Tag Archives: news

Mindfulness as an instrument to hone attention

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We could all stand to pay atten­tion with more reg­u­lar­ity, but that requires you to actu­ally notice when you’re wired. Now at least one uni­ver­sity class is mak­ing stu­dents more aware of their men­tal habits.

The Chron­i­cle of Higher Edu­ca­tion You’re Dis­tracted. This Pro­fes­sor Can Help: “The e-​​mail drill was one of numer­ous mind-​​training exer­cises in a unique class designed to raise stu­dents’ aware­ness about how they use their dig­i­tal tools. Col­leges have exper­i­mented with short-​​term social-​​media black­outs in the past. But Ms. Hill’s course, ‘Infor­ma­tion and Con­tem­pla­tion,’ goes way fur­ther. Par­tic­i­pants scru­ti­nize their use of tech­nol­ogy: how much time they spend with it, how it affects their emo­tions, how it frag­ments their atten­tion. They watch videos of them­selves mul­ti­task­ing and write guide­lines for improv­ing their habits. They also prac­tice med­i­ta­tion — dur­ing class — to sharpen their attention.”

And as an added bonus, here’s a recent New York Times arti­cle, In Mind­ful­ness, a Method to Sharpen Focus and Open Minds along the same lines. Both arti­cles have some use­ful links to other resources.

There’s another arti­cle, Why Mind­ful­ness and Med­i­ta­tion Are Good for Busi­ness out of the Whar­ton School of Busi­ness, which is an extended inter­view with Kather­ine Klein, vice-​​dean of Wharton’s Social Impact Ini­tia­tive. There is also an audio file for download.

I also came across this More than Sound: art and sci­ence of the mind, which brings together a lot of like-​​minded peo­ple and prod­ucts (audios, books, pod­casts). It’s worth some time to explore the full span of resources.

Congressional record spotlights Ashtanga practice — What?

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In a real media mile­stone in Wash­ing­ton, DC, yoga has made it onto the pages of one of the main­stays of con­gres­sional pol­i­tics, Roll Call, (I can’t say that this is the first time that Roll Call has done a yoga story; see the list­ing below):

Roll Call Around the Hill: The Yoga of Rules: Mysore Yoga Expands in D.C. ”Mysore yoga is an indi­vid­ual prac­tice within a group set­ting. Stu­dents do a set of poses in a pre­scribed order with a spec­i­fied stop­ping point, as deter­mined by the instruc­tor. The poses, called ‘asanas,’ are divided into six series; most stu­dents stay within the first two series, called pri­mary and inter­me­di­ate. Stu­dents new to Mysore (even those with an estab­lished yoga prac­tice) are given a short set of poses to do before they are sent home with instruc­tions to come back the next day. And the fol­low­ing day. And the day after that.”

This was a feature-​​length arti­cle requir­ing three web pages. It did not cover Ash­tanga yoga just as the lat­est fad on the Hill (Mysore prac­tice is any­thing but fad­dish, as my friend Don­a­van Wil­son can tes­tify to.). It went to the trou­ble of explain­ing why Mysore prac­tice is dif­fer­ent from the garden-​​variety vinyasa or hatha class. The story men­tioned five stu­dios offer­ing the Mysore prac­tice so it’s not just a favor for a friend. I did not even know there were six places offer­ing Mysore. Rebecca Gale, the reporter, quotes lead­ing Ash­tanga teach­ers in DC (Peg Mulqueen, Keith Moore, Jen Rene, Tova Steiner and David Ingalls).

Of course, when I did a search for “yoga” in the Roll Call archive, I found 61 arti­cles, some of which prob­a­bly only use the term in pass­ing or as a metaphor. But I did find some sub­stan­tial sto­ries that showed that Roll Call has not ignored the topic. Just another sign that yoga is seap­ing into the US main­stream cul­ture. I should also clar­ify that the online ver­sion of a pub­li­ca­tion may dif­fer­ent sub­stan­tially from the print edition:

I should also note the Wash­ing­ton yoga did make a major splash with the Obama II Inau­gu­ra­tion, as sam­pled by Yoga Dork and prob­a­bly a lot of other places.

I saw this story by chance. It shook me out of my lunch time lan­gor and made me blog about it. When the stars align, I have to cel­e­brate it.

