Oh, neglected yoga blog...

I practice yoga every single day.  I also think of something yoga related that I'd like to blog about almost every single day.  I blog about yoga every single... month?  Getting on the mat may have become pretty dang easy for me, but taking the time to organize my thoughts in Times New Roman on this here blog hasn't become any easier.  So I thought I'd use this blog to post my minutes for posterity and, also, to list a few things/ideas I have found interesting re: yoga, but about which I haven't managed to articulate my thoughts in blog form--yet.  Form your own thoughts as you may.

First, MIB (Minutes In Brief):
July 7-July14: 90; 90; 35; 40; 40; 90; 35; 90
July 15-July 22: 30; 35; 75; 35; 90; 40; 90; 30
July 23-July 30: 30; 30; 40; 30; 30; 90; 90; 30
July 31-August 7: 35; 35; 90; 35; 90; 30; 45; 30.

Second, BIMBO (Blog Ideas My Brain Overthrew):

#1--Why Can't We Be Friends? 

John Friend leads Warrior I; photo by Jon Hyde for The NYT

There has been a lot of hoopla about this NYT article, a profile of John Friend, the creator of Anusara Yoga--which is type of yoga I study.  Waylon Lewis of Elephantjournal.com referred to the piece as "the most popular, prominent article re yoga in recent history" and a blogger for Yoga Journal online referred to the profile as "glowing."  But the Anusara communities I practice in beg to differ. As does John Friend, who wrote this response to the NYT piece.  My Monday night teacher, the fabulous Denise of Seattle Yoga Arts, asked us before class last week if we had any questions regarding the article and all the hoopla; someone asked my Wednesday teacher, the fabulous Wendy of OmTown Yoga, if this means we're all in a cult.  Many Anusara yogis and yoginis have voiced outrage per the article's description of Friend as "doughy."  Basically, anything I may have wanted to blog about this has been said by someone else, with more passion than I can muster on a hot August day.  My favorite response to the NYT-Friend media circus?  This satirical piece by Jimmy Gleacher, which examines the many similarities between Friend and Jersey Shore's own media phenomenon, Snooki.

The 4'9" train wreck, ready to snook the night away.

#2--No One Wants To See Your Stretch Marks In Yoga Class.
The latest copy of Yoga Journal (YJ) is noteworthy for a few reasons.  It's the 35th anniversary issue of the magazine.  There's a time line of the last 6000 years of yoga history outlined inside.  Sarah McLachlan is on the cover in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. And, in the "Letters to the Editor" section, there's a letter from Judith Hanson Lasater (one of YJ's founders and a frequent contributor) expressing her concern about the advertisements featuring naked or half-naked women that have popped up with more frequency in YJ. Lasater writes, "These pictures do not teach the viewer about yoga practice or themselves. They aren’t even about the celebration of the beauty of the human body or the beauty of the poses, which I support. These ads are just about selling a product."  She goes on to request that YJ stop running ads that exploit the sexuality of young women to sell ad space or magazines.  (You can read more from her letter here.)  As someone who considers herself a feminist and who would NEVER attend a naked yoga class, let me just say, "RIGHT ON, SISTER!"

Dogs always do yoga naked.  This pup gets some extra torso extension help from Doga instructor Brenda Byran in Bellevue, WA.  This image is inspiration for yet another, never-to-be-written-by-me blog post.  Goodness.

#3--Any way you can bend, I can bend better.
Okay, that's not a really appropriate title for this idea.  But the other weekend, a friend and I went to my dad's lake cabin for a weekend of sunshine in the woods and water.  As my friend practices yoga herself, and I am on this yoga-every-single-day quest, she joined me in practice for two days.  And it was really a fun way to practice, as opposed to all by myself or in a class with a ton of people and one teacher.  The second day we practiced, we loosely took turns leading each other.  One of us would lead through a round of sun salutations, then the other would lead her own variation.  Or she'd lead a couple of shoulder stretches and then I'd do a few hamstring/quad stretches.  Since I'm too lazy to put together a full blog about the experience, let me just say that it was a new, refreshing way to practice, that I appreciate what I learned from her and her reciprocal enthusiasm to learn from me, and that we had so much fun!

What we saw when we weren't doing yoga...

AND that about wraps up my blog ideas.  Something kind of neat happened while I was writing this post....  I wrote another one!  So check that one out too!  Until then...

Namaste!