"Yoga Garden" at White House on Easter

Just love this including "Hot Power Potato Yoga," Spiderman, veterans. The merging of my loves - DC and yoga and Easter. Enjoy -

Marilyn Monroe, Yogini

I've seen these before but I never tire of them.  Marilyn Monroe doing yoga.   Monroe learned yoga from the famous Indra Devi

You can see the photos here.

Just Because It's Beautiful

Absolutely stunning and mesmerizing. I've never seen any thing like it. Well, maybe the smoke monster on Lost. But it's only a mild resemblance. The reaction of the girls was mine, jaw dropping and smiling.

Enjoy!

  
Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.

Colbert to Broad: You've Buried the Lead

I completely agree!

Colbert asks Broad "why write about yoga when he usually writes about infectious disease, nuclear jihad, the Challenger disaster?   What?  Slow news year?" 

Colbert remarks and asks: "I see contortions looks like an exercise for people in coach on an airplane."   "What is a yoga butt?  Is that true?"What's good?  

Broad answers: lifts mood, zips up your sex life, and great for health.

And then the interview takes off......

"Why didn't you name it 2 to 3 hour orgasm?  Let's move some paper, sir!"

Yes, instead of moving paper and selling the book based on fear, just saying.  

They also talk of Bikram and why physicians are not fans.

These are facts and subjects I wish had been highlighted about of his book.

Thank you Colbert!  

The Colbert Report
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On Being a Yoga Teacher

This photo is making the rounds on Facebook (I saw one on being a lesbian too, which was also very funny).   

I am still laughing at this.  Especially the New York Times one.   

i carry your heart

A friend reminded me of another lovely poem about love Valentine's Day.  (I posted an earlier one here)

i carry your heart by E.E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true

You can read the rest of it here at the Poetry Foundation (which is a terrific website by the way, which makes it very easy to find poems.  )  

Happy Valentine's Day!

(thanks Christina!)

For Your Yoga Playlist

If I were still teaching this song, My Valentine, would be on my playlist.  I love it!

I can easily see the choreographed vinyasa - moving into ardha chandrasana - with a feeling of certainty we can fly!

I just love that new ballads like this are being written, and yes that it's Paul McCartney.

I love even more that Diana Krall is on the piano, and she is barely mentioned.  Her albums are great too!   (And she is married to Elvis Costello).

Their performance at the Grammy's last night was awesome.

How Love Triumphs

Just because Valentine's Day is coming up, and because really good love poetry can transcend cliche, enjoy this poem ---- 

Love is a night bent down to be anointed,  

A sky turned meadow, and the stars to fireflies. 

Love triumphs. 

The white and green of love beside a lake, 

And the proud majesty of love in tower or balcony; 

Love in a garden or in desert untrodden, 

Love is our lord and master 

We shall pass into the twilight: 

Perchance to wake to the dawn of another world. 

But love shall stay, 

And his finger-marks shall not be erased.   

-Kahil Gibran

What is your favorite love poem?   Just because....

True Love is....

Robert Thurman (yes, Uma's father) is a prominent Buddhist scholar.  I've heard him in person.  He is a lovely and funny man.

Here he, briefly, distills the essence of true love, what true love is.   I love it.

 

Brilliant Parody of the Equinox Video

This is brilliant and just too hilarious.  Enjoy!  (see original here)

Calling All Dudes to Yoga

I love this piece 5 Reasons Why Dudes Should Do Yoga over at one of my favorite web sites -  Mindbodygreen.com

I won't spoil the piece and give you all 5 reasons here (4 and 5 aren't relatable to me, but then I'm not a dude).

But here is the opening :

I'm not your typical yoga person. In fact, I don't even come close to fitting the profile of a yoga person. First of all, I'm a dude. I'm tall (6'7" to be exact). Yes, is the answer to your next question: I played basketball. I played for four years in college at Columbia, in New York City. I also was president of my fraternity.

Please click over to read the rest.  Really.  Especially if you're a tall-ex-wall-street-trading-fraternity-boy-jock

Busted! Lifestyle Choices of a Yogi

Okay - this is so funny - and admittedly, probably only to yogis.

From one of my favorite yoga sites, Elephant Journal:

The 10 Things You'll Do Once You Start Yoga

I'm guilty of all of them.  All.  Of.  Them.

Beautiful Water Scenic Video

a beautiful water video to calm your nerves, with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as the soundtrack.



The Water from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Ballet and Yoga - from 1952 film

This video is really fascinating.  The voice over most of all.

YOGA DANCING - British Pathe

I love the nexus of ballet and yoga, since that relationship changed the course of my life.

Yoga and Apple

In case you missed this Apple ad when it aired a few years ago......

Freedom & Independence!

Awesome and inspiring video to celebrate freedom and independence today:

Check Out These Backbends!

oh my! My yoga teacher sent me this video this morning from a segment released in 1944 that featured the Ross sisters - Maggie, Elmira and Aggie. From what I could determine from Imdb - this was also a part of That's Entertainment III.

Any way - it's like Cirque de Soleil 50 years early. The singer starts and then the movement begins about a minute in...

Might I add that one of the yoga teachers who forwarded this clip on to her students prefaced the viewing with: "Thought you might like to see what we may be doing next week. Bring an apple!!"

Jeeze! Enjoy!

Yoga's Anti-Lifestyle Trend

Front page of the New York Times Style section today in "Yoga's New Wave" offers a healthy counterpoint to some of the silliness that, to my mind, detracts from yoga. The most interesting aspect to me is that the yogi features was a former disciple of Bikram - who seems to enjoy being at the pinnacle of yoga silliness and monstrous, egomaniacal behavior.

Money quote:

A second revelation occurred in class when he was struggling to keep his body in a difficult position. “I was sweating, my muscles shaking, in triangle pose, and Bikram was talking about how fast he was as a boy in Calcutta. How he could catch this dog.” The situation was almost more than Mr. Gumucio could bear. “In my mind,” he recalled, “I was thinking ‘What is wrong with you. Stop this stupid story!’ ”

Laughing! "Stop this stupid story!"

Read the piece in full here.

A Short Film about Moments

This short film (4 minutes) by Will Hoffman is beautiful.  What Andrew Sullivan would call a "Mental Health break"

I found it on KarmaTube, which described the short film this way:

Will Hoffman's short film stitches together random, mundane moments from the lives of different people. But watching this film, you feel like they are moments from your own life! The move from one moment to the next is non-linear, non-sequential, joyous, terrible and unexpected, all at the same time -- and yet it evokes a feeling of deep connection and beauty.

I just loved the way it captures mundane instances and weaves them back in a way that evokes a whole and wondrous existence. 

Enjoy!