Yogalove Pinkpunk

2010-10-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcPjvp4La8A

Cleanse Update: And...The End. Maybe Not.

2010-10-16T04:29:00.001-07:00

So to recap, I undertook a two-week whole foods cleanse/de-tox on October 1st. I retained a coach for this cleanse, who provided me with many recipes and daily food for thought and phone check-ins. The food I made was tasty and filling and 'normal' (stuffed zuchhini boats, chickpea patties), and the cleanse was full-spectrum, for it included a ban on TV, news, and evening computer use; it also included yoga and meditation. Oh, and powerful, wonderful tea. I want to call it a great cleanse, overall, despite the fact for three of the fourteen days my thighs, hips, and back hurt so badly I thought I had the flu, followed by, three days later, two days of intense congestion, which made me think I had a cold. The update on the latter is that, no, I did not have a cold, for it never went to my lungs and never knocked me out. The congestion literally cleared up overnight. Wow. Powerful.

So what's next? Well, the day after breaking the cleanse, just yesterday--I had sashimi and side salad at a nice restaurant--I gave thought to continuing the cleanse. Perhaps not 100%, but I have the energy and desire to keep eating whole foods primarily. Why?

*Because I'm stunned how hard and effectively my body worked during the cleanse to rid itself of toxins and unneeded junk; I suspect there is more cleansing I can do.

*Because I have learned to tell the difference between hunger and blood sugar wackiness. I get easily lightheaded a couple hours after I eat. In the past, I would eat something, even if I was not hungry. Now, I drink this phenomenal sugar balancing tea. Voila, as they say in France! Pas de problem.

*Because I did drop some unwanted pounds and have some more to shed. I realized from this cleanse I don't have to starve or feel deprived in order to lose unnecessary fat!

*Because it was 'real.' It was menu planning, shopping, food prep, discipline, and the felt joy of eating simply and being mindful of all we put into our body.

Of course, I'm going to a swanky wedding tonight. If I have a little cake or a bit of champagne, I'll be all right with it, for I accomplished a big thing already, and tomorrow is a new day!

Namaste.

Cleanse Update: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

2010-10-11T07:40:00.001-07:00

Day Ten Report:

I am lighter! I haven't had processed foods, alcohol, caffeine, dairy, meat, and wheat in ten days! Zing! My horrible hip, thigh, and back pains just disappeared four days ago! There are a zillion beautiful whole foods recipes my coach has passed to me to enjoy, and the ones I've tried have been delicious. (I am particularly in love with the beetroot soup!). My coach emails me every night affirmation/food for thought new challenges, new meditations, and new ideas for re-thinking what, why, how, and when of my food intake. I know what foods I'm sensitive to, what triggers my cravings, and (lordy, this is FINE) how to now--because I've been practicing it--say to myself, "I don't want to have that. I choose not to eat that" instead of, "Oh my god, I hate this cleanse. Why do I have to be on a cleanse? Why can't I eat what I *WANT*? Life sucks" and other effort-defeating things. So my body is de-toxing, and my mind and heart arem too. THAT IS GOOD!

My sleeping problem is not solved. I've always been a bad sleeper: four or five hours, and I awake. Before the cleanse, I suspected that much of what I was eating for dinner was waking me up. I was partly right. I don't wait up now in some jagged post-sugar come down from a dinner heavy on the carbs, but...sigh...I STILL wake up. Not every night, because now I'm on this rocking special herb tea that my coach created just for me, and it helps calm the body/mind during the day to make a normal sleep more possible, but...I STILL am not sleeping well. THAT IS BAD!

And now...a cold. I used to get colds all the time. All the time. And between colds I'd have sinus infections. Once I brought yoga into my life, such poor health turned to good: I'm happy to report whereas eight years ago I was getting a cold every other month, I am now getting one cold every two or three years. Maybe it's the cleanse that made me vulnerable to germies this date, maybe I was just due, but here I am on Cleanse Day #10, and I'm miserable. And that's not good, or bad. THAT IS UGLY!

So I'm off to call my coach for some consulting. No wait. Consoling. No wait. Both.

Cleanse, Day Four: Ouch!!!!

2010-10-07T02:39:00.000-07:00

All right, all right. Perhaps I was a little overly optimistic to think this cleanse was going to be a true love, a cleanse to remember (see prior post). Today I woke with aches so acute I want to sum them up as such: I'm dying.

Fortunately, I'm not. I certainly do not know who to blame for my aches, so I blame no one, not even myself. That revelation of non-blame regarding pain is one huge step life for me, to be in the middle of a cleanse and not feel as though I'm in a suit way too tight for me, or on a planet where there's not enough oxygen for me, or in some mean babysitter's kitchen where no food is served after 3 p.m. because you're going to go home soon....some day...not too much longer, and eat. I have so much to tend to during this cleanse that pointing fingers at past people or habits that cause stored toxicity and stress in the body is--rimshot, please--counter-productive.

Still. I am miserable. The aches I feel are in my upper and mid back, thighs, and hips. It's just like having the flu, but I have no other symptoms. You'd think I'd be all happy about that. Only to a slight degree am I. I know I'm not sick, so why why why ME? The answer is, 'why NOT me?'

Part of this cleanse--oh, I'd say a large part of it--is mental: hot baths, heating pads, calming teas so I can sleep, and the prescribed yoga by my coach are part and parcel along with a whole foods diet. On this cleanse, if you stick to it, you can't escape improvement. It's just that the road to that can start out bumpy. All cleanses offer that. Money back guarantee: A challenge for you psyche and soul or WE pay for your vegetables!

Hey, Ouchville: I'm not having any fun walking down your streets these days, but soon I'll find a clearing, and I'll say goodbye to you, and that will be a breath of fresh air. Namaste.

A Cleanse to Remember

2010-10-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am beginning my third day of a 14-day whole food de-tox and cleanse. This is the third annual autumn cleanse I have undertaken.

The first cleanse, a five-day juice extravaganza, bordered on the surreal, like a dream whose details we do not quite remember. My first cleanse ever, it was a radical choice, for going to the juicy side without so much as a half-day lead-in--I think I had meat AND wine AND chocolate the night before, la vita dopa!--asked more from me than I was able and willing to give.

Cleanses are like relationships. Once you're in one, you'd kind of like to see it through to its happy ending. You and the cleanse both deserve it.

The second cleanse was so much more interesting than the first because by now I was used to hunger, and I was permitted to eat solid foods in the second week. My second cleanse was a kit I purchased containing whey protein, bioactive supplements, and beet powder with instructions about which of them to eat at what time of day in juice or smoothie form, adding to my diet as much vegetable and fruit juice as I wanted, or raw or steamed non-starch vegetables or fruit, with an emphasis on green, raw vegetables. By the second week I could add brown rice and lentils only if I were really hungry.

