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Save the Turtles!
What's new with the Oil Spill in the Gulf? It's plugged, it's leaking, there are underwater plumes the size of Rhode Island, the oil is lost? The headlines are kind of confusing, and it's been a few months so I know it is starting to go out of vogue for the mainstream media, but there are at least a handful of yogis in LA who are keeping it on their radar and are ready to help.Brock Cahill is a surfer and a yogi with a plan. The way he sees it, we can make the most impact if we focus our efforts. His focus, the turtle. His plan: get to the gulf, get a boat, and get to work saving the turtles. He has partnered with Yogis Anonymous and the Insights Foundation to get this grass roots movement off the ground. Here are a few words of his own on why he chose the turtle and founded Kurmalliance:As many of you know, kurma is the Sanskrit word for turtle. Sanskrit is the ancient language of India, Hinduism, and yoga--roughly translated our project, Kurmalliance, is yoga for the turtles! Beloved Kurma is also the second avatar of Vishnu, who, in my humble opinion, is the coolest god in the Hindu trinity. In an age old story, Vishnu comes in earthly form as Kurma to save humanity by hoisting a great mountain up on his shell, churning the seas, and distilling the elixir of life. That was the first time the turtle saved the world. The second is now. The turtle is the totem of this revolution. He is the preserver, the dude who comes to the rescue, and the dude
we need now! He is providing the motivation to get involved and fight for what is right. He saves humanity once again by getting us involved, recognizing that the nectar of life lies with the ocean, and if we continue to kill it, we will be faced with our own death and extinction. Wonder how they knew 5000 years ago that the turtle would play such a huge role in our potential evolution, or our possible extinction.
If you want to get involved: to donate. For more information. Join on Facebook.Share with us if you know of any grass roots movements to get people involved in saving the gulf. Erin Chalfant is a
writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.
September is National Yoga Month
September is National Yoga Month, are you ready? Free yoga for a week ought to get you there: Cards worth "One Week free Yoga" and"Free Yoga Classes" are available to
all who visit www.yogamonth.org.
Get off the couch and onto the yoga mat in the name of better health.
Kicking off the month-long campaign in Los Angeles September 1 is the motion picture premier of TITANS OF YOGA . The Official National Yoga Month movie brings together twenty-five of the most prominent figures in the worlds
of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, from Dr. Dean Ornish, a
physician consultant to President Clinton, to Lilias Folan, the "First
Lady of Yoga." These "titans" share their own life experiences from the tragic
to the ecstatic-- tales of addiction and heartache,
depression, an HIV-positive diagnosis and a penchant for sex, drugs and
rock-and-roll--and they overcame these
challenges and transform them into their greatest life victories. Movie proceeds benefit Yoga-Recess in
School to bring yoga-based health education into classrooms. To
watch the trailer www.yogamonth.org.
National Yoga Month is a grassroots campaign administered by
the Yoga Health Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. All
funds benefit the national awareness campaign and Yoga-Recess in School
to bring yoga-based health and fitness education into classrooms.
When Yoga Teachers Turn to Lifestyle Preachers
Yoga teachers often feel the need to inspire others to live consciously. Depending on their intentions and methods, they may or may not be successful. As students, we come to class to feel refreshed, renewed and challenged. Again, depending on our mental state du jour, we may or may not feel much shift.A teacher of mine once said that once the student is advanced enough he or she is able to find that every class is the perfect class. No matter how preachy the teacher, how off-putting the music, or how sweaty the neighbor, an advanced student adeptly extracts the lesson from each situation.But what about those of us just getting in to yoga? There are clearly some teachers who take advantage of their position of power (a roomful of open ears for 90 minutes) to climb onto a soap box and impose their views. Is this ok? As a student, do you find your zen or protest the violation of your space?As Neal Pollack (author of the new book Stretch: The Unlikely Making of Yoga Dude) writes for salon.com, it's not so much about whether or not you're irritated, but about how you handle the irritation:"The teacher had preached, didactically and unpleasantly. But what I'd
done in response, I finally realized, had been totally wrong and
disrespectful. It took months for me to understand that I'd gone blindly into one of the founding studios of
modern yoga, thrown a fit worthy of a toddler so far gone that no shiny
object could distract him from his rage, and left with nothing in
return.
