121563415-45858051-yoga-journal-2010-11
TRANSCRIPT
+Slow-Cooked ComforT food oN A bUSy SChedUle
yoga Journal
Could headstand hurt you? New techniques to protect your neck
Challenging asana, tranquil mind
How old is that pose? A historian’s discoveries might surprise you
Ultimate rejuvenation
12 blissful yoga vacations!
Happier holidaysbe the change you want to see in your family
strong body,open heart9 poses to feel more joy
contents
features wish you were here ( 78 )
Planning a dream vacation? Here are 5 luxurious
yoga destinations worth saving up for.
by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt and Sarah Saffian
yoga’s greater truth ( 66 )
A scholar embarks on a quest to trace the roots
of his yoga practice. What he discovers confounds
and unsettles him, and, ultimately, gives him a
new perspective on tradition. by Mark Singleton
artistry in action ( 70 )
What would you do if you found that the practice
you love was causing you harm? In this cautionary
tale, yoga teacher and artist Patricia Sullivan
shares her story of injury, self-discovery,
and healing in Headstand. by Patricia Sullivan
on the cover Happier holidays: Be
the change you want to
see in your family ( 55 )
Strong body, open heart:
9 poses to feel more joy
( 63 )
Could Headstand hurt
you? New techniques to
protect your neck ( 70 )
Challenging asana,
tranquil mind ( 89 )
How old is that pose?
A historian’s discoveries
might surprise you ( 66 )
Ultimate rejuvenation:
12 blissful yoga vacations
( 78 )
Slow-cooked comfort food
on a busy schedule ( 41 )
78
66
70Cover credits
KK Ledford in Eka Pada
Rajakapotasana II,
variation (One-Legged
King Pigeon Pose II);
stylist: Jane Black/Ford;
hair/makeup: France
Pierson; clothing:
top: Elisabetta Rogiani;
leggings: Zobha.
Photographed by
TRINETTE REED
& chRIs gRamLy
FR
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november 2010
+SLOW-COOKED COMFORT FOOD ON A BUSY SCHEDULE
yoga JOURNAL
Could Headstand hurt you? New techniques to protect your neck
Challenging asana, tranquil mind
How old is that pose? A historian’s discoveries might surprise you
Ultimate rejuvenation
12 blissful yoga vacations!
Happier holidaysBe the change you want to see in your family
strong body,open heart9 poses to feel more joy
2 y o g A j o U R N A L . C o M n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
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practice
home practice withamy ippoliti ( 63 )
Heart wide open Create a stable base
and strengthen your arms, and you’ll be
free to expand ecstatically into Wild Thing.
master class withjohn schumacher ( 89 )
Take aim As you prepare for Archer
Pose I (Akarna Dhanurasana I), learn to
direct the arrow of awareness at yourself.
cl
oc
kw
ise
fr
om
to
p l
ef
t:
do
ug
al
wa
te
rs
/ge
tt
y i
ma
ge
s;
da
vid
ma
rt
ine
z;
sh
er
i g
ibl
in
health
eating wisely ( 41 )
Slow food For cozy home-cooked meals
on a fast-paced schedule, try a slow cooker.
by Lynn Alley
well being ( 49 )
Down to earth When life is a whirlwind, take
time to ground yourself, which Ayurvedic
tradition considers especially important as
the seasons change. by Timothy McCall, MD
inspiration
om ( 21 )
Bringing your practice to life Viewing the
world with traveler’s eyes; Asian spices for
dinner; probiotics for better health; skin
care by dosha; yoga-inspired travelwear.
reflection ( 37 )
Bird’s eye view Caring for animals injured
in the Gulf oil spill leads a woman to consider
ahimsa in a new light. by Allison Ford
wisdom ( 55 )
Branching out Going home for the holi days
can mean getting stuck in old family
patterns—or growing into something new.
by Sally Kempton
media ( 99 )
A wrap-up of the latest in online yoga videos,
plus reviews of the latest books, CDs, and
DVDS, including books by and about K.
Pattabhi Jois; Mantra Yoga, from David
Frawley; and Diamonds in the Sun, by Girish.
the yj interview ( 116 )
Messenger of love Krishna Das says
chanting the names of Hindu gods isn’t
religious—it’s just joyful. by Kelle Walsh
contents november 2010
eDITor’S leTTer ( 12 )
ConTrIbuTorS ( 14 )
leTTerS ( 16 )
yoGA PAGeS ( 110 )
lIVInG Well ( 113 )
ClASSIFIeDS ( 114 )
6 y o g A j o u r n A L . C o M n o V e m b e r 2 0 1 0
POST SAVASANA BLISS.
YOGA. LOVE. RUN. PEACE.
sweat
on
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to r
eg
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in.
lulu
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leti
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lulu
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ath
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ors
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n p
urs
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go
new at
yogajournal.com
MORE ONLINE Look for this symbol throughout the magazine, pointing you to exclusive content and free offers on yogajournal.com.
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oc
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ise
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om
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p l
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an
dr
e;
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ur
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a;
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ine
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co
ur
te
sy
of
co
ra
we
n
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our new blog follows teachers
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Flip to pages 63 and 89 to read through masterful
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A video message from Kaitlin can be
found online at yogajournal.com/livemag. watch▼
( )reality showWhen life throws us hard truths,
yoga helps us view them with honesty
and handle them with grace.
The truth isn’t always easy to live with, but it is often our best teacher. Some
personal stories in this issue offer a sweet reminder that a commitment to yoga can
give us the tools to approach the truths that we wish were different, to see our
beliefs for what they are (not necessarily the truth!), and to act with as much clarity
and grace as possible. In “Artistry in Action” ( page 70), yoga teacher Patricia Sulli-
van, who has been practicing for 40 years, shares the dramatic tale of discovering
that the asana practice she knew was providing her with great benefits was
also causing her great harm. This difficult revelation led Patricia to reassess her
approach to the practice (leaving beloved poses
behind for a while) and to reinvent it, slowly and
painstakingly, and honestly. As readers, not only
do we learn from her example of self-inquiry
and honoring the truth of her body—but we also
gain a deeper understanding of how to prepare for
and practice Headstand, safely.
The yoga scholar Mark Singleton, too, shares
his journey through the territory of disappoint-
ment and confusion when he learns that the
Ash tanga vinyasa practice he has dedicated much
of his life to is not necessarily what he thought it
was. The revelations he revisits in “Yoga’s Greater Truth” ( page 66 ) are likely to be
rather shocking for a yoga community that hangs the hat of authenticity on lineage
and history. (Could your practice owe as much to European gymnastics as to the
ancient rishis, or seers, of India?) Mark, too, uses the truth as an opportunity for
self-reflection, and grapples with the question: If the practice isn’t as “authentic”
as it was once assumed, is it necessarily less beneficial?
Then, in “Bird’s Eye View” ( page 37), Allison Ford explores the meaning of ahimsa
(nonviolence) while rescuing birds whose instincts lead them to react violently to
their helpers. How do you apply ahimsa when the actions you take to help others
also cause them pain or fear? Though there is no easy answer, Allison does her best
to honor the seemingly contradictory truths of the birds’ reactions and their needs.
Practicing yoga gives us the fortitude to see paradoxes, face difficult truths, and
then stick around long enough to see what they might have to teach us. Now that
is a truth worth celebrating. ✤
ph
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Da
viD
Ma
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: ly
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en
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editor’s letter kait l in Quistgaard
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Ch
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Gr
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trinette reed & chris gramly
patricia sullivan
kk ledford
This photography duo and couple has signed
up for a most enviable profession: visiting
spas and resorts in the name of work. Whether
shooting in the Napa Valley, St. Barts, or
Tahiti, they are masters of inviting you to
imagine that those are your toes dangling in
turquoise water while palms gently sway
nearby. Reed and Gramly, who have also shot
for Spa and Condé Nast Traveler magazines,
have a love, Reed says, for “places that are
designed to create a sanctuary away from the
chaos of day-to-day life.” Based in San Francisco, they also enjoy capturing yoga
images, like the joyful cover shot of KK Ledford, which are informed by their own
practices. “Regular yoga makes everything in life a little easier,” Reed says.
Cover model and certified Anusara Yoga teacher
KK Ledford enjoys the many labels that fans and
friends have given her: fierce, feisty, faerie, and, from
Anusara Yoga founder John Friend, “president of the
Keep Anusara Weird Committee.” Ledford, who
lives in San Francisco, has her own label for what she
teaches: Wild Moon Wisdom, which is a blend of
Anusara, astrology, herbalism, and a healthy dose of
humor that invites her students to go deeper into the
practice—and into themselves. Though she grew up
on a farm in eastern Texas, where yoga was hardly
common, Ledford was an active, flexible, and spiritually attuned kid. When she
discovered the practice in her late teens, she was hooked; by age 22 she was teaching.
And when she met Friend in 1998, “I knew right away I had found my teacher.”
Having studied and taught yoga for 40 years, sculptor
Patricia Sullivan (“Artistry in Action,” page 70) knows
that a yoga practice, like clay, is shaped by the influ-
ences of the practitioner. Studying in India with B. K. S.
Iyengar and his daughter, Geeta, and teaching at the
Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco gave her a
steady focus on alignment and the innate intelligence of
the body. As her practice broadened to include other
traditions, especially Zen Buddhism, her teaching—
and her art—grew with it. Today she’s as likely to sculpt
the Buddhist goddess Kuan Yin as Hindu deities like
the Shiva/Shakti shown on page 71. Her teaching, too, has expanded. “I include
things I’ve learned in my Zen practice and from my life experience,” she says.
“My students are getting a synthesis of yoga and anything that I think is useful.”
contributors
1 4 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
I don’t think Yoga Journal has be come
“another voice for the status quo.” It has
always been artistic, tasteful, and inspira
tional in its content. Don’t change a thing!
Mia Larson Great Falls, Montana
It was unfortunate to see Judith Hanson
Lasater’s letter expressing displeasure
with partial nudity in some Yoga Journal
ads. Modern yoga in so many ways is asana
oriented; thus, the body plays a major
role in one’s yoga practice. While some
of the photos may be attention grabbing,
they are neither titillating, distasteful,
nor exploita tive. They are beautifully
executed asa nas by accomplished yoginis.
Advertisements allow us to receive
Sally Kempton’s pearls of wisdom, Roger
Cole’s gems on anatomy, Christopher
Wallis’s and Kate Holcombe’s juicy in
sights into philosophy, and the list goes
on. Each person may not like all parts of
the magazine; perhaps that becomes an
opportunity to practice karuna and upek-
sha, resting then in santosha, focusing on
what is valued in the publication.
Anne O’Brien Glen Ellen, California
Sciatica CautionThank you for the article “Sciatica Sooth
ers” (Om, Sept. ’10). It was helpful to illus
trate which asanas provide relief, but be
sure to indicate which asanas may cause
pain and instability. For example, I have
found when I externally rotate my hip in
Vrksasana (Tree Pose) or Janu Sirsasana
It’s GettingHot in HereI found it amusing when
I read Judith Hanson
Lasater’s re cent letter
about ad vertisements
using photos of naked or halfnaked
women to promote a product (Letters,
Sept. ’10). Coincidentally, I have been
feeling the same, about both Yoga Journal
and the state of yoga in general, particu
larly in the West, where it seems to simul
taneously move mankind toward a better
place and hold it back through yoga’s
own brand of consumerism. Perhaps to
achieve the former one must tolerate the
existence of the latter?
Lee Kirts Hatfield, Pennsylvania
I was so happy to hear someone of Judith
Hanson Lasater’s magnitude share wis
dom about something that needs to be
addressed. It feels disheartening that
your magazine needs to have the same
“sex sells” mentality that is so prevalent.
It seems like yoga has become more about
the trendy things you can buy instead of
the real practice anymore—talk about
marketing frenzy!
Mira Holiman West Fork, Arkansas
On the Other Hand ...I was saddened by Judith Hanson Lasa
ter’s letter chastising Yoga Journal for its
advertisements, and I disagree with the
assertion that the ads objectify women.
Every month, I look forward to the new
est Hard Tail ad—inspirational! Kathryn
Budig’s ToeSox ads—pure art! The prod
uct advertisements for anything from
vitamins to ecofriendly yoga mats—keep
’em coming! Living in a rural area, I don’t
have access to the same things that are
available in bigger areas. The advertise
ments in Yoga Journal let me know what’s
out there. Er
ik A
lM
ÅsThe exercise instructions and advice presented in this magazine are designed for people who are in good health
and physically fit. They are not intended to substitute for medical counseling. The creators, producers, partici-
pants, and distributors of Yoga Journal disclaim any liability for loss or injury in connection with the exercises
shown or the instruction and advice expressed herein.
like it!
People in Europe are scratching their
heads over this one, wondering, “What
is America’s problem?” These kinds
of ads have been the norm over here
for decades. I think the human body
is a thing of beauty, and we would
do well to see it in all its glory more
often. Bill Mueller
I love seeing yoga poses done well,
and I hardly noticed that the model
in the ads was naked. I said to my
self, “That’s a beautiful pose.” With
these ads, I take it that Yoga Jour
nal’s subscription price stays down
to earth so that I get to read it for
the articles—and I do love those
ar ticles. Amee
It’s funny how Lasater’s letter has
been boiled down to “Oh, no, nudity!”
I didn’t take it that way at all, but
rather as a lament for how yoga,
as presented in Yoga Journal, specifi
cally in the ads, has become about
selling a product rather than teach
ing yoga. But I can also skip the
ads to read the meat of the YJ arti
cles and practice yoga in my plain ol’
sweats and Tshirt and be perfectly
happy and fulfilled. Jennifer Minnick
I wonder what people would feel
like if they had to pay the full cost
of production of Yoga Journal with
out advertising. I wish I still looked
like the beautiful models in the
ads! Thank you, Yoga Journal, for
pro viding daily inspiration for my
practice! Melissa D. Corbin
Become a fan by visiting facebook.com/
yogajournal and clicking on “like.”
in the september issue, we printed a letter from Judith Hanson lasater that ignited
a passionate response from the yoga com-munity. (read the letter here yogajournal
.com/lifestyle/3058 and an editorial response here blogs.yogajournal.com/
yogadiary/2010/08.) Here’s how some YJ readers responded to the debate on our Facebook page.
1 6 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n O v E M B E r 2 0 1 0
letters
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Natural Has a New Address:
Natural diet side effects may include extreme purring as if to say,“Permission granted to stroke my gorgeous coat. Begin at once!”
(Head-of-the-Knee Pose), it leads to my
pelvis and sacrum going out of alignment,
and more pain and tingling.
Lora Cole Berlin, Maryland
Support Family Farms I feel that agriculture was misrepresented
in “Diet for a Healthy Planet” (Well Be -
ing, Sept. ’10). Family farms make up
the majority of farms in America, and
are dedicated to upholding the highest
standards of animal care and well-being.
For example, Organic Pastures, in Cali-
fornia, is a certified organic dairy that
uses customer investments to buy back
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return, customers get to name the cows
and receive shares of milk. When their
milk-producing years are over, the cows
are retired and supply manure for an or -
ganic composting company.
Hailey Harroun Fort Collins, Colorado
send feedback tO Letters, Yoga Journal, 475 Sansome Street, Suite 850, San Francisco,
CA 94111; email: [email protected]; fax: (415) 591-0733. Include your name, city, state,
and phone number. Letters and emails may be edited for length and clarity.
Small Town, Big HeartI wanted to say thank you to Yoga Journal
for such a fine magazine and website. I
live in New Harmony, Indiana, a com-
munity of less than 1,000 people. I like
to compare it to the Andy Griffith Show,
but with lots of art and culture. I lead a
small hatha yoga class here in town and
have found your magazine and website
to be invaluable sources of information.
Molly Felder New Harmony, Indiana
Inclusivity AppreciatedI just finished reading the September issue
and was pleased to see African Americans
as models for several stories. Thank you
for being more inclusive and reflecting
the variety of people who do yoga.
Sarah V New York, New York
Yoga Helped MeThe article “Warriors at Peace” (Aug. ’10)
touched my soul. I was in Iraq, and in the
military for almost seven years. The tran-
sition to civilian life has been very hard.
But yoga has given me the balance, focus,
and self-acceptance I need. I may not be
able to break the habit of waking up at 5
a.m., but I can do yoga during that time.
Jennifer Bendus Deridder, Louisiana
cOrrectiOn: In “35 mOMents,” Eric
Shaw’s timeline of yoga history (Sept.
’10), the entry “standards of practice”
(1999) should have read: “Yoga Alliance
establishes a registry to recognize teach-
ers that meet its training standards.” Yoga
Alliance does not license yoga teachers.
Thank you, Molly Felder, for your
handmade envelope. We loved it!
©2010 American Health, Inc. 10-1071AHdr
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© R
od L
uey - Fo
tolia.co
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letters
1 8 y O g a j O u r n a l . c O m n o V e M B e r 2 0 1 0
omA
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After my husband
and I returned from a
trekking honeymoon
in Peru, we decided
we would get up early
every morning and
take a long walk together before hitting our
favorite coffee spot. Some mornings I had to cut
our walk short, or skip it altogether to get to a
class on time, but when that happened, it felt like
something essential was missing. So when my
husband went away on a business trip, I kept up
the ritual with our dog, Rosie, and discovered
a new world outside my door.
Rosie stops to curiously sniff every tree as if
it’s the first tree she’s ever seen, as if she’s never
before smelled the scent of another dog. She
barks at every passing skateboard as if it is an
astonishing sight—a wild stallion bucking down
the street that she must herd! And she stalks
every squirrel with the unshakable faith that one
day she’ll catch one.
Then, a few mornings ago, I noticed that Rosie
had begun to skulk along a grassy patch next to
the sidewalk. She had spotted a squirrel. She
approached, careful not to disturb a single blade
of grass, and then she lunged, just missing the
squirrel as it scampered up a chainlink fence,
sped along the top, and then leapt like a dare devil
onto a tree branch a few feet away.
Witnessing the magic of this moment instantly
opened me up. Just the night before, a friend
from out of town had asked me if I had grown
used to Manhattan’s endless avenues and tower-
ing buildings, or whether I was still filled with awe
and reverence every time I stepped outside. I
brave new worldCultivate the fresh
perspective and heightened awareness
of a traveler to a distant land.
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 2 1
Do
ug
al
Wa
te
rs
/ge
tt
y i
ma
ge
s
mind
realized I had indeed become so accus-
tomed to my surroundings that I no
longer even noticed them.
In the mountains and rainforests of
Peru, I saw everything. We walked slowly,
picked up interesting rocks, dipped our
fingers in the glacier waterfalls, and
tasted the sweet fruit of coffee berries
right off the bush. We were like Rosie,
investigating the world around us with
curiosity and appreciation. But the locals
who were running the tourists’ camping
gear back and forth on the trails behaved
in those breathtaking mountains the
way I often behave in New York. They
didn’t have time to look around, so they
forgot where they were and lost their
appreciation for the place. Traveling,
away from the responsibilities of daily
life, gives us permission to slow down and
look around. But it’s not where you are
that’s important—it’s giving yourself per-
mission to have that heightened aware-
ness of sights and experiences.
After Rosie’s encounter with the squir-
rel that morning, I began to see my city
through new eyes. I started smiling and
saying hello to people on my early-
morning walks. I felt a connection with
them and with everything else I saw—
the paved streets and their potholes,
the urban fauna and the manmade struc-
tures around which they have adapted.
I noticed the old brick brownstones
and the modern condos; the fledgling
boutiques and coffee shops with window
signs still reading Closed; the rusty,
defunct factory buildings blocking my
view of the East River. Every morning on
my walk I experience these things as if
for the first time. And I fall in love with
them all over again. elizabeth Neuse
Elizabeth Neuse teaches meditation and vinyasa
and therapeutic yoga in New York City.
sweet life
REMEMBER Repeat this
affirmation of sovereignty: “Here
I am.” This moment is the only
one. The beginning and the end
of your experience is the here
and now. Suggest to yourself,
“Now, I am awake. I remember
who I am, and I am present to
the world around me.”
mirka kraftsoW
Mirka Kraftsow is co-director of the
American Viniyoga Institute. She
teaches the art of personal practice.
brave new world
A busy mind is like a blind-
fold, keeping the sights and
sounds of the world from
penetrating your awareness.
When you’re distracted, you miss the opportunities to enjoy
the sweetness of your surroundings—and yourself. Take these
three simple actions to wake up to the present moment:
STOP Clap your hands, just
once, but loudly, as if you wanted
to get someone’s attention.
(Your attention!) If you’re in a
public place, you might, instead,
silently but emphatically say
to yourself, “Wake up!”
Feel more joy when you
stop, breathe, and notice
the moment you are in.