Lentils. Now we were talking.

Sort of. This second cleanse was like a chick flick. I loved it, I felt it, I laughed and cried throughout. And, to the credit of naysayers of chick flicks everywhere, it felt canned. When it was over, it was over, and I went back to my comparatively unglamorous non-cleanse life, quickly picking up on my old eating habits without the mental awareness and discipline to drop them and take up the new. It’s like the time my best friend said, “Ack. Why are you dating HIM? Can’t you see THIS GUY’S so much better?” I think she was even pointing to a group photograph of us all, but did the visual help even? Nope.

And now. Cleanse #3. Much better. So much better. For one, I hired a coach. Lightbulb goes off: professionals are paid for a reason! They know stuff! Second, she provided a regimen she designed just for me based on her knowledge gained about me from many conversations and several questionnaires. My daily regimen includes Taoist herb tea, pranayama, asana, meditation, NO tv/news/evening computer use, and….ta-da-…ta-da…ta-da…food. Whole food. Sure we juice. Sure we eat raw. Sure there are so many veggies in the menus it takes a ton of cleaning, chopping, and peeling. But on this cleanse, ladies and gentlemen, I eat grains. Warm potatoes. Beans. Nut milk. Honey sparingly.

Honey sparingly. That’s fun to say.

I do think I am in love. I think me and this, me and this, me and this cleanse, we got a thing going on. Stay tuned for the reviews.

Santosha: State of Contentment

2010-09-22T03:25:00.000-07:00

The second limb of yoga's eight limbs is niyama, the five rules of self-discipline. The one I am currently working on (practicing actively) is santosha. It is especially challenging for me on a day like today--when I am tired and uncertain of many things going on in my life--to practice santosha. But the show must go on, as they say.

Santosha is the practice and cultivation of contentment. Every breath, every moment,
provides the opportunity to practice patience and acceptance of what we are experiencing so that we can become happy. Even in tough situations, even in moments that are so far from joy we are stunned that life is so this or that (read 'anything but good!') this niyama according to Patanjali offers us the opportunity to reside in the state of contentment.

Santosha is not the same as complacency. Santosha requires us to simply notice and be as even-keeled as we can, flowing with calm and a non-rattled mentality with the forces of difficult times, life change, or disappointments. Complacency is giving in, defeated. Complacency takes little work and has dire consequences. Santosha takes active self-study and helps set us onto the path of liberation from suffering. In a nutshell, the attainment of contentment/santosha/happiness requires work.

"Owing to contentment, there is an unexcelled attainment of happiness" or...
"antoshad anuttama sukha labhah"
-Patanjali Yoga Sutras ii:42

Yoga Schedule: Pink Lotus Yoga, Fall 2010

2010-09-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

If you love yoga, you might find something in my fall schedule that suits your fancy.

Our most eclectic effort yet, Pink Lotus Yoga is offering this fall Hot Yoga, Extreme Weather Yoga, by-invitation 90-minute classes, and a yoga program called Yoga2U. Namaste. Practice makes...well...more practice. -Marcia

The Yogaless People of Gastown

2010-08-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Sweet video. May all beings have a place to practice yoga!

Yoga American Style

2010-08-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Boy oh boy, is the world of American Yoga on fire these days. All in three months, we've read about a yoga teacher murder, New York Times coverage of celebrities practicing yoga, NYT coverage on a 'doughy' celebrity yoga teacher and his mega-yoga following, rebuttals by said doughy teacher claiming falseness in said Times coverage, the creative and fun Star Wars Yoga, the identity made known, also in the NYT, of humor yoga blogger Yoga Dork, and two new books on American Yoga hot off the press. Oh, and just the other day, one of the founding members of Yoga Journal gave a big thumbsasana down to the magazine for its use of nude, semi-nude, sex-selling advertisements.

Some of this news is serious, some is disturbing, some is funny, and some is about American business and how yoga fits into it.

There's so much about American Yoga to love, celebrate, and enjoy. And why not? Yoga is a terrifically diverse system of health and wellness with roots so far back and lineages so crossed over one another that their interstices are as historic as the actual facts behind yoga's purpose and true beginnings will likely be forever unknowable. American Yoga, true to America's obsession for ingenuity, is a constant effort of tweaking, creating, re-creating, and hybridizing/blending/fusing yoga with non-yoga things. This can all be seen as fun and exciting...if you tend to see things as fun and exciting. Like many out there, I've had a good laugh over yoga doings in our country lately. But, like many, I stand as a professional in the field, aghast at what's going on.

For lately the world of American Yoga seems off kilter. For starters, it appears still in the glory of its own extreme popularity nowadays to resemble no more than an exercise trend. (I know it's not; I know it's the real deal and will be around forever, morphed as required to sustain itself in our crazy fast Western culture.) Sometimes I think American Yoga as a business--franchiseable! all-rightable! for god's sake celebrity-endorsed!--resembles the 70s exercise craze Jazzercize, only with better clothing. Loud music, expensive accessories, airbrushed yoga models, and pop stars claiming yoga as the shiz serve up this notion with a side of nuts and whipped cream.

What dawned on me the other day though, most sadly, is this: The nutsiness that seems to be American Yoga in these very days we are living disturbs me precisely because its excesses, in-fighting, idol worshipping, and appearance (still) of being one huge big trend shines a bigger light on American capitalism: American Yoga is a horribly good example of what's wrong with our capitalistic structure. (It doesn't take one to watch and agree with Michael Moore to realize American capitalism is rife with enormous problems.) And that, my friends, is the rub. I feel like yoga's been sucked into the vortex of the 'grow or die', be too big to fail, mentality of American capitalism and the equally powerful vortex of our largely external-focused culture.

Let's hope yoga can make it out of the spin cycle alive. Really.

Anusara Yoga: The Friend(ly) Cult?

2010-07-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

On and on this article went--for five seemingly endless pages! Thanks to my father-in-law (who does NOT practice yoga but keeps tabs on the very exciting BIGBIZ of yoga) for forwarding this. In case you were not certain, I guess you have a friend in John.

Intro to Kundalini Yoga with GURMUKH

2010-07-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Oh, what can I say??? I'm in love! Gurmukh rocks the chakra house!

I practiced with her using this DVD this morning. Oh the sweat! Oh the fun! Check out Kundalini Yoga if you have not yet. Feel like a child, an artist, a soul, a warrior...all at once. Check out this sample of her 60 minute work-out, which I'm going to call a work-IN:

Yoga, Inc.

2010-07-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

I heart yoga! But it's sometimes laughable and eye-rolling to me how in the U.S. it's Big Business; there are even yoga chains now. I love Bikram Yoga as a practice and enjoy teaching hot yoga though I'm amused and confused by hot yoga competitions. For extracted to its essence, yoga offers an incredible key to right living for the individual and for communities and seems to have evolved in our cultures for that purpose, though we'll never know exactly its very ancient purposes.

