namasteph yoga blog

I was reading someone’s yoga blog and stumbled across a now defunct yoga blog called “YogaGlamGirl.” Presumably, because of the “Glam” in her blog name, “YogaGlamGirl” got a job blogging at a site I’ve never heard of, called “Glam.com.” She claims this is the largest website for women. (Umm, I thought iVillage was, or maybe now it’s Oprah.com. Anyway…)

So I go to Glam.com, with few hopes that the site is even vaguely interesting. Sure enough, it’s a piece of consumerist, brainwashing nonsense, a glorified online tabloid meant to encourage women to be insecure about themselves, sell cosmetics and lipgloss, and have us focusing on celebrities instead of ourselves.

There’s a weak little section called “GlamSpirit” (an amusing oxymoron if I ever heard one), where YogaGlamGirl now blogs. Her latest entry as of this writing? A review of liquid blusher. I’m not joking. OK, so it’s organic and more “environmental.” So what? You’re still cluttering up landfill with the refuse of this bottle after you use it. What on earth is a review of liquid blush doing in a wellness blog?

There’s this dark side to yoga that will become increasingly dominant in coming years, unless our culture finally veers away from the shallow place it’s been heading. It will be the yoga of female consumerism, hijacked by fashion, cosmetics, and weight loss industries to keep women focused on their bodies instead of their brains, their looks instead of their personalities, and their outward appearance instead of their inner self-worth.

You see this already with yoga models on magazines such as Yoga Journal and the free Yogi Times. (Yogi Times goes so far as to have yoga fashion shoots…with people wearing clothes that you can’t even wear to yoga class.) You see this on Namaste Yoga, where the focus is on sex appeal and not spirit. (Just read the comments on my Namaste Yoga review. The ones defending the show the most are the ones that prove my point. Some of the comments are downright creepy.)

We’ll start seeing color-coordinated yoga lipgloss to go with your expensive designer yoga pants. Bimbebrities such as Paris Hilton will be starting their own line of “chic” yoga wear, complete with a matching purse you can stuff your little trendy toy dog into. It’ll be yoga couture! Fun!

I’m thankful that there are enough non-profit yoga centers around that adhere to strict classical yogic principles. I’m thankful that the Kundalini Yoga people run around in their crazy white outfits, with the women not wearing any make-up because that takes away their natural beauty and power. I’m thankful there’s a huge solidified group of spiritual yogis who don’t just turn to yoga because it’ll keep their abs tight and their butts bouncy.

YogaGlamGirl wrote a very ironic post on her old blog trying to find passion and purpose in her work. (She for some strange reason has this ridiculous idea that GenXers or Baby Boomers never consider life purpose in career…ummm…Baby Boomers invented the staring at the navel thing, and we GenXers have just continued that trend, thank you very much.)

Well, it’s very sad to me that someone who was interested in healing, whose old blog did not appear to focus around fashion and make-up, has now sold out to push cosmetics on an exploitative website. Maybe it’s not my business to judge. But I think we women need to speak up against the type of mindless nonsense pushed as “women’s content” at Glam.com. Those of us who see past the brainwashing need to encourage our sisters through gentle peer pressure to think a little bit before we pour our blood, sweat, tears and passion into the corporate “let’s make women insecure so we can sell them stuff” machine.

There’s no true wellness for women who are so caught up in mindless shopping, make-up, and celebrity love affairs that they’ve lost their souls. Yoga should bring a union with our spirit - not create another reason to stare at our butts and wonder if our yoga pants are “making my butt look too big.”

When you die, do you want to look back and see a life filled with a focus on how pretty you looked, and how you encouraged other women to do the same? Or do you want to leave a bigger legacy?