It was there that I saw a little restaurant that promoted Slow Cooking. I had been aware of the whole Slow Movement for some time now and have previously written on how it relates to knowledge and yoga (see Slow Know). In addition, I had just spent hours watching yoga videos that were impossibly fast and, a dear friend of mine was going out of her mind complaining that she wasn’t doing anything (apparently resting doesn’t count!).

Why this need for speed to prove our vitality? Is it because we can easily convince ourselves that we are “most good” when we are “most productive”? I am looking forward to the many languid summer days still ahead.

Tags: slow cooking, vitality, yoga videos

Kirtan is more than just the kind of singing found on American Idol though. It’s an intentional chanting of Sanskrit syllables that invoke certain energies. In the past few weeks, I’ve participated in almost daily kirtan sessions. Fortunately I live in a place where I can join the marvelous Larisa Stow in her rocker-girl pleas to Durga-ma or join the Sharanya circle in their summer solstice yoni celebration or be invited to the ongoing kirtan group of the Sri Vidya Nada Mandir. Or, best of all, create a new circle of song with my Shakti sisters! I am very fortunate indeed to be able to have a place to “voice” my cries and praises.
This is yoga also. Nada Yoga with Bhakti Yoga. Sonic cosmology with devotional love.

Sound can be more powerful than hours of asanas. Sound soars, vibrates, soothes and excites. Sound lifts me, holds me, and carries me like a wave. My voice becomes part of a more sustainable energy that helps everyone singing with me that night and then stays within me riding out the tidal surges.

Tags: kirtan, nada yoga, bhakti yoga, larisa stow, sanskrit

Some quick searches on the number of estimated yoga practitioners, shows 20 million just in the U.S. So was he just commenting on the large number surfacing in the past decade? After all, this has been around for a long, long time. And for those of us who started way back then – it’s not really news, is it?

I suppose he meant that people want to know about it. They are seeking out classes, teachers, web sites like YogaHub. That they are willing to take the time to study yoga. Well that’s my ideal image of what is happening anyway.
But then it could just mean that there are lots of yoga “things” out there: mats, towels, clothes, blankets, jewelry, props, gadgets, DVDs- that people can buy to get them closer to yoga. But “things” are a funny thing sometimes.

I was recently in a yoga shop at a yoga studio and watched a woman wanting to buy something-well she wanted to buy the practice of yoga really. She had an urgent conversation with the woman at the cash register about what she WANTED. She wanted to slim down mainly, but of course get all the other benefits she had heard some much about.

She walked out clutching a yoga DVD. I hope she gets what she WANTS- and all the other benefits she had heard so much about too!

Having been one of the first gurus from India who created a teachers’ training program, people made fun of his producing so many “yoga teachers.” But Swami Vishnu knew exactly what he was doing and claimed that the reason he accepted so many students into teacher’s training was so that they could become more devoted practitioners.

As I have said before in my Article on choosing a yoga teacher, a true yoga teacher is a yoga practitioner. This seems obvious, yet needs some explanation. Practicing yoga means not only doing rounds of sun salute and strong handstands. As a teacher, it means being of service to others which may take the form of further study, deeper meditation and contemplation, performing puja rituals, writing articles and essays – activities of the body and mind that take time and care to develop.

And in the process of becoming a yoga teacher, you are also continuing to become a yoga practitioner. Every act gives you a chance to explore the “material” even more, offering insights to yourself and others.

Tags: yoga teacher, sivananda, yoga teacher training

While we often seek to do our yoga practice in idyllic retreats nestled in forests or overlooking the ocean, it can, and should be practiced- wherever we are.

I remembered that one of the best classes I had was a tiny yoga room at a Sivananda Center in India, situated at one of the busiest intersections in Delhi!

In the middle of the cacophony of city noises (and NYC pales in comparison to the sounds of a city in India), you can really test your center, your focus, and being in the middle of it all – without being swept away by it!

Solstice Blessings to our city bravehearts!

Tags: solstice, yoga practice, sun salutation

I can answer positively, not only as an experienced yoga instructor but also as a post-menopause woman. And I can honestly say that my menopause was probably as pleasant as it was because of my regular yoga practice. That’s right, I not only said post-menopausal, but also pleasant!

First, knowing that the women in my family tended to go through menopause in their early 40’s helped me recognize some of the subtle changes I noticed, probably as early as age 37 even. It’s important to keep in mind that there is no normal age, and that the range is actually quite wide; from mid-30’s to mid-60’s! The best predictor may actually be when your mother experienced her menopausal years.

Second, I never bought the fright campaign created by (male) doctors and the media about what happens during menopause. My hot flashes actually felt quite sexy. And I refused to go on hormone replacement therapy. I did have to reassess my diet, for example, adding fish and eliminating most alcohol.
But also I was changing on a much deeper level. it was exactly at the onset of menopause that I fully immersed myself in yoga as a way of life. Not only was I a regular practitioner, I stepped into a new role as full time yoga teacher and scholar, opening a yoga studio and returning to graduate studies.

You can say I put that fire to very good use!

