The Joke’s On Us

April 3, 2013

woman laughingApril Fools’ Day is an opportunity for jokers everywhere to let their senses of humor shine—and the yoga community is no exception. This year we saw lots of jokes about yoga. We loved some, like this email about a new yoga video service for pets, while others left us scratching our heads (Lululeather?).

Yoga Journal was the butt of at least two April Fools’ jokes this year, both of which made changes to our editorial staff.

Waylon Lewis of Elephant Journal tricked readers through a blog post announcing he was closing up shop as the editor of EJ and selling the popular site to Yoga Journal, where he’d join the team as associate online editor and social media consultant. We’d love to have you Waylon, but we would miss EJ!

Meanwhile, Yoga Dork chose to shut down Yoga Journal altogether and re-open it, taking matters into her own hands. (Does that mean we’re fired?) With Roseanne Harvey from It’s All Yoga, Baby running things as Editor in Chief, Yoga Dork taking over as digital director, and Linda from Linda’s Yoga Journey filling in everywhere else, the magazine would be more “lefty and diverse” and also serve as a healthy snack for readers.

YJ-edible-mat-a-mag“There will be no paper magazines published. Instead people with subscriptions will receive articles printed on gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, soy-free, fat-free, ad-free, highly antioxidant laden, disposable and edible yoga mats every month. Subscribers are highly encouraged to compost them, recycle them and/or eat them as a healthy snack (material TBD).”

Sounds delicious.

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Yoga Rolls Out on White House Lawn

April 2, 2013

2013 Easter Egg Roll Hunt at The White House

photographs by Jan Hanus

Despite cool morning temperatures that finally gave way to sun,  yogis happily unrolled their mats on the White House lawn yesterday to take part in the 135th annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Yoga teacher Leah Cullis has organized the event’s Yoga Garden, with classes for kids and adults, since 2009.

In addition to yoga, the Easter Roll, which this year was themed “Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You!” in promotion of  First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity, included a variety of physical activities, such as the Hop To It! dance party and the Eggtivity Zone Obstacle Course.

With up to 30,000 participants each year, the Egg Roll is the biggest public annual event at the White House each year.

Although this isn’t the first year the Egg Roll has featured a Yoga Garden, the news hasn’t come without criticism. In discussing the event, Fox News anchors said yoga “doesn’t seem very American” and once again reminded its audience that yoga is not a sport.

Whatever. We wish we had been there.

Check out the adorable photos from the event by Jan Hanus.

2013 Easter Egg Roll Hunt at The White House2013 Easter Egg Roll Hunt at The White House2013 Easter Egg Roll Hunt at The White House

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Judge in Encinitas Case Practices Yoga

March 29, 2013

Teenage girl meditatingThe judge presiding over the lawsuit about the controversial yoga program in the Encinitas Union School District shared during a hearing Thursday that he is a yoga student.

The suit, which was brought against the school district by concerned parents, claims that the district’s yoga program is religious in nature and is being used to “indoctrinate” children. The yoga program, which is funded by Jois Yoga Foundation, is an optional part of the curriculum in every school in the district.

During a hearing to set a trial date Thursday, San Diego Superior Court Judge John Meyer said he has been practicing Bikram Yoga for the last month and a half, reported U-T San Diego.

“If you think there’s something spiritual about what I do, that’s news to me,” Meyers said.

Dean Broyles, the attorney representing the parents in the case, said he didn’t have a problem with Meyer presiding as long as he could remain open to their argument.

Meyers said he was not familiar with Ashtanga Yoga, which Broyles called one of the more spiritual styles of yoga) and also had never heard of Sun Salutations or Lotus Pose.

The date for the trial was tentatively set for May 20. The hearing also determined that a law firm representing 130 parents, who formed a group called Yoga for Encinitas Students, could intervene and work with the school district’s attorney.

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Classical Music and Yoga

March 27, 2013

7517409364_463e16edc1_mIn today’s yoga studio, one is bound to hear all kinds of music: Indian-inspired mantras, rock, pop, hip hop, South American flutes, wind chimes, didgeridoo, and even dub step. But it’s not every day that we hear great classical music when we’re holding our Downward-Facing Dogs.

WQXR, a classical radio station in New York, is looking to change that. As part of its 10-day Bach 360°Festival—a festival that celebrates J.S. Bach’s birthday and is aimed at developing new classical music listeners through modern, innovative programming—the station released two exclusively-curated Bach playlists for yoga teachers to play in their classes at participating yoga studios in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The program name? “Bach Yoga: Pose and Flow with the Baroque Master.”

WQXR General Manager and Vice President Graham Parker thought that the contemplative vibe of Bach’s masterpieces would be a perfect fit for yoga practice. The playlists, one for restorative and one for flow classes, were developed by a copywriter at the station who is also a yoga teacher.

The festival runs until March 31. For a complete schedule of classes, and a glimpse at the full playlist, go to the WQXR site.  A limited amount of free downloads are available for each playlist, but they must be requested by a representative from a yoga studio. To request a free download, send an email to Will Jameson at wjameson@nypublicradio.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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