Posts from ‘news’
yes or no: new consent cards at kula annex
Image via Decolonizing Yoga FB page.
Kula Annex, one of the few studios with a positive space initiative, apparently offers “consent cards” to indicate if you want to be touched for adjustments (or anything) in their yoga classes.
As they state on their Facebook page:
we keep green + purple consent cards that read “yes, thank you” and “no, thank you.” we invite students to place either by the top corner of their mat at every practice to indicate to teachers whether or not they consent to physical adjustments. ultimately, consent helps us to cultivate a safer space.
What do you think? Should other yoga studios and teachers follow suit? Would you use consent cards if your studio had them?
Imagine all of these people dancing (image via Lunch Beat Mtl FB page)
Montrealers, ditch your noon hour yoga class and dance! While a little stretching and breathing on lunch break is always a good thing, sometimes you need to move your body in reckless and spontaneous ways.
Enter Lunch Beat. From the country that brought us Robyn, the latest Swedish craze is sweeping the world and finally lands in Montreal on Thursday, May 9 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm at Cinema Excentris. Montreal-based DJ Hissy Fit will be on the turntables, and each participant will receive a vegetarian lunch from Cafe Méliès and a bottle of RISE Kombucha (included in the $10 admission).
Lunch Beat started in June 2010 with 14 friends dancing in a garage, and locally-organized events have since popped up around the world. Their vision:
By promoting 1 hour of day time dancing we make it possible to fully embody the buzzwords of playfulness, participation & community. A physical knowledge that will make you create magic during the rest of your day too, and so will make Lunch Beat your week’s most important business lunch.
Daytime dancing and magic, FTW! Also, you have to love any dance event that has its own manifesto. Get your tickets for Lunch Beat Montreal here – and don’t worry, your noon hour yoga class will be waiting for you on Friday. Continue Reading
In the wake of last week’s Boston Marathon bombing and manhunt is a city in need of healing.
yogaHOPE, a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to offering yoga as a source of healing from traumatic events, is responding to the need.
“So many of you have reached out to me with sadness, anger and confusion, inability to sleep, plagued by nightmares and spontaneous crying fits,” yogaHOPE founder Suzanne Jones wrote in an April 23 newsletter. “These are the symptoms of traumatic stress. It is important that you understand that you have been traumatized. I personally am finding it difficult to walk through the streets of Cambridge without vigilantly looking around for unattended backpacks and wondering if a bomb might go off AT any moment.”
yogaHOPE’s signature TIMBo (Trauma Informed Mind Body) program is providing relief for countless residents of Boston. Certified TIMBo facilitators have mobilized to offer free yoga classes throughout the city. In the coming weeks, yogaHOPE will also provide free trauma sensitive training to Boston-area yoga instructors.
Yoga is just one of many ways that Bostonians are coping with the trauma of recent events. “There is so much we know about post-traumatic stress these days, and there are so many instances in our world that are traumatic,” psychologist Joyce Maguire Pavao told the Huffington Post. “If we acknowledge them and find the best way to address them, we can save people from having residual, difficult problems. Horrible images are ingrained in people’s minds, and there will be memories and triggers. But you can manage them better if you have assistance, if you have someone to talk to.”
If you’re in the Boston area and in need of trauma-sensitive yoga, or if you’re a yoga studio willing to donate your space for classes/trainings, email yogahope@gmail.com.
Kausthub Desikachar’s jaunty new look (image via kausthub.com)
The last we’d heard from Kausthub Desikachar (who had been silent since he had been accused of sexual, mental and emotional abuse by four Austrian teacher trainees in September 2012) was in January, when he sent a letter to his mailing list asking to “not be judged” for his actions. In that letter, he had alluded to “future actions in offering teachings”
Two months later, he’s rebranded himself and launched a new website (kausthub.com) where he’s podcasting, blogging, promoting online study groups and advertising individualized yoga therapy sessions. Later this year, he apparently plans on offering teacher training and professional development courses.
As is the norm with fallen yoga gurus, Desikachar spent less than six months in “deep reflection” and “self-enquiry” before he felt ready to get back in the teacher’s seat. His bio makes no reference to the allegations or legal process.
