Archive for May, 2009
service is the next step
How can I move beyond myself and begin to change and transform the world? How do take what I’ve gained from my personal yoga practice and give back? Seane Corn and Mark Lilly explore these questions and much more in this super inspiring video from the ‘Yoga, Mindfulness & Service Summit,’ which took place at the Omega Institute on May 17-21.
This summit sounds completely fascinating, but I couldn’t find any more information on it. I’d love to hear more about the speakers and workshops ~ if anyone out there attended, please make a comment about your experience!
Living a life of service is one of my ideals, and I try to embody this in my yoga teaching. This happens in an overt way through the free community classes I offer at the Mile End Mission, but I can still bring this ideal into the private sessions for which I receive pay. Simply being present and compassionate is service. However, I still feel that I’m at the “individual = interesting” phase and not quite moving into the “collective = revolution” level.
On the collective level, I’m really inspired by the efforts of Yoga Bear, a non-profit organization which provides free yoga classes for post-treatment cancer survivors. With the combination of being organized and having a long-term vision, Yoga Bear can make a difference in people’s lives at a collective level. And hopefully I can serve them just a little bit by mentioning them here and increasing their chances of winning $3K!
**(obligatory tagline) This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.
It's a yoga mat rainbow! In hues that say 2001-2005.
So it’s no secret that yoga is booming (or rather, continues to boom) during this whole recession thing (unless you work in yoga publishing). The most read article on the Time magazine website today was a rant about the price of yoga mats, and how their sales continue to rise despite the recession.
$100 for a stinkin’ mat. A company called Manduka, which makes these luxury yoga props, has seen its sales rise 55% in the first four months of 2009. Sales at Amazon.com during this period are up a stunning 87%, and the company just signed a deal with Dick’s Sporting Goods, a major retailer with 389 stores across the country. [via Time]
The article goes on to tell us that yoga practitioners have increased from 4.3 million in 2001 to 12 million in 2008 and that yoga has experienced a “spike in popularity” since the economic downtown last September. Owners of yoga studios around North America have seen increased traffic. “The feedback from new clients: they are either unemployed and want to maintain their mental health or insecure about their current job status and want to maintain their mental health. ‘The meditative aspects of yoga,’ [studio owner, Irene] Narissi says, ‘satisfy the need to chill out.’” Continue Reading
Sewing is one of those skills that I’ve been meaning to teach myself for a while. Now I have a reason: so I can make these supercute yoga capris out of shirt sleeves.
I’m in love with luvinthemommyhood‘s adorable step-by-step video tutorial on upcycling “shirt sleeves to yoga capris.”
So on the next rainy spring weekend, I think I’ll try to whip up a pair of these capris – and while I’m at it, maybe I’ll make some flip flops out of an old yoga mat and weave a new mat out of twigs.
So you think putting your leg behind your head or balancing on your hands isn’t extreme enough? Try doing it on a BMX bike! Every six months or so, some flexible adrenaline junkie surfaces and catches the attention of the inter/national media. Last year, it was that slacker guy who could sit in lotus pose on a tightrope (via this Wall Street Journal article).
This week, it’s Khiv Raj Gurjar, a 61-year-old yogi/bodybuilder/cyclist/adventure addict who lives in India. Every morning at dawn, he rides his BMX bike to a rocky outcrop near his home and does these yoga-esque poses on his bike near the edge of the cliff.
A student of yoga since the age of 13 and a keen sportsman, Khiv has combined his other great love, cycling, to create his new and extreme form.
‘From my childhood I was passionate to do things which are extraordinary and look very dangerous,’ says Khiv.
‘I tried magic, learned acrobatics, yoga, did cycling, played football.
‘As I grew into my twenties I found combining yoga and cycling stunts would be something very unconventional, but also deeply challenging.’ [via the Daily Mail UK]
Is this the face of a yoga-practising rapper?
I spent 24 hours outside of the city, building a sweat lodge with a bunch of women in rural Quebec, and I returned to newsfeeds full of crazy yoga stories. It may be a holiday in Canada, but the machine carries on in other parts of the world. Here are the most entertaining stories on this Canadian holiday Monday:
- Eminem does yoga! He’s come out of “retirement” with a new album, Relapsed, and has kicked some nasty habits. “Eminem is now an advocate of a healthy lifestyle (with yoga replacing drugs),” a Bloomberg.com article says. However, according to Eminem’s rep, Dennis Dennehy, “That is completely ridiculous, Eminem works out, but he doesn’t know what yoga is.” There are also reports that he lead his crew through a prayer before a recent concert in England, which is kind of a yogic thing to do. [via NY Daily News]
- This Daily Mail title says it all: “BBC unveils animated, yoga-loving hippies that teach children to get in touch with their emotions” Each episode of a new show, Waybuloo, features little yoga exercises for two-to-five year olds. So cute! I actually think this show looks awesome and I would want my children to watch it, and I would probably even watch it myself.
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