Northern Viriginia Yoga Week

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I am already late off the gun.

June 10-​​17 is the fifth annual offer­ing of the Vir­ginia Yoga Week 2012 and there are 12 yoga cen­ters sup­port­ing the effort. Check out the web site for addi­tional details on activ­i­ties, dis­counted classes and work­shops. It’s a great oppor­tu­nity to sam­ple yoga styles and teachers.

More infor­ma­tion is avail­able at the Wash­ing­ton Post.

Catching up on the DC yoga scene

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I’ve been so absorbed in my day-​​time-​​turned-​​evening job over the past few weeks that I did not have a chance to point to an arti­cle that appeared May 8:

The strug­gles of D.C. area yoga stu­dios – The Wash­ing­ton Post
Yogis don’t like to talk about com­pe­ti­tion, and most own­ers will deny there’s any ten­sion among local stu­dios. But Schu­macher acknowl­edges that the busi­nesses are vying for stu­dents’ attention.

A few weeks ago, I noted the clos­ing of Ash­tanga Yoga Cen­ter at the end of this month. Yoga has to be com­mer­cially viable in order to have an impact on main­stream cul­ture in the United States. The mar­ket is the medium for sus­tain­abil­ity. The Post scratches the sur­face about the costs of oper­at­ing a yoga stu­dio, and “ameni­ties” like cook­ies are the least of own­ers’ con­cerns. To sur­vive, own­ers need to have a cre­ative, flex­i­ble busi­ness mind with­out los­ing touch with the spirit of yoga. That’s a dif­fi­cult bal­anc­ing act. That can include finindg new ways of offer­ing yoga, like com­bin­ing spin­ning and yoga, although tech­ni­cally it’s a fit­ness cen­ter offer­ing the class.

Closer to home, my home stu­dio, Thrive Yoga, offers classes for climbers at Earth Treks. But the new twist at Thrive has been the incor­po­ra­tion of Aer­ial Yoga with Silk Ham­mocks - prac­ti­tion­ers are sus­pended from cords hang­ing from the ceil­ing and play a dif­fer­ent kind of lever­age game with grav­ity. The classes seem to be booked up well in advance. I have not had a chance to try it because I’ve been away from the stu­dio for the last two months.

Oh yeah, May 13-​​20 is DC Yoga Week, as the Post announces, but you can actu­ally read the full details on the DC Yoga Com­mu­nity site, and the tra­di­tional high­light of the cel­e­bra­tion, Yoga on the Mall, will take place on Sat­ur­day, May 19, weather permitting.

Another DC yoga studio bites the dust

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My friend and ded­i­cated Ash­tangi Don­a­van Wil­son sent me a mes­sage today:

David Ingalls is shut­ting down AYC (Ash­tanga Yoga Cen­ter, for those not in the know). The doors close on May 31. The stu­dio space near Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity is too expen­sive. Keith Moore (long-​​time AYC teacher) found another loca­tion. The new loca­tion is unof­fi­cially in the MacArthur Boule­vard area (DC). The ten­ta­tive new name is the Ash­tanga Yoga Stu­dio. Moore has not signed a lease. How­ever, the odds pretty good to solid­ify this new loca­tion. All of this (new space and loca­tion) is up in the air. AYC clos­ing is not.

What a bum­mer! And to think, I have not had a chance to take a class there — though I do have until the end of May. What did in AYC was what made it a con­ve­nient place to prac­tice yoga — it was right next to the Amer­i­can University/​Tenlyetown Metro sta­tion, right across from Whole­Food. You could fit in a Mysore class before pick­ing up a bagel and head­ing to work. But eco­nom­i­cally, the rent got too high at that prime loca­tion. Let’s hope that all the instruc­tors and stu­dents find an appro­pri­ate space for their practice.

I should also under­score that the AYC web­site dis­tin­guished itself for exquis­ite pho­tog­ra­phy of yogis and yogi­nis absorbed in their prac­tice. As some­one who has dab­bled in that dark art, I know how dif­fi­cult it is to cap­ture the instance, but when you do, it’s magic.

Post­script: I should also note that DC is not the only place where yoga stu­dios can become unvi­able com­mer­cially: In New York City, Om Yoga will shut down at the end of June because the lease was not renewed. Om Yoga was