BREATHE Do a brief
round (20 counts) of Kapal-
abhati Pranayama (Skull
Shining Breath). Or simply
take a few focused, deep
breaths with the intention
to enliven your whole being
with oxygen.
2 2 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m N O v E M B E R 2 0 1 0
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Desserts, Beverages & Cultured Products
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Yoga Journal Conference
San FranciscoJanuary 13 – 17, 2011 | Hyatt Regency
Jane Austin
Baron Baptiste
Scott Blossom
Kathryn Budig
Jnani Chapman
Seane Corn
Jason Crandell
Nicki Doane
Dana Flynn
Ana Forrest
Richard Freeman
Sharon Gannon
Amanda Giacomini
Julie Gudmestad
Hemalayaa
Leslie Howard
Anodea Judith
Brent Kessel
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
Erik Kipp
Gary Kraftsow
Judith Hanson Lasater
Cyndi Lee
David Life
Tias Little
Timothy McCall
Richard Miller
Dharma Mittra
Eddie Modestini
Paul Muller-Ortega
Jason Nemer
Aadil Palkhivala
Sarah Powers
Shiva Rea
David Romanelli
Desiree Rumbaugh
Jenny Sauer-Klein
Beth Shaw
Sianna Sherman
Stephanie Snyder
Rod Stryker
David Swenson
Jasmine Tarkeshi
Patricia Walden
Darshana Weill
Rusty Wells
Wendy Wyvill
MC Yogi
YJEvENTS.COM
800.561.9398
5 Days | 50+ Master Teachers | 100+ Classes
+ Keynote by Dean Ornish, MD
Register Now!
+ FEATuRiNG ELizABETH GiLBERT
AuTHOR OF eat, pray, love
Friday, January 14 I 7:30 pm
Visit
YJEVENTS.COM
ST
EP
1Peruse our roster
of world-renowned
teachersST
EP
2 3Choose your classes
and create your
yoga getawayST
EP Register online at
YJEVENTS.COM
Click Register Now
and tell your friends!
ST
EP
4Check out the
special events
designed to enhance
your experience
ST
EP
5
Register now for The San Francisco Conference. It’s easy!
Calendar at a Glance: January 13—17, 2011
Jane Austin
Baron Baptiste
Scott Blossom
Kathryn Budig
Jnani Chapman
Seane Corn
Jason Crandell
Nicki Doane
Dana Flynn
Ana Forrest
Richard Freeman
Sharon Gannon
Amanda Giacomini
Julie Gudmestad
Hemalayaa
Leslie Howard
Anodea Judith
Brent Kessel
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
Erik Kipp
Gary Kraftsow
Judith Hanson Lasater
Cyndi Lee
David Life
Tias Little
Timothy McCall
Richard Miller
Dharma Mittra
Eddie Modestini
Paul Muller-Ortega
Jason Nemer
Aadil Palkhivala
Sarah Powers
Shiva Rea
David Romanelli
Desiree Rumbaugh
Jenny Sauer-Klein
Beth Shaw
Sianna Sherman
Stephanie Snyder
Rod Stryker
David Swenson
Jasmine Tarkeshi
Patricia Walden
Darshana Weill
Rusty Wells
Wendy Wyvill
MC Yogi
YJEVENTS.COM
800.561.9398
Join us in San Francisco January 13-17, 2011Main Weekend Conference
100+ classes in all styles of yoga for all levels. Includes:
Beginners Track & Teachers Track
Choose classes from our custom-designed tracks. For those just starting out or those looking
to deepen their practice and continue their education, we’ve got something for everyone.
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert, Author of Eat, Pray, Love
Spend the evening with the author of bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth
Gilbert. Hear her speak, ask her your most burning questions, and have your
book signed at this exclusive Bay Area event.
Limited VIP reception tickets available – includes wine + cheese reception and VIP seating
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
Friday Evening Classes
Perfect for after work. Grab your friends and join us for one of three evening classes.
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
All-Day Intensives
Spend one full day delving into yoga with your choice of 12 different teachers and topics.
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
Business of Yoga Workshop
Learn vital techniques of marketing, business plans, fi nances, and
management in a two-day seminar led by industry leaders.
Sponsored byMON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
Sponsored by
Visit
YJEVENTS.COM
ST
EP
1Peruse our roster
of world-renowned
teachersST
EP
2 3Choose your classes
and create your
yoga getawayST
EP Register online at
YJEVENTS.COM
Click Register Now
and tell your friends!
ST
EP
4Check out the
special events
designed to enhance
your experience
ST
EP
5
Register now for The San Francisco Conference. It’s easy!
Calendar at a Glance: January 13—17, 2011
Jane Austin
Baron Baptiste
Scott Blossom
Kathryn Budig
Jnani Chapman
Seane Corn
Jason Crandell
Nicki Doane
Dana Flynn
Ana Forrest
Richard Freeman
Sharon Gannon
Amanda Giacomini
Julie Gudmestad
Hemalayaa
Leslie Howard
Anodea Judith
Brent Kessel
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
Erik Kipp
Gary Kraftsow
Judith Hanson Lasater
Cyndi Lee
David Life
Tias Little
Timothy McCall
Richard Miller
Dharma Mittra
Eddie Modestini
Paul Muller-Ortega
Jason Nemer
Aadil Palkhivala
Sarah Powers
Shiva Rea
David Romanelli
Desiree Rumbaugh
Jenny Sauer-Klein
Beth Shaw
Sianna Sherman
Stephanie Snyder
Rod Stryker
David Swenson
Jasmine Tarkeshi
Patricia Walden
Darshana Weill
Rusty Wells
Wendy Wyvill
MC Yogi
YJEVENTS.COM
800.561.9398
Join us in San Francisco January 13-17, 2011Main Weekend Conference
100+ classes in all styles of yoga for all levels. Includes:
Beginners Track & Teachers Track
Choose classes from our custom-designed tracks. For those just starting out or those looking
to deepen their practice and continue their education, we’ve got something for everyone.
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert, Author of Eat, Pray, Love
Spend the evening with the author of bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth
Gilbert. Hear her speak, ask her your most burning questions, and have your
book signed at this exclusive Bay Area event.
Limited VIP reception tickets available – includes wine + cheese reception and VIP seating
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
Friday Evening Classes
Perfect for after work. Grab your friends and join us for one of three evening classes.
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
All-Day Intensives
Spend one full day delving into yoga with your choice of 12 different teachers and topics.
MON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
Business of Yoga Workshop
Learn vital techniques of marketing, business plans, fi nances, and
management in a two-day seminar led by industry leaders.
Sponsored byMON
17SUN
16SAT
15FRI
14THURS
13
Sponsored by
YOGA JOURNAL CONFERENCES
APPRECIATES THE GENEROUS SUPPORT
OF OUR EVENT SPONSORS:
Register Now!
Immerse Yourself in Everything Yoga
Yoga Journal ConferenceSan Francisco JANUARY 13–17, 2011
Hyatt Regency | San Francisco, CA
5 Days | 50+ Master Teachers | 100+ Classes
YJEVENTS.COM | 800.561.9398
Yoga Journal ConferenceSan Francisco
January 13–17, 2011
Register Now at
YJEVENTS.COM | 800.561.9398
OPEN HERE
SILVER SPONSORS
VISIT THE YOGA MARKETPLACEFree and Open to the Public!
Special Event Highlights
An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert, Author of Eat, Pray, Love
FREE Weekend Community Classes
Aromatherapy and Yoga Workshop
Goal-Coaching Workshop
NEW THIS YEAR! Waterfront Morning Run | Yoga + Hiking Workshop
Yoga + Chocolate Class
DRINK FRESH WATER AND AS MUCH WATER AS YOU CAN.
WATER FLUSHES UNWANTED TOXINS FROM YOUR BODY AND KEEPS YOUR BRAIN SHARP.
A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.
LOVE
Colorado Conference
September 18 —25, 2011 Estes Park, CO
Midwest Conference
July 8—11, 2011 Lake Geneva, WI
New York City Conference
May 12—16, 2011 Hilton New York
Save the Dates
GOLD SPONSORS
YOGA JOURNAL CONFERENCES
APPRECIATES THE GENEROUS SUPPORT
OF OUR EVENT SPONSORS:
Register Now!
Immerse Yourself in Everything Yoga
Yoga Journal ConferenceSan Francisco JANUARY 13–17, 2011
Hyatt Regency | San Francisco, CA
5 Days | 50+ Master Teachers | 100+ Classes
YJEVENTS.COM | 800.561.9398
Yoga Journal ConferenceSan Francisco
January 13–17, 2011
Register Now at
YJEVENTS.COM | 800.561.9398
OPEN HERE
SILVER SPONSORS
VISIT THE YOGA MARKETPLACEFree and Open to the Public!
Special Event Highlights
An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert, Author of Eat, Pray, Love
FREE Weekend Community Classes
Aromatherapy and Yoga Workshop
Goal-Coaching Workshop
NEW THIS YEAR! Waterfront Morning Run | Yoga + Hiking Workshop
Yoga + Chocolate Class
DRINK FRESH WATER AND AS MUCH WATER AS YOU CAN.
WATER FLUSHES UNWANTED TOXINS FROM YOUR BODY AND KEEPS YOUR BRAIN SHARP.
A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.
LOVE
Colorado Conference
September 18 —25, 2011 Estes Park, CO
Midwest Conference
July 8—11, 2011 Lake Geneva, WI
New York City Conference
May 12—16, 2011 Hilton New York
Save the Dates
GOLD SPONSORS
EIG
HT
FIS
H/G
ET
Ty
Im
aG
ES
Last spring, after months of
caring for her, I lost my dear
mother to lymphoma. Several
months later I lost my job. I
was devastated, angry, and unmoored. My husband
was dealing with his own stresses, and we started
shutting each other out. Life was not very sweet.
I had practiced yoga for more than five years,
but my husband had never shared the practice
with me. Now, feeling that I needed to clear my
head and make a fresh start, I signed up for a solo
yoga retreat at Bali Spirit in Ubud, Bali. I told my
husband I couldn’t find a friend to go with me who
was excited about yoga, so I was going alone. He
said, “I’ll get excited about yoga,” and from that
moment, everything began to change.
Nestled between the Yoga Barn and the Zen
Spa, our hotel was surrounded by rice paddies and
palm trees. Our day began with a morning swim,
a pranayama class, and breakfast, followed by a dif-
ferent yoga class for each of us. My husband
started with “tight guy” and beginner classes, while
I took more vigorous ones.
After class, we met up to explore the sights.
Balinese culture is filled with so much beauty and
gratitude; daily offerings of sweet incense and
colorful flowers filled the streets. We never saw an
argument or a fuss over anything. People seemed
to glow with inner happiness.
As the days went by, we started to reconnect in
a magical way. My husband was excited about his
new yoga practice; he was losing weight and feeling
great. I was finally releasing my grief in this joyful,
nurturing, safe, and fulfilling space. Now that we’re
back home, we feel closer and more loving than we
could have ever dreamed. I feel my mother’s spirit
nearby and am grateful for her beautiful presence
in my life. Life is very, very sweet.
SHEEna nancy SarlES
the heart grows fonderWith distance,
a couple finds
each other.
practice makes perfect
In Yoga Sutra I.13, Patanjali
tells us that reaching a state
of yoga, or citta vrtti nirod-
hah, requires certain efforts,
and that it takes still more
effort to remain stable there.
Specifically, Patanjali tells
us we must commit to mak-
ing the necessary efforts to
support our practice. Wheth-
er that means waking up
earlier to do it, forgoing a fa-
vorite TV show so we can
get to sleep earlier, or priori-
tizing time for ourselves
and our practice, it is only
through continued effort and
a desire to nurture our prac-
tice that we can reach a state
of yoga. KaTE HolcombE
Kate Holcombe is the founder
and co-director of Healing Yoga
Foundation in San Francisco.
Her teachings apply the Yoga
Sutra of Patanjali to daily life.YOGA DIARY Share your
personal stories with us at
yogajournal.com/submissions.
Yoga Sutra I.13
To achieve and remain
stable in a state of yoga, or
focused concentration
(citta vrtti nirodhah), you
must make the effort to give
strength to your foundation
through practice.
n o V e m b e r 2 0 1 0 Y O G A j O u R n A l . c O m 2 5
ph
ot
o:
sh
er
i g
ibl
in;
st
yl
ist
: k
ar
en
sh
int
o
food
spice it up
If you can’t head to Asia this
week, bring some of its flavors
to you. Spice pastes, sauces, and
dried mixes lend an exotic flair
to a quick weeknight meal.
1 For fast flavor, cook
fresh vegetables
with WorldFoods’ Thai
Ginger Lemon Grass
Stir-Fry Sauce ($4.99
for 12 oz.) and serve
over brown rice.
2 Add veg gies and
tofu to Tikka Masala
Simmer Sauce ($4.99
for 12 oz.) from Seeds
of Change for a con-
venient take on the
Indian classic.
3 For an instant delicious Indian
marinade or dip, stir Neera’s
Vindaloo Curry Paste ($4.95 for
4 oz.) into plain yogurt.
4 Mix Garam Masala from Juliet
Mae ($6.50 for 1.5 oz.) with yo -
gurt to make a dip, or sprinkle it
on your meal for a flavor boost.
5 Serve grilled tofu with Thai
Kitchen’s rich Peanut Satay
Sauce ($4.69 for 8 oz.).
1
2
5
4
3
2 6 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m N o V e M b e r 2 0 1 0
Ju
tt
a K
le
e/g
et
ty
im
ag
es
wellness
love bug
The human digestive tract is home to hun-
dreds of species of microbes. Under healthy
conditions, the good microbes have the
upper hand over harmful ones. But some-
times the balance is upset—when you’re
taking antibiotics, for example, or you con-
tract a case of traveler’s diarrhea.
A growing body of research shows that
ingesting concentrated doses of friendly
bacteria in the form of probiotic supple-
ments can help reset that balance and may
be as effective as medication in treating cer-
tain digestive disorders. The key to finding
relief is to choose the right strain, says Barry
Goldin, a professor of nutrition at Tufts
University’s nutrition school in Boston.
“Probiotics can have very significant effects
on health when you get the right strains
for the right conditions,” Goldin says.
Probiotics may even play a larger role in
your overall health. Researchers are explor-
ing their potential to help treat a range of
conditions from cavities to the common
cold. Some naturopaths already recommend
taking probiotic supplements or eating
foods containing live cultures on a regular
basis to boost immunity.
FIND THE RIGHT BUG
Not feeling well? Choose a supplement that
contains the right strain for your condition.
for traveler’s diarrhea use Saccharomyces
boulardii or a combination of Lactobacillus
acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum.
for antibiotic-induced diarrhea use Saccha-
romyces boulardii, and, in combination,
Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus bulgari-
cus, and Streptococcus thermophilus. for
bloating, gas, or irritable bowel syndrome
use Bifidobacterium infantis 35624. for bac-
terial vaginosis use Lactobacillus rhamnosus
GR-1 combined with Lactobacillus fermen-
tum RC-14. HeatHer boerner
Traditional diets have
always included cultured
and fermented foods such
as yogurt, pickled vegeta-
bles, or soy products,
which may help tip the bal-
ance in the gut in favor of
health-promoting bacteria.
While supplements are
helpful for treating specif-
ic conditions, getting your
probiotics in food can
help you maintain healthy
intestines, according to
nutritionist Jo Ann Hattner,
RD, the author of Gut Insight:
Probiotics and Prebiotics for
Digestive Health and Well-Being.
She suggests eating fermented
or cultured foods with naturally
occurring friendly bacteria as
well as food products with added
live cultures. She also suggests
eating foods containing nondi-
gestible ingredients known as
prebiotics—fibrous molecules
that nourish the friendly bacteria
present in the body. H.b.
Friendly bacteria help
keep your intestinal
ecosystem in balance.
food sources
of PREBIOTICS,
fibrous molecules
that nourish
friendly bacteria:
* artichokes
* bananas
* leeks
* onions
* whole wheat
feed your belly
cultured or
fermented foods
that contain
PROBIOTICS:
* kimchi
* kombucha
* miso
* sauerkraut
* yogurt
2 8 y o G a j o U R N a l . c o m n O v E m B E R 2 0 1 0
The lucy Hatha Power Pant™
Sublime performance. Flawless fit.International yoga instructor Seane Corn wears the lucy Hatha Power Pant™, our best-selling yoga
pant designed to fit you and your practice. In 2010, lucy activewear is continuing its commitment
to Off the Mat, Into the World®, a non-profit program co-founded by Seane, supporting their
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ayurveda
ph
ot
o:
sh
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i g
ibl
in;
st
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ist
: c
hr
ist
ine
wo
lh
eim
The science of Ayurveda holds
that every part of our mind
and body is governed by
the doshas, the bioenergetic
forces that sustain life. Skin
is no exception, says Pratima
Raichur, an Ayurvedic physi-
cian and the author of Abso-
lute Beauty: Radiant Skin and
Inner Harmony Through the
Ancient Secrets of Ayurveda.
Learn about your dosha and
discover the skin-care routine
that’s best for you. (For more,
go to yogajournal.com/dosha.)
Ayurvedic teachings sug-
gest that applying essential
oils appropriate to your dosha
can rejuvenate the skin and
bring harmony to the mind.
Glowing skin and inner peace—
sounds good, right? Here’s
how to get it. hillari DowDle
The pitta dosha is governed
by fire and water and mani-
fests in oily, sensitive skin
with a tendency toward
inflammation, rashes, and
acne. Try soothing, cooling
essential oils like lavender,
ylang-ylang, fennel, neroli,
melissa, and sandalwood.
If you’re a pitta type...
1 Solavedi Organics Shatavari
Balancing Facial Moisturiser
($34 for 2 oz., solavedi.com)
employs essential oils and the
herb shatavari, often used to
soothe pitta skin types.
2 Bindi Pitta Essential Oil
($39.60 for 0.5 oz., bindi.com)
calms inflamed skin with sandal-
wood, ylang-ylang, and jasmine.
1
2
Nourish your skin with essential
oils tailored to your constitution.
beauty by the dosha
3 0 y O g a j O u r n a l . c O M n o v e m b e R 2 0 1 0
. It’s where green meets black. Where being at one with
the Earth exists harmoniously with being at one with your
desires. At Green Black’s, we’ve always been committed
to using deliciously full-flavored, organic ingredients. It
simply made sense to us. As a result, our chocolate has an
undeniably deep, complex taste and the signature intensity
for which we’ve become known. Now, that’s good karma.
Indulge both sides.
Om... Mmm...
©2010 Green & Black’s Chocolate Limited. Green & Black’s and other
associated trademarks are owned by Green & Black’s Chocolate Limited. greenandblacks.com
Live in the
ph
ot
o:
sh
er
i g
ibl
in;
st
yl
ist
: c
hr
ist
ine
wo
lh
eim
ayurveda
Kapha (governed by earth and water)
can create either beautiful smooth
skin or skin that’s beset by excessive
oil, congestion, and cystic acne. Keep
it energized and unclogged with stim-
ulating oils like rosemary, spearmint,
eucalyptus, clove, juniper, and ginger.
If your skin is dry and thin and
has a tendency to develop fine
lines, you’re dealing with vata
(governed by air). Ayurvedic
principles suggest that vata
types benefit from daily self-
massage with sesame oil and a
skin-care routine that features
essential oils with sweet,
grounding energy, such as rose,
neroli, orange, and geranium.
If you’re a kapha type...
If you’re a vata type...
1 Ajara Kapha Exfoliating Facial
Cleanser ($14 for 4 oz.,
ajaraskincare.com) uses natural
grains to slough off tired skin
and rosemary oil to tone pores.
2 Tara Kapha Purifying Mask
($37 for 1.5 oz., taraspa.com)
draws impurities out of the skin
with a blend of mineral-rich clay
and kapha-specific herbs.
3 Sundari Nighttime Nourishing
Oil ($140 for 0.5 oz., sundari.com)
is a decadent before-bed treat-
ment with moisturizing neroli.
4 Pratima Vata Herbal Cleanser
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I crouch down in a wooden pen and grab
the pelican’s bill. When he snaps at me,
I flinch but hold fast, bracing his wings
against my legs, until I can force a syringe
down his throat to give him water. When
I let go, the bird backs away nervously,
watching me with a keen, terrified eye.
I watch him go with a pang; no matter
how many birds I handle, it still upsets me
to cause this fearful re action. But there is
no way around it. I work with the Interna
tional Bird Research and Rescue Center,
overseeing the care of hundreds of oiled
birds, victims of the Deepwater Horizon
rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico, at the Fort
Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation
Center in Louisiana. If I don’t forcibly
hydrate and feed these birds, they could
die of starvation or hypothermia.