Increasingly, there dwells in me the cringe factor when I think of U.S. Yoga and my fellow yoga instructors' and my role in the biz. Dubious of American capitalism, I often now see yoga as just another cog in the greed wheel. Its irony escapes no one: Is it better to have the affluent practicing yoga and buying $110 yoga jeans (!!???) than spending their energies and buckeroos on non-yoga things? Yogis and economists might have similar answers. Either way, I am grateful for the John Philip's book, Yoga, Inc. Trailer:

Superstar Yoga: LeBron WHO?

2010-07-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

I admit it without flinching. I don’t like sports. Even though I live in Cleveland, where I understand they have some, I just don’t care. I don’t play ‘em, I don’t watch ‘em, I don’t talk about ‘em, and I don’t bet on ‘em. Sports+Yogalove Pinkpunk=total disconnect, or as we used to say in the cable world (night auditor job in college), “total disco.”

Even so, I’d be living under a rock not to know that fay-moos LeBron James is now a free agent in the world of basketball. All I can say is that I hope he does the right thing for himself in this next venture.

But what about for us who might be left behind?

We are saved. If he leaves, I just want to let you know that he will be immortalized here in Cleveland, at least in the Cleveland yoga scene. How?

He has a YOGA POSE named after him! Yes. He does.

And that’s better than his face appearing on every third shoreway billboard! Or IS it? Here’s how it came down.

I was at a yoga studio several months ago, and we students were doing our thing: sweating and posing and (some of us) breathing and tuning in and stretching and focusing. All that yoga goodness.

Suddenly, the teacher, who’d been calling out poses for us to practice said--all too perkily cheerleader-ish, I might add—“Okay everyone, rise up and do the LeBron James Pose!”

I thought I’d misheard her, but we all rose up and did the pose she was demonstrating, which breaks down to being nothing more than a Warrior Lunge with the arms outstretched shoulder height and fingers outstretched to represent, what?, the easy holding of a basketball in each hand? My good hearing was affirmed when after about 30 seconds she said, “Okay, everybody, LeBron James Pose on the other side!”

Truthfully, I felt as though I had stepped out of the groovy zone of yoga and into the land of competitive athletic grunt, or into that annoying land of American Yoga, Inc., where corporations, sponsors, clothing lines, hugely paid athletes, and sportstocracy drive the day and the yoga itself.

But then, letting go of that as best I could, I laughed to myself.

Americans are always naming things like highways and park benches in order to honor their heroes and those who’ve left the scene. Yoga is not immune to this practice, either. As much as I wish it were, it isn’t. Right?

So if LeBron goes, practice his pose. Someone will thank you. I guess. But you might not get offered a contract for anything by doing so. After all, it's just yoga.

Oh Baby Baby

2010-06-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

The other day, I counted no fewer than ten babies recently born or about to be born in my circles of friends, students, family, and colleagues. I was a little amazed and continually affirm how lucky I am to be an aunt or faunt (fake aunt) to so many children in this world!

As a yogi who loves life and love, I celebrate baby announcements from my network with two things: first, a hearty and joyful congratulations and, second, the inevitable question of whether mom-to-be is going to practice prenatal yoga.

I usually get a 'yes,' which then leads me to a third but unfortunate thing I always impart to my mom-to-be pals. Sadly, there is just not a lot of prenatal yoga to choose from in this area.

All is not lost. Here are some tips on what to do so you and your baby don't miss out on the opportunity to practice prior to birth.

1) Practice on your own or in small groups. Get a prenatal moms-to-be club together and rotate hosting. Your public library and amazon.com are your BEST friends. Pre-natal DVDs and books I have looked at and respect are listed below. Note that you should check with your doctor before undertaking prenatal yoga. Note also these DVDs and books are designed so that you CAN practice at home. The exercises are simple and intuitive, and your woman's body will know what it can or should not do.

*Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful: Experience the Natural Power of Pregnancy and Birth with Kundalini Yoga and Meditation by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa and Cindy Crawford. Yes, THE Cindy Crawford. A gorgeous book with great photos and illustrations so you can practice on your own. This style of pre-natal yoga is highly spirited and nurturing towards your changing body.

*Prenatal Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for Mothers to Be with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (DVD): A sheer delight. You and your baby will feel the love coming from this series of exercises and reflections!

*Prenatal Yoga by Shiva Rea. This DVD is Hatha Yoga and good for your entire pregnancy because Shiva shows three models, one in each trimester, throughout the program. Nice.

*Yoga for Your Pregnancy by Yoga Journal and Lamaze. Part one is strengthening and stretching. Part two is breathing exercises and relaxation. All geared toward you and your growing baby.

2) Check for prenatal yoga in unlikely places: community centers, continuing education and recreation programs, the Y, universities, hospitals, and spiritual centers (e.g., River's Edge on the west side).

3) Check out www.yogacleveland.com: Several independent yoga teachers, and far fewer studios, claim prenatal yoga as a specialty. Call the teacher and see what she has to say. Is she certified or licensed to teach prenatal? If you like prenatal books and DVDs and practicing at home, a prenatal yoga teacher might be willing to do a private session with you and help you create another regime for you during your pregnancy.

Last, enjoy!

Hold....Hold...Hold

2010-06-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite students recently asked me in an email for how long she should hold her yoga poses.

That, dear readers, is a million dollar question.

Quickly, here, I will try to provide some answers.

In some yoga systems, Bikram and Kundalini to name two, the poses are held and the exercises are performed using a stopwatch or timer. Seconds and minutes mark your practice rather than the more common form, which is counting your breaths.

In most yoga styles, you hold your poses for a set number of breath cycles. A breath cycle in yoga equals one round of long deep breathing, which is a slow inhale followed by a slow exhale through the nose. The number of breath cycles varies from yoga style to style, and is irrelevant in other styles.

In Ashtanga Yoga, for example, the poses are held for five breath cycles, though some of the 'finishing' poses at the end of the practice are held for up to twenty breaths. In Amrit Yoga, the style in which I trained, seven to ten breaths is the standard.

Many Hatha Yoga styles do not dictate for how many breath cycles one should hold a pose. Rather, it is left up to the teacher or the practitioner. This is quintessential yoga: one can mold the practice to suit one's needs, or the teacher can make the decision based on the students' abilities and needs.

Two-legged standing poses and poses you love to do (e.g., Savasana!) you can hold for longer, and when the body is partly ariel in a pose (e.g., one-legged poses), take it easy and know you and increase your hold time through time and repetition. The Sun Salutations (and there are lots of styles of them) suggest you work up to a 'one pose one breath' pattern. This builds up the heat in the body-mind and prepares it for longer holds later on in the practice.