I am very aware that menopause is experienced differently by each woman. So I am not denying that changes can be very drastic and difficult to adjust to. If I can offer anything, it is for women to recognize these changes as part of our maturation process, which at times can be disconcerting but can also be very fascinating indeed!

Tags: yoga and health, menopause, hormone therapy, exercise

The first is an article about an elementary school in my neighborhood that has begun “mindfullness training” based on meditation techniques also used in yoga. Although the results would be difficult to measure, there is no doubt that simply offering these techniques may help children with overwhelming and often negative feelings about themselves and their environment.

The second item was a brief mention in an interview with director David Lynch. He has had a regular meditation practice since 1973 and has written a book about it entitled, “Catching the Big Fish: Consciousness and Creativity.” He has also started a foundation advocating the teaching of meditation in public schools.

Although many maintain that “yoga” as practiced here in North America is solely focused on the physical asanas postures, these reports prove otherwise.

Perhaps because the medical community considers meditation techniques more scientifically “provable” – it has gotten just as much, if not more attention as the physical form of yoga popularized by the fitness community.

Tags: meditation, yoga and youth, David Lynch, meditation techniques

I was familiar with this and had already done some research on what might help because I had lived with a boyfriend who experienced chronic debilitating back ailments – a man who otherwise was healthy and athletic but was heading into his late 40’s in constant agony.

So what was up with men and their backs? If you believe in what yoga (and other mind/body/heart practices) has to offer, then you know it’s not just a pain in your back. And why did it affect so many men during their mid-life transitions?

In the chakra system, the lower back is part of the energy of the muladhara, the root being connected with issues of survival, security and, particularly for men, their sexuality. All issues that get tossed around for men leaving their youthful virility, perhaps dealing with how to support themselves and others. No wonder the back starts signaling!

All this came to mind because as I was stooping down to make my bed today, I felt a riveting surge of pain all along my lower back. A pain I’ve only felt once before in my life, when I injured myself while traveling in India grabbing a heavy suitcase. (Interestingly, it was also while with this boyfriend I just described- and during the trip I came to the painful decision of ending the relationship with him.) So it all instantly came flooding back to me. Fortunately, I have never had problems with my back. This incident was so unusual that it remained etched in my own body memory.

I did something that I knew would help right away. Got down on the floor, hugged my knees to my chest, back flat and just gently swayed from side to side. No abrupt moves or tall stretches. Just this releasing movement with back to the ground supported and tucked-in knees protecting the back.

I swear by it- so to our sweet menfolk with “bad backs” – try it, for the physical relief, and keep asking what fear or burdens are lurking in those strong back roots of yours!

Tags: back pain, chakra, yoga and men, yoga and health

I can only hope that my work as a teacher, writer and theater artist has helped to alleviate some of the emotional, mental and physical turmoil that still cripples women in our life’s work.

I have focused on women for obvious reasons. I’ve experienced or witnessed many of the atrocities women all over the world are still subjected to: physical violence, sexism, bodily harm and trauma, poverty and systemic neglect and lack of support. Unfortunately the list continues to be long. I figured the boys are doing just fine taking care of their own through the “age-old” systems (law, medicine, politics and even in art) that still value their lives more than ours. Synchronistically, one of my sisters has posted on this very subject of female lives being devalued in her June 12 entry of her blog, written from India.
So it’s rare for me to linger on the problems of our menfolk. Today, however, I read an article in The New York Times that haunted me as I thought of many of my male friends, specifically men who experience depression, something more often associated with women. And I’ve already written about the way yoga may help women.
The New York Times article reported on a study showing a high correlation between men suffering from depression and ruptured relationships with siblings. Apparently, not even losing a parent in your youth was as significant a factor in later depression as not getting along with your brothers and sisters.

I started thinking about a couple of my ex-boyfriends who wrestled with depression and were at a loss what to make of it. I remembered fellow artists and male colleagues whose work was deeply affected by depression. And I thought about why the brotherly- sisterly thing might be such a key factor.

Was it just the usual explanation of females being more relational-centered in general? I’ve been fortunate in that, despite our less than ideal childhood and some rough spots in our early adulthood, my sisters and I have been good to each other. And I’ve often considered my bond with them to have been stronger than my bond with my parents ever was. So if our yogi brothers are missing out on this, might they truly feel unconnected?

Perhaps there’s real medicine in the old cliche about living in peace with your brothers and sisters?

Tags: men and depression, yoga and depression, yoga and health

But maya has many more dimensions. In a sense, we need maya to function and fulfill our lives in this world.

Defining it only in negative terms places it all too easily into the “bad” category which does nothing to help us understand how to be in this world and be connected with the divine at the same time. Because the very body we put through the yoga postures or into lotus sitting posture is both Real and Maya.Yoga practitioners need to take responsibility for exploring these key concepts in yoga which they may have acquired through their teachers or guru lineages. Like many other yoga teachers and practitioners, I continue to practice “right inquiry” by asking more questions and reading different commentaries on these key yogic concepts.

Tags: maya, yoga practice, teaching yoga