namasteph yoga blog

“RYT” means “Registered Yoga Teacher” and I am official at the 200-hour level. This was my big goal for 2008 and now it’s done…which means, I have the rest of the year to slack off! Well, of course not…there’s so much to learn in yoga, it could take lifetimes.

I will never be the best yogini…I can’t do many advanced poses…my hamstrings are still tight (but loosening)…but I am enjoying teaching yoga. I feel I am a good teacher precisely because it does not come easy to me, and I understand the struggle to get into certain poses. I’d like to help more people who aren’t naturally fit, who have weight issues and health issues, people who could truly be transformed by yoga. It’s certainly made that kind of difference in my life, by being the way I climbed out of chronic fatigue syndrome as a full-on disability.

This is just a personal observation, based on the places I’ve done yoga at…I’ve noticed that here in Los Angeles, more men go to kundalini yoga classes. And not just any ole men - a lot of these guys are extremely good-looking, tall men. (Here in LA, there are tons of short guys for some reason…not that there’s anything wrong with short men, but when you are 5′8″ like I am, it can be a bit disconcerting to walk onto a dance floor and tower above everyone in the room.)

I like having men in yoga class. And no, it’s not about “hooking up” or anything like that. I like being around male energy. Too much female energy is stifling to me. And too much female energy in yoga can get twisted into yoga becoming about female vanity - something that’s all about having the perfect bod in the latest designer yoga clothes, rather than being about the yoga.

So more men in yoga, please. You are always welcome!

I was searching through some yoga DVDs on Amazon recently, and I was shocked to see that the DVD I dubbed “The Worst Yoga Video Ever” had a rating of almost five stars! How could that possibly be?

I know that my opinion is just mine, and that not everyone will feel the same way I do. But for the life of me, I could not see how a kundalini yoga video with a skinny girl in her underwear would appeal to the average American woman who might be trying yoga at home. The kundalini yoga is in and of itself weird enough that it’s going to be a hard sell to people who haven’t tried in the proper setting, never mind the rest of my issues with the DVD.

In looking through some of the mostly five-star reviews, which truly did seem to be a bit over-the-top, I found a thread in the discussion area. Apparently, people have tried to post negative reviews (or even just mixed reviews) for this DVD, only to get them erased.

Read the rest of “Yoga DVDs Getting Artificial Ratings on Amazon?” »

My hamstrings have been tight all my life. When I first started doing yoga in my twenties I could not touch my toes. I never thought I would get to the point where I might see my head near my knee. Well, I was doing a standing forward fold last night before bedtime. I don’t know what happened, but I realized that my gut was tight and maybe if I just relaxed it a little bit, I might be able to go deeper. Something just…realeased.

Miracle upon miracles! I could almost reach my knees with my forehead!

This is something that is easy for a lot of yogis, but it has been impossible for me. I am not quite sure what happened. My home yoga practice has not been stellar recently due to a heat wave last week, but all of a sudden, I’ve broken through a major, lifelong barrier!

I still have to bend my knees slightly to go that deep, but I am almost there! Wow!

I guess it just goes to show you - regular practice can make a huge difference.

I’m obviously not a Bikram gal. It’s been in the 90s here this past week and I have no air conditioning. Why? Because normally the weather is a lovely, balmy 70s during the summer in my part of town. But it’s been getting hotter lately (global warming?)…too hot. Some nights it’s stayed in the 80s all night, unheard of here. My home has become an oven, and my yoga practice has gone right out the window.

And I feel it too…I feel like my body is turning to mush. But perhaps that’s just partial heat exhaustion.

I spent the day at the beach today cooling off. Finally, this evening, the ocean breeze kicked in and there’s cool air coming through my windows. Hurrah! It will get back down to a normal high 70s this week. Phew. Hey, that’s crucial when you live in a home that has central air.

Once you get out of the habit of doing daily home yoga, it’s hard to get back into it sometimes. So this is timely: Gaiam contacted me about a new online home yoga program with Rodney Yee, called the Gaiam Yoga Club…so I’m checking it out and will be reviewing it here. I’ve just logged in this evening to take a peek, and so far it looks pretty comprehensive and yet not too overwhelming. I really need something to get me motivated now…I don’t want to lose all the progress I made during my teacher training.

Well, this has to win my Worst Yoga Video Ever Eward, hands down! Kundalini Yoga for Beginners and Beyond by Ravi Singh and Ana Brett is more of a Target commercial and MTV video than a yoga class.