Yoga tip: For those of you who don't want to count breaths (e.g., if it distracts you too much, or you 'get lost' in your counting) try the Bikram and Kundalini method and use a stopwatch or a timer. I often walk around with a stopwatch in my Hatha classes to ensure I am attending to hold time while also attending to adjustments, affirmations, and the like.

Enjoy your hold time, however you decide to mark it! Namaste.

Keep the Candy out of the Classroom: On Yoga Fusion

2010-03-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

Yoga fusion is becoming more prevalent on the American yoga scene. But what IS it? Simply, yoga fusion entails taking things that aren’t yoga and adding yoga to them in order to make something new in the name of yoga, from exercise to an everyday activity. Exactly why it’s popular is quite beyond me. As an anti-fusionist, I will always insist that yoga is so complete in and of itself as a well-being system that it needs no fusion with anything else, but precisely BECAUSE it's so complete and by nature all-encompassing and malleable, yoga gets easily blended with other things, usually to the demise of yoga, for by taking little bits here and then, we pick away and reduce.

To begin, I’ll just remind you, dear reader, that what is popular (in this case, yoga fusion) is not necessarily good. So in honor of that, I offer today commentary of some of the worst yoga fusion outfits I’ve seen so far. These are actual classes, DVDs, and events, often taking place at yoga studios.

Doga (Dog Yoga): First, dogs cannot do yoga. Humans do yoga. Dogs don’t CARE if humans do yoga. Yoga is a human invention meant to improve human life by encouraging the cultivation of poses that resemble things in nature like, say, dogs. But the posturing efforts need not be reversed. Dogs are WAY past the need for yoga, so why be a selfish dog owner and force your dog to be with you while you become a tree? He’d rather pee on a real tree than be one with YOUR tree.

Yoga Butt: According to urbandictionary.com, “A yoga butt means you also have yoga arms, yoga abs, yoga legs, etc. It is very sexy and it immediately turns eyes and makes people jealous or inspired.” Yoga Butt reduces yoga to a way of compartmentalizing our body parts and making us work so we get a ‘hot’ body others can worship AND despise. What better way is there to help solidify our poor body image tendencies, really? I can think of none.

Choga: (Chocolate and Yoga): I adore dark chocolate and know the high and lovey-dovey feelings my favorite sweet brings. But let’s keep the candy out of the classroom. Yoga offers equally wonderful feelings at a fraction of the calories, caffeine, and cost.

Boga (Tae-Bo Yoga): Kick someone’s butt, or imagine that you are. Then sit down and stretch it out, anger and muscles all. Then kick some more butt. End with contemplating world peace. Om. Slap. Om. Hwah??

Yollet (Yoga Ballet): Psssssssttttt: Confession time. I love ballet. This is MY kind of fusion if I had to pick one, but being against yoga fusion, I’d keep any blending of my yoga and ballet education to myself. Here’s why. The cross-over commonality between yoga and ballet is obviously flexibility and, to a degree, physical aesthetics. But it’s be a big thumbs down because the goal of bone-showing thinness rampant in ballet is ripe for endangering the goal of a body’s natural weight, espoused by and resulting from yoga practice. Besides, Yollet sounds like an open-air, alien-creature mode of transportation. Or a bad Jell-o recipe.

Yoga Spin (a.k.a. Namaste Cycle): Generally, this is the ever-popular ride of the frenzied on stationary bicycles in a low-lit, music-pumping, teacher-miked-and-screaming room followed by relaxing, gentle stretches. ‘Hop on, yoga. I’ll take you around this madhouse block on my bike!’ In this non-sensible fusion, yoga is reduced to triaging the damage the spinners are doing to their bodies and bringing the riders' wacked-out respiratory and nervous systems back to some sort of order. Lucky for the riders, I guess.

Yoga Happy Hour: What kind of fusion is THIS? Take a completely healthy thing like your body after yoga and add alcohol. This reminds me of a former boyfriend’s Christmas Morning Punch recipe: “Take fresh-squeezed orange juice, ginger, apple, and lemon and serve in an iced glass. Add vodka to suit your taste.” Yoga Happy Hour and my ex's disclaimer would read: “Dear yoga (or, holidays and family), I love you. But you’re just another reason for a nip or two. --The Booze Bringer.”

Yoga Booty Ballet: This clunky, three-way fusion reminds me of how some people make soup. Open the fridge, throw whatever you want into a pot, and hope it doesn’t suck. YBB, sadly, appeals to women’s vanities. The search for a tight this and a flat that, and, on the other hand, the desire to be expressive and (likely) ballet-thin, was the impetus for this Hollywood fusion embarrassment. Into the soup of ‘whatever it takes to make me gorgeous, dahling,’ we throw yoga. Bad, YBB.

Foga (Food and Yoga): Truly, a strange, new-ish fusion trend. The New York Times recently published an article about a U.S. studio where, after a sweaty class, students sat around and ate a multi-course meal. On their sweaty mats. Why? Because they are yogis. They are no one’s sissies. One student interviewed said she could REALLY taste her food; her senses were heightened. Fine, but Michael Symon would rather you bring your heightened sense of taste to his restaurants where food is normally eaten, and I’d rather NOT go to a yoga class where the person who rolls out her mat next to mine flicks crumbs, or scratches off dried sauce drippings with a fingernail.

Yoga fusion is American innovation at work. It’s also American consumerism at its worst, for yoga in America is still unabashedly about profit. I wish we’d try to keep yoga YOGA in the U.S., pure and simple and UNfused.

I dread to even think that one of humankind’s greatest tools for personal health and peace could eventually get fused to the point where in some dim future its original source--Yuj--is lost in a swirl of some kick-butt, dog-barking, Harry Buffalo-flavored chocolate fondue soup pas de deux danced with leg weights and spinning wheels. Yuk.

Yoga Dawg Quits Blogging

2010-02-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite funny people in yoga has left the blogging scene recently. This little bit of humor, posted yesterday, features a distraught Hitler learning the news of YD's departure. The video takes great big cracks at American Yoga and interestingly enough, for THIS blogger, uses the same metaphor I used in my Friday blog: American Yoga is a circus. Lots of laughs, and lots of digs at Bikram Choudhury. Funny funny fun!! Om Shanti Rant Away, Mein Yogi Kampf, and Goodbye for now, Yoga Dawg.

Yoga Rant: Come ON!

2010-02-19T03:30:00.000-08:00

I am a yogi: practitioner, teacher, and business owner currently on sabbatical/break from the world of all-things-yoga except my own practice. This month, thanks to my 'exile', as one of my students calls it, I have had some time to check out the yoga scene in and around our fair city.

