Archive for December, 2009
Hello y’all ~ I am back from my lovely winter vacation in the wild mountains of British Columbia and ready for a new year of blogging adventures! As I caught up on my blog reading from the past few weeks, I was excited to discover that the venerable YogaDawg named it’s all yoga, baby one of the “in” yoga blogs of 2010! I’m honoured to be tied with the brilliant YogaDork. Here’s what YogaDawg had to say about 2009:
This was year of the yoga blogger with their relentless flailing amidst the shout-downs of increasing corporate branding and degradation of ‘true yoga’. To the surprise and amusement of some seasoned yoga bloggers, b-list yogis showed up to comment on their blogs and defended their life style against these snarky yoga malcontents.
I’m proud to count myself among these yoga malcontents. Here’s to 2010 and another year of yoga trouble-making! Happy New Year, everyone!
I’m just peeking out of my unintentional winter hibernation to send everyone warm and spicy holiday wishes! it’s all yoga, baby will be back in action in the new year. See you then!
Y’all might remember that I loved Kelly McGonigal‘s “Befriending the Body” workshop at last summer’s Being Yoga conference at Omega. So I was very happy when she told me about her new book, Yoga for Pain Relief, and so generously offered a guest blog post ~ and mp3 to practice with! Read on to see what she has to say about this lovely practice, “Listening to Your Body“:
Consider how you would describe a true friend. For starters, you feel comfortable around her. You feel at home and free to be yourself. Being around her puts you in a better mood. When you’ve had a bad day or are anxious, you might feel a need to connect with her. You can count on her to be there for you when you need her. You also care about her well-being, and you know that you would be there for her in a time of need. You enjoy helping her. When she has a problem, you listen. You look for ways to make her happy. You encourage her when she’s down. You see the good in her, even when she can’t. You are proud to be associated with her. You are grateful for her and can’t imagine life without her.
Does this sound like how you feel about your body? Or does it sound hopelessly different from your relationship with your body—so ridiculous that you can’t imagine anyone feeling that way about his or her body?
One of the greatest gifts of yoga is the chance to redefine your relationship with your body—the companion that has been with you through every moment of your life, and will be with you for the rest of this journey. Continue Reading
Hello from the mountains of British Columbia! I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front this week, what with traveling and reacclimatizing to my parents’ homestead (as well as dial-up internet). But I did get into my car and park in front of the community hall, so as to tap into free wireless and bring y’all the best of the yoga internets!
In keeping with the end-of-the-year theme and all, I came across Trendhunter‘s “41 Unique Yoga Innnovations” round-up, gathered from the past couple of years (not just 2009). There seemed to be a lot of dogs, yoga mat bags, sexy marketing campaigns and designer duds. And there were some actual innovations, such as the development of yoga in prisons and schools.
I have seen most of these 41 items in my newsfeeds over the past couple of years. Some of them made me giggle, some of them made me roll my eyes, and a couple of them actually inspired me (I just couldn’t get enough of the 83-year-old Aussie yoga instructor when the news broke last spring).
However, there was one inclusion on the list that simply baffled me: Mayo Margaritas, which are apparently big in Japan. I read the little article over and over and just couldn’t figure out what mayonnaise-based beverages had to do with yoga… until I looked at the subtitle and saw “Creamy Japanese Mayogaritas.” MaYOGAritas ~ the little keyword robots were just scanning for the word “yoga,” and “mayogarita” landed in the mix. And thus, the Mayo Margarita is among the top yoga innovations of the decade. What can you do?
During the Adidas Yoga fiasco a few months ago, I found myself re-visiting Naomi Klein‘s book, No Logo. When I first read it in my early 20s, it (obviously) had a big influence on my politics and worldview. I was excited to discover that a 10th anniversary edition of the book, with a new introduction by the author, was to be released in November. So I pitched a story to Hour, the alt-weekly I write for, and received not only a free copy of the book but an opportunity to interview Naomi Klein herself!
We had a quick skype call a couple of weeks ago. While I wanted to talk with her about branding and corporatization (of everything), I had done enough research to know that her interests have moved on to global politics and anti-capitalizatism activism. “This is no time for nostalgia,” she had written in her last newsletter. And so, we talked about the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (which started today) and how her book is relevant to this moment. Here’s a bit of the article:
While the first three-quarters of the book looks at the power of the global superbrands and how their messages encroach on our public spaces, thoughts, consumer dollars and, ultimately, our identities and sense of self in the world, the real activist meat is in the last section.
“The final part of the book is about the emergence of a response. What was exciting about that moment [1999] is that people were looking at economic systems. We lost a lot of that during the Bush years and subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s not that there hasn’t been activism – it just wasn’t looking at systems. It was looking at single issues: Trying to stop wars, trying to stop torture. But I think now there is a need to go back to talking about systems – to do more than talk about it, to organize.”
On the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (Dec. 7-18), No Logo speaks to a new wave of activism.
“There’s been a convergence around Copenhagen,” says Klein. “People are working together across sectors for climate change. You have groups that have been focused not only on environment issues, but on poverty, development, critiquing foreign debt. The alternatives are at the centre of these protests, as are exposing false solutions and proposing solutions that have a chance of solving the problem. It’s a much more galvanizing message.” [Hour]
We had an amazing conversation, and it’s too bad that I wasn’t able to fit everything into the final article. Prior to the interview, I was having a hard time understanding Copenhagen, but she was able to explain what would be happening there in a clear, realistic way. Naomi Klein will be in Copenhagen, as part of the global movement of activists who have mobilized to be present at the summit. She will be writing dispatches from the frontlines for Grist, Mother Jones and The Nation, and handing out awards to climate criminals for Klimaforum.
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