Archive for April, 2009
is yoga going down the toilet?
So we all know that yoga can help sell cars, breakfast cereal, life insurance, etc. And we all know those ubiquitous “yogic principles” can be applied to any real life situation. But who had any idea that yogic principles could be applied to toilet design! Seriously.
The Go With the Flo™ toilet, designed by Arizona State University students, has been recognized by the Northwest Design Invitational (NDI) with some big prestigious award. Apparently, the toilet’s design satisfied the NDI’s criteria: appropriate aesthetics, design innovation, ecological responsibility and market and user benefits.
And you can add “yogic” to that list. The designers claim that “using the Flo™ toilet is akin to yoga – by building and strengthening abdominal and back muscles.” I think I’ll hold off on buying a Flo™ toilet and wait until these student designers create a toilet that promises enlightenment – and is stylish and environmentally-friendly, too.
I can’t deny that I want to be doing headstand variations when I’m in my 80s, so this Australian yoga teacher is total inspiration. And she’s humble, to boot:
“You’re never too old. The body is a remarkable instrument. It can stretch and stretch, and get better all the time. Forget age,” said Mrs Calman, the author of three yoga books including one called Yoga for Arthritis.
“Even a basic posture, or just going to a window and breathing deeply, can have big benefits.” [The Daily Mail UK]
She’s flexible, strong, wise and stylish – I love her pearl earrings, pink jumpsuit and belt.
I have an altar in my bedroom and that’s a good place for it. Quiet, sacred, soft and a little bit removed. But tonight while I was eating dinner, I realized that my real altar might be in my kitchen. On my fridge. I’ve adorned my fridge door with images that are important to me, important enough that I need to look at them on a daily basis, and they have a spiritual resonance. Here’s a little tour of my fridge altar, clockwise from the top left hand corner:
- ticket for Patti Smith concert, October 2007
- Yoshitomo Nara postcard from my friend Liz – she said something about this girl (the bangs) reminded her of me
- picture of St Anne, which I purchased at her shrine in St Anne du Beaupre
- picture of my Granny Addie, who is kind of a saint herself
- whiteboard, where I write things I want to manifest in my life (tomorrow: French class! and calling EI and tahini)
- Susan Moss business card, one of her excellent roller derby pics
- 2009 Pisces horoscope, courtesy of Georgia Nicols
- Anusara invocation (small purple square)… and directly above it:
- my burlesque teacher, and above her is a flyer for a party at Cagibi
- look down a little to the left and you’ll see a roller derby bout flyer (Les Filles du Roi vs La Racaille)
- the Cat Corner (my Auntie Kay’s cat – not really sure why Whiskers is on my fridge, just thought the picture/card was cute – and Cat vs Treat Bag)
- and finally, two pictures of the ashram that I consider my spiritual home
I recently lost my job as editor of a yoga magazine. During the final weeks of business, a journalism student (at Humber? Ryerson? Can’t remember) contacted us about doing a story. He talked to the exectutive publisher, the associate publisher and myself. He was interested in the human aspect of the magazine’s closure, how we were handling it as a staff and how yogic practices played into our closure.
I talked to him again today, as he had to write a sidebar to accompany the story, about how the “concepts of yoga” helped us cope with the closing. It was difficult to explain, because definitely we applied yogic principles and approaches to how we closed the mag and how we handled everything. But those practices don’t fit the common perception of what yoga is. For example, he wanted to know if we did any kind of breathing or stretching exercises to cope with stress at work. Honestly, if I was feeling stressed out about deadlines or meetings, rarely would I do some breathing exercises at my desk. I drank a cup of coffee or went for a walk, listened to Beyonce or ate chocolate (a lot of chocolate, actually – it was absolutely necessary during the production crunch). If it was after 4pm, I’d drink a beer.
Most importantly, though, what I’d do is communicate with my co-workers that I was stressed out. I would be able to look at myself, my reactions and interactions, and determine that I was feeling stressed, then articulate this to the people around me. I had to tell this budding journalist that this was the yoga. This was the practice. My asana practice and my weekly classes helped to relax, but mostly they prepared me to meet the challenges of my daily life and address them directly. This, to me, is yoga.
Okay, that’s what I have to say about the practice. Meanwhile, floating around the interweb today, I found a couple of inspiring stories:
- CTV British Columbia (this is the channel I watched as I grew up, so it’s special to me) covers Vancouver’s excellent Yoga Outreach program. Learn more about Yoga Outreach here.
- my favourite BoingBoing blogger/hottie reviews an eco yoga mat. It’s a little trivial, but I’m always excited to see yoga mentioned on BoingBoing, and Xeni Jardin manages to make a yoga mat review sound interesting.
Okay, there’s this yoga movie that has recently been released, Enlighten Up!, and it’s really quite good. Definitely recommended viewing for anyone interested in the bigger picture of what yoga is, and why we do it.
So the “star” of the film, Nick Rosen, just wrote an interesting piece for the Huffington Post, in which he discusses the yoga we practice in North America as a purely Western invention emphasizing physical prowess, rather than an ancient set of spiritual teachings. His conclusion:
The yoga we practice these days, although dressed in the trappings of ancient Hindu authenticity, was born about one hundred years ago, largely under the influence of western culture. While the yoga world routinely refers to yoga as a five thousand year old tradition, it is only a little older than Bollywood.
Perhaps this may be the case, but I don’t think this should justify North American yogis being ignorant of yoga philosophy and scripture. The meat of yoga, the depth and wisdom, is in these ancient teachings, and a lot of texts are available. They will continue to become more accessible as texts are unearthed and translated.
As Nick points out, the real yoga “was more like black magic: transforming one’s semen into magical nectar, flying around and taking over other peoples bodies, and the like. Yogis were like boogeymen and dark sorcerers.” Awesome.
Enlighten Up! is opening in theatres across America this month. Apparently, it’s not playing anywhere in Canada, which is too bad.
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