The Controversial Yoga-Celeb Tara Stiles and Sexploitation in Yoga

The New York Times just published an in-depth profile on celebriguru and former Ford model Tara Stiles titled “Rebel Yoga.” The article tries to spin her anti-yoga-establishment approach as some sort of Robin Hood Does Yoga “rebel” streak, making her out to be some sort of noble, ego-less avenger on a mission to take back [...]

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Where Did Inhale Yoga Go?

By and far, the most traffic I get to this blog comes from a review of Steve Ross’s Inhale Yoga I wrote back in 2007. Inhale Yoga was made about 10 years ago, but it is still very popular! Inhale usually airs on the Oxygen television network but has been on hiatus. Ever since Inhale [...]

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$23 for a Yoga Class? Sorry, No

Someone just left a comment on my blog here saying that Saul David Raye’s single yoga classes are now $23 at Exhale in Venice. I haven’t confirmed this for myself, but I have noticed yoga prices going up in Los Angeles. Yoga West, for example, used to charge $16 for a single class and it’s [...]

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Kriya of Liberation With Gurmukh

Gurmukh explains how to do the Kriya of Liberation meditation from kundalini yoga: Note: I’ve been getting a lot of comments on my arms lately…about how in shape they are. I do believe it’s from doing all those kundalini yoga kriyas and meditations that involve holding or moving the arms for various lengths of time. [...]

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Dahn Yoga Controversy

I was searching the Internet in vain for any training offering a combination of yoga and QiGong or Tai Chi. In doing so, I stumbled across Dahn Yoga, which is billed as a form of Korean yoga. In checking out the Dahn Yoga website, I found a few centers close to me, but with costs [...]

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Ashtanga Yoga’s Krishna Pattabhi Jois Dies at 93

I feel a little guilty – I had jokingly posted on Facebook yesterday taking names on who the next big celebrity to go would be. The general consensus was that we’d like to see some sort of evil despot like Kim Jong Il die, but no, it had to be a luminary from the yoga [...]

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Hanstand in a Door Jamb

So it may take Gaiam Yoga Club to finally get me to try handstand. Well, I am trying it, but up against the wall in my hallway. Rodney Yee suggests climbing your way up into handstand using a door jamb, but my doors must be super narrow because there is no way I can fit [...]

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Do Celebrities Who Do Yoga Inspire or Annoy You?

A question to you all: When you see an article on a celebrity doing yoga, does it make you want to hit the mat more? Or do you have the opposite reaction, i.e., “Eeeuww, yoga has gotten so annoyingly trendy.” Or: “Great, I’ll never look like Cristy Turlington, so why bother.” Or is your reaction [...]

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Yogi Bhajan’s 1,000 Day Sadhana

Today is the start of a massive worldwide “sadhana” or daily spiritual practice aimed at helping us transition to the Aquarian Age. The meditation was given to us by Yogi Bhajan, and it is now being shared by the kundalini yoga community. The suggested meditation is daily for 11 minutes for the next 1,000 days [...]

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Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga is Probably a Cult – But Yoga Alliance?

I recently saw an ad on Craigslist for free meditation classes. They did not include a link to their website, but I gleaned from the email address provided that the organization was Brahma Kumaris, an organization that describes itself as a “spiritual university” teaching Raja Yoga. (Raja Yoga, i.e., “royal yoga,” is the yoga of [...]

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