In my work in both environmental pol
icy and animal care, I’ve been inspired by
the idea of ahimsa, or nonviolence, de
scribed by the yogic sage Patanjali as a core
ethical principle. But my work shows me that we are in a constant
state of violence against the natural world. In caring for wildlife,
I’ve come to question what nonviolence really means.
When I began this work, I often wondered, “How am I supposed
to avoid injury to an already injured animal, when my very presence
triggers a violent reaction?” People come to the practice of rehabili
tating wildlife expecting docile, grateful birds who understand that
we are trying to help them. Can they not see that, by cleaning the
toxic goo off their feathers, we are giving them a new chance at life?
From the birds’ perspective, though, we are their captors at best—or
predators at worst. Over time, as I’ve seen many birds restored to
health and returned to their life in the wild, I’ve come to accept that
I have to do things to the birds that cause them perceived harm in
the short term in order to save them in the long
term. What’s harder for me to accept is that I’m
part of the reason the birds are suffering to begin
with. I’m part of the harm we are causing to the
planet—and all its inhabitants—by continuing
to consume fossil fuels at the level we do. This
to me seems the most egregious injury in a knot
of violence I don’t know how to undo. Seeing
beautiful wild birds coated in oil is a wakeup
call about the harm of our actions in the world.
It’s an overwhelming thought to grapple
with every time I go to tube a bird, so instead
I work through it in my daily yoga practice. In
bird’s eye view
reflection by Al l ison Ford
Ge
rA
ld
He
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t/A
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Pr
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( )Caring for animals harmed in the Gulf oil spill leads a woman to consider
ahimsa in a new light.
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 3 7
treating it. I accept it with each moment
that I can be fully present with the victim
of a problem that is bigger than me. But
I know that I can’t stop there. When I
leave here, I will seek ways to end the big
ger violence that landed these birds in my
care in the first place. I believe that this,
too, must be part of ahimsa: seeking the
path of nonviolence in a given moment,
but also seeing the connection to the
general state of violence in our world.
Looking at the problems of oil spills,
climate change, and all the other violence
stemming from our consumption is over
whelming. Where could one person pos
sibly start? When I get overwhelmed, I
bring my concentration inward. There is
nothing beyond the present, whether I’m
on the mat or making daily choices that
are right for Earth. Just as my practice on
the mat flows into my practice in the pen,
so will my practice in the pen flow into the
bigger choices I make in life. D
Allison Ford is an environmental policy
specialist currently working in Louisiana.
human way of communicat
ing love, but would terrify a
wild bird.
bird by bird
My yoga practice is a core ele
ment in my efforts to wrap
my head—and my heart—
around the complexity of the
work I do. It has taught me
that focusing on the present
moment, on the breath I’m
breathing right now, is the
way to deal with any challenging situa
tion. It’s the same with handling birds.
Concentrating my energy on the bird I
am working with is hard when I know that
30 other birds need my care—but the abil
ity to truly focus is both a coping mecha
nism for me and a kindness I owe the bird
in my hands.
This is how I accept the burden of re
sponsibility for what happened to the
Gulf—and the global harm I am compli
cit in. I accept it each time I catch a bird in
my hands and focus all my awareness on
the pen, I have to put it
aside and bring my focus
to the bird at hand. Here,
ahimsa means moving slowly around the
edge of the pen as I clean it, leaving the
bird an escape route from me. It means
capturing the bird quickly, so it doesn’t
beat its wings against the cage, and hold
ing the bird with a gentle but unyield
ing grip, so that it can’t slip away before
it receives the care it needs. It means not
giving the bird the hug that I am longing to
give—knowing that hugs are a particularly Ch
ar
lie
Ne
ibe
rg
al
l/a
ss
oC
iat
ed
pr
es
s
Author Allison
Ford treats an
injured pelican.
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( )For cozy home-cooked meals on a fast-paced schedule,
try a slow cooker.
Several years ago, I spent a few months on an
isolated farm near Davis, California, working on a
writing project. The farmhouse kitchen was empty
of equipment except for a vintage slow cooker. Like
most people I knew, I associated slow cookers with
unappealing dishes like chicken sauced with canned
cream of mushroom soup. But that was what I had to
work with, so I went to the local co-op and bought
every kind of dried bean they had. Each day, I’d
choose a bean, wash it, put it in the slow cooker to
simmer while I worked, and then I’d eat the
warm, fragrant beans in their cooking broth with
nothing but some good salt and a handful of chopped
herbs picked outside the farmhouse.
Those were quiet days, and I had a lot of time to
get to know that old slow cooker, to savor the simple
slow food
eating wisely by Lynn Al ley
ph
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oS
: S
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ri
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Lin
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to
favorite chili
(recipe, page 44)
y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 4 1
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Photography by Jodi Komitor
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meals I prepared with it, and to refl ect on
how nurturing and deeply satisfying food
cooked this way was. I left the slow cooker
behind when I left the farm and returned
to my regular life. But to my surprise, I
found that the slow cooker had trans-
formed the way I thought about food.
Since the invention of pottery nearly
10,000 years ago, human beings have been
gathering ingredients into one pot and
cooking them for hours, sometimes over
an open fi re, sometimes in a communal
oven, all the while melding the flavors,
aromas, and textures of the ingredients
in a way that roasting over an open fl ame
could never do. Today, the slow cooker
gives us an opportunity to use the same
principles of fl avor development that our
ancestors did, without having to dig pits
or fi re up communal ovens. While in my
modern life as a writer and yoga teacher I
might not have time to tend to a dish for
hours, I can plug in my slow cooker and
experience simple, rustic cooking.
I began to think of classic, comforting
one-pot meals from cultures around the
world, dishes like hearty winter soups,
risottos, and curries, in a new way—in
terms of how they could be adapted to the
technology of the slow cooker. Meat, of
course, stands up well to long hours of
cooking at low temperatures, but I was
gradually making a transition to a meat-
less diet. While I knew that vegetables
couldn’t take the same treatment—eight
hours in a slow cooker would reduce most
vegetables to a soggy mash—I began ex -
perimenting with grains and root vegeta-
bles, which could hold up under longer
cooking times, adding more fragile vege-
tables later or near the end of the cooking
time. The results combined the subtle fl a-
vors of slow-cooked beans and grains with
the vibrant colors, textures, and fl avors of
tender vegetables and herbs.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
The same fl exibility that makes the slow
cooker well suited to vegetarian meals
also makes it an ideal tool for supporting
my yoga practice, helping me fi t home-
cooked meals into a busy and not always
predictable schedule of personal practice,
writing, and teaching. Breakfast is a great
4 2 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0
eating wisely
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example: I need to eat something substan
tial a few hours before I practice in the
morning. In the evening before I go to bed,
I put oatmeal or cracked wheat berries
( see recipe on page 44) in the slow cooker
and let it cook on the lowest setting all
night long. When I get up in the chilly
dawn, I’ll stir in cinnamon and milk and
sit down to a warm, filling meal. For vari
ety, I sometimes cook khavits, an Ar me
nian wholegrain dish topped with feta
cheese, pistachios, and honey.
comfort food
Rarely do I feel like cooking after an eve
ning yoga class, and there are nights when
even steaming a vegetable feels like too
much trouble. But on those nights espe
cially, it’s wonderful to come home to the
smells of a simmering vegetable soup or
stew. When I have an evening yoga class,
I might put something that doesn’t take
long to cook, like tofu with a sauce of
miso, sesame oil, and tamari, in the slow
cooker before I head out the door. When
I get home, I stir in some spinach, and 10
minutes later, dinner is ready. If I’ll be
out for a larger portion of the day, I might
choose something like cubed butternut
squash, and stir in a green curry sauce when
I get home. And if I’ll be away all day,
I might put red beans on to cook in the
morning, and add tomatoes, onions, and
spices that evening. I’ll let them simmer
for another hour or so, filling the house
with a savory smell as I unwind.
One recent afternoon, one of my neigh
bors invited me to a potluck that evening.
I scrubbed some small potatoes and put
them in the slow cooker with a little wa
ter, olive oil, and sea salt. The potatoes
simmered for a few hours, at which point
I added some chopped red chard and sliced
mushrooms. In 20 minutes, they were
ready for some freshly ground pepper
and a squeeze of lemon juice. And in the
meantime, I had time to do a few stretches
and get ready for the party. ✤
Lynn Alley is the author of five cookbooks,
including The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow
Cooker (Ten Speed Press, 2010). She teaches
vinyasa flow and restorative yoga classes
in Southern California.
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 4 3
4 4 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
eating wisely recipes
cracked wheat
berries with honey
and ricotta
Cracked Wheat BerrieswithHoneyandRicottam a k es 3 to 4 s e rv i n gs
This creamy porridge makes a sustaining
breakfast on chilly mornings. Thin the
finished dish with water, if necessary.
1cuphardwheatberries
4cupswater1⁄2 teaspoonsalt
1 1⁄2 cupsfreshricottacheese
Honey
Groundcinnamon,forgarnish
Cocoapowderorshavedsemisweet
chocolate,forgarnish
1 Pulse the wheat berries briefly in a
blenderorfoodprocessor,justlong
enoughtocrackthemintopieces.
2 Placethecrackedwheat,water,and
saltintheslowcookerinsert.Coverand
cookonyourslowcooker’slowestset-
tingovernight,about8hours.
3 Spoonintobowlsandtopwithascoop
ofricottacheese.Drizzlewithhoney,
andthensprinklewithgroundcinna-
monandadustingofcocoapowder.
Favorite Chilim a k es 6 to 8 s e rv i n gs
Slow cookers vary, so adjust the tem per
ature of yours to keep the liquid at a low
simmer as the beans cook.
2cupsdriedkidneyorpintobeans
6cupswater
6allspiceberries
1stickcinnamon1⁄2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano1⁄2 teaspooncuminseeds1⁄4 teaspoonaniseed1⁄2 teaspooncorianderseeds1⁄2 onion, diced
3clovesgarlic,finelyminced
1(28-ounce)cancrushedtomatoes
1tablespoonunsweetened
cocoapowder
1to2tablespoonschilipowder1⁄4 cupdicedredbellpepper1⁄4 cupdicedgreenbellpepper1⁄2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
Salttotaste1⁄2 cupsourcreamornonfatyogurt1⁄4 cupthinlyslicedgreenonions,
greenpartonly1⁄2 cupchoppedfreshcilantroleaves
1 Thoroughlypickthroughandwash
thebeans,thenplacethem,alongwith
thewater,ina6-or7-quartslowcooker
insert.Grindtheallspice,cinnamon,
oregano,cumin,aniseed,andcorian-
derinanelectriccoffeemillorwitha
mortarandpestleandaddtothebeans.
Coverandcookonlowfor6hoursor
untilthebeansaretender.
2 Addthedicedonion,garlic,tomatoes,
cocoa,andchilipowdertothebeansand
continuecookingfor2hours.
3 Aboutahalfhourbeforeserving,add
thebellpepperandcorntothebeans.
4 Seasonwithsalttotaste.Ladleinto
bowlsandtopeachbowlwithadollop
ofsourcreamandasprinklingofgreen
onionandcilantro.
Recipes reprinted with permission from The
GourmetVegetarianSlowCooker:Simple
andSophisticatedMealsfromAroundthe
World, by Lynn Alley (Ten Speed Press, a
division of Random House, Inc., 2010).
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* These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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Some in this age
the magazine business. They
even failing . A genre no
might be surprised to that
issues than those 35 and
readership is growing. In fact,
spend their on magazine
question the of
suspect it’s in tough ,
longer in . Well you
readers 18-34 actually read
older and that our overall
nearly 300 million now
subscriptions.
Heather, a Boston-area bodyworker,
has been under stress lately, and she’s
starting to feel its effects. Blustery win -
ter weather has arrived in New England,
and she has a hard time keeping warm.
With the economy yet to rebound, ap -
pointments at the spa where she works
are still off, and she finds herself ly -
ing awake at night worrying about
money. Her bowels, always a little on
the sluggish side, are worse than usual,
and she’s been experiencing intermit-
tent heartburn.
To make up for the loss of income at
the spa, Heather has taken on a few pri-
vate clients. Though the extra money
helps, her schedule is packed, leaving
barely enough time for laundry or exer-
cise. She’s driving more than usual and
finds herself annoyed with other driv-
ers. She rarely sits down to eat during
the day, instead grabbing a salad on
the run or snacking on energy bars be -
tween clients. At night she winds down with a glass of wine in
front of the TV, and then falls into bed exhausted.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, Heather, a composite based on
several people, is vata-pitta. That means her natural constitution,
or prakriti, which is the unique combination of doshas that
a person is born with, is balanced between the airy qualities of vata
(creative, energetic, active, but tending toward anxiety) and the
fiery nature of pitta (smart, passionate, driven, but prone to anger).
She has less kapha, the dosha associated with earth and water, which
is marked by strength and dependability but also a tendency toward
laziness. (Some people have one dominant dosha, while others, like
Heather, have two. A balance of all three is called tri-doshic.)
Heather’s life isn’t usually so chaotic. When
she is feeling balanced, the combination of vata
and pitta serves her well. She’s good at her job
and maintains a busy social life. Although her
schedule is pretty full, she manages to cook a
few nights a week, usually sleeps seven or eight
hours, and makes it to yoga class fairly regularly.
storm watch
But the cold, windy weather, a hectic schedule,
and financial worries have caused Heather’s vata
dosha to become imbalanced. To use the term
well being by Timothy McCal l , MD
ph
oT
o:
ro
ry
ea
rn
sh
aw
/sa
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bo
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Tu
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es
Th
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fe
inM
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/fo
rD
( )To stay grounded when life is a whirlwind, try Ayurvedic techniques
to calm vata (the air element).
down to earth
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 4 9
some Ayurvedic physicians employ, her
vata dosha has become deranged. Accord-
ing to Ayurvedic thought, vata is like the
wind. It’s cool, dry, rough, and erratic—
and anything with similar properties will
tend to increase it.
stress alert
A lot of what we refer to as being “stressed
out” in the modern world is, from an
Ayurvedic perspective, a manifestation
of vata derangement. It’s more likely to
happen to someone like Heather, who
has quite a bit of vata in her prakriti. Still,
people with a lot of pitta and kapha can
also see their vata get out of balance as a
result of a combination of climate, stress,
lifestyle decisions, and other factors, such
as the aging process, certain illnesses, and
lots of travel.
Regardless of your prakriti, if your
vata is acutely increased, it can cause
problems. You may experience typical
vata symptoms like anxiety, constipation,
and insomnia. Those with vata-related
health problems like arthritis, chronic
pain, or Parkinson’s disease are likely to
notice more pronounced symptoms. Over
time, excessive vata can lead to derange-
ments in the other doshas, too. For ex am-
ple, a kapha-dominant person with vata
de rangement might experience an in -
crease of the negative qualities of their
prominent dosha—feeling more lethargic
than usual or coming down with a sinus
or bronchial infection. A pitta with vata
derangement might become more hot-
headed or experience heartburn. These
symptoms parallel modern science’s in -
creased understanding of how stress con-
tributes to or exacerbates most medical
conditions, from heart disease and dia-
betes to depression.
When you experience stress, the sym-
pathetic nervous system—the body’s “fight
or flight” emergency-preparedness sys-
tem—becomes activated, and stress hor-
mones such as adrenaline (also known as
epinephrine) and cortisol flood the body.
MOre ONlINe To learn a vata-
calming asana sequence, go to
yogajournal.com/vataasana.
5 0 y O g a j O u r N a l . c O M n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
well being
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The Ayurvedic practice of abhyanga,
or warm-oil massage, is a soothing
treatment for overwrought vata.
As a self-care treatment, it’s tradi-
tionally done in the morning, before
bathing, and is especially useful as
a daily ritual in the winter months,
says Graciella Zogbi, a Vedic health
educator at the Raj Maharishi
Ayurveda Health Spa in Iowa. “Vata
by its nature is dry and cold. With
abhyanga, the warm oil penetrates
the skin. Its lubricating quality is
the complete opposite of vata, and
it’s balancing on that level.”
Abhyanga is also used to help
direct ama (toxins) from the tissues
to the organs of elimination. Done
regularly, Zogbi says, it can improve
circulation and digestion, relax the
nervous system, nourish the skin,
create feelings of groundedness and
focus, and increase ojas, or radi-
ance, which results from good diges-
tion and strong immune functioning.
Plan to spend at least 10 minutes
massaging the entire body after
coating it in oil, and then resting for
at least 10 minutes before washing
the oil off. (If you don’t have time to
rest and let the oil sink in, try lubri-
cating the body in oil before begin-
ning the massage to give it more
time on your skin.)
winterwarmer
fingers may wiggle in yoga poses, even in
Savasana (Corpse Pose). They probably
don’t ground their feet well in standing
poses. In Tadasana (Mountain Pose), their
upper thighs may be farther forward and
more externally rotated than is ideal. In
yo gic terms, this indicates a lack of apana,
or downward-flowing prana (life force).
That might not sound serious, but in Ayur-
vedic diagnosis, it signals a possible im -
balance in the body, and imbalances can
Common vata symptoms like agitation,
fear, intestinal disturbances, and diffi-
culty focusing may all result from these
changes to the nervous system and hor-
mone levels.
When you observe the physical state
of people in the throes of vata derange-
ment, you’ll notice that they aren’t well
grounded—and this isn’t just a metaphor.
Often they’re in constant motion and
can’t sit still. Their eyes may wander. Their ph
ot
o:
Da
viD
ma
rt
ine
z;
st
yl
ist
: ly
n h
ein
ek
en
; h
air
/ma
ke
up
: b
et
te
n c
ha
st
on
You’ll need
+ 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 cup organic sesame oil to
generously lubricate the body. (If
you have a strong pitta dosha in
your constitution, you may want
to substitute organic olive oil.)
+ A metal saucepan to heat the oil
+ Towels
1 HEAT THE OIL on the stove until
it’s warm but still comfortable to
the touch.
2 MASSAGE YOUR BODY with the
warm oil, moving from the head
to the feet. Begin with the outer
folds of the ears, then massage the
head (if you don’t want to get oil in
your hair, do a dry head massage),
and work downward. Use circular
motions on the joints and use a gen-
tle circular clockwise motion over
the heart and abdomen. This, Zogbi
says, is a way to coax erratic vata in
the direction it’s supposed to move.
On the torso, massage inward fol-
lowing the direction of the ribs. Mas-
sage straight up and down on the
arms and legs. Finally, thoroughly
massage the feet.
3 SIT COMFORTABLY on the edge
of the tub or lie on a towel on the
floor and relax for at least 10 min-
utes, allowing the oil to penetrate
the skin. You can also sit in a warm
bath. When you are done, wash the
oil off using a gentle cleanser.
n O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 Y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 5 1
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to digest fully. Ideally, meals should be
eaten at the same time each day. Also,
food should be well cooked, moist, and
soothing. Hearty soups, steamed vegeta-
bles with brown rice, and casseroles are
all excellent choices.
Keeping warm is important, particu-
larly in a cold climate. Other measures
such as drinking tea and taking hot baths
can help, as can a daily warm-oil massage
( see “Winter Warmer” on page 51). Staying
warm is also important during yoga, es -
pecially for relaxation practices, so make
sure to have a sweater or blanket handy as
the class cools down.
If you’re experiencing vata derange-
ment, you likely crave stimulation and
variety. The air element in vata seeks
constant expansion, but it can lead you
into an even more chaotic state. Staying
grounded means slowing down. You may
have to skip some favorite activities. Just
as sitting down to a meal will help you
digest your food, so slowing down and
being more mindful will help you “digest”
all the other things that feed you in life.
In the long run, Heather needs to make
choices that keep her vata in check, be -
cause a chronic imbalance can lead to
more critical health problems. But she
can’t change the weather, and for now
she can’t afford to turn down the addi-
tional work. Still, when it comes to vata
management, even small lifestyle changes
can make a difference: She could dress
more warmly; opt for hearty, warm soup
instead of a salad at lunch; and relax with a
hot bath in the evening instead of watch-
ing TV. And, even when there’s hardly a
mo ment between clients, there is almost
always time for at least one slow, deep,
mindful breath. ✤
Timothy McCall, MD, is Yoga Journal’s medi
cal editor and the author of Yoga as Medicine.
Find him online at DrMcCall.com.
eventually lead to disease. Those with vata
derangement are also likely to breathe in
a choppy, erratic way, primarily into the
upper lungs, and they may have difficulty
exhaling fully and deeply. Yoga teaches
that breathing this way increases agita-
tion. Medically, we know that ra -
pid breathing depletes the body of
carbon dioxide, which can in crease
feelings of anxiety.