It's pretty much business as usual around here, yoga-wise. The big studios are mostly power and vinyasa-oriented, which makes sense since such yoga is trendy and caters to the buff and yoga-as-physical-exercise-mainly crowd. There are many, many (and counting)yoga teacher training programs sprouting up, which could mean there will someday be a tipping point of more teachers than students (unlikely, but funny to imagine!). There's a little more hot yoga (thank GOD, so therapeutic), very little easy-to-find prenatal, children's, and family yoga, a lot of high-quality yoga teachers instructing in small, unsuspecting non-studio places (churches, their homes, the Y, senior centers), and studios offering meditation, Nidra, and restorative (which power and vinyasa around here largely disregard). There is the never-ending push by studio boutique owners (typical of national trends) to encourage the consumption of yoga crap: You can buy outrageously overpriced (and embarrassingly so) $120 'yoga jeans', $65 yoga shirts, and $95 mats. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a few new studios opening up around here, some of them struggling hard, as can be expected in this recession, to stay open.

Nothing earth-shattering. Then there's this:

A nearby yoga studio has begun offering lap dance, strip tease (without the disrobing, I think), and pole dancing in addition to their usual yoga classes.

Far from being prudish and conservative, I am nonetheless stunned by this development on the yoga scene. I get it but don't want to.

I want to think that the yogis offering this blend of the ancient sublime with the burlesque visceral are merely confusing the 'freedom' yoga brings one--losing one's encumbrances, one's samskaras ('little scars')and the dropping of one's ego--with the 'freedom' to turn-on whoever we want to using our groins, booties, and pole-sliding thigh power. I want to think those yogis who decided to bring the lap dance strip tease pole dance (LDSTPD) into their spaces are offering a sound and healthful system for exercising the mind, body, and spirit. I really don't want to think they are offering, but possibly they could be, job training.

This issue makes me sigh. Yes, it's none of my friggin' business how people choose to express themselves sexually and all that. And it's none of my business how other yoga business owners want to run their businesses. But I have a voice that is somewhat immersed in the beauty and integrity of yoga, and that voice says: LDSTPD does not belong in a yoga studio.

Sexuality and yoga ARE intertwinable and unavoidable. Witness the several yoga celebs having affairs with one another, with their students, etc. That is bad yogic AND life practice, but that is not about what I speak. I'm speaking about the big come-on coming to a yoga studio near you.

I read in one blog that LDSTPD provides a "great cardiovascular workout!!!" And I read that it gives practitioners a sense of empowerment, helping them to "raise self-esteem!" Mere excuses: I can name dozens of other activities that bring similar results.

Does our exercise and self-esteem boosting need to be combined with movements that are nothing but movements that suggest foreplay? with our images of ourselves as real hotsy-totsies? with our sense of allure and the naughty? No. LDSTPD is so much less than yoga. It's even so much less than SEX.

But this is American Yoga: Take a pitcher of yoga. Add your choice of free weights, extraordinarily loud music, dogs, bicycles, seductive dancers, human nudity, kick boxing, food, and booze. Stir well. Serve in studios wherever there's a buck to be made.

Welcome to the Yoga Circus.

Get Unstuck When You’re Stuck (in Bad Weather Traffic)

2010-02-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

Fact: I love winter. I can’t get enough of it. (Really, I don’t know why I just don’t move back to Alaska, or Maine, or get really brave and give it up for my fave northern place, Newfoundland.)

Fact: I live in Cleveland. Here, we are at this moment under a winter storm warning that will last at least 30 more hours. 6-10 inches of snow is expected.

Fact: This has me very excited, but I know I am in the minority, for (I hate to complain or sound like I am pointing fingers) many of you who live in this fair city--have lived here for a long time, even--hate winter or are pretty bad winter drivers, or both. I understand. That’s why I am writing.

For the duration of the storm, many of us are going to be stuck in bad weather traffic, like it or not, for there is a thing called work, and many of us have to drive to get there, and then get back home again. Allow me to now share a few tips with you to help you get unstuck from the sticky traffic sitches you’ll likely face. The key is to treat your commute, when it’s in bad weather, like you are in a groovy yoga class on wheels. Allow your transport to be transporting in the best, safest, calmest, most om’ish way.

1) Cover your survival bases. Take water, a blanket, and crackers with you. Have enough gas and windshield wiper fluid in your car.
2) If you have a favorite CD or i-pod playlist, take it and play it. Play it softly, beginning while you’re just starting out on your wintery journey. For storm driving, I highly recommend calm and serene music like Krishna Das “Door of Faith” or some tunes that make you so nostalgic in an easy-breezy way you just kick back, relax, and deal.
3) If you are in such a bad stuck-traffic sitch that you are in fact in your car but traffic is not moving enough to notice, listen to your music and watch the snowflakes falling or flying. Note all the shades of wintery colors around you. Try to invite a connection in your mind between the music you are hearing and the nature that is in motion: snow, trees, snow.
4) If you feel the slightest agitation, anxiety, or anger rising in you as you sit, crawl, or drive along, practice long deep breathing through your nose. This is the classic yoga breathing exercise that helps us use more than our upper lungs to breathe. When we breathe in and out slowly, evenly, and deeply through the nose, we get a lot of oxygen in the body, which calms the mind and slows the heart rate. When you breathe in, let your shoulders and chest relax and allow your belly to expand. When you breathe out, let your belly sink.
5) If you think #4 is too hard, weird, or distracting, practice it while you count slowly and methodically in your mind: Inhale 1, 2, 3, 4. Exhale 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. This gives your brain something to do while it isn't needed to drive but a foot every minute or so.
6) If you’re so stuck that you want further unstuckedness, make a game of your breathing. Inhale a four count, but say in your mind a one-syllable word four times or a two-syllable word twice instead of numbers, and repeat on the exhale. Example: (inhale) Peace, peace, peace peace. (exhale) Peace, peace, peace, peace. Example: (inhale) Sum-mer. Sum-mer.(exhale) Sum-mer.Sum-mer. In yoga, this is called a mantra. Mantras are repeated sounds or words that through their repetition put you into a blissful zone, get you unstuck, and bring you balance and perhaps even a feeling of oompf.
7) See all cars that surround you as fellow drivers on the same road in the same sitch as you. Cultivate the awareness that you are in bad weather with all those others around you, so you might as well be as kind and patient as can be. Even if people show rage and demonstrate scary and bad driving techniques, try not to make it your point of notice. Send them well wishes in their driving escapades and return over and over to your yogic driving practice.
8) Think Om. Think Om.
9) Do not text. Do not talk on your cellie unless it’s an emergency and you’ve stopped your car.
10) Stay present: one with the weather, on with your calm, and one with the road.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Take Yoga Classes Regularly

2010-02-02T02:12:00.000-08:00

1. There’s a pretty good chance you want to get or stay healthy, and by now you must have heard that yoga helps. In yoga, your wishes can be your command, just like the guy on the beach who meets the genie in the bottle, for the first two wishes, at least. A little careful work and boom! (Good things come in small packages.)

