Yoga in Public Schools - The 'Edge' of Yoga?

Here's another NY Times article about yoga, this time its about YogaEd, one of the emerging programs for bringing yoga into the public schools. There are lots of arguments for this - the decreasing physical fitness of youth in our country, the ADD 'epidemic', and other problems which stem directly from the industrial age practice of putting children in chairs in a school room to learn material by rote.

The big issue raised, and it is an issue that will always be present as we bring yoga into the west, is an issue of secular versus spiritual versus religious context. YogaEd simply tries to remove any hinduism-like aspects of yoga, and teach the physical exercise, incorporating some meditative 'time in'. A workable approach to westernizing?

SYTAR 2007 - The Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research

I've just returned from SYTAR last night. It was a momentous gathering. The event was originally planned for 200-250 people, and this weekend over 800 yoga teachers, self-identified yoga therapists, medical professionals, and other interested parties gathered to hear about research, to meet with colleagues, and to work together to build what some think will be a new profession - a Yoga Therapist.

I suspect that this endeavor will prove to be a notable milestone along the way, but the issues that were raised in the face of the challenge are substantial. From my viewpoint, I am not even sure it is a worthy objective, to seek to use the name 'therapist' a term so rooted in our floundering western medical system.

As yoga teachers we face many challenges in this attempt. Licensing, establishment of standards and consistency of delivery are only the tip of the iceberg here. The real substance of the issue is the spiritual dynamic of yoga, and how to preserve that dynamic while entering into a conversation oriented around an allopathic western paradigm.

To their credit, speaker after speaker emphasized the importance of not losing the 'yoga' from the 'therapy'. However, what was notably absent was the instructions for how to 'practice'. The agenda notably avoided legal issues, regulatory issues and pragmatic realtities such as 'when do we bump into HIPPA?'

While it is likely too early to address these issues substantively, it is for me a concern that they were not even mentioned in passing. I think the outset is a great time for bringing the pragmatic issues forward, so that the structures can be designed to address them. This didn't happen here.

I'm very much in support of the effort, and I'll write more about it over time.

Research Study on Yoga to Support Sleep in Cancer Survivors

This study is a fairly large study, taking place at 24 locations, and intended to include 300 participants. The three-year study is being funded by the National Cancer Institute. The study called YOCAS (Yoga for Cancer Survivors) is a randomized controlled trial. The objective is to provide a standard for clinical care.

The yoga will include gentle Hatha yoga sessions twice each week for four weeks. Sessions are designed to "teach participants release and relaxation techniques to reduce mental activity and provide a physiologic basis for deep relaxation and transition to sleep."

Karen Mustian, the principal investigator on this study works out of the Center for Future Health, at the University of Rochester. This sounds like a excellent group, working to build the distinction they are calling Proactive Health Systems which "alerts individuals when their health status trends away from normal, and helps them return to health."

Yoga Can Make You Healthy AND Happy....Western Science Strives to Understand Happiness

One of the 3 major styles of yoga that we teach at Yoga Yoga is Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Yogi Bhajan believed that 'happiness was our birthright', something he said over and over again.

As yoga teachers, one of the most important things we strive to give to our students is a sense of well-being and happiness. This sense is a natural outgrowth of practicing yoga.

Here's a fascinating article that provides some insight into the western scientific approach to understanding happiness. No small feat, or insignificant action, one point the article makes is the strong evidence that being happy increases your life expectancy dramatically!

So...do yoga, be happy, live longer....and be around to serve others...

Keeping it Human


From my perspective, business (or enterprise) building is at it's heart a 'design problem'. In this case, how do we design our yoga centers so that they take advantage of the best techniques of business management and technology, while staying genuine places of human contact.

Signal vs. Noise, [a weblog by 37signals about entrepreneurship, design, experience, simplicity, constraints, pop culture, our products, products we like, and more] often has some really useful insights and information worth thinking about.

In this post, The power of rough edges, (one of their BEST posts from 2006) Matt from 37 Signals writes about web design techniques that allow for more authenticity and humanity. This soooooo vital! Its clear that we as a culture are not going to stop using technology, and we are going to continue to scale towards larger and larger enterprises. We NEED people to think about the issues that let us keep the humanity in....through design, through commitment and through skill. Here's one more great quote from this post:

The value of authentic
Authenticity is underrated. People forgive a multitude of sins in exchange for it. Sure, aim for perfection and professionalism when it’s called for. But don’t overlook the power that comes from being authentic, appropriate, and human.

We can't teach yoga if we don't 'stay human'. And 'staying human' while staying competitive and profitable seems to require an exquisite sense of designing 'for' human enterprise. These guys 'get it'.

Can Yoga Play a Role In the National Health Care Dialogue?

One of my objectives in writing, and in working with the teachers and staff at Yoga Yoga on our initiative to develop what we are calling 'complementary care' programs, or 'personal self-care' programs, is to become an active participant in the national health care dialogue. I believe, as I think many yoga practitioners and teachers believe, that there is great opportunity to foster wellness and well-being through yoga, and through supporting individuals - one at a time - to practice yoga.

Here's a great quote from an article by a Dr. Welch (bold is my emphasis):

Perhaps someone should start monitoring a new health metric: the proportion of the population not requiring medical care. And the National Institutes of Health could propose a new goal for medical researchers: reduce the need for medical services, not increase it.

I think that by simply supporting a national conversation on wellness - something that yoga teachers and many other 'alternative' providers seem to be much more inclined to do than most any member of the 'healthcare' system - we CAN make a difference!

Welcome to the New Year, and a Look at the Yoga Market courtesy of the NY Times

Those of us who work in the 'yoga industry' (funny even to put those words together!) are well aware of both the growth of the industry, and the 'frenzy' around this growth.

This article from the Times is a great 'window' into the mindset of what the general market (whatever that is) thinks of when they talk about 'the yoga market'.

The article begins by focusing on Yoga Journal's 11th Annual Estes Park Conference. Of course, bear in mind that this is the Yoga Journal sold by John Abbott to Active Interest Media in 2005, so this is now strictly a financial play...a company owned by shareholders as an investment vehicle, not a mission based organization.

After a quick mention about Shiva Rea leading a sort of yoga 'rave', we turn immediately to the 64 vendors and isles of clothing.

Then another one-liner about the "renowned" yoga teachers, followed by about 20 paragraphs focusing on shopping, fashion and more shopping.

We hear about Prana, bought by Liz Claiborne, Lulelemon, "a professed “yoga-inspired athletic apparel company” (owned by Advent International and Highland Capital Partners), who "last year hired a veteran Reebok exec as CEO", Prudential Financial's efforts to tie health into their marketing, Ford Motor's approach to reaching young women to sell cars, and a few jewelry designers selling into the market with "Price tags for ..(that) can be heaven-high".

Where's the yoga????

You can see in this article the real challenge of bringing yoga into the west. The only lens that this author - and really our culture - has for thinking about it's place in our world is materially based and economic. There is no context or 'listening' for the depth of what yoga offers.

What if the author worked to stress the real benefits of yoga in bringing health and happiness into our society? What about even looking at examples of the health care benefits, scientifically proven?

What about simply spending some time talking about the genuine contribution that thousands and thousands independent yoga teachers make day after day, quietly bringing more happiness, less stress, more health and a more positive outlook on life to the millions of yoga practitioners in communities far and wide.

Its harder work to communicate this difference, but it is actually the difference that is being made. The jewelry and the clothes do NOT bring the results. Its okay for the clothes and jewelry to be spoken about...but PLEASE....lets try to communicate that none of the results happen without practice. Yoga is simply one of those things that you cannot just 'buy' the result with.