yogalila

September Sadhana & Giveway (support a great cause)

I love the women behind this blog.

I love that sometimes one of us knows just what we all need. We have been doing sadhana's together for years, but usually in January - an intentional way to enter a new year. (Sadhana is just a sanskrit term for practice - we usually think of it as 40 days of yoga every day)

A few weeks ago, Sophie reached out saying she felt like she needed a September Sadhana this year. She was not alone - many of the yogalilans were feeling the same way.  Maybe you're feeling it, too?

I was a little hit and miss at first, but gave myself a fresh start today with the first day of autumn. I love fall, and I am looking forward to welcoming it with a commitment to my yoga practice.

We'd love to have you join us. And if you'd like some support, I'd love to introduce you to a new friend, Marianne Elliott. I was so happy to meet her on her recent visit to Vancouver. Marianne is the real deal - a genuine and caring soul.  She has a very cool offering right now - 30 days of Yoga, Karma Edition (all money goes to HIV work in Africa). If you want some guidance in your practice and a chance to contribute to some good work in the world, you must go check it out.

Leave a comment if you would like to join us and one lucky commenter will also win Marianne's 30 Days of Yoga.

UPDATE:  SHERRON is the winner of Marianne's 30 Days of Yoga!

day 8 of 21.5.800

The 5 in 21.5.2008 stands for 5 days of yoga - so if you're wondering where day 6 and 7 are - they were non-yoga days. Though I did do an extra long hammock-savasana both days.

Today's practice comes from one of my favourite yoga teachers - Jill Miller.  This is a 15 minute routine that she did for Breathe magazine (gawd, I miss that magazine!).

day 5 of 21.5.800

I had a little more time today so I did a practice that's a little longer than what I've been posting the last few days.  This one is about 45 minutes - a video practice led by Sara Ivanhoe.

day 4 of 21.5.800

Today's practice for Bindu's project comes from the Iyengar Yoga Centre in Victoria, BC. (click on image to go to the full practice).

day 3 of 21.5.800

Since it arrived in the mail today, I decided to try Yoga Journal's August home practice sequence (click picture to go to the video of the practice):

day 2 of 21.5.800

Today's practice for 21.5.800 was the Vajra Yoga opening sequence

yoga + writing + community = Bindu Wiles' 21.5.800

I'm going to give this a go. It starts today

Bindu Wiles has issued an invitation to join her and a whole caravan of other peeps in a 21 day focus on yoga and writing.

My writing will be in my journal and I will share my daily yoga practice here. Each day I plan to do a practice that is freely available on the internet or share one of my favourite practice routines. If you are looking for something to guide your own practice feel free to join me.

Today I started with a short but lovely simple vinyasa routine from Kira Ryder:

yoga teachers in the news

Interesting to contrast two recent newspaper articles about yoga teachers - one about a 75 year old who has been teaching for years and one about the numbers of young teachers entering the  field.

I used to be pretty hard-ass about who should be out there teaching - but I've softened up quite a bit.  I wouldn't want a younger,less experienced teacher myself, but I do think there is room for them. I also think one of the best ways to become a better teacher is to teach.  There's a place for everybody. However, I do like Shiva Rea's advice to younger teachers in the  NYT article - "don't talk."  Ha.

looking closer at lululemon

Trendy, overpriced yoga clothing retailer Lululemon,ubiquitous around Vancouver in particular and Canada in general,has come under criticism in the past for it's use of child labour and the origins of the store name (hard for Asian tourists to pronounce).  Now an article in the August 2006 issue of the Canadian women's magazine, Chatelaine, is causing yet more lululemon devotees to question their support of the company. The article,titled The Untold Story of Lululemon, details Lululemon's connection with the Landmark Forum:

                                  Wilson credits his success to The Landmark
Forum, an intensive international 3 1/2-day training seminar. The program has
garnered widespread criticism for what some see as its boot-camp techniques,
hard-sell recruitment tactics, heavy reliance on free labour, secretive nature
and its links to Werner Erhard, a former Scientologist who developed the
methodology.
    Wilson so heartily believes in the Landmark approach that it has been
made mandatory for management staff to participate in the training. Lululemon
picks up the tab on the $495 tuition. Legally, companies like Lululemon have
the right to ask this of their employees. If employees do not want to attend,
they can be terminated as long as severance is offered.

The article goes on to talk with one manager in detail about her reservations about the advanced Landmark training she is expected to undergo and her conflicted feelings over taking the training or losing her job.

Chez Kirby wrote to Lululemon after reading the Chatelaine article and posted their response.

I was a happy customer of Lululemon back when they were a small little operation hidden at the top of a dark staircase on West 4th -and one of the only places in Vancouver to buy yoga supplies.  Now I am among the many disenchanted.

fun with the internets

Using Google's Trends application (in beta), with which you can see how often a term has been searched for on Google over time,how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often, a look at the yoga trend:

Yoga on Google Trends

Vancouver is fourth among the geographic regions, after San Fran, NYC and Pleasanton (??? - will have to look that up).  That shouldn't surprise me, but it does.

And thanks to MCPetruk for putting up clips of Krishnamacharya and Iyengar from the 1938 film of a yoga demonstration on YouTube.