Modern medicine doesn’t have
much to offer those who are under
stress, other than tranquilizers, an -
tidepressants, or perhaps a recom-
mendation to exercise. Fortunately, yoga
and Ayurveda have many tools to safely
lower stress levels, shift the balance of the
nervous system toward relaxation, and
ground the restless spirit.
ground control
The yogic approach to countering vata
derangement involves slowing down,
being more mindful, breathing smoothly
and deeply, and learning to ground the
feet into the floor. This isn’t always easy
if you’re experiencing vata imbalance.
A slow, quiet practice, and particularly
restorative poses like Savasana, can feel
like torture. Before you can settle into
a more balanced state, you might need
to first burn off some steam with active
practice, as long as it doesn’t deplete you.
Heather and everyone else suffering
from vata derangement would benefit
by heeding the main Ayurvedic lifestyle
advice for the condition: Do less. This
means cutting back on scheduled com-
mitments, minimizing multitasking (and
exposure to vata-stimulating technology
like computers and television, particu-
larly right before bed), and making time
for daily relaxation. It’s also important
to stick to a regular bedtime and to get
enough sleep each night to feel rested.
This may be difficult at first. Excess vata
often results in insomnia. But sticking to a
regular bedtime and implementing some
of the other changes that support relax-
ation should help.
Diet and eating rituals are important
aspects of Ayurvedic healing. Mealtimes
should be mindful events where you sit
down and eat slowly, allowing your body
Staying grounded means
slowing down. You may have
to skip favorite activities.
5 2 Y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
well being
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If you think you’re enlightened, go visit
your family. Ram Dass, the influential
American teacher of spirituality, said that
back in the 1970s. For Anne, who called
me recently to confess her dread of an up
coming family gathering, it’s more than
just an ironic quip.
Every year, 50 members of her extended
family—siblings, stepsiblings, chil
dren, stepchildren, grandchildren, and
spouses—arrive at her father’s ranch in
Montana, each harboring a personal griev
ance, grudge, or rivalry with at least one
other family member. Anne’s mother can’t
say hello to Anne’s sister without making a
comment about her weight. Two of Anne’s
cousins are Scientologists, and another is
a bornagain Christian who believes that
Scientologists are cultish Satanists. Even
the yogis in the family disagree about one
another’s life choices. Anne’s sisterinlaw
blogs angrily about a former teacher—who
happens to be Anne’s teacher.
Even the gatherings of relatively happy
families can simmer like a samsaric stew,
with everyone’s issues bumping up against
each other over drinks and dinner. Memories, rivalries, and dis
appointments are only a piece of it. More basic is the forced
encounter with parts of yourself that you thought you
outgrew years ago, and the equally insidious confrontation with the
ideas that family members have about who you are. A family is not
just a collection of individuals united by blood or marriage. It’s a
system, an entity of its own. Years after you leave home, the family
system tends to pull you into itself even when you’ve sworn that this
time you’ll remain an island of loving detachment. So you revert to
your role as the family rebel, or the good kid who
takes care of everyone else. (And that’s just your
family of origin! What to say about your inlaws
and the roles they might have cast you into?)
Not all families are difficult or dysfunctional.
But most families have their emotional mine
fields. If you always felt bossed around by your
sister, you might still react to her suggestions with
resentment, even when you know she doesn’t
branching out
wisdom by Sal ly Kempton
aim
ee
Sic
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( )Going home for the holidays can mean getting stuck in old family patterns—or
growing into something new.
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others will to a large extent create your
perception of yourself, and this is never
more true than in your family system. In
other words, you grow up seeing yourself
through the eyes of your family. Those
early patterns become part of your inter
nal wiring. So when you slip into the old
roles, you are slipping into a consciousness
matrix that you and your family members
each hold in your individual emotional
brains, and mirror for each other.
Your family members share not only
blood and genes, but also values and re
sponse patterns—regardless of how
much all of you may have changed
or worked through the family stuff.
“For me,” a student told me, “the
hardest thing is watching myself
slip into the groove of the family
temperament. Everyone in my fam
ily is cheerful on the outside and
filled with existential anger underneath.
After an hour in their company, all I can
see are currents of undirected rage shim
mering in the air.”
In my family, we routinely interrupt
each other—a tendency I’ve carried into
later life, as friends and colleagues often
point out to me. But along with the nor
mal discomfort of seeing your personal
eccentricities mirrored by your fam
ily members, there can be more serious
sources of discomfort at family dinners.
Political and cultural differences, for
example. One classic disjunction between
yogis and their families is the culture gap.
Perhaps you have parents with strong
conventional values, or your siblings have
turned into people whose view of life is
radically different from yours. Maybe
you’re gay, and your family has a hard time
accepting that. Maybe you have political
or religious views that you have to keep to
yourself in order not to wreck the atmo
sphere at dinner.
Even for those of us lucky enough to
have a great relationship with our ex
tended family, there are often layers of
unspoken feelings, difficult issues, hidden
resentments. The family dysfunctions
can burst out during gettogethers, or,
just as often, be hidden under a veneer of
normalcy that can make such gatherings
feel strained and artificial. If you see your
intend to be bossy. If you and your father
argued through your teen years, you may
still feel the urge to defend yourself no
matter what he says. Part of the difficulty
is that as family members, we tend to
think of each other as not having changed
from the people we were when we lived
together. How you were as part of the fam
ily system may have little to do with who
you are today, but chances are good that
many of your family members don’t see
that. A friend of mine relates that at one
family gathering, she interrupted a conver
sation between her father and brother to
announce that dinner was ready. “Greedy
as ever,” her father said. My friend, who
had been chunky as a kid, was so hurt that
she spent the entire meal speechless with
shame and resentment. As a child, she had
reacted to being denied dessert by sneak
ing sweets and hiding candy bars under her
pillow. Now slim, healthy, and something
of a food disciplinarian, it took her weeks
to recover from the recognition that, 10
years after she’d left home for college, her
father still saw her as the daughter with
no selfcontrol.
It might have comforted her to realize
that not even enlightened beings escape
being seen through the prism of the fam
ily story. In Autobiography of a Yogi, Para
mahansa Yogananda’s great memoir of
spiritual life, he describes the time the
mother of his guru, Lahiri Mahasaya,
came to visit Lahiri’s ashram. She seemed
compelled to keep taking her son down a
peg. “I’m your mother, not your disciple!”
she would say. To her, he was still the kid
whose nose she’d wiped. My suspicion is
that, at least occasionally, he fell into that
role when he was with her. We all do.
family ties
None of us can help being influenced by
how our family members perceive us.
The way you are seen and mirrored by
None of us can help being
influenced by how our family
members perceive us.
5 6 y o g a j o u r N a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
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extended family only on holidays, it’s pos-
sible to paste on a smile and skate through
the occasion, knowing that you’ll soon be
able to leave. But at some point, most of
us feel the need to evolve our relationship
with our families. They are, after all, cen-
tral players in our karmic drama.
deep roots
No matter how different you may be from
the rest of your family, you were born into
this particular configuration of souls for a
reason. Regardless of whether you accept
the notion of karma, or believe in past
lives, the truth is that your family rela-
tionships are part of who you are. You can
break up with your romantic partners,
even your spouse. You can quit your job
and stop being friends with people you’ve
grown beyond. But you can’t divorce your
family (though in extreme situations you
may decide that it’s better not to spend
much time with them). And at some point
it makes sense to learn how to turn them
into allies of your growth.
At the very least, being with your family
is a powerful spur to self-understanding.
You may never get your father to approve
of your sexual orientation or your spiritual
choices, but you can learn a lot about your-
self by observing your reactions to him.
Every member of your family is a teacher.
Some of them teach you through their
good qualities. Some of them teach you
through their mistakes. Even more impor-
tant, your family members offer a mirror
of the issues that confront you in this
lifetime. They show you your strengths—
the skills and competencies you came into
this life having mastered. They also reveal
your weaknesses, the wounds and triggers
that you’ll need to deal with sooner or
la ter. A family gathering offers you the
opportunity to understand something
about who you are and what you need to
work on. If you accept the fact that these
people truly are your kinfolk—internally
as well as externally—then they become
teachers in the truest sense. They are the
book in which you can read your own char-
acter and karma.
A friend of mine had a deep aversion
to his mother. He couldn’t spend time
with her without getting depressed, and
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looking for transcendence and meaning
in some sort of practice tradition. They
clearly share an interest in transforma-
tion. The members of her parents’ gen-
eration were generally absent parents,
but all their children—Anne’s siblings and
cousins—are deeply engaged with their
kids. So they had all learned a new way to
live, by committing themselves to chang-
ing one of the family patterns.
Anne’s parents have a kind of gallantry
and style that she still unconsciously
emulates—making light of troubles in
front of others and doing their best to
make other people comfortable. And the
whole family cares deeply about the Earth.
There was more, of course. Anne and her
sister still giggle about their starchy sister-
in-law who can’t stop criticizing Anne’s
more laissez-faire style of child rear-
ing. They still roll their eyes when their
brother makes remarks that reveal his Tea
Party sympathies. But Anne also sees that
she’s as intolerant of her siblings’ political
positions as they are of hers (the common
quality being intolerance) and that her
fear in his being. Recognizing both her
positive and negative qualities in himself,
he found that he could feel compassion for
her—and even began to enjoy her com-
pany. When the month with his mother
was over, a knot of inner tightness had
been released that was so noticeable that
his friends commented on it. By seeing the
karmic, genetic heritage he carried, and
accepting that what he saw in his mother
was also in him, he loosened its power over
him. One of the miraculous effects of
accepting your family is that it helps you
accept yourself.
family practice
So when you go to your next family gath-
ering, see if you can look at each of your
close family members and ask yourself
the following questions: What do these
people show me about myself? What do
I have in common with them? What do
they teach me about how to live?
Anne tried doing this with her family
last year. Here’s what she saw. Like her,
most people in her generation are seekers,
so he avoided her most of the time. At
one point, a job took him to her city, and
he had to live with her for a month. Dur-
ing that month he went through every
shade of irritation and impatience. But
he also began to recognize that some of
the qualities he disliked about her were
(big surprise!) also in him. His mother
was a stickler for control and punctuality.
He considered himself to be exactly the
opposite—laid back, always urging every-
one to get mellow and let things unfold.
But while living with his mother, he found
himself impatiently trying to get her to
relax, and he suddenly began to see the
inherent contradictions in his attitude.
He realized that his insistence that
everyone relax and not worry was as much
an attempt to control others as her an xiety
about making plans and keeping things
on schedule. And he began to recognize
other traits they shared—some of them
positive, others not so positive. Like his
mother, he cared about helping the under-
dog. Like his mother, he loved gossip. Like
his mother, he carried an undercurrent of
wisdom
5 8 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
family. Seva is what saved him. “When
I’m do ing my best to serve the situation,
I feel positive, they feel positive. It just
works,” he says.
I understand what he means. Years ago,
during a time when I felt estranged from
my father, my guru invited him to visit
the ashram. After I introduced the two of
them, my guru turned to me and said,
“Remember, he’s my guest.” Taking care
of honored guests was one of my jobs
around my teacher, and it was immedi-
ately clear to me that I was being shown
the way through the difficulties between
my father and me. Looking at him as an
honored guest, trying to make him com-
fortable, serving him in different ways,
made our relationship far less personal,
your yoga to the test. What follows are
some traditional yogic practices that,
when applied to family dynamics, can
turn a family gathering into a practice of
internal yoga.
offer service with a smile (seva)
Seva—selfless service or karma yoga—is
one of the fast-track practices of yoga,
offered in every tradition for its power to
cleanse the heart, kindle compassion, and
turn your karmic challenges into
enlightened activity. What better
arena for practicing it than with
your family?
Randall is known among his sib-
lings and cousins as the family saint.
This tag is only partly ironic. He
spends family gatherings doing his
best to make other people comfortable.
He talks to the kids, spends time with the
deaf aunts, refills people’s water glasses.
Years ago, Randall realized that he needed
to have a coping strategy for dealing with
the in tense feelings of alienation that
he ex perienced when he was around his
sister-in-law’s attitude challenges her
to stand up for her own way of living.
training ground
What I often tell students who have prob-
lems with their extended family members
is to think of their next visit as a training
opportunity. Maybe you’re training for
freedom—freedom to be with your fam-
ily without getting emotionally bent out
of shape. Maybe you’re training yourself
to notice your own emotional triggers.
Maybe you’re training in compassion, or
in letting go of resentment. Maybe, as one
of my Facebook friends shared, you’re
being given the opportunity to be loving,
without caring how your family responds.
In fact, one of the best ways to approach
a family gathering is to see it as a special
opportunity for practice. Rather than go
into it with expectations or dread, want-
ing to be recognized or loved by family
members, or counting the minutes until
you can leave, decide that you’ll approach
your family gathering as a practice experi-
ment, an unparalleled opportunity to put
approach family gatherings
as an opportunity to
put your yoga to the test.
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 5 9
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so that instead of feeling resentful or hurt
because he wasn’t more emotionally pres-
ent, I could interact kindly with him and
enjoy him for who he was.
see beauty in the beast (inquiry)
In the yogic practice of inquiry, you ask
questions aimed at taking you past your
surface viewpoint, and into the heart of
a person or situation. What is unique and
beautiful about weird Uncle Al? Where
do you think his wounds are? What might
be the good intention behind your aunt’s
nosy behavior? Where does she hurt?
Your work at this family gathering is to
find a way to open your heart to that one
relative you’ve never been able to stand.
Sometimes that means looking for that
person’s great qualities. But you might
also find that your heart opens to some-
one when you recognize their brokenness.
Experiment. Look generously, acknowl-
edging these people’s greatness. Look lov-
ingly, acknowledging their hurt. Notice
how either viewpoint can change your
attitude toward them.
hold your fire
(mindful observation)
Mindful awareness is one of the key yogic
practices for transformation. As painful as
it can be, taking an honest look at what
sets you off is one step to freedom. Be
aware of your reactions as you step into
the family circle. What happens to your
body? What emotions come up? Notice
the thoughts that cycle through your
mind. Notice what you say and do. Is it
reactive? Are you withdrawn? Friendly?
Do your words feel authentic? Be aware of
the thoughts that grab you. Then refocus.
Become the knower of these thoughts and
feelings. If need be, go into the bathroom,
take some deep belly breaths, and tune in
to the awareness that holds all this.
cultivate the opposite thought
(pratipaksha bhavanam)
This famous practice from the Yoga Sutra
is the core tactic for changing your mind
by changing your thoughts. Once you’ve
noticed your reactive thoughts, you have
a chance to turn them around. When you
catch yourself thinking, “I can’t stand
6 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
wisdom
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Seeing your family as your teachers will
immediately loosen your feelings of nega
tivity. If the meaning of your relationships
with family members is to learn, then no
encounter is ever negative, because every
one of them has something to show you.
drawing boundaries
Sometimes, with some family members,
it’s important to keep your distance.
There may be people in your family whose
behavior is abusive or hostile, whose pres
ence causes you so much pain that strong
boundaries become imperative. When
a family situation is truly toxic for you,
staying away from family gatherings may
be your best option. And even with less
toxic situations, there are times when it
may be important to keep some distance.
Ultimately, it’s our relationships that
test our attainment, our maturity, our ca
pacity for growth. More than that, they
are our opportunity for healing. In the
Jewish tradition, there’s a teaching that
human beings come together for the pur
pose of tikkun, a Hebrew word that means
“fixing.” In other words, relationships
are the arena through which we fix what
has been broken, not only between the
two of us, but between human beings in
general. Fixing doesn’t necessarily mean
becoming best friends with every one of
your family members. But in every family,
there are streams of brokenness, uncon
sciousness, and grief that are passed on
along with family gifts and wisdom.
Each generation has the power to
shift something in the family heritage.
Sitting across the table at Thanksgiving,
toasting the bride at a family wedding,
we can sometimes recognize what needs
healing in the family line. And with every
conscious recognition of the beauty and
pain that each of your family members
carries, with every opening into compas
sion, you heal a piece of that brokenness.
Sometimes, one family member’s loving
intention is just what is needed to make
the crucial difference. ✤
Sally Kempton is an internationally recognized
teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and
the author of The Heart of Meditation. Visit
her website at sallykempton.com.
the way Freddy chews,” quickly find an
opposite, positive thought, like “I love
Freddy’s sense of humor.” “These kids
are driving me nuts” can become “Isn’t
their energy wonderful?” Even if you don’t
fully believe it, your effort to change your
thinking will calm your stress hormones
and might even inspire a feeling within of
love or compassion.
give your blessing
(positive intention)
One of the great practices of the devo
tional yogic tradition is the practice of
offering blessing. So whether you feel
loving toward your family members or
not, start with the intention that your
presence in the gathering will be a bless
ing. Then, whenever your glance falls on
someone, send them a silent blessing.
A friend of mine tried this during a
particularly gnarly weekend with her sib
lings and their spouses. At one point, a
fierce argument broke out between her
brother and sister. My friend kept repeat
ing silently, “Blessings to Sara. Blessings to
Rick.” A few minutes later, the two squab
bling siblings looked at each other and
started to laugh. “We’ve been doing this
since we were six,” said her sister. “Truce?”
My friend swears that it was the power of
her blessing. We’ll never know. But one
thing we do know: It didn’t hurt.
lessons learned
Human beings need to make meaning—
it’s simply how we are. When we have
trouble with family members, it’s often
because we’ve assigned painful mean
ings to our past or present encounters.
If your father’s gruffness translated for
you into the feeling of not being loved,
or your mother’s anxiety created tremors
of fear in your stomach, consider what
these folks are teaching you. Is it about
letting go of anger? Recognizing that we
are responsible for our own feelings? Lov
ing no matter what? Notice how your atti
tude shifts toward these people when you
see them as a teaching pod rather than
as the people who should have loved you
better or done a better job with their lives,
or as the group of people in whose pres
ence you feel most selfcritical or lacking.
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heart wide open
The enormous heart-opening gesture
of Wild Thing evokes a sense of freedom,
levity, even ecstasy. But beneath the
rapturous exterior, Wild Thing requires a
strong, stable base. In fact, Anusara Yoga
teacher Amy Ippoliti believes that creat-
ing a stable base is the key to opening more
deeply into this backbending pose.
To that end, Ippoliti has designed this
sequence to fire up the strength in your
arms, which serve as your main support in
Wild Thing. “This pose is a hand balance,
so it’s critical to tone the arms, since they
are bearing so much of the weight,” she
says. “We have an expression in Anusara:
‘strong arms, soft heart.’ ” Ippoliti ex plains
that if the stability in your hands and wrists
is weak, you limit your ability to support
yourself adequately and move into your full
range of motion.
In addition to preparing your arms
to support the weight of your body, the
sequence also opens the front of your
legs, hips, and torso through several back-
bends. This provides just enough heat to
encourage your chest and heart to melt
into opening in the final pose. In time, as
you continue to practice and move into
Wild Thing from a stable, solid base, you
may just get a taste of the delicious light-
ness and freedom that were yours to have
all along. Jennifer rodrigue
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home practice with amy ippol it i
( )Create a stable base, and you’ll be free to expand
ecstatically into Wild Thing.
to beginOpen to Grace sit quietly and
listen to your breath. connect to
the highest purpose of your practice,
recognizing your potential for
stability and acknowledging your
innate freedom.
to finishGround down Bathe in the
warmth of your movement and
rest in Balasana (child’s pose),
offering a blessing to the earth.
Restore rest in savasana
(corpse pose) for 5 to 10 minutes.
n O v e m b e R 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 6 3
home practice with Amy Ippol it i
1 Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) Come onto all fours, then lift your hips and knees and step
your feet back to open your chest and hamstrings. Lift your
armpits and lengthen your side body. Claw the floor with
your finger pads to feel tone in your arms, which will sup-
port you in opening more freely. From your heart, stretch
down to your hands, then fully up through your spine, and
down your legs into the feet for 5 breaths.
2 Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend), variationWalk toward your hands, feet sitting bone–distance apart,
and fold forward. Interlace your fingers behind your back
and bend your elbows shoulder-width apart. Use gravity
to lengthen your armpits toward the floor. Move the head
of your arm bones and your throat toward the back plane
of your body as you reach your arms overhead. Keep your
elbows bent and your legs strong. Hold for 5 breaths,
release your hands, and step back to Down Dog.
3 Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose) Step your right foot forward, turn your left heel down,
and hug your legs in toward your midline. Extend your left
arm in front of you and pull your upper arm bone into your
shoulder socket. Then, from your core, turn your belly and
chest up to the sky. Keep your right hand by your right foot
or take your right forearm to your right thigh for more
space in your torso. After 5 breaths, step back to Down
Dog. Repeat on the left side.