2. For whatever reason, like so many others, you likely have a mat that’s not going anywhere fast. And likely it’s PVC, so you might as well wear it down until someone has created a way to safely recycle it or make it into something interesting like a boot mat or lead-free purse. Go to yoga class to get ideas.

3. When you’re holding yoga poses, you can bet you look pretty damned good if you have to say so yourself. Or, if you refuse to say that, say this: “At least I look interesting. Interesting is good.” Do you not want others to see that?

4. There’s a thing called the yoga zone. You get there best from going to yoga class and practicing with others. It’s also called the yoga buzz. ‘Nuf said.

5. As a very smart person, you ‘get’ this whole yoga thing. You prefer relaxation to non-stop struggle, and yoga classes end with this nifty moment called relaxation pose. Arrive okay, leave OM’d-out.

6. If you want to touch your nose to your toes, you’d better get started, like, yesterday. It’s a hell of a long journey no matter how you attempt the connection. Every good yoga class offers you the chance to reach for your toes, over and over again!

7. You kind of like the quirkiness of yoga teachers. They can be serious and silly, graceful and clumsy, nice and mean, and sometimes they throw impossible physical and philosophical curve balls at you ‘just cuz.’ “Screw ‘just cuz’ in all things except yoga!” could be a best-selling yoga t-shirt, you feel. You’ve come to expect quirky: now get out there and get it!

8. Some of the nicest people in yoga classes are single. Just sayin.’ In case that matters. Just sayin.’

9. You can’t get enough of that poetic and lyrical ancient language of yoga, Sanskrit. If you hear your teacher roll off one more ‘Prasarita Padottanasana’ as he’s walking by you, you think you might just melt.

10. You’re what people call a ‘people’s person.’ Yoga students tend to like themselves and other people. Yoga means unity. Get some.

Kundalini 40-Day

2010-01-20T03:59:00.000-08:00

This morning, I begin a 40-day Kundalini Yoga journey to improve my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Healing from the holidays—from bad foods and less exercise--is always something I need to do. This season was a doozey, though, for it came with it an unfortunate personal matter, which required me to leave town several times to care for a family member. My yoga practice and good eating habits disappeared on December 15th. Ghostlike. Quick flight. Out the window. I am now looking for them to come back to me.

The reality is that I have to get back to them. Warriorlike. No quarter. Now.

I give myself plenty of yogic points for spending this last month caring for loved ones. Such work is called Bhakti Yoga. But the yoga of effort (Hatha), the yoga of energy (Kundalini) are in a state of deficit in my life, so much so that I very much dread, dear reader, what lies ahead of me on my path: hard, hard work to re-gain the foothold I’ve lost. I feel like our economy. Struggling, recovering, trying to get upright again.

Here’s the plan: I will be practicing Kundalini Yoga every day, performing a kriya (set of exercises) I blended from some of my Kundalini favorites: exercises for the back and navel center; the Kundalini cornerstone kriya/chant known as the Sat Nam Kriya; exercises to bring a feeling of calm and joy; meditation; and relaxation. Every day I intend to practice for about 40 minutes. I need this. I want this. It does not take a lot of yoga to start feeling better.

In addition to my Kundalini work, these 40 days will offer me the opportunity to eat well. I will attend to eating as much raw food as I can and avoid altogether alcohol, caffeine, white sugar, and white flour. I anticipate that the Kundalini Yoga will bolster my willpower and remind me of the groove I often feel from mindful eating. I hope to start feeling lighter and happier in just a few days.

I’ll keep a little log of my 40-day journey and share the highlights here, thereafter. Sat Nam. Namaste.

On Break

2010-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year.

My pink yoga news is that I am now on a teaching sabbatical (end date unknown). It’s not that I do not love teaching. I do. And it’s not that I don’t care about my students. I om-om-om so really do. And it’s not that suddenly I have a problem with yoga, got all harumpfy with it one day and rolled up my yoga mat saying, “Hit the road, mat. I’m going to find real meaning, real fun and truth, without you! Who needs YOU?” I don’t, I didn't, and I do.

By allowing myself to hang up my teacher’s pashmina for awhile and don instead the worn t-shirt and yoga pants of the student, I will be readying myself for the day when what I have to offer is aligned with what I know as a yogi, an artist, a teacher, and an individual. I am taking a sabbatical in order to be a better teacher, yogi, and person.

This is not to say I am not available. For consulting, private lessons, and occasional special yoga events, I hope to be able to make some time. Additionally, I intend to produce more Pink Lotus Yoga products this year that will help users develop and deepen their very own om-ishness.

Finally, I intend to shift my energies towards other efforts besides yoga during this teaching break. Into whatever direction that takes me, one of my goals is to merge my love for writing with my love for yoga. So, dear reader, the upshot sum is this: I’ll be posting rants, chants, stories, and helpful yoga advice here at pinklotusnotes weekly or biweekly. I hope you’ll check back often and speak up about what you'd like to read and discuss.

Om and Namaste and may all your dreams be on their way.

Yoga and the Economy, Part V--The Economy of Yoga (Yogic Diet)

2009-12-04T04:32:00.000-08:00

It is spring 2009. Last fall, shortly after the first wave of financial crisis hit the news, I started writing a five-part article series on yoga and the economy and the economy of yoga. In articles one through four, we looked at yoga's history as a system of wellness for the everyday householder especially applicable in today's tough economic times. We looked at how yoga for physical exercise is economical on more than the financial level. We looked at how yoga for the emotions and mind can be inexpensive and deeply de-stressing, one of our greatest health-preventative measures available. And finally, in this last article, we will look at the personal and economical benefits of a yogic diet.

As I pointed out in the first article, even if you are exercising regularly these days but are experiencing more stress than before the economy plummeted, you are at risk of downturn in your health, or your personal economy-of-one.

It is precisely because this deep recession hits us on so many levels that we need to attend to the big three in wellness--exercise, mind work, and diet--in order to get and keep our personal economies-of-one strong. So let's look at the yogic diet, to see what it offers.
A yogic diet is a very healthy diet. Though it is oft disputed in the yoga community just what a yogic diet is (e.g., vegetarian vs. omnivorous), there is no universal hard and fast rule. I believe this: Pick a well-balanced diet that does your body and soul good. Let your stomach and your consciousness be your guide. Keep an open mind and listen to your body. Always be willing to change your diet when necessary.

That being set, I'd like to recommend what I consider to be the most yogic of all diets. It also happens to be very inexpensive, perfect for people on a tight budget. It is called a living foods diet . This diet consists of eating as much as you want of raw, uncooked, unprocessed, and enzyme-active foods. It is yogic because one eats conscientiously using simple food preparation, one eats highly nutritious foods, and one eats low on the food chain (good for the environment and animal rights observers.)

