namasteph yoga blog

I have to admit I am not a huge fan of a lot of Gaiam videos…I do think they have gotten better in recent years, but the ones I had in the 90s (more the Living Arts era) were so serious. Gaiam Yoga Club is Rodney Yee’s online yoga course (with his wife Colleen Saidman) and it thankfully leaves behind that solemn yoga pretense for a joyful, down-to-earth course.

The 12-week self-paced course is geared towards beginners (though I’d have to suggest it would be better for fitter beginners and not those with serious physical limitations), but experienced practitioners can also benefit. Each week begins with a video illustrating the various postures, followed by daily audio practices with PDF guides to show the poses.

Rodney and Colleen are happily married and it shows in their comfort and obvious joy in each other’s company. (I must admit - I’m a bit envious and wish I had a relationship like that!) They are very free and casual in showing the postures and yet quite specific.

I’m impressed by the comprehensive nature of the program. It is very well designed and executed, and definitely an excellent investment if you want to learn yoga from home.

I’ve only finished week one - I had gotten a cheap yoga pass at a local studio with a special and thus have been taking more outside classes than doing home practice lately - but the nice thing is, there’s no deadline.

I’ll perhaps review more later as I go.

Friday night I went to a gong concert at Yoga West, only to have a complete meltdown because some naive mother thought it would be a good idea to bring her wee toddler to the event.

I was having a really trying day (it was the day of a big eclipse, if you are into the astrology thing). For one thing, my apartment manager had pounced all over me because a psycho neighbor was complaining that I parked my car in the street. (Yes, in the public street. Long story.) When I got to the gong event, all I wanted to do was relax and de-stress from my emotional day.

I got to the event and placed my mat upfront where I could really get the benefits of the gong. The description of the event had indicated we would be experiencing some kundalini exercises as well as a full yoga nidra, which is a guided relaxation, yoga style. Then we would hear the gongs. I was so excited…until…

About 10 minutes after the hour, a young mother walked in with a toddler. I am not that great with ages but the kid was barely out of “baby” age, meaning she did not appear to be walking yet, and she was making loud “baby” noises such as “BAH!” or “DAAAAH!” or “OOO!” at odd moments. Even though the kid was all the way in the back, I could hear these piercing sounds all the way upfront. “Inhale!” the teacher would say. “DAH!!!” the kid would pipe up with no rhyme or reason.

I was pissed. There was no way I would be able to relax with that kid babbling on randomly like that, with no restraint. And it seemed to me (or perhaps I was projecting), that even the guest teachers themselves were a little surprised and concerned when the child was brought in. You can pretty much bet that any child who is already making “BAH!” and “DAH!” noises is at some point going to start screaming or carrying on in some louder fashion later when you least want them to.

Now, I realize that some spiritual people would say that this was an opportunity to develop patience, but for me it was an opportunity to speak up. I walked out to the front desk and told them that there was a toddler in there, and did they perhaps have some child care, because it was disturbing the event. They were very nice about it and said they would see what they could do.

Read the rest of “The Toddler at the Evening Yoga Event” »

Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa is a Kundalini Sikh who wrote an often recommended book Kundalini Yoga: Flow of Eternal Power. While I found the book a bit too focused on the strict Sikh lifestyle for my tastes, Shakti Parwha is friendly and sincere. Since she teaches classes here in Los Angeles at Yoga West on Saturday mornings. She was Yogi Bhajan’s first student in America, and she is quite old now (70s or above). Her teaching style is gentle, informative, and accessible.

If you are looking to get started with Kundalini Yoga and you live in Los Angeles, I would heartily recommend her class. Even if you’ve done Kundalini Yoga for a while, you still might want to check it out. She gives a little movie review at the end of the class. She actually told us that surprisingly, she found the recent “Hell Boy” movie to be quite good.

“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” »