4 Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)Lie on your stomach with your hands shoulder-width apart,
elbows bent, and hands under your shoulders. Spread your
fingers and claw your finger pads down, energetically drag-
ging your hands backward as you lift your armpits. Pull the
heads of your arm bones up and back, and lift your head
and chest for 5 breaths. Move your shoulder blades down
and in toward your heart. Root your pelvis back
through your legs, and curl up through your spine. Stay
for 5 breaths. Release and push back to Down Dog.
5 Ardha Bhekasana (Half Frog Pose)Come back to your stomach, prop yourself on your fore-
arms, and melt your heart toward the floor. Bend your
right knee and reach back with your right hand to hold the
inside edge of your foot. If possible, pivot your right hand
so that your fingers face forward as you press your right
foot down toward your outer right hip. Scoop your tailbone
down. To stretch even deeper, lift off your left forearm
and onto your left hand. After 5 breaths, release, switch
sides, and then step back to Down Dog.
6 Anjaneyasana (Low Lunge), variation Step your right foot forward into a Low Lunge, left knee
on the floor. Twist to the right, bend your left knee, and
hold the outside of your left foot with your right hand. To
go deeper, take your left foot in toward your outer left hip,
place your left forearm on the floor, lean back, and curl
your shoulder blades in toward your heart. Root down
through your legs and open up through your whole torso.
Stay for 5 breaths. Step back to Down Dog and take the
other side.
7 Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)Lie on your stomach, rest your forehead on the floor,
and enjoy your breath. Allow the muscles on either side of
your spine to settle and expand laterally. Keep that soft-
ness, then bend both knees and hold on to the tops of your
12
9
6 4 y o g A j o U r n A l . c o M n o v E m B E r 2 0 1 0
A video of this Home Practice
sequence can be found online
at yogajournal.com/livemag.
▼ watch
feet. Root your tailbone toward the fl oor, keep your thighs
parallel, and press your feet back. On an inhalation, lift
your head, torso, and legs up into Dhanurasana. Hold for
5 breaths, release, and step back to Down Dog.
8 Vasisthasana (Side Plank Pose) Come forward into Plank, with your shoulders stacked
above your wrists. Take your right hand slightly ahead
of your shoulder and shift your weight onto your right
hand as you stack your feet. Secure both shoulder blades
onto your back, open your torso, and lift your left arm
up. Hold for 5 breaths, release your left arm down, and
step back to Down Dog. Repeat on the other side.
9 Wild ThingFrom Down Dog, come into Vasisthasana on your right
side. Step your left foot behind you, keep your right leg
straight, and push your hips up away from the fl oor. Scoop
your tailbone and use your legs to keep lifting your hips.
Curl your head back, lift your left side body, and keep your
left upper arm moving toward your shoulder socket.
Extend your left arm over your head and curve into a rap-
turous backbend. Have fun. Be wild. Taste your freedom.
Then release, step back to Down Dog, and switch sides.
7
6
5
4
3
8
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 6 5
A scholar embarks on a quest
to trace the roots of his yoga
practice back to their source.
What he finds confounds and
unsettles him, and, ultimately,
provides him with a glimpse of
.
by Mark Singleton
photography by Richard Seagraves
The pale winter sunlight shone from the high windows
of the Cambridge University library onto a dark leather
book cover. In the hall full of silent scholars, I opened
it and leafed through picture after picture of men and
women in familiar postures. Here was Warrior Pose; there
was Downward Dog. On this page the standing balance
Utthita Padangusthasana; on the next pages Headstand,
Handstand, Supta Virasana, and more—everything you
might expect to find in a manual of yoga asana. But this
was no yoga book. It was a text describing an early 20th-
century Danish system of dynamic exercise called Primi-
tive Gymnastics. ❡ Standing in front of my yoga students
that evening, I reflected on my discovery. What
did it mean that many of the poses I was teaching
were identical to those developed by a Scandi-
navian gymnastics teacher less than a century
ago? This gymnast had not been to India and had
never received any teaching in asana. And yet his
system, with its five-count format, its abdominal
“locks,” and its dynamic jumps in and out of those
oh-so-familiar postures, looked uncannily like the
vinyasa yoga system I knew so well.
Time passed, and my curiosity nagged at me,
leading me to do further research. I learned that the
Danish system was an offshoot of a 19th-century
Scandinavian gymnastics tradition that had re -
volutionized the way Europeans exercised. Sys-
tems based on the Scandinavian model sprang up
throughout Europe and became the basis for phys-
ical training in armies, navies, and many schools.
These systems also found their way to India. In the
1920s, according to a survey taken by the Indian
YMCA, Primitive Gymnastics was one of the most popular
forms of exercise in the whole subcontinent, second only to
the original Swedish gymnastics developed by P. H. Ling.
That’s when I became seriously confused.
AnCIEnT or MoDErn?This was not what my yoga teachers had taught me. on the
contrary, yoga asana is commonly presented as a practice
handed down for thousands of years, originating from the
Vedas, the oldest religious texts of the Hindus, and not as
some hybrid of Indian tradition and European gymnastics.
Clearly there was more to the story than I had been told.
My foundation was shaken, to say the least. If I was not par-
ticipating in an ancient, venerable tradition, what exactly
was I doing? Was I heir to an authentic yoga practice, or
the unwitting perpetrator of a global fraud?
I spent the next four years researching feverishly in
li braries in England, the United States, and India, searching
for clues about how the yoga we practice today came into
being. I looked through hundreds of manuals of modern
6 8 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
yoga, and thousands of pages of magazines. I stud-
ied the “classical” traditions of yoga, particularly
hatha yoga, from which my practice was said to
derive. I read a swath of commentaries on Patan-
jali’s Yoga Sutra; the Upanishads and the later
“Yoga Upanishads”; medieval hatha yoga texts
like the Goraksasataka, Hatha Yoga Pradipika,
and others; and texts from the Tantric traditions,
from which the less complex, and less exclusive,
hatha yoga practices had arisen.
Scouring these primary texts, it was obvious
to me that asana was rarely, if ever, the primary
feature of the significant yoga traditions in India.
Postures such as those we know today often fig-
ured among the auxiliary practices of yoga systems
(particularly in hatha yoga), but they were not the
dominant component. They were subordinate
to other practices like pranayama (expansion
of the vital energy by means of breath), dharana
(focus, or placement of the mental faculty), and
nada (sound), and did not have health and fitness
as their chief aim. Not, that is, until the sudden
explosion of interest in postural yoga in the 1920s
and 1930s, first in India and later in the West.
WHeN aSaNa WeNT WeSTYoga began to gain popularity in the West at the
end of the 19th century. But it was a yoga deeply
influenced by Western spiritual and religious
ideas, representing in many respects a radical
break from the grass-roots yoga lineages of
India. The first wave of “export yogis,” headed by
Swami Vivekananda, largely ignored
asana and tended to focus instead
on pranayama, meditation, and pos-
itive thinking. The english-educated
Vivekananda arrived on american
shores in 1893 and was an instant
success with the high society of the
east Coast. While he may have taught
some postures, Vivekananda publicly
rejected hatha yoga in general and
asana in particular. Those who came
from India to the United States in his
wake were inclined to echo Vive-
kananda’s judgments on asana. This
was due partly to long-standing
prejudices held by high-caste Indians
like Vivekananda against yogins,
“fakirs,” and low-caste mendicants
who performed severe and rigorous
postures for money, and partly to the
centuries of hostility and ridicule directed toward these
groups by Western colonialists, journalists, and scholars. It
was not until the 1920s that a cleaned up version of asana
began to gain prominence as a key feature of the modern
english language–based yogas emerging from India.
This cleared up some long-standing questions of mine.
In the mid-1990s, armed with a copy of B. K. S. Iyengar’s
Light on Yoga, I had spent three years in India for yoga asana
instruction and was struck by how hard it was to find. I took
classes and workshops all over India from well-known and
lesser-known teachers, but these catered mostly to Western
yoga pilgrims. Wasn’t India the home of yoga? Why weren’t
more Indians doing asana? and why, no matter how hard I
looked, couldn’t I find a yoga mat?
BUIldING STroNG BodIeSas I continued to delve into yoga’s recent past, pieces of
the puzzle slowly came together, revealing an ever-larger
portion of the whole picture. In the early decades of the
20th century, India—like much of the rest of the world—
was gripped by an unprecedented fervor for physical cul-
ture, which was closely linked to the struggle for national
independence. Building better bodies, people reasoned,
would make for a better nation and improve the chances
of success in the event of a violent struggle against the
colonizers. a wide variety of exercise systems arose that
continued on page 106
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 6 9
Patricia Sullivan, 61,
began practicing
yoga at 21. Behind
her is the Shiva/
Shakti statue she
sculpted.
I first noticed numbness in my right hand six years ago while
sculpting a highly detailed model of Shiva/Shakti, destined for
casting in bronze. Over the next few months, holding on to my
sculpting tools became excruciatingly difficult, if not impossible.
Despite my efforts to address the problem with bodywork and
yoga, the numbness got worse. About a year into this chronic pain,
I woke up hourly with viselike gripping sensations in both of my
hands. For three weeks, I spent the early-morning hours pacing
and shaking my hands until the pain subsided. This prolonged
lack of sleep led to my lowest point yet: I fell asleep at the wheel
while driving along a winding road around a lagoon. My car became
by Patricia Sullivan
photography by David Martinez
artistry
actionin
In this cautionary tale, yoga teacher and sculptor Patricia Sullivan shares her journey of injury, self-discovery, healing, and the safe remaking of her Headstand practice.
What would you do if you found that the practice you love was causing you harm?
mo
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: w
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; n
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; l
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: d
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: b
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airborne, flew over the embankment, and landed in the
low-tide mud flats 50 yards or so from the road.
Fortunately I wasn’t injured from the car accident, but
it served as a wake-up call—one that motivated me to see
a doctor for my chronic pain. The doctor ordered cervi-
cal x-rays. They showed extensive damage, including a
reversed cervical curve, disk degeneration, and bony
deposits that were partially blocking nerve outlets. The
degeneration had occurred gradually over a number of
years. My doctor and I both suspected the cause: I had
been practicing long holds of Salamba Sirsasana (Sup-
ported Headstand) for years, even though it was painful.
My longing to excel both in my asana practice and as an
asana teacher, had led me to ignore my body’s signals and
cries for relief. Faced with my now-brutal reality, I began
a deeply humbling journey of examining how my practice
had caused me so much harm.
headstand’s benefitsFor years, I had experienced Headstand’s benefits first-
hand. According to the yoga tradition, the pose, known
as the king of the asanas, affects every system of the
body, including the cardiovascular, lymph, endocrine,
and digestive systems—in addition to enhancing prana,
or life force. Numerous texts, old and new, encourage
the practice of Headstand and speak of its profound
benefits, such as a renewed sense of vitality, mental clar-
ity, steadiness, and calm. Many people believe that the
complete reversal of our usual upright position enhances
circulation, which is known for its cleansing, nourishing,
and healing effects.
My regular practice of inversions such as Headstand
had strengthened my upper body and given me balance.
Headstand had also given me confidence in my ability to
remain balanced in a whole range of situations, provided
a daily feeling of profound renewal, and lifted my spirits.
I didn’t want to give up all of that, but clearly I needed
to make a change.
… and risksWhen I look back on my yoga journey, I can see it wasn’t
just the pose that contributed to my injury—it was the
the poses that follow
will help you build the
strength and awareness
needed to do Headstand safely. take as much
time as you need—weeks, months, or even
years—to work on the preparatory poses.
once you do float up to Headstand, the ease
that you will experience in the pose will be
worth your efforts. if you are a beginner, or
if you feel that you should avoid Headstand
altogether for whatever reason, practice the
preparatory poses to build strength in, and
awareness of, your upper back and shoulders,
which will help you in daily life. for your inver-
sion practice, you can opt for viparita karani
and bask in the ease and benefits of inverting
by putting your legs up the wall.
way I practiced the pose. I came to yoga at the age
of 21 in very good physical condition. Getting into
Headstand and Salamba Sarvangasana (Supported
Shoulderstand) was easy, and I soon began extend-
ing the time I stayed in these poses. But I had no
awareness of healthy biomechanics nor a long-
term plan for gradually becoming more proficient.
At that age, I was susceptible to the suggestion
from some of my teachers that I needed to per-
severe through pain in order to be rewarded with
the stamina required to reap the pose’s benefits.
So I pressed on, eager to prove myself.
There had been a fleeting early-warning sign
years before my hands went numb. For a period
of time, I developed a frozen neck—in order to
look from side to side, I had to turn my whole
body, as my neck muscles were painfully protect-
ing me from doing further damage. But after some
expensive chiropractic treatments, my symptoms
diminished, and I returned to inversions—and
building blocks to a healthy headstand
continued on page 75
7 2 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
forearm dog with blocks
body language Sullivan
demonstrates (above) the im
portance of taking your body
proportions into account before
doing Headstand: With her
hands in Headstand position,
her head is clearly above the
horizontal line of her forearms,
which means that her neck will
not be fully supported by her
arms in Headstand. Try this in
front of a mirror at home and,
if you have similar proportions,
consult an experienced teacher
for propping options.
Set up two blocks. Place one block flat with its short edge touching a wall. Place
the other block on top of it, with one end on the floor and the other end resting on
the edge of the first block at a diagonal.
Begin on your forearms and knees, with your elbows shoulder-width apart on the
floor. Place your hands on either side of the lower block and press in lightly. Press
your forearms, hands, and wrists down. On an exhalation, lift your knees off the
ground and your hips toward the ceiling. Rest the crown of your head on the slanted
block. Your spine should form a straight line from your head to your tailbone. Now
that you are set up, use your shoulders, back, and belly to move your weight toward
your hips while lengthening your neck and head toward the block. (Depending on
your body proportions, the slanted block may need to be adjusted so that your
head reaches the block.) Start with your heels reaching toward the floor, then raise
them an inch or 2 and engage shoulders, back, and belly away from the floor. This
will prevent weight from being transferred to the neck and will further strengthen
the core and shoulder girdle. Stay here for 5 breaths.
Opens the shoulders; allows you to experience the
sensation of letting your neck and crown lengthen
downward while bearing very little body weight.{
contraindications You should not practice Headstand if you
have retinal problems, high blood pressure, cervical strain, stenosis,
or compressed cervical disks. People with marked spinal asymmetries
such as scoliosis should work with an experienced instructor. Do not
practice inversions during menstruation. Practice during pregnancy
only with guidance. And finally, any neck pain is an indication that
your Headstand setup or variation isn’t working for you and that you
should consult an experienced teacher.
N O v e m B e R 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 7 3
From a kneeling position, place your forearms on the mat, with
your elbows shoulder-width apart and directly below your
shoulder joints, fingers interlaced. Widen your shoulder blades
and firmly snug them on the rib cage to make the upper back
wide. Resist collapsing through the waist by using the strength
of your lower and middle belly. Walk your feet back until you
are in Plank Pose on the forearms. Start the glides: Slide your
body forward and back a few inches by rolling on the toes,
keeping the back of the neck long and in line with the spine.
Do this several times, then rest in Balasana (Child’s Pose)
for a few deep breaths.
Come into Forearm Plank again to begin the pumps (shown at
right). On an inhalation, allow the shoulder blades to migrate
toward each other while lowering the chest a few inches
toward the floor without sagging at the waist; then, with the
exhalation, slowly pump back up again to the starting position.
The slow movements recruit more muscle fibers, strengthen-
ing muscles more thoroughly than quicker movements will.
After doing the pumps slowly 2 more times, rest again in
Child’s Pose. Repeat the glides and pumps 2 times each, rest-
ing between each one. Over time, build to 5 to 10 times each.
forearm plank pose with gliding and pumping
{Strengthens your core, spine, neck, and
the deep muscles in the upper back
and ribs that support you in Headstand.
74 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n O v e m B e R 2 0 1 0
to my quest to achieve the recommended minimum time of 10
minutes in Headstand. Once I had achieved that goal, I wanted
to move on and learn the exciting and exotic-looking variations.
As the years went by, I simply got accustomed to a certain level
of pain. At that time, it was an acceptable tradeoff for the posi-
tive effects I enjoyed.
journey to wholenessAfter the car accident, I surrendered to the possibility that I’d
never do Headstand again and allowed myself to concentrate on
recovering. I did physical therapy, meditation, Rolfing, and qi
gong. I adopted an Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle. I also faced the
disappointment of abstaining from not only Headstand but also
Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose), Urdhva
Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose), Chaturanga Dan-
dasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose), Shoulderstand, and other
poses that I once practiced with ease. Then, after about three
years, as I regained a sense of ease in my neck and arms, I found
myself entertaining the idea of building back up to Headstand.
This time around, I was determined to make my attempt at the
pose an opportunity for self-exploration rather than an exercise
ruled by ego and ambition. So, I played with props and created
variations of poses. I also took my time with my practice.
The first hurdle was practicing Downward-Facing Dog with-
out numbness. When I could do that, I began working in very
Place your forearms on the mat, with
your elbows shoulder-distance apart
and your hands clasped. Lift your
knees off the ground and tiptoe for-
ward so the spine becomes nearly
vertical and the back of your head
rests lightly on your wrists. Hold for
several breaths without straining
the neck. Over time, build up to a 30-
second hold. This position will help
stabilize the torso while you’re up-
side down; the latissimus dorsi and
serratus anterior prevent you from
toppling backward, while the core
ab dominals stabilize from the front.
small increments with poses such as the fore-
arm plank variations and the vertical hold you
see here, to strengthen and support my shoul-
der girdle in order to prevent compression. I
found ways to create space in my body as I
attempted to invert—for example, I began
practicing a supported Shoulderstand using
a bolster and a chair to keep my neck off the
ground and most of the weight in my sacrum.
Finally, I attempted my first Headstand
using a stack of blocks to avoid putting weight
on my head. I remained weak and shaky for
months. Instead of fighting it, I honored that
and came down after only 20 to 30 seconds. I
built up slowly, second by second. When at
last I built up to a freestanding Headstand, I
held the pose for only half a minute.
Today, I still actively practice my variations
and preparatory poses so I can safely do Head-
stand. I practice freestanding Headstand two
to three times a week for two to three min-
utes, and the block-supported Headstand
about three times a week. I can do this safely,
Strengthens the shoulder
girdle and enables you to
practice keeping the neck
long and decompressed.
vertical hold
{
continued from page 75
n O v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 7 5
without any negative effects. The bony changes in my
neck linger, no doubt; the nerve inflammation returns
if I’m not careful. And though I’m back to Headstand,
my current inversion mainstays are Viparita Karani
(Legs-up-the-Wall Pose) and chair-supported Shoul-
derstand. I can remain in Viparita for much longer
periods of time, concentrating on breathwork and
settling into a calming, mindful awareness.
learning to train, not strainIf you want to practice Headstand safely, do an hon-
est assessment of your physical, mental, and emo-
tional state each time you practice. The strength and
concentration required for Headstand may not be
there on any given day. Also, if you haven’t been able
to release the stress in your practice prior to coming
to Headstand, you may be too distracted to apply
yourself fully to the challenge.
To do Headstand, it’s also important to consis-
tently train and strengthen the shoulders and upper
back. Here’s why: In standing poses, we support the
weight of our bodies via the pelvis and the long,
strong bones of the legs. In Headstand, however, our
body weight is supported by the smaller, frailer bones
of the neck. If you align the upper back and shoul-
ders properly, you can offset some of the pressure on
the neck. But the shoulder joints are relatively less
stable than all of the other joints in your body, and it
can take years to build up the strength and body
Set up your blocks. Place a block so it
stands up vertically 2 or more inches
from the wall on a sticky mat. (Where this
block ultimately ends up depends on how
flat or rounded your upper back is and
how long your upper arms are in relation
to your neck.) Place a second block on
top of, and perpendicular to, the first
block. The third block comes out from the
wall lengthwise on the flat dimension,
resting on the middle block, one end at the wall. The
block setup may seem onerous, but it helps to fully
support the body and protect the neck.
Begin on your knees facing the blocks with the elbows
shoulder-width apart. Wrap your fingertips firmly
around the vertical block. Press into the floor with
your forearms and wrists. On an exhalation, lift your
knees off the floor, raise the hips, and lift your heels.
Your head should be off the floor. Tiptoe forward until
your upper back presses onto the blocks and the back
of your head touches the vertical block. The top of
your head will only lightly touch the floor, if at all.
Straighten your legs if possible, though the knees
may need to remain somewhat bent in order to walk
forward enough to get your upper back to the blocks.
Feel how the blocks prevent the upper back and shoul-
ders from collapsing toward the wall as you walk your
feet closer to the blocks. (When your upper back col-
lapses, your neck receives too much weight, putting
you at risk for strain.) Hold for 30 seconds to a min-
ute, keeping your back firmly pressed against the
blocks with hips reaching up. If you want to continue,
practice lifting one leg up. Hold the leg up for several
seconds. Lower this leg and repeat with the other
leg, building to about 30 seconds gradually over time,
as long as your neck remains comfortable.