A living food contains its own digestive enzymes, which help your body efficiently digest what you've eaten. If you eat a food without its digestive enzymes, your body has to create enzymes necessary for digestion, so the chemistry-based philosophy behind a living food diet, then, is that you eat the food as nature created it. When you do, your body is receiving the most nutrition from the food in the most efficient way. The body is
working at its metabolic optimum when living foods are on the menu.

So what is a living food? A food that has not been cooked, or heated to about 118 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, is considered living. Raw fruits and vegetables, fresh-squeezed (as opposed to pasteurized-bottled, canned, frozen) juices, cold-pressed (as opposed to heat-processed) oils, soaked nuts, and the sprouts of beans, seeds, and grains are considered living foods. In contrast, any food cooked to about 118 degrees and higher loses its digestive enzymes; the heat denatures them. Much of our diet, obviously, is digestive-enzyme free.

A living foods diet is my favorite way to eat, and research into living foods (often referred to as raw foods, though some experts draw a line of distinction) will open a new door for you on how to think about, prepare, and eat food. There are many living and raw foods websites, blogs, and 'un-cook' books available to help you find your way. Living foodists eat salads, soups, sandwiches, faux meats, living foods pastas, breads, milks, dehydrated foods (cooked so slowly the enzymes stay active), cheeses, dips, sauces, cookies, smoothies, and drinks. It is far from a limited diet.

When I eat at least 50% living foods in a given day, I have more energy, and I feel more balanced and happy. In fact, I feel that when I eat living foods, my food is my medicine.

Sprouting foods is one living foods preparation technique that provides foods rich in enzyme-powered carbohydrates, protein, and fats. Sprouting entails soaking foods such as beans, legumes, seeds, nuts, and grains and then watering/draining them until they produce small tails. Foods treated in this manner grow tails because soaking and then watering them releases the food's enzyme inhibitors. Sprouting 'activates' the nut, bean, etc., in other words, or takes it from a dormant state to a living state.

What's more, sprouting provides high-level nutrition for only pennies. A pound of lentils (less than $2) will when sprouted yield thousands of grams of full-powered, easy-to-digest protein. (When sprouted, a seed gains up to fifteen times its weight.) A pound of cooked meat, in contrast, provides no more than a couple hundred grams of protein that is hard on the body because the digestive enzymes in the meat are denatured in the cooking process, undertaken in order that the meat can be eaten at all. A pound of sprouted food will create many highly nutritious and inexpensive meals.

Eating a yogic diet is just one way to health and pocketbook happiness. When combined with the other yogic practices discussed in this series, one will be on one's way to great health at low cost: the perfect economic hard times antidote.

Namaste.

Yoga and the Economy, Part IV: The Economy of Yoga (Mind Work and Breath Control)

2009-11-14T02:41:00.000-08:00

So far on our exploration of yoga and the economy/the economy of yoga, we have looked at how yoga, the most economical of wellness systems ever created, can help humans through economic hard times. I noted that when our economy is as weak as this one, it is likely our individual economies lose strength. We need to attend to exercise, mind work, and diet in order to get and keep our personal economies-of-one strong.

In the last article, I offered physical and breathing exercises that, if you are short on time or money, can put you on the path to strength, flexibility, and balance. Today, we'll look at a second part of the yoga wellness package: mind-work and breath awareness.

Even if you are exercising regularly these days but are experiencing more stress than before the economy plummeted, you are at risk of personal economy-of-one downturn. As we know, exercise takes us a long way on the path to physical and mental health, and when done with breath awareness, can take us even further.

But what if yogic exercise with breath awareness is not quite enough for you these days? What if, like a good friend of mine, you are not sleeping well? What if you are feeling depressed or anxious or worried, and what if even one hour of sun salutations a day is not completely helping you handle your reactions to the world, or what if you do not practice yoga at all but have an exercise regime and still find yourself suffering emotionally or mentally from this recession? What if you do not care for exercise of the body but want to start doing something to help you?

Yoga offers a solution for all.

Exercising the mind is as important, if not more important, as exercising the body. It is crucial that we exercise our minds the way we tune our cars at the mechanic's, or tune our bodies in yoga asana class. A strong mind, simply put, helps us create and maintain healthy emotional and psychological perspectives. Our ancients knew all about this and created within the system of yoga thousands of years ago two (out of eight) entire limbs of study dedicated solely to mind work.

There are many, many mind-training exercises and systems in yoga. An internet search or a search on You Tube using keywords such as 'pranayama', 'meditation,' Yoga Nidra' or 'dhyana' will fill your toolbag with tools for calming and strengthening the mind to function at its optimum. Today, I will instruct you on two of my favorite tools: Alternate Nostril Breathing and Yoga Nidra.
1) Alternate Nostril Breathing (or Anuloma Viloma or Nadi Shodhana) is a deeply relaxing breathing exercise involving a mudra (hand position). It brings a balance of prana to the body, balances the right and left sides of the body, calms the mind, and prepares us for meditation or quiet sitting. It is a fantastic breathing exercise to help you relax, sleep better, and feel overall relief from emotions that do not serve you. Practice regularly. You will notice the difference in your life.

Sit in a comfortable position on the floor, against a wall, or in a chair. Place the right hand in Vishnu mudra and rest that elbow in the palm of the left hand, arms and shoulders relaxed and to the sides. To create Vishnu mudra, tuck the second and third fingers in the palm and leave the thumb, ring finger, and baby finger extended and relaxed.

Raise your right hand to the face and turn it to face you. Close off the right nostril with your thumb and inhale through the left nostril, engaging long deep breathing (see article three in this series for detailed instructions). At the top of the inhale, close your left nostril with the ring finger. Now you have both nostrils closed. After about six seconds, exhale through the right nostril. That is one round. Do a round to the other side: inhale right nostril (left nostril is still closed off), hold the breath, and exhale left nostril, closing off left. You can do as many rounds as you wish. Make your inhales, exhales, and holds as deep and even as possible without any strain at all in the body.

2) Let us now look at Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra, an ancient meditation practice, helps restore physical, emotional, and mental health by way of deep, guided relaxation. It is one of the least explored yet most beneficial of meditation practices and is available to everyone regardless of physical ability or age.

In Yoga Nidra, ('yoga' in Sanskrit means 'unity' and 'nidra' means 'sleep'), the body and mind are neither fully awake nor in a sleep state but, rather, are calm, still, and quietly aware.

Yoga Nidra has many benefits. It reduces stress, improves sleep, boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, brings balance and harmony to the hemispheres of the brain and nervous system, promotes higher consciousness and inner peace, and helps us drop our unwanted behaviors and habits.

Physical relaxation, breathing awareness, affirmations, and visualizations are the basic techniques employed in a Yoga Nidra practice. Yoga Nidra sessions range from about 5 to 45 minutes in length. The longer the session, the more work the mind does, but even a five minute session has been proven to be of great benefit to practitioners.

