Yoga
The Hamptons
Yogalebrity Alert in Amagansett
Erika Halweil of Mandala Yoga in Amagansett teaches a popular yoga class that has started shutting people out because they run out of space -- now that it's peak bikini season. (Get there early or suffer mat rage). It's really just the first half of the Ashtanga primary series, but the fashionable ladies of the East End can't get enough. Last weekend, students included Joni of Joni's, of Montauk healthy wrap fame, and yogalebrity Christy Turlington, sweating, but still looking better than anyone else will ever look in their life. Erika adjusted Christy a few extra times, but wouldn't you?
Academic
Take Back Yoga?
Harvard Business School has published Branding Yoga a case study investigating the commercialization and marketing of yoga. Prof. Rohit Deshpandé and his team compare the rise of yoga bad boy Bikram Choudhury with You Tube phenom Tara Stiles, whose sexy videos and alliance with Deepak Chopra have, so the argument goes, become the face of a new generation of yogis. The big questions: Can yoga be patented? And is it appropriate to mix and match spiritual rituals and beliefs to form an ersatz, commercialized fitness?
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Finding Beauty
The Beauty of Desire
Desire is not a problem – it is our very nature. This is one of the first things that my teacher Dr. Douglas Brooks said when I met him nine years ago in the big kick-off weekend for my Anusara® Yoga Teacher Training.
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Finding Beauty
The Beauty of the Dance
His body is half-naked and ash-smeared with a tiger skin draped across his hips. In his two upper hands he holds the drum of creation and the fire of dissolution. His tangle of matted hair is gathered and loosely held in a knot. Perched on the knot is the pale crescent moon behind which descends the waters of the Ganges, which separate and divert into many tributaries, reflecting his infinite forms. He is multiplicity itself. But here he is Nataraja, the dancing form of Shiva.
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Finding Beauty
On Habit and Ritual
This morning I made my tea, as I do most mornings, and sat down to think about what new habits and rituals to establish in the New Year. Our lives are filled with rituals and habits, and it's interesting to discern between the two. A habit is a recurring pattern of behavior, conscious or unconscious. A ritual is a symbolic action that marks an occasion or confers significance. The line delineating one from the other can be fairly blurry, but ritual should create meaning in your life. Preparing my tea and sitting to think is a habit that gives me pleasure, but it doesn’t necessarily have meaning beyond that satisfying moment. In contrast, here is an example of a ritual...
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Wake Up Call
Notice Things
All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable, which makes you see something you weren't noticing, which makes you see something that isn't even visible.
Celebrating Yourself and Holidayasana!
In order to give to others you also need to give to yourself. In order to be a good friend, family member, or partner you have to be good to yourself first. You have to love yourself. In Anusara® yoga we begin with the premise of self-embrace. This is not any sort of narcissism. Rather, it is a reverence for nature, of which we are a part. It's also a show of appreciation for our family members, teachers, and friends who have helped form us.
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Site News
Survive the Holidays with Social Workout and Friends!
It’s the first Monday of the holiday season, and I’m standing on the deck of Social Workout 2.0 frantically tossing life preservers into a quietly rising tide of egg nog. December is challenge time around here. It’s also shaping up to be a coming out party for our new site.
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I love Erika's class. Mandala is a great studio--I go to Hampton ..." More comments...