{
headstand preparation
using a block stack
for thoracic support
Supports and opens the upper
back and shoulders while
stretching and strengthening
the shoulder girdle.
7 6 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n O v e m B e r 2 0 1 0
continued on page 108
Using the same block configuration, lift
one leg and spring from the other leg to
come into full Sirsasana, with your back
supported by the blocks and your head
either entirely off the floor or only lightly
touching. (You may need an assist from
an experienced teacher.) Since the blocks
prevent you from counterbalancing back
ward with the shoulders and hips, getting
up can be a little like jumping into Hand
stand. If your balance does not feel steady,
bend your knees and press your feet into
the wall. This will allow you to align your
self from knees to shoulders while en
joying the support of the blocks and wall.
Stay for a few seconds; then gradually
build up your holds according to what feels
appropriate for you.
Place a bolster or blankets 4 to 5 inches away from the wall. Sit on
the end of the bolster, with your right side next to the wall and your
feet on the floor in front of you. Place your left hand on the floor, then
lower your upper body toward the floor. At the same time, lift and
turn your buttocks toward the wall, keeping them in contact with it.
Bring your left shoulder down to the floor near the bolster and roll
onto your back. Scoot as close to the wall as you can while keeping
your legs straight. Make sure the bolster is supporting your lumbar
curve and that your tailbone feels as though it’s dropping toward the
floor. (Some people are more comfortable if the sacrum is also well
supported, while others need to be farther from the wall due to tight
hamstrings.) Arms rest in a loose circle overhead, one hand in the
relaxed palm of the other. Draw your attention inward, toward the
breath and more subtle awareness. Beginning students can stay
for several minutes, while seasoned students can stay even longer.
viparita karani legs-up-the-wall pose
Allows those with cervical disk
compression to enjoy inverting
without risking further damage.
headstand variation with block stack
{
Encourages deep relaxation
while inverting the body.{
bo
ls
te
r:
hu
gg
er
mu
gg
er
n o v e M B e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 7 7
Whether you’re drained, suffering from the winter dol-
drums, or just need to prioritize some “you time,” sometimes
the best investment you can make is in yourself—and in your yoga
practice. a week at a sunny, tropical yoga retreat could be just
what you need to recharge and replenish, both inside and out.
a great winter yoga retreat experience has many components—
world-class yoga teachers; fresh food that nourishes both body
and spirit; a lush tropical setting (local wildlife is an added bonus);
and opportunities for therapeutic and indulgent spa treatments.
these dreamy getaways offer all that, and more. if an exotic
vacation isn’t in the budget this year, put these on your “maybe
someday” list. dreaming can shift your perspective, too.
need a dream vacation?
here are 5 luxurious yoga destinations worth the splurge.
by rachel Lehmann-Haupt
& Sarah Saffian
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A HuicHol word, haramara means
“mother sea,” the place where every-
thing comes from, says owner Sajeela
de la Borbolla. And with its warm, family-
like atmosphere and fresh gourmet cui-
sine, this gracious retreat center does
feel like the source of something sacred.
“You’re taken care of from the moment
you arrive,” says Ashtanga Yoga teacher
Peggy orr, who has led nine retreats
here. located just 40 minutes from
Puerto Vallarta on the riviera Nayarit,
a sleepy stretch of coast dotted with
resorts, the property includes a private
beach and 12 acres of tropical jungle.
The yoga space is an open-air,
thatched palapa with a 360-degree
view of the ocean and rainforest.
Guests stay in simple but beautiful
palm-thatched casitas, with open-air
walls on three sides that invite in
the ocean breeze and the sounds of
the pounding surf. charming bath-
rooms, oil lamps, and canopy beds
with handmade quilts complete the
look—a blend of rustic and elegant
that orr describes as “robinson
crusoe meets Architectural Digest.”
Price Averages $1,795 (per person)
for a weeklong retreat.
YoGA Visiting teachers have included
rodney Yee, Jason crandell, desirée
rumbaugh, darren rhodes, and Sianna
Sherman. check the schedule for
upcoming retreats.
doN’T miSS The homemade granola
at breakfast, the spectacular moles
at lunch, and the just-caught seafood
at dinner—plus ViP treatment by the
chef, who will prepare a meal based on
your dietary needs.
haramararetreat.com
A SAlTwATer iNfiNiTY swimming pool is
the first thing you see as you approach
Blue Spirit, a retreat center bordering a
nature reserve on the northwest coast of
Costa Rica. The sight sets the tone for an
experience of the infinite outdoors. Blue Spirit’s large yoga studio is on the
top floor of the center—a breathtaking 3,000-square-foot air-conditioned
pavilion with floor-to-ceiling windows. “You have more than a 180-degree
view of the ocean and the beach while you’re doing yoga,” says Jenay Martin,
a Northern California yoga teacher and photographer who accompanied
Shiva Rea on her last retreat there. “You can see birds flying by in formation.
It’s dreamy!” A smaller, cabana-like yoga space in the jungle is wall-less on
three sides to let in the soft breezes and howler monkeys’ calls. A short stroll
down a tree-canopied path brings you to the beach for sunset yoga practice.
Blue Spirit’s mostly vegetarian menu features fruit smoothies, greens,
grains, and legumes as well as fresh-caught fish. The rooms (singles or dou-
bles with private baths in the main building) and eco-cottages (which share a
bathhouse down the hill) are clean and cool, and all buildings are solar pow-
ered and made with local concrete and sustainably harvested wood.
Price Varies by retreat and type of room, but ranges from $700 to $1,950
per person for a weeklong stay (less if you stay in a tent on the grounds).
YoGA Beryl Bender Birch, Peter Sterios, Cyndi Lee, Sharon Gannon, and
David Life have all taught here. Check the schedule for
up coming retreats.
doN’T miSS Enjoying a tangy lime-ginger ice pop at the
open-air Café Library, located on a spacious balcony
that has a view of the mountains.
bluespiritcostarica.com
Blue SPiriT reTreAT
NoSArA, coSTA ricA
HArAmArASAYuliTA, mexico
Blue SPiriT Those seeking
even more time
outside can go
surfing, horseback
riding, kayaking,
or bird watching.
N o V e m B e r 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 8 1
You want to immerse your
self in yoga, but your best
travel partner has other ideas
about what makes a dream
vacation. You’ll both be happy
at Rancho La Puerta, a re
nowned healthandwellness
destination located on 3,000
acres in the mountains of Baja
California, Mexico. Yoga and
meditation teachers come
from all over the world for
special weeklong yoga pro
grams, but the ranch also has
a broad spectrum of other
offerings. there are more than
50 daily fitness classes, plus
RanCho La PueRta
teCate, MexiCo
swimming and volleyball,
miles of hiking trails, cooking
classes at the ranch’s culi
nary center, and tours of the
ranch’s sixacre organic farm.
You’ll both want to check
out the full menu of spa
services and therapeutic
treatments, some of which
make use of organic medici
nal herbs grown on the prop
erty. accommodations range
from luxurious private villas
to singleroom “rancheras”
with garden patios, all with
a Mexican folkart motif,
handmade furniture, and
handpainted tiles.
PRiCe Varies by accommo
dation type, but ranges from
$2,715 to $4,515 per person
for a weeklong stay.
Yoga in addition to regularly
scheduled daily yoga classes,
specially programmed weeks
are dedicated to different
kinds of yoga, including iyen
gar, ashtanga, and anusara.
Check the schedule for
up coming programs and
teachers.
Don’t Miss taking a 6 a.m.
guided hike up the sacred
Mount Kuchumaa, past rock
formations and glorious
desert scenery—and coming
back to breakfast by the pool.
rancholapuerta.com
CL
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rancho la pUErta a candlelit
lab riynth walk,
hot stone massage,
and first-rate
yoga classes are
just a few of
your options.
ph
ot
o c
ou
rt
es
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f L
un
a L
od
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Secluded on 150 acres of
virgin rainforest, Luna Lodge
is a great place to renew
your love of nature and your
aware ness of the interre lat
edness of all living things.
Yoga classes take place on a
loftlike platform perched
high in the Corcovado
National Park, with spectac
ular views of both the ocean
and the rainforest, home
to scarlet macaws, toucans,
shy tapirs, slowmoving
sloths, and other wildlife.
“The sounds of the howler
monkeys and birds are our
music,” says Gloria Drayer, a
Kripalu Yoga teacher who
has lead retreats here. Guests
can stay in simple bung a
lows with private decks, in
haciendastyle rooms, or in
tents built on platforms in
the jungle. The lodge is self
sustaining, running com
pletely on hydro and solar
power. Its amenities—a
swimming pool; an openair
restaurant that serves tropi
cal fruits and spices grown
on the property; and a spa
that offers coconut body
scrubs, massage, Reiki, and
aromatherapy, among other
treatments—are designed
to be light on the landscape
and integrated into the sur
rounding jungle.
Price Varies by retreat,
but averages from $1,220
to $1,425 per person for a
weeklong stay.
yoga Sianna Sherman, Amy
Ippoliti, Gloria Drayer, and
Tias Little have brought
groups here. Check the web
site for a list of upcoming
yoga retreats.
don’t miSS Lana’s Special
spa treatment: a combination
of deeptissue massage,
hot stone rub, and a sooth
ing organic facial.
lunalodge.com
luna lodgeoSa PeninSula, coSta rica
8 4 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
ph
ot
os
co
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te
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of
ma
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ab
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an
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AshiyAnA RetReAt CentRe
A serene site located between the
Mandrem River and the coast of
the indian Ocean in northern Goa,
india, Ashiyana has daily yoga and
meditation classes with resident
teachers, plus yoga retreats with
visiting international teachers
scheduled throughout the season.
Guests stay in bungalows over-
looking the beach and dine on
indian and Western vegetarian
cuisine. ashiyana-yoga-goa.com
MAyA tuluM
this restorative spot on the
yucatan Peninsula of Mexico
has white-sand beaches, simple
thatched cabanas, a full menu
of spa treatments, and retreats
with teachers like Baron Baptiste,
Jonny Kest, and Deborah Burk-
man. mayatulum.com
PRAnA Del MAR
located on the southern tip of
the Baja peninsula, this tranquil,
eco-friendly beach resort offers
yoga retreats (including some
that combine yoga with surfing)
with renowned visiting teachers.
pranadelmar.com
sOMAtheeRAM
AyuRveDA ResORt
this tropical retreat center
in Kerala, india, the birth-
place of Ayurveda, is not
about practicing with West-
ern yoga teachers (though
some do bring groups here)
or getting Western spa
treatments, but about
immersing yourself in the
healing lifestyle of Ayur-
veda. the resort offers indi-
vidualized treatment plans
from the Ayurvedic physicians on
staff, classical sivananda-style yoga,
and traditional Ayurvedic therapies,
plus a range of comfortable accom-
modations. somatheeram.in
stAy huMAn yOGA
AnD RetReAt CenteR
Michael Franti and Carla swanson’s
intimate retreat center in ubud, Bali,
is scheduled to open in January
2011, with an open-air yoga studio,
lush tropical gardens, and a swim-
ming pool. stayhumannow.com
WillKA t’iKA
Owner Carol Cumes has created a
retreat center in a verdant paradise
that is an hour from the Andean town
of Cusco, Peru, and that supports
the local community. Retreats include
yoga and meditation, visits to
Machu Picchu, and the opportunity
to learn about the region’s rich
spiritual and cultural heritage.
willkatika.com
XinAlAni RetReAt
Where the jungle meets the beach
on Banderas Bay near Puerto
vallarta, Mexico, you’ll find this
sparkling new eco-chic retreat
center with open, thatched pala-
pas, spa services, and resident
yoga instructors as well as visiting
teachers like Amy ippoliti and Dar-
ren Rhodes. xinalaniretreat.com
MORe sPeCtACulAR sPOts
to reconnect with your practice
Above:
Maya tulum
welcomes
visitors.
Below: yoga
at Xinalani
Retreat.
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om
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t:
co
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ma
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co
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of
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Located on a 1,000-acre
private island in the northern
caribbean, Parrot cay is
the setting for the ultimate
fantasy vacation: an über-
luxurious resort that has chic,
airy rooms furnished with
Balinese fur n iture; a holistic
spa that offers both Western-
style and ayurvedic treat-
ments; and two restaurants
serving just about every
kind of food you can imagine—
asian-inspired dishes, raw
and vegan cuisine, american-
style breakfasts, local seafood,
and more.
World-class visiting yoga
teachers lead classes in an
open-air studio with views of
the island’s powdery white-
sand beaches and turquoise
waters. “the treatment rooms
como ShamBhaLa at Parrot cay Turks and CaiCos
are immaculate, the spa is
staffed by true virtuosos, and
the ginger tea that’s always
on hand is utterly medicinal,”
says elena Brower, a cert i fied
anusara instructor and
founder of new York city’s
ViraYoga, who has led a num-
ber of retreats here. “and
their green juice is my favorite
fuel.” como Shambhala also
operates luxury retreat cen-
ters with great yoga program-
ming in Bali and Bhutan.
Price Starting at $5,728
per per son for a weeklong
yoga retreat.
Yoga erich Schiffmann,
rodney Yee, colleen
Saidman-Yee, and elena
Brower have all taught here.
check the website for a list
of upcoming yoga retreats.
don’t miSS the abhyanga
Package, a 90-minute spa
treatment designed to en -
hance circulation and release
impurities that begins with
an ayur vedic oil massage
and is followed by an herbal
steam and a body mud mask.
parrotcay.como.bz ✤
Parrot caY a caribbean
island is a great
place for serious
pampering—and
serious yoga
instruction.
8 6 y o g a j o u r n a l . C o m n o V e m B e r 2 0 1 0
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( )As you prepare for Archer Pose, learn to direct the arrow of
awareness at yourself.
One purpose of practicing asanas,
arguably the most important, is to dis-
cover a meditative path toward realizing
who you really are. This self-realization,
after all, is the classic aim of yoga. Patan-
jali’s Yoga Sutra says that when the prac-
titioner has a tranquil mind, he “abides
in his own true nature” (I.3). In order to
practice asana as a meditative path, you’ll
need to learn how to let go of habitual
responses to physical and mental distrac-
tions during the practice. This will allow
you to shed unnecessary effort in each
pose, which will ultimately lead you to a
feeling of effortlessness.
Of course, maintaining a pose involves
some effort, some type of intention and
take aim
master class with John Schumacher
PH
OT
OS
: D
AV
ID M
AR
TIN
EZ
; M
OD
EL
: J
OH
N S
CH
UM
AC
HE
R;
ST
YL
IST
: LY
N H
EIN
EK
EN
; G
RO
OM
IMG
: R
AC
INE
CH
RIS
TE
NS
EN
/AR
TM
IX;
TO
P:
NIK
E;
SH
OR
TS
: V
ER
VE
; M
AT
: G
AIA
M
A video of this Master Class sequence can
be found online at yogajournal.com/livemag.
▼ watch
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M 8 9
master class with John Schumacher
3
2
11 Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose)
Open hips are an essential aspect of Akarna
Dhan urasana I (Archer Pose I). Baddha Konasana
is an excellent pose for stretching your inner
groins and lengthening your inner thighs so that
you can draw your foot back by your ear in the
final pose. Done in the upright position, Baddha
Konasana also develops strong lower back and
spinal muscles, which you’ll need to avoid back
strain in Archer Pose. As you sit, relax your jaw
and release any tension in your throat. Be aware
of any unnecessary effort and let it go.
2 Janu Sirsasana (Head-of-the-Knee Pose), variation This variation of Janu Sirsasana continues
to open your hips and stretches your
straight leg as well. From Dandasana (Staff
Pose), bend your left knee, draw your heel
toward your left groin, and lower your left
knee out to the side. Move your left hand
along your left thigh toward your knee to
roll your thigh slightly back and increase
length and rotation. With your right hand,
hold your right big toe and draw your side
ribs in to lift the sides of your trunk evenly.
This will lighten the load on your lower
back and give your diaphragm space so
your breath can move freely to center and
quiet your mind.
3 Marichyasana I, variationPhysical stability is necessary to take your
awareness to deeper levels within your-
self. When you bend your left knee toward
your chest, ground your left sitting bone
to keep from tilting to your right side. Pull
your left knee back and draw your left
inner thigh toward the groin. As in the
Janu Sirsasana variation, use your hands
and arms to help lift and lighten your
trunk. Keep your gaze soft and direct it
toward your right foot to bring your
awareness into a quiet focus.
9 0 y o g a J o u r n a l . c o M n o v e m B e r 2 0 1 0
( benefits )
Increases hip mobility
Strengthens arms and shoulders
Stretches arms and legs
Improves core strength
( contraindications )
Pregnancy
Menstruation
Shoulder injury
Lumbar disk problems
Hamstring injury
5
44 Akarna Dhanurasana I
(Archer Pose I), preparationIn this preparation for the final pose,
you’ll hold your leg and pump it back
and forth a few times to create heat,
lubricate your hip joint, and increase
your range of motion. You’ll also
strengthen your arms, a necessary
component of Akarna Dhanurasana I.
After you pump the leg several times,
hold your position for a few breaths;
then practice taking your leg farther
back by first pulling with your hands,
then by moving back from the leg
itself. You might be surprised at the
extra space you find in your hip when
you practice this way.
5 Akarna Dhanurasana I (Archer Pose I)Now you’re ready to take the different elements of your
practice and put them together in this graceful, challenging
pose. The flexibility, strength, balance, and stability that
you’ve built up through your previous efforts will all come
into play. Maintain a strong hold on both big toes as you pull
your left elbow and shoulder back to draw your left foot
toward your ear. Press the entire length of the back of your
right leg toward the floor and reach out through your right
heel. As you gradually learn the mechanics and rhythms of
holding your bow and drawing your bowstring back, remem-
ber that the time to release the arrow of your awareness
toward the target, your Self, will come when you let go of
effort, become quiet, and surrender to the moment.
n o v e M b e r 2 0 1 0 y o g A j o u r n A l . c o m 9 1
Slide your shoulder blades downward,
press them into your back ribs, and lift the
sides of your torso. Sit for two to five min-
utes, maintaining the actions of the pose.
Relax any tension in your temples and the
outer corners of your eyes. Such tension
is a clue that you’re using excessive effort.
For an asana to be meditative, you’ll want
to let go of any strain in your eyes, tongue,
temples, jaw, and throat.
Janu SirSaSana
(Head-of-the-Knee Pose), variation
Come to Dandasana (Staff Pose). From
here on, you’ll take Dandasana between
each pose in the sequence up to Akarna
Dhanurasana. Bend your left knee and
draw your heel toward your left groin.
Lower your left knee out to the side
toward the floor. The ball of your left foot
should turn slightly up toward the ceiling,
as it did in Baddha Konasana.
Keeping your right leg straight, lean
out and catch your right big toe with the
first two fingers and thumb of your right
hand. If you can’t reach your toe, use a
strap around the ball of your foot. Place
your left hand on your inner left thigh
and, pressing your hand into your thigh,
simultaneously move the skin toward
your knee and roll it back toward the
space behind you.
To relieve compression in your SI joints
and lower back, press the back of your
right leg and your left sitting bone into
the floor, and move your right hip socket
toward your left foot. Take your pubis
back into the body, and then lift your SI
joints upward.
As you pull with your right arm and
press with your left hand, slide your
shoulder blades down and draw your right
shoulder blade toward your spine. Turn
your chest toward the left and pull your
outer left shoulder back. Turn your head
to look at your right foot. Even though
you are working your arms and torso, keep
flexibility in your legs and hips. Before
beginning this sequence, warm up with
poses that encourage strength and flex-
ibility, such as Supta Padangusthasana I,
II, and III (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe
Pose I, II, and III); Paripurna and Ardha
Navasana (Full Boat and Half Boat Pose);
and Malasana (Garland Pose).
Baddha KonaSana
(Bound Angle Pose)
You’ll begin with Baddha Konasana, a
fundamental hip-opening pose. Fold a
blanket into a rectangle about two inches
thick. Sit on the edge of the blanket, with
the most even corner under your tailbone
and your sitting bones near the edge.
Bend your knees, lower them out to the
sides toward the floor, and bring the soles
of your feet together. Draw your heels as
close to your pelvis as possible. If your
knees are higher than your waist, stack
another blanket and add enough height
so your knees can drop lower than your
hip points.
Press your heels together and stretch
your inner thighs from your groins toward
your knees. Keeping your heels together,
insert your thumbs between the balls of
your feet and spread the balls of your feet
apart as if you were opening a book. The
inner balls of your feet will face up, toward
the ceiling.