Yoga Nidra is a meditation you listen to. If you cannot find a Yoga Nidra teacher in your area, purchase a CD or download and listen regularly. (My 71 minute Yoga Nidra CD, containing four Yoga Nidra sequences, is available at my website listed at the end of this article.)

In the final article of this series, I will focus on the third part of the 'big three' in a yoga wellness package geared toward a troubled economy. I will talk about most yogic, healthy, and economic diet on the planet and how it can help you, others, and the planet's health: raw foods.

For my Yoga Nidra CD, go to http://www.pinklotusyoga.com

Yoga and the Economy, Part III - The Economy of Yoga (Exercise With Breath Awareness)

2009-11-07T03:38:00.000-08:00

In Part II of this series, I argued that yoga is the perfect antidote for economic hard times. As modern yoga masters Iyengar and Bhajan state, yoga was created over 5,000 years ago to help the everyday individual "satisfy all human needs" in the face of "hardship and suffering" and the challenges of "making a living, raising a family, and finding meaning and purpose." Yoga is perfect for tough times since it is tough: tried, true, deep, modifiable, and life-transforming.

In this article, we will look at breathing exercise (pranayama) and physical exercise (asana), two of yoga's eight major areas of wellness, so you can create and develop a yoga practice during days when time and money might be scarcities. We'll start with breathing and move onto the physical exercises.

1) Breathing Exercise (pranayama):
Save yourself energy and make yourself feel stronger and more relaxed by practicing yoga breathing.

First, exercise without breath control is not worth doing. It is a waste of energy to huff and puff through a workout, but we often do because we are encouraged to push, compete, and strain while we engage in athletic-based movement (e.g., running, basketball). What's worse, many of us are 'top' or chest breathers, utilizing only one-third of our lungs' capacity, and since typical athlete-focus exercise systems do not teach us to feed our moving muscles and joints with great amounts of oxygen, many traditional exercise systems do little for our health and in fact over time often wear the body down.

When practiced with mindful breathing, on the other hand, yoga gives back as much energy as it uses, and this is one of yoga's greatest noted benefits. As yoga master Bikram Choudhury states, "Yoga is a gas station." You do not burn up energy when you practice, but rather gain it. Yoga makes you incredibly fuel-efficient, which is of course highly economical.

The best news is that pranayama costs nothing. It only takes time and repetition. To get the most out of your poses, and your life, practice long, deep breathing (yoga breathing) often. Inhale and exhale exclusively through the nose, filling and emptying the lungs with a relaxed chest and back and an active, soft belly. I provide a link at the end of this article to a video demonstrating this ancient, healing breathing technique that is the backbone, if you will, of yoga. Eventually, you will be a deep breather automatically, even when your heart rate is very high from physical exercise.

2) Physical Exercise (asana):
Whether you are short on money or time (or both) these days, here are some ways to get the most out of yogic physical exercise. We'll first look at yoga for those short on money and then to yoga for those short on time.

A. If you are short on money:
I do not wish to put any yoga studio out of business, but the good news in hard economic times is that yoga need not be expensive, and classes are not the only place where you can learn and practice. I practiced yoga in my home on and off for three years before taking a class, my only investment a $15.00 mat. Develop or deepen a regular home yoga practice. There are many tools to help you.

The greatest tool is the library. I first learned yoga by borrowing yoga books and videos/DVDs from my local library, and you can do the same, even if you are an advanced practitioner. Make it part of your practice to track borrowed materials' due dates to avoid overdue fines.

Other tools for learning yoga poses are Yoga Journal's website and free downloads of many high-quality yoga class video podcasts featuring many great teachers. Research your virtual teachers and try many out, and trust that you know enough yoga, and that they are knowledgeable enough, to provide you with a good home yoga practice. When practiced mindfully, yoga can be a beautiful, solo endeavor.

If you are a beginner, avoid power, vinyasa, or Ashtanga yoga videos/DVDs unless they are beginning level. These styles move very quickly or are rigorous, and not every beginner enjoys that or benefits from that speed and effort. If you already know yoga, though, these styles can create a vigorous home practice that when practiced regularly can easily eliminate the need for a fitness center membership.

If you want to attend an inexpensive yoga class, start with your local YMCA. I teach at mine, and my students pay just $4.00 per class; there is no studio in my city that comes close to meeting that deal. Your local recreation department is also a good place to look for inexpensive yoga. My city's program offers yoga for about $6 per class.

Search online using your town/city/neighborhood and 'yoga' as keywords. You will find many experienced, registered yoga instructors not affiliated with a yoga studio who often offer 'donation' (pay what you can) classes. Talk to teachers in advance about their donation classes to determine if they would agree to receive smaller donations from you for awhile.
Got a special skill or talent? Talk with independent yoga instructors about trading your talent and time for free yoga instruction.

Finally, find out if there is Yoga Alliance-recognized teacher training in your area. If there is, talk to the trainers about classes their trainees might teach, which might be offered at a reduced rate.

B. If you are short on time:
Yoga is perfect for those with little time on their hands. A few minutes of deep breathing and classic poses can alter your look, your outlook, and your health.
If you have very little time to exercise, try this 15-minute sequence (13 minutes of poses plus 2 minutes for between-pose preparation and breaks). Use yoga breathing and take breaks when necessary.
-Mountain: 1 minute
-Downward Facing Dog: 1 minute
-Triangle: 1 minute each side
-Downward Facing Dog: 1 minute
-Tree: 30 seconds each side
-Upward Boat: 30 seconds
-Cobra: 30 seconds
-Seated Forward Bend: 1 minute
-Shoulder Pose: 1 minute
-Reclined Twist: 1 minute each side
-Relaxation: 3 minutes (use natural breathing here)

Are you strapped for time and need/want fast results from yoga? Try hot yoga. By adding heat to your practice room with an energy-efficient space heater, or by wearing stretchy, water-wicking layers to keep your body's heat close to you, your muscles and joints get stronger and more flexible faster: heat boosts results. If you have cash to spare, take a hot classical yoga class (minimum temperature should be 90 degrees).
Engaging a Yoga Alliance-registered instructor for a private one-hour session can help you make the most of your exercise time. Many yoga instructors teach privately. Ask your instructor to consult with you before your session about your physical exercise goals so that your hour instruction is tailored just for you. Ask your instructor to provide you with thorough notes and handouts to help you practice on your own. A private yoga session averages about $70/hour here in the Midwest.

In the next article, we will explore more limbs of yoga that greatly benefit us, specifically in the emotional and mental realms. After all, in addition to being short on time and money during a serious recession, we humans can also find ourselves short on confidence, patience, and even sleep. Yoga can be your recession remedy in these regards, too.

Watch how to perform yoga's long deep breathing technique: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiHmvzFdzT4