Archive for February, 2010
When I first heard about Passport to Prana, I was skeptical. 30 yoga classes, for $30, at some of the best studios in Montreal? There has to be a catch. But there isn’t! The initiative, which was conceived by Toronto-based yoga teacher YuMee Chung in 2005, is available in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and, now, Montreal (San Francisco, while not a Canadian city, was also recently added to the roster).
So how does it work? You get this little plastic card with a bar code, you activate the card on the Passport to Prana website, and you are enabled to attend one class at each of the participating yoga studios. There’s even a handy online tracking system, so you can keep note of which studios you’ve attended.
With my little passport in hand, I decided to start in my neighbourhood, Mile End, and work my way out. First up: an intermediate hatha yoga class at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center Montreal. This is just a 3-minute walk from my house, and I pass it almost every day. This centre has historical significance, as it was the first yoga centre founded by Swami Vishnudevananda after he was instructed by his guru, the famous Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, to bring the yoga teachings to the west in 1950s. He opened this centre in 1959, then went on to open the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp in Val Morin, an hour north of Montreal, which operates as the Sivananda world headquarters. Continue Reading
Photo by James Fallows, via theatlantic.com
The above photo (taken outside of a San Francisco yoga studio) has turned up on Boing Boing, Gawker and HuffPo today ~ and sensitive yogis, do not read the comment sections! Most of the mainstream buzz is loaded with mockery and derision, as the general public takes on the misguided intentions of yogis who might want to help out Haitians by donating their old yoga mats.
It’s just a photo and we don’t know the whole story… perhaps the studio is hooked up with Yoga 4 Trauma‘s Project Haiti initiative, which has a cohesive and long-term plan to offer therapeutic yoga to survivors and responders. Perhaps somebody has come up with a way to transform bacteria-ridden old yoga mats into inflatable hospitals.
But at first glance, I’m reminded of an excellent blog post by La Gitane over at Yoga Gypsy in response to a recent article about “disaster do-gooders” sometimes doing more harm than good. As she points out, “As yogis and yoginis, we are particularly likely to want to reach out in tragic situations, to be proactive, to DO something that we feel can alleviate the suffering we see.”
Is shipping yoga mats to Haiti a thoughtful response to suffering? Or is it simply a self-serving act to get rid of unwanted items in our yoga rooms? As we’ve all been told countless times, the most effective way to support the efforts in Haiti is to send cold hard cash to reputed aid organizations (Red Cross, Partners in Health, Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity). How much impact could a used yoga mat campaign have on a country in need of rebuilding and healing?
A relaxing apres ski yoga sesh (photo: NY Times)
It seems to be yoga week at the NY Times. They’ve sure been devoting a lot of space to yoga lately. The latest, an article in the Feb 7 edition (in a feat of time travel magic!) looks at the increase of yoga classes in hotels and resorts.
Long popular at spas and retreat centers, yoga classes have been spreading to mainstream hotels, resorts and tour operators over the last several years. As the ancient stretching and meditation practice gained popularity, the travel industry began seeing dollar signs in sun salutations. Soon, yoga classes were showing up on the on-demand channels in Hyatts and Marriotts, and at the Kimpton hotel chain mats and straps were available to guests who asked. Spas and resorts began to tweak their yoga programs by hosting weeklong retreats with yoga masters like Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman, who attracted a cultlike following.
Now, with yoga becoming so mainstream, properties from chain hotels to bed-and-breakfasts are looking for new ways to incorporate it into their programs to pique guests’ interest and reach their wallets.
When I read this, my first thought was: jobs. It’s great that these hotels can provide work opportunities for the hoards of YTT graduates. This is one of the undeniably positive aspects of the mainstreaming of yoga: more work for more teachers. I would definitely take an opportunity to teach yoga in a resort setting for a season, and spend my free time snowboarding and hanging out in hot tubs. While I’m aware that most of the clientele may be looking for an apres ski stretch, rather than personal or spiritual growth, teaching them would still be a service.
But as I continued reading the article, I began to feel a little icked out. The article discusses how the travel industry likes to combine yoga with things like wine, skiing and whales (aka, “combo yoga”) to make packages more appealing (and lucrative). Says Kristen Ulmer, of Ski to Live, a retreat focused on the mind-body connection of snow sports: “We’re a short-attention-span society. Just the yoga isn’t enough to keep us entertained or maybe not even enough of a draw in and of itself.”
Interesting. From spiritual practice to lifestyle to fitness activity… to entertainment? Is this the natural (de)evolution of yoga in the West? What do y’all think?
And for some more NY Times yoga lovin’ check out today’s “Answers from a Yoga Instructor” in the City Room blog. NYC yoga teacher Bryn Chrisman responds to a handful of questions posted by readers earlier this week (which is itself a very revealing indication of the popular perception of yoga… and what people expect from the practice).