Turning the soles of your feet like this
softens your groins and releases your
knees. This movement will come in handy
when you bring your foot toward your ear
in Akarna Dhanurasana.
Continue pressing your heels together
and lengthening your inner thighs; then
move your tailbone forward to open your
hips farther. At the same time, draw your
pubis back and press your sitting bones
into the blanket to lift the back of your
body from your sacroiliac (SI) joints
upward. This will help support your lower
back and relieve pressure on the SI joints.
action. However, in time, you can learn
to re lease the unnecessary movements,
thoughts, and ac tions that come from
pushing yourself physically or mentally
to achieve a pose. Developing this type
of “effortless effort” transforms your
practice of asana from mere exercise into
a yogic journey toward absorption into
your true infinite Self.
To reduce excessive effort in your asana
practice, you’ll need to align your body
physically to support the pose and open
channels of energy. From there, you’ll
observe and then relax your sense organs.
Soften your eyes, relax your tongue, and
release the skin on your temples. Let your
breath be gentle and easy. This progres-
sive process of “undoing” everyday ten-
sion brings your mind to a quiet, receptive
state that is free of conflict and duality.
Before You Begin
Akarna Dhanurasana means literally
“Toward-the-Ear Bow Pose,” but is bet-
ter described as “Archer Pose,” since it
resembles an archer preparing to release
her arrow. You can practice this sequence
leading to Akarna Dha nurasana I (Archer
Pose I) as a way of discovering how—by
quietly observing your adjustments, the
quality of your breath, and your state of
consciousness—you can have a presence
of mind that allows you to aim the arrow
of awareness at yourself.
To observe your self in this way requires
skill and patience. If the archer is con-
cerned only with pulling the bowstring
and hitting the target, or the yogi is con-
cerned only with getting into the physical
shape of the pose, the meditative dimen-
sion of the practice will always be elusive.
Physical skill and technique are essen-
tial, but at some point, you must let go
of a focus on performing a collection of
movements. Through steadiness in the
body, relaxation of the eyes, and complete
surrender to the breath, you can abandon
unnecessary effort and fully occupy and
express the infinite present moment.
On a physical level, Akarna Dhanura-
sana, like archery, requires both strength
and flexibility. The sequence that follows
is designed to help you develop the neces-
sary strength in your arms and torso and
9 2 Y o g a J o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
master class
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yoga as unique as you are.We are each an expression of the life force within. Yoga guides us into a relationship with this life force. Through the breath, the physical body, a concentrated mind and an open heart, we encounter a more authentic way of being ourselves—whether on a yoga mat, in the kitchen, hiking, leading a meeting, or dancing with abandon. At Kripalu, we guide people into yoga, the yoga of life.
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yogini: Abigail “Ifatola” Jefferson, Kripalu Yoga teacher and adjunct professor, Wakefield, Rhode Island
9 4 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
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Continue to refine the pose and soften
the muscles at the base of the back of your
skull. Relax your soft palate and smile, gen-
tly releasing tension from your eyes, tem-
ples, and jaw. Breathe softly and slowly.
The lightness you bring to the body with
these various actions will ease your mind
into a more introspective state.
AkArnA DhAnurAsAnA I
(Archer Pose I), preparation
One of the biggest physical challenges for
many people in Akarna Dhanurasana is
stiffness in the hip joints. This next pose
is not a formal asana, but it’s an exercise
that will assist you in loosening your hips.
In Dandasana, bend your left knee, lift
your left leg, lean forward, and catch your
left foot. Hold the inner arch of your left
foot with your right hand and the little-
toe side of your left foot with your left
hand. Lift your left foot until your shin is
parallel to the floor. Hold your left fore-
arm slightly above your left shin, and draw
your knee back so it is just outside your
left shoulder.
Roll your pelvis forward onto your left
sitting bone, and from your SI joints, lift
your torso. Press the back of your right leg
into the floor to help lift. Keep the sides
of your body lifting and your shin parallel
to the floor. Pull your left foot with your
hands to move your left knee behind you.
Don’t let your knee move out to the side.
It doesn’t go exactly straight back either,
though. This is one of the tricky aspects of
this exercise and of Akarna Dhanurasana.
You have to play a little, letting the knee
go out slightly, then holding it closer to
the body, adjusting subtly in and out to
find out where you have the most ease and
freedom of movement.
Pull your leg back, and then, still hold-
ing your left foot, release it forward. Re -
peat this pumping movement 6 to 10
times. Lift your torso and stay forward on
your left sitting bone. Keep your pelvis
the back of your neck long and soft so that
your sense organs remain relaxed.
Sit for two to three minutes, relax your
breath, and take your attention inward.
With regular practice, the mechanics
of the pose will become more familiar
and you may find a natural sense of ease.
Soften the skin on your face and body and
bring your mind from an active state to a
more reflective one. Then, extend your
left leg forward and change sides.
MArIchyAsAnA I, vArIAtIon
From Dandasana, bend your left knee
and bring it in toward your chest. Place
your left heel near your perineum. Keep-
ing your right leg straight, reach out with
your right arm and catch your right big
toe with your first two fingers and thumb.
Put your left palm on the outside of
your left knee. Press the back of your right
leg into the floor. Pull back on your left
knee, as you move your left hip socket
forward, and roll onto your left sitting
bone. Press your left sitting bone down
into the floor and notice how this helps
to lift your torso.
Draw your right hip socket in toward
the center of your pelvis and lift up from
your SI joints to make your body long and
light. With your left hand still holding
your left knee, pull your left knee back
toward the space behind you. Use this
action to draw your left side ribs into your
body and lift the right side ribs higher.
Look at your right foot.
As you use your arms to help lift your
body, slide your shoulder blades down
and into your back ribs. Still holding your
right big toe, move your right shoulder
blade toward your spine and press it into
your back ribs, simultaneously pulling
your left shoulder back. This sets up the
chest, arms, and shoulders in the action
you’ll ultimately need for Akarna Dha-
nurasana. After two to three minutes,
change sides.
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
master class
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onto your sitting bones, move your outer
right hip socket into your pelvis, and lift
your SI joints and back body. Draw your
left side ribs in to keep your right side
body from collapsing.
As you go on pulling your left foot,
play a little to find out how much your left
knee should come out to the side (it won’t
be much), so that you have maximum free
dom and stability in that hip. To release
your left hip fully, allow your left ankle
to angle slightly so the sole of your foot
turns toward your face. Keep looking to
ward your right foot and pull your left
heel toward your left ear until they al
most touch, or as near as you can. Resist
the temp tation to lean your head toward
your left foot.
Slide your shoulder blades down and
move your right shoulder blade toward
your spine and deep into your back ribs.
This will allow you to draw your left shoul
der back, which will in turn enable you
to pull your left foot back a little farther.
You now look like an archer fully prepared
to release your arrow toward your target.
As you maintain the posture, soften your
neck and throat. Release any tension in
your facial muscles and bring your eyes,
ears, and tongue to a quiet state. Relax
your breath. Be in the pose.
When you are no longer present in the
pose and tension begins to mount, release
your left leg to the floor and take the other
side. To finish your practice, fold forward
into Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward
Bend) for two to five minutes, then rest in
Savasana (Corpse Pose).
You may practice for years before ex
periencing a moment of true quietness.
Dedicated and consistent reflection on
your thoughts and actions is required in
order to recognize what effort is neces
sary and what is excessive. When, after
steady practice and surrender of effort,
the time of perfect quietness comes to
you in Akarna Dhanurasana I, the arrow
of your awareness will release itself toward
the target of your true Self, and you will
know yoga in the art of archery. ✤
John Schumacher, a certified senior Iyengar
teacher, lives in Maryland. He is the founder
and director of Unity Woods Yoga Center.
and body steady to focus the energy of
pumping into the hip.
After pumping your leg back and forth,
lift it one more time and draw it back, pull
ing with your hands and arms. Once you
have taken the leg back to its limit, pause
there for a breath or two. Then us ing your
hands and arms only to keep your leg
lifted and back, not to pull it, move your
left knee farther back by moving from
the leg itself.
This is a different sensation from the
one you have when you pull with your
hands. You may be surprised at how much
movement you can make, even though
you thought you were at your limit. Pause
for a couple of breaths, then use your hands
and arms to pull back a little more. Again,
wait for a breath or two and move your
leg back from the leg itself, not by pulling
with your arms. Then release your left leg
forward and take the right side.
AkArnA DhAnurAsAnA I
(Archer Pose I)
Reach forward from Dandasana and hold
your big toes with the first two fingers and
thumb of each hand. If you aren’t able to
reach your toes, wrap a belt around the
ball of your right foot and hold the belt.
Bend your left knee, hold the big toe with
your left hand, and place your left heel
on the floor a few inches away from your
inner right knee. Pause here, press the
back of your right leg into the floor, roll
forward onto your left sitting bone, and
press it down into the floor.
Keep a strong hold on both big toes,
and draw your left elbow and shoulder
back to pull your left foot toward your
ear. Press the back of your right leg into
the floor and lengthen your right leg out
through your heel. As you pull your left
foot and leg back, any tightness in your
left leg or hip may cause your body to tilt
backward and your lower back to sink.
To avoid straining your back, roll forward
9 6 y o g A j o u r n A l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
master class
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Coral brown
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joey Corona
jason Crandell
nicki Doane
lilias Folan
ana Forrest
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brent kessel
emily large
Cyndi lee
Tias little
kino Macgregor
vinnie Marino
Dharma Mittra
eddie Modestini
aadil Palkhivala
natasha rizopoulos
Desirée rumbaugh
loren russo
graham schweig
Cameron shayne
rod stryker
laura Tyree
Patricia walden
Colleen saidman Yee
rodney Yee
YjevenTs.CoM
800.561.9398
reviews books + music + videos
media
Beth Morey, a writer in Mis-
soula, Montana, has an active
and evolving yoga practice.
But the yoga classes at her
local gym are rarely offered
at times she can attend, and
few are in the vinyasa style
she favors. So Morey gets her
yoga instruction almost
exclusively through podcasts
and online videos, from
teachers like Dave Farmar
in Denver; Eoin Finn in
Vancouver, BC; and Sadie
Nardini in Austin, Texas.
“This way, I’m able to get
the kind of practice I want,
from the teachers I want,
at times that work with my
schedule,” Morey says.
Doing your kind of yoga
on your time. A changing ros-
ter of classes (and teachers),
so you never grow bored. The
ability to watch from almost
anywhere. Those are major
attractions for students on
the frontier of online yoga
instruction. And the field is
responding with new offer-
ings every day, making it pos-
sible for anyone with a Web
connection to study with tal-
ented teachers from around
the world, right at home.
Here’s a rundown of some
of the latest offerings.
web video
services
On a cold November morn-
ing, wouldn’t it be nice to
take the chill off with a heart-
melting Anusara class taught
by a celebrated teacher
like Elena Brower? For $18
a month, YogaGlo (yogaglo
.com) lets you do just that.
Classes at the YogaGlo studio
in Santa Monica, California,
are videotaped, recorded,
and streamed online, and are
searchable by style, level, and
length. Membership gets you
access to unlimited classes,
taught by a variety of teach-
ers, including Brower, Kath-
ryn Budig, and Noah Mazé.
YogaVibes ( yogavibes.com)
also offers a wide range of
classes from both regional and
nationally known teachers,
like Ana Forrest. Prices range
from $10 for a single class
that you can watch for up to
14 days, to $25 per month
for a subscription that
allows unlimited viewing
of any classes.
The yoga DVD company
Pranamaya ( pranamaya.com)
has also gotten into the
online yoga video market,
offering streamed classes
and workshops led by Paul
Grilley, Andrey Lappa,
and Sarah Powers. They cost
between $7.95 and $18.95
each, and purchases can be
stored in an account in
Pranamaya’s online digital
library for unlimited viewing.
Also, at Yoga Journal.com
you can watch free videos
of the magazine’s practice
stories featured in LiveMag
(yogajournal.com/livemag),
or download popular videos
from our archives for a fee.
Budig says that online
video classes are great for
people who lack access to
good studio classes or want
to develop a home practice.
“They’re also amazing for
mothers who only have 20
The latest in web
technology makes
yoga classes
more accessible
than ever.
the new yoga frontier
ev
a t
at
ch
ev
a
by Erica Rodefer
n o v E m b E R 2 0 1 0 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m 9 9
to tell what’s safe and what’s not,” says
Nardini, who posts free videos to You-
Tube and writes the Core Values blog for
Yogajournal.com. “I suggest that before
a student follows any instructor’s videos,
they do some research. For example, how
long has the teacher been teaching? Who
have they studied with and where do they
teach now? Even on YouTube, you can tell
if people are well received by the yoga
community or not.”
It’s also important to have some experi-
ence with asana and to know your body’s
limitations. “If you can afford it, and have
the time and access, fi rst go to a yoga stu-
dio where a teacher can watch your prac-
tice,” says Budig. Then, from there, you
can experiment with online instruction
from teachers you’re curious about.
NEW COMMUNITY
One of the biggest potential drawbacks to
practicing with any video or audio instruc-
tion is that you miss out on the benefi ts
of interacting with your teacher and fel-
low students. But with social media, this,
to $6.99. Yogajournal.com ( yogajournal
.com/podcast) offers a whole collection
of free downloadable 20-minute classes
taught by Budig and Jason Crandell.
Many teachers offer free audio pod-
casts through their personal websites.
Some popular ones include podcasts by
Washington, DC, teacher Faith Hunter
( faithhunteryoga.wordpress.com), New
York City Jivamukti teacher Alanna Kai-
valya ( jivadiva.com), and Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, Anusara teacher Elsie Es -
cobar (elsieyogakula.wordpress.com).
YOUTUBE AND YOU
YouTube, the Wild West of online vi -
deo, offers a veritable smorgasbord of
yoga instruction. You can fi nd everything
from free classes and workshops by well-
known teachers like Darren Rhodes, to
video footage of Indian masters, such as
B. K. S. Iyengar.
The caveat, of course, is that you’ll also
fi nd a lot that isn’t necessarily high- quality
teaching. “The challenge with all this
online information is that it can be hard
minutes here and there to practice, but
who need yoga so badly,” she adds.
Subscription online video services are
convenient and offer high-quality instruc-
tion. The downside? You can’t download
these videos t o your own computer or
portable player to watch them later—you
have to be connected to the Internet to
view them.
PODCASTS
If you like to practice on the go, you
might want to try downloadable yoga
podcasts, which you can transfer to an
iPod, a smart phone, or a computer. Yoga
Today ( yogatoday.com) offers a variety of
yoga class videos shot in serene outdoor
locations. You can purchase a single class
download for $3.99 or sign up to down-
load or stream the service for $9.99 a
month. The website offers a new free vi -
deo each week, plus several free video pod-
casts on iTunes. Yoga Download (yoga
download.com) has free 20-minute down -
loada ble podcasts, which you can upgrade
to 30-, 45-, or 60-minute classes for $1.99
Join John Friend on this three-day intensive and catapult your yoga practice
to new physical and energetic heights
To order visit www.shopyj.com or call (800) I-DO-YOGA (436-9642)
Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering
Special feature:
Interview with John Friend
thiS live 3-DvD Set incluDeS:
• 3 Master Classes filmed live at Estes Park• The Grand Gathering’s opening ceremonies • 45 minute interview with John Friend
media
1 0 0 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0
DATES AND LOCATIONS
QUEBEC, CANADANov 14 – Dec 11, 2010
NEYYAR DAM,SOUTH INDIANov 14 – Dec 12, 2010Jan 9 – Feb 6, 2011
(with translation)Feb 13 – March 13, 2011Mar 20 – Apr 17, 2011
MADURAI, SOUTH INDIANov 28 – Dec 26, 2010Feb 27 – March 27, 2011
NASSAU, BAHAMASDec 6, 2010 – Jan 2, 2011Jan 23 – Feb 19, 2011Feb 27 – March 26, 2011Mar 31 – Apr 27, 2011May 5 – Jun 1, 2011
TYROL, AUSTRIADec 18, 2010 – Jan 16, 2011
VRINDAVAN, NORTH INDIAFeb 5 – Mar 6, 2011
CU CHI VIETNAMFeb 6 – March 6, 2011
HIMALAYAS, INDIAApr 10 – May 8, 2011May 15 – June 12, 2011June 19 – July 17, 2011
WOODBOURNE, NYApr 17 – May 15, 2011June 1 – June 29, 2011
LOIRE VALLEY,FRANCEApril 29 - May 28, 2011
GRASS VALLEY, CAMay 7 – June 6, 2011
LONDON, ENGLANDMay 14 – June 12, 2011
too, is evolving. Some teachers make
themselves available via Facebook, Twit-
ter, and YouTube to answer questions
from students. These postings can grow
into full-fl edged communities where stu-
dents ask questions, give feedback to the
teacher, and interact with one another.
When San Jose, California, yoga teacher
Cora Wen tweeted about practicing Scor-
pion Pose a year ago, she got enough
responses and questions about her tech-
nique that she posted a video on YouTube.
She thought it would be a useful tool for
the handful of people who had questions,
but within an hour the video had hundreds
of views. “Yoga is a process of connection,
communication, and collaboration with
our body, mind, and spirit,” Wen says.
“Online instruction broadens this explo-
ration by offering students fl exibility, con-
venience, and the opportunity to expand
their expertise.”
reviewsBOOKS YOGA MALA, by K. Pattabhi Jois,
and GURUJI: PORTRAIT OF SRI K.
PATTABHI JOIS THROUGH THE EYES OF
HIS STUDENTS, edited by Guy Donahaye and
Eddie Stern. North Point Press; fsgbooks.com
Arguably the most infl uential force in the
world of hatha yoga over the past 35 years
is K. Pattabhi Jois, the
fierce yet jovial South
Indian Brahman who
died in 2009 after a life-
time championing the
challenging method he
called Ashtanga Yoga.
Beginning in the mid-
1970s, thousands of Americans, Europe-
ans, and Asians—fi rst in a trickle, then in
a fl ood—made the pilgrimage to his yoga
school in Mysore and followed him on
teaching tours abroad.
Now, thanks to the simultaneous publi-
cation of two books spearheaded by long-
time Jois student Eddie Stern, director of
the Ashtanga Yoga Shala in New York,
those fortunate enough to have studied
with Jois can rekindle their memories, and
the rest of us can get a clearer sense of the
man’s power and magic as a teacher.
Jois’s own Yoga Mala, fi rst published
in his native Kannada language in 1962,
expand your practiceregister today
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1 0 2 Y O G A J O U R N A L . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0
media
details the Primary Series, Ashtanga’s in
troductory sequence of asanas. Along
with a concise introductory section on
hatha yoga’s benefits, Yoga Mala provides
more detail than Jois’s famously terse
inperson instruction.
This new edition also
includes a foreword by
Stern that covers de
tails of Jois’s biography
and the history of Ash
tanga’s transmission
to the West, and some
new text that Jois himself either wrote
or ap proved before his passing.
The second book, Guruji: A Portrait
of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of
His Students, consists of interviews con
ducted by Jois’s longtime student Guy
Donahaye with some of Jois’s earliest
Western students (including Tim Miller,
Annie Pace, David Swenson, David Wil
liams); with his family (including grandson
R. Sharath, who continues to head Jois’s
teaching lineage); and with native stu
dents and contemporaries from Mysore.
Some wellknown themes arise over
and over: the force of Jois’s personal pres
ence and winning smile; his psychological
acumen (or, as Richard Freeman puts it,
his trickster’s guile in motivating stu
dents); and his rare combination of deep
scholarship and experience of the effort,
sweat, pain, and grace that come from
decades of intense asana practice.
Many of the students interviewed for
this book seem aware of the irony of a t
tempting to capture in words the essence
of a man who taught using so few, a man
who conveyed much through his force
ful yet precise physical adjustments and
through the shaktipat (transmitted spiri
tual energy) emanating from the force of
his own practice and lineage.
Besides being a moving portrait of
Jois, Guruji also amounts to a sympo
sium conducted by some of the most
dedicated and experienced practitioners
in his lineage on many of the key philo
sophical and nutsandbolts issues of
hatha yoga. Exactly how does a physically
demanding practice cultivate spiritual
growth? Are pain and injury avoidable set
backs, or are they necessary for physical
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and mental breakthroughs? How do you
balance practice with the demands of ca
reer and family?