You know, my first clue was the midriff-baring woman on the front cover. I realize that short shorts and sports bras is the standard if you are doing Bikram, but I have never in my life been to a Kundalini Yoga class where anyone, teachers or students, was wearing skimpy outfits. If anything, most of the Kundalini teachers I have studied with are covered head to toe in flowing robes and turbans. While it is not a prerequisite to be a Sikh in order to teach Kundalini Yoga, I have to say most of my favorite Kundalini teachers are.

But in spite of my misgivings over the marketing, I gave the DVD a try. Euw. The cover was just a glimpse of what was to come. The actual beginning of the DVD features Ana Brett in her underwear, consisting of a silver lame camisole and boy shorts, dancing with her hair askew. She doesn’t have a bra on and her camisole doesn’t have a shelf bra built in, so that means her rock hard nipples are poking through.

Read the rest of “Kundalini Yoga for Beginners and Beyond” »

I would have never heard of these folks if it hadn’t been for Bookins, and it just goes to show you that there are yoga gems to be found outside the corporate offices of Gaiam. I am very selective about my yoga DVDs, and I find that most of the mainstream ones offered just don’t cut it. I have a bunch of Gaiam’s yoga video offerings from back when they were called Living Arts, and I barely use them. They just don’t feel like a real class to me, and I don’t get any spiritual benefit from them either.

So I was pleased as punch to pop in Maria Theresia & Roberto’s Yoga Therapy DVD and find that it was a yoga DVD I might actually use. In their 60s, M.T. (as Maria Theresia is called) and Roberto aren’t glamorous, impossible-to-emulate yoga superstars. (Don’t get me wrong, they are in great shape!) Their video has a wonderful homey touch and you can tell they are passionate about what they do.

The style of yoga presented is their own: It is primarily a take-off of the Bikram series, with their own poses and transitions added in. (They also removed the two hardest and most dangerous Bikram poses, the toe stand and the fixed firm, which I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do in this lifetime.) The class starts with a standing series, with a short break in savasana, and then continues with a floor series.

Read the rest of “Maria Theresia & Roberto’s Yoga Therapy” »

I had an opportunity to take a 2 1/2 hour Naam Yoga class at Golden Bridge this weekend with founder Joseph Michael Levry aka Gurunam. Naam Yoga combines Kundalini Yoga with sound healing, mudras, and concepts from the Kabbalah. I had no idea what I was going into but left the class feeling really happy and good. If you like singing or chanting along with your yoga, you’ll like Naam Yoga. Alas, he only teaches in NYC and not LA.

Yoga books and DVDs, as you may know, can add up. I found this great website called Bookins where you can trade books and DVDs and just pay the cost of shipping when you receive a product. I’ve used this to get a number of used yoga books, including books on Bikram, Sivananda, and Iyengar. I’ve got a yoga DVD on the way.

The system works via a point system. You earn points that you can use to receive your free book or DVD. You get 15 points just for signing up, and you earn additional points by giving books away. (You can also earn some points when people sign up for your referral link, of course.) Then, you just pay a flat rate of $4.49 for shipping when you receive your book or DVD.

What’s great about this service is that you do not have to pay to ship your books to others. The person receiving the book pays for the shipment. When someone requests a book you have listed for trade, you simply print out the postage and slap it on the package. Drop it in a mailbox and, boom, you’ve earned some points for future books and DVDs.

I’ve already sent one book out and received 9 points for the trade. It was very easy to do. You can also add your BookCrossing label to the book if you want to track it that way as well.

If I have one gripe about this service is that it seems that people are a bit slow to request your books. (Or maybe my books are just not in demand.) But this could also be that the service is new and just needs a few more people on it. Because of this, I have to be a bit judicious with the points I have. I have a tendency to want to buy every interesting yoga book that’s posted on the site - after all, for less than $5, it’s a steal!

They do have a promotional offer where you can purchase shipping credits in advance - 11 for the price of 10, with 20 points added to your account. This is a smart way to get some points and get one shipment for free.

If you do a search on yoga, you’ll find a decent selection of diverse yoga books available. I even found some Shiva Rea DVDs listed for trade.

I don’t have any yoga books yet on my trade list, but when I have one available, I’ll post it here. And hopefully you can post your used yoga books as well!

As I seem to be guided to do about once per year, I have updated this blog with a new design. I decided, with my criticism of Yoga Journal for its focus on skinny white women, I did not want to have a site design that had yet another skinny white woman on it. (Even though it was pretty innocuous, and I happen to be a somewhat skinny white woman.)

I’m gearing up to start a positive movement towards more egalitarian yoga images, images that don’t encourage more body image focus, so the site needed to reflect that.

I also happen to like the colors. I seem to use variations of these colors on many of my websites, but they feel so bright and yet soothing to me personally. Well, enjoy.