Before the yoga, I'd behaved that way fairly often. It was about as
far from my best self as I could get. In fact, I'd even go so far as to
call it my bad self. But even serious yogis, I was learning,
are often tempted to get down with their bad selves. This was the true yoga practice, the real discipline and dedication, and
getting there, I began to understand, would take a lot more practice."Have you ever had a class or a teacher that really irritates you? How do you notice it and make it your practice?Erin Chalfant is a
writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.
Don't Mess with Texas' Yogis
The Cowboys' football stadium was over run with 400 yogis this weekend. Saluting the sun and lunging their hearts out to help raise money for breast cancer, these yogis raised more than $10,000 and showed the country what yoga can do. Don't mess with yogis, y'all.As Nerissa Knight reports from CBS 11:While the Dallas Cowboys were preparing to meet the Chargers in San Diego on Saturday night, hundreds of women converged on Cowboys Stadium in Arlington to heal their bodies and minds, and they did it all for a great cause. It was the largest yoga class in Texas. And tickets to the event raised more than $14,000 to help in the fight against breast cancer.
"It's a great feeling to be here and help raise money," said Dawn Dixon, who participated in the class. "I'm a survivor myself and I know what it feels like."While coach Wade Phillips leads the Cowboys, yoga instructor Wade Morisette (brother of recording artist Alanis Morisette) led a group of about 400 people, mostly women, in the house that Jerry built. The football stadium was the perfect place for them to practice yoga and help others, thanks to the Dallas County and Greater Fort Worth affiliates of Susan G. Komen For the Cure and Indigo Yoga.
"I'm a breast cancer survivor and I feel great to be here," said class participant Lisa Prescher. "I feel like it's a personal accomplishment, and I'd like to share it with others."More and more women are using the 'downward facing dog' to take a bite out of breast cancer, and attain emotional and spiritual strength. "Breast cancer is really running through our population right now," said yoga instructor Brooke Hinkle, who was at the Saturday class.
"Yoga is a very powerful practice. It will not only strengthen the immune system, but strengthen the whole body."
"It was a great time and a great practice," said class participant Melissa Sexton. "It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it." The group plans to hold a similar event on Sunday at the Fort Worth Zoo. Tickets are $35 each.
Yoga Goes Back to School
Stories about yoga in schools come across my desk all the time--maybe a weekly class after school, a teacher coming for a visit, or a rotation during gym class. But Headstand, a nonprofit with programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas really caught my eye: The folks behind Headstand have created a comprehensive 40-week curriculum that meets the state's standards for physical education, making it a mandatory part of the curriculum. They currently have programs in three schools, with a full-time, Headstand-trained, staff yoga teacher at each.
So far, the pilot program is operating in 3 KIPP schools, which are free, open-enrollment academic charter schools in underserved communities; the yoga programs range from elementary to middle schools, depending on the location.
Headstand founder Katherine Priore, who teaches at KIPP San Lorenzo, California, told me a few things her kids have passed along about yoga's impact: One boy said that when he gets really mad, he now uses his new mantra "yoga breaths, yoga breaths" and calms down. And recently, a fifth grader told her after Savasana: "I really think that was life-changing!"
Along with San Francisco-based yoga teacher Stephanie Snyder, Headstand is working on a new curriculum. Sounds simple. But yoga can be so hard to define, much less systematize.
We want to know:
What do you think are the most important yoga principles to teach children?
What do you wish you knew about yoga that might have helped you in school?
Get involved:
Want to donate to Headstand? Visit www.headstand.org/donate.html
Want to know more? Visit www.headstand.org
Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.