The teachers interviewed in Guruji
illustrate that practice can hone one’s
responses to life’s dilemmas, exemplify
ing one of Jois’s favorite maxims: “Do
your practice, and all is coming.” Taken
together, these two books convey Jois’s
powerful presence, evoking memories for
his students and bringing him to life for
those who never had the chance to meet
him. Todd Jones
book MANTRA YoGA AND PRIMAL
SoUND: SECRETS oF SEED (bIJA)
MANTRAS, by David Frawley (Pandit Vama-
deva Shastri). Lotus Press; lotuspress.com
Hatha yoga is the dominant school of
yoga in this country, but in India there are
some half dozen major schools, including
what might be called the yoga of sound,
or mantra yoga. David Frawley is one of
yoga’s foremost scholar
practitioners and the
founder and director of
the American Institute
of Vedic Studies. Here,
he explains the role of
sacred sound in Indian
spiritual practice and
details the transformative power of the
50 Sanskrit letters, each of which is con
sidered to be a mantra in itself.
At the heart of the book are what Fraw
ley calls the “most important of all man
tras,” the onesyllable shakti bija (seed
power) mantras. He also discusses the
subtle “body of sound,” in which the heal
ing capacities of various mantras are asso
ciated with body parts, as well as the use
of mantras in pranayama, in Kundalini
and bhakti yoga, and in mantra therapy.
Reading Frawley is always serious busi
ness. Although a beginning student could
manage this book, it’s probably better
suited to someone with a working knowl
edge of the yoga tradition and its ter
minology. What’s always interesting
about his work is the way he brings tradi
tional practices into the modern arena
without trivialization. This is the first
book I’ve come across that goes into the
practice of “placing” ( nyasa), by which
1 0 4 Y o G A J o U R N A L . C o M n o V e m b e r 2 0 1 0
media
mantras are ritually installed in the body
to spiritualize and dedicate it to the Di -
vine. Whenever I read one of David Fraw-
ley’s books, I invariably feel that I’m
privy to the an cient wisdom at the root
of all yoga, and this book is no excep-
tion. RICHARD ROSEN
CD DIAMONDS IN THE SUN,
by Girish. girishmusic.com
Diamonds in the Sun is a unique offering,
even in the experimental realm of mod-
ern kirtan music. You might even forget
you’re listening to music that has its roots
in India. That’s not to say Girish doesn’t
give the tradition the respect it deserves.
On the contrary: His love and inspiration
are evident in this heartfelt recording.
Girish, a tabla player who has per-
formed with many of today’s top kirtan
and mantra music artists, brings a modern
acoustic Western sound to many songs.
He performs many kirtan standards al -
most as ballads. Possessing a deeply
soothing, almost sensual voice, he sings
San skrit with palpable devotion and ten-
derness, as on “Lakshmi,” a gorgeous slow
sway to the deity. And his treatments of
songs such as “Om Namah Shivaya,”
“Saraswati,” and “Kali Durge” feel even
more poignant for renderings that border
on alt-country—loll-
ing pedal-steel guitar
and all.
Girish brought to -
gether a posse of kir-
tan allstars for this
album, and the musical arrangements,
featuring acoustic and electric guitar,
banjo, sarangi, trumpet, cello, and man-
dolin, perfectly complement the textures
of his voice. The melodic interplay be -
tween instrumentalists and vocalists is
magnificent. Similarly sublime are the
background vocals by Donna De Lory
and C. C. White.
The Sanskrit verses and additional lyr-
ics are consistently uplifting and heart
opening: “We shine like diamonds in
the sun/Every one of us” is the chorus in
the title track. Girish’s reverent cover
of the Snatam Kaur classic “Long Time
Sun” provides a rousing conclusion to the
album. JEREMY LEHRER ✤
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has to peruse translations of texts like the
Hatha Tattva Kaumudi, the Gheranda
Samhita, or the Hatha Ratnavali, to see
that much of the yoga that dominates
America and Europe today has changed
almost beyond recognition from the
medieval practices. The philosophical
and esoteric frameworks of premodern
hatha yoga, and the status of asanas as
“seats” for meditation and pranayama,
have been sidelined in favor of systems
that foreground gymnastic movement,
health and fitness, and the spiritual con
cerns of the modern West. Did this make
the yoga I was practicing inauthentic?
This was not a casual question for me.
My daily routine during those years was
to get up before dawn, practice yoga for
two and a half hours, and then sit down
for a full day researching yoga history and
philosophy. At the end of the day, I would
teach a yoga class or attend one as a stu
dent. My whole life revolved around yoga.
I went back to the library. I discovered
that the West had been developing its
own tradition of gymnastic posture prac
tice long before the arrival of Indian asana
pioneers like B. K. S. Iyengar. And these
were spiritual traditions, often developed
by and for women, which used posture,
breath, and relaxation to access height
ened states of awareness. Americans like
he was also receptive to the needs of his
day, and he was not afraid to innovate,
as evidenced by the new forms of asana
practice he developed during the 1930s.
During his tenure as a yoga teacher under
the great modernizer and physical culture
enthusiast Krishnarajendra Wodeyar, the
maharajah of Mysore, Krishnamacharya
formulated a dynamic asana practice,
intended mainly for India’s youth, that
was very much in line with the physical
culture zeitgeist. It was, like Kuvalay
ananda’s system, a marriage of hatha yoga,
wrestling exercises, and modern Western
gymnastic movement, and unlike any
thing seen before in the yoga tradition.
These experiments eventually grew into
several contemporary styles of asana prac
tice, most notably what is known today as
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga. Although this style
of practice represents only a short period
of Krishnamacharya’s extensive teaching
career (and doesn’t do justice to his enor
mous contribution to yoga therapy), it has
been highly influential in the creation of
American vinyasa, flow, and Power Yoga–
based systems.
So where did this leave me? It seemed
clear that the styles I practiced were a rela
tively modern tradition, with goals, meth
ods, and motives different from those
traditionally ascribed to asanas. One only
melded Western techniques with tra
ditional In dian practices from disciplines
like wrestling. Oftentimes, the name
given to these strengthbuilding regimes
was “yoga.” Some teachers, such as Tiruka
(a.k.a. K. Raghavendra Rao), traveled the
country disguised as yoga gurus, teaching
strengthening and combat techniques to
potential revolutionaries. Tiruka’s aim
was to prepare the people for an uprising
against the British, and, by disguising
himself as a religious ascetic, he avoided
the watchful eye of the authorities.
Other teachers, like the nationalist
physical culture reformist Manick Rao,
blended European gymnastics and weight
resistance exercises with re vived Indian
techniques for combat and strength. Rao’s
most famous student was Swami Kuvalay
ananda (1883–1966), the most influential
yoga teacher of his day. During the 1920s,
Kuvalayananda, along with his rival and
gurubhai (“guru brother”) Sri Yogendra
(1897–1989), blended asanas and indig
enous Indian physical culture systems
with the latest European techniques of
gymnastics and naturopathy.
With the help of the Indian govern
ment, their teachings spread far and wide,
and asanas—reformulated as physical cul
ture and therapy—quickly gained a legit
imacy they had not previously enjoyed
in the postVivekanandan yoga revival.
Although Kuvalayananda and Yogendra
are largely unknown in the West, their
work is a large part of the reason we prac
tice yoga the way we do today.
InnOVATIVE ASAnAThe other highly influential figure in the
development of modern asana practice
in 20thcentury India was, of course,
T. Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), who
studied at Kuvalayananda’s institute
in the early 1930s and went on to teach
some of the most influential global yoga
teachers of the 20th century, like B. K. S.
Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi, and
T. K. V. Desikachar. Krishnamacharya
was steeped in the traditional teachings
of Hinduism, holding degrees in all six
darshanas (the philosophical systems of
orthodox Hinduism) and Ayurveda. But
1 0 6 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
yoga’s greater truth
continued from page 69
As a category for thinking about yoga,
“authenticity” falls short and says far
more about our 21st-century insecurities
than it does about the practice of yoga.
One way out of this false debate, I rea-
soned, was to consider certain modern
practices as simply the latest grafts onto
the tree of yoga. Our yogas obviously have
roots in Indian tradition, but this is far
from the whole story. Thinking about
yoga this way, as a vast and ancient tree
with many roots and branches, is not a
betrayal of authentic “tradition,” nor does
it encourage an uncritical acceptance of
everything that calls itself “yoga,” no mat-
ter how absurd. On the contrary, this kind
of thinking can encourage us to exam-
ine our own practices and beliefs more
closely, to see them in relation to our own
past as well as to our ancient heritage. It
can also give us some clarity as we navigate
the sometimes-bewildering contempo-
rary marketplace of yoga.
Learning about our practice’s Western
cultural and spiritual heritage shows us
how we bring our own understandings and
misunderstandings, hopes and concerns
to our interpretation of tradition, and
how myriad influences come together to
create something new. It also changes our
perspective on our own practice, invit-
ing us to really consider what we’re doing
when we practice yoga, what its mean-
ing is for us. Like the practice itself, this
knowledge can reveal to us both our con-
ditioning and our true identity.
Beyond mere history for history’s sake,
learning about yoga’s recent past gives us
a necessary and powerful lens for seeing
our relationship with tradition, ancient
and modern. At its best, modern yoga
scholarship is an expression of today’s
most urgently needed yogic virtue, viveka
(“discernment” or “right judgment”).
Understanding yoga’s history and tangled,
ancient roots brings us that much closer
to true, clear seeing. It may also help to
move us to a more mature phase of yoga
practice for the 21st century. ✤
Mark Singleton holds a PhD in divinity
from Cambridge University. His latest book
is Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern
Posture Practice.
Cajzoran Ali and Genevieve Stebbins,
and Europeans like Dublin-born Mollie
Bagot Stack, were the early 20th-century
heirs to these traditions of “harmonial
movement.” Newly arrived asana-based
yoga systems were, naturally, often inter-
preted through the lens of these preexist-
ing Western gymnastic traditions.
There was little doubt in my mind that
many yoga practitioners today are the
inheritors of the spiritual gymnastics tra-
ditions of their great-grandparents far
more than they are of medieval hatha
yoga from India. And those two contexts
were very, very different. It isn’t that the
postures of modern yoga derive from
Western gymnastics (although this can
sometimes be the case). Rather, as syncre-
tic yoga practices were developing in the
modern period, they were interpreted
through the lens of, say, the American har-
monial movement, Danish gymnastics, or
physical culture more generally. And this
profoundly changed the very meaning of
the movements themselves, creating a
new tradition of understanding and prac-
tice. This is the tradition that many of us
have inherited.
CRISIS Of fAIThAlthough I never broke off my daily asana
practice during this time, I was under-
standably experiencing something like a
crisis of faith. The ground on which my
practice had seemed to stand—Patanjali,
the Upanishads, the Vedas—was crum-
bling as I discovered that the real history
of the “yoga tradition” was quite differ-
ent from what I had been taught. If the
claims that many modern yoga schools
were making about the ancient roots of
their practices were not strictly true, were
they then fundamentally inauthentic?
Over time, however, it occurred to me
that asking whether modern asana tradi-
tions were authentic was probably the
wrong question. It would be easy to reject
contemporary postural practice as ille-
gitimate, on the grounds that it is unfaith-
ful to ancient yoga traditions. But this
would not be giving sufficient weight to
the variety of yoga’s practical adaptations
over the millennia, and to modern yoga’s
place in relation to that immense history.
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living example for others in this world.
Although I believed that I had cultivated
this approach in my yoga practice, I came
to see how my ego had created blind spots
in my vision.
These days, the pose feels different to
me because I’m not trying to prove myself
or get approval by practicing it. Instead,
I’m using it as a tool for awakening as well
as simply enjoying the wonderful feeling
of being completely upside down and the
increased vigor I feel afterward. This is
the gem I received as a result of meeting
my pain and injury with compassion and
self-inquiry. At 61 years old, I hope I’ve
learned to truly listen to this instrument
I call my body and my mind, and to honor
my inner wisdom. I encourage you to take
the same approach in your practice. The
benefi ts far outweigh the risks. ✤
Patricia Sullivan’s 30 years of teaching have
included many streams of study, including
Iyengar Yoga, personal yoga exploration, and
Buddhist meditation. For more information,
visit patriciasullivanyoga.com.
awareness to create the necessary sup-
port for a properly aligned Headstand.
compassion and self-inquiryI believe that with proper guidelines
and preparation, most people can avoid
injuries due to Headstand. I recommend
working with an experienced teacher
who can look at your body’s proportions;
each body is different, so each person’s
approach must be customized. A good
teacher will guide you to avoid placing
undue pressure on the delicate cervical
vertebrae or disks and encourage you not
to build up your time too quickly.
But perhaps the most important thing
to remember when you consider a pose
like Headstand—or any other advanced
pose—is that yoga is about discovering
your Self and living from it every day. If
competitiveness and athletic accom-
plishment overshadow this purpose, you
lose a valuable opportunity to live from
a place of wholeness and to serve as a
YOGA JOURNAL Issue 233 (ISSN 0191-0965),
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Offering the finest education in Ayurveda since 1984. First-year graduates (665 classroom hours) provide lifestyle consulting and education. Second-year graduates (480 classroom hours) offer advanced lifestyle consulting and Ayurvedic treatments and prepare for work in an integrated medical setting. We offer panchakarma, seminars, clinical study in India, correspondence course, herbs & Ayurvedic products. Free catalog. Call (505) 291-9698. ayurveda.com
#101
ayURvEDa: ThE lIghT Of
UNDERSTaNDINg
by Eileen Press, MD, CAP. Everything a yogi needs to know about Ayurveda. Perfect for yoga teacher training programs. All author’s proceeds go toward full college scholarships in [email protected]. ILoveAyurveda.com
#100
CaSa gRaNDE mOUNTaIN RETREaT Set in a stunning valley on 90 acres in the central mountains of Puerto Rico, Casa Grande is an oasis of peace and tranquility. An ideal location for retreats, trainings and vacations. Join us in 2011 for a variety of enriching programs of healing, empowerment and yoga dance. (888) 343-CASA
hotelcasagrande.com
#102
n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 y O g a j O U R N a l . C O m 1 1 3
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Books & periodicAls
BEING THE ONLY ONE: A SUBJECTIVIST READING OF THE VAISHESHIKA, SANKHYA, AND YOGA DARSHANAS Translation and commentary by John Wells. Three sister works of ancient Indian philosophy, with full modern translations, in a radically new light. Empowering and liberating. darshanapress.com
KAMAKALA PUBLICATIONS has just received exclu-sive rights to the autobiography of Roderick W. Marling, Master of Tantra Yoga, and New Age Guru: Confessions
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LONG ISLAND YOGA SCHOOL 200- and 300-hour trainings available, Monthly workshops, Bonda Yoga, 4A Bond Street, Great Neck, NY 11021. Call Laurie Ahlemann at (917) 757-0922 or visit LongIslandYogaSchool.com.
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RAW JUICE CLEANSE & YOGA RETREATS in luxurious NY eco-chic boutique retreat. Open 365 days a year. We also deliver juice cleanses to you. Call (866) 964-4649 or visit americanyogini.com.
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TROPICAL ESCAPES Real retreats, authentic adventures. Caribbean yoga retreats & holistic vaca-tionplanning services. Individuals and groups welcome! Call (212) 731-2478 or visit TropicalEscapes.biz.
SWIMMING WITH WILD DOLPHINS The ultimate human-dolphin connection. Meditative, healing Carib-bean island retreats. Yoga, healthy food, Atlantean legends. Call (800) 326-1618 or visit wildquest.com.
opportunities
WORK FROM HOME Choose your own hours, no experience needed. Rakel Helgadottir, independent Herbalife distributor, Iceland. youcanworkfromhome.net
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WRITE FOR RECOVERY Writing workshops and privates designed to enhance recovery from addiction, grief, and trauma. Online, by phone, in person. Call (310) 394-3706 or visit WriteForRecovery.com.
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NATURAL HEALTH COLLEGE DEGREES Bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate programs. Affordable low monthly payments. For a catalogue, call (888) 295-7304. kcnh.org
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A GENTLE WAY® TEACHER TRAINING Featuring Lanita Varshell; E-R.Y.T. 500+. Experts in plus-size, ne-glected, and aging bodies. San Diego, CA. (619) 698-1170; agentleway.com.
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ASHEVILLE YOGA CENTER 200-HR AND 500-HR CERTIFICATIONS 9 months, 3 weeks, 5 days. Children’s, prenatal, Yin, seniors, more. FL, SC, NC, TN, VA, Mexico, Costa Rica. youryoga.com
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CHILDLIGHT YOGATM Weekend certification to teach yoga to children in NH, MA, ME, NC, PA, Toronto, Vancou-ver. Also Yoga 4 Classrooms™, Yoga 4 Teens™, Special needs. Call (603) 781-3323 or visit childlightyoga.com.
HIMALAYAN INSTITUTE 200-/500-HOUR YOGA TEACHER CERTIFICATION with Rolf Sovik, PsyD, and Sandra Anderson, E-RYT. In Honesdale, PA. 200-hour: June 17–July 10, 2011. 500-hour, spring: April 1–10, 2011. 500-hour, Summer: August 12–21, 2011. Study in India: 200-/500-hour: February 4–March 5, 2011. Call (800) 822-4547. HITA.org
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AMA TIERRA YOGA RETREAT & WELLNESS
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BHUTAN Discover Himalayan mountains, vibrant culture and Buddhist spirituality, supported by Kripalu/Pranakriya yoga. Spring/autumn tours. Bhutanyogatours.com
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DEVIPURAM Devi shrine with the largest Meru on earth. Unique & visionary Sri Vidya teachings online/site. Scientist-turned-guru Amritananda’s powerful 45-minute Srichakra meditative prayer, Freedom Ritual for everyone. Bring Divine harmony into your life; visit devipuram.com.
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Women’s sacred sexuality retreats, couples intimacy retreats, & private coaching. Sacredsexsecrets.com
BALI YOGA RETREATS Ongoing yoga retreats and discovery vacations since 2004 for beginners and intermediate yoginis. Feel the energy. oneworldretreats.com
YOGA HOLIDAYS IN GREECE Live your dream on the island of Kythira, one of Greece’s best-kept secrets. Call (877) 730-5522. yogaretreatgreece.com
TIMBUKTU Unique and artistically crafted retreat on the healing grounds of Kootenay Lake, B.C. Yoga retreats, conferences, gatherings. Visit tb2.ca.
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( )Krishna Das says chanting the names of Hindu gods isn’t
religious—it’s just joyful.
of these names, and the real result of practicing
like this, is that the presence that lives in our
own heart is released and uncovered. And this
is the real meaning of these chants. This is why
kirtan is not a Hindu practice. It’s not even a
religious practice. This is a spiritual practice. It’s
not something you have to join or give anything
up for. It’s something you add to your life.
What is a guru, in your opinion? The real way
you spell guru is L-O-V-E. The guru is what
leads you to that love inside. The real guru is
your own true Self. Some people get to meet
another physical being that embodies that for
them, and others don’t.
When your guru died, it was devastating for
you. How do you recapture that love? That’s
essentially what my life is about. You come into
the presence of that love, and you recognize that
it really does exist, and you have to find it. Finally
you realize you have to find it within yourself.
Until you recognize the truth of that, you will
always be looking for it outside.
Do you ever tire of singing the same songs over
and over? Yes. But once you start chanting,
that feeling, that boredom, that nastiness, just
becomes another thing to let go of. It becomes a
part of the practice. And that’s a very key thing.
Practice has to be your whole life. It can’t just
be 15 or 20 minutes or an hour a day. There isn’t
spiritual life and worldly life. Gradually, inevita-
bly, everything in our lives leads us to that love.
You were asked to sing with the rock band
Blue Öyster Cult. Do you ever regret not doing
it? Not at all. And the funny thing is, every-
thing I thought I wanted from being a rock ’n’
roll singer in a band, everything I thought that
would let me feel, I’m getting now. From this.
Do you ever just want to bust out in song
that’s not kirtan? I do, all the time! You should
hear us at sound check. We do Van Morrison, Wil-
lie Nelson, Rolling Stones. We do everything.
We’re totally nuts in sound check. ✤
Headlining concerts around the globe, and now with 14
albums to his name, Krishna Das is a megastar in the world of
kirtan (devotional chanting). Ironically, it took walking away from
a promising career in rock ’n’ roll to get here. Back in 1971, as Jeff
Kagel, he followed in the footsteps of his friend Ram Dass and
traveled to India, where he met his guru. There, he embarked on
a lifelong journey of bhakti (devotion) yoga that has inspired thou-
sands of spiritual seekers to discover their own wellspring of love.
How did you get to this place in your career? After my guru,
Neem Karoli Baba, or Maharaj-ji, died, I crashed pretty heavily. I
had gotten into a pretty closed-down state. I was standing in my
room in New York at the time, and I completely understood that
if I did not chant with people, my heart would never open again.
Chanting Hindu gods’ names intimidates some Westerners.
What is the meaning behind this practice? We can’t understand
the real meaning of these names with our minds. The real meaning ra
me
sh
wa
r d
as
messenger of love
the yj interview by Kel le walsh
1 1 6 Y o g a j o u r n a l . C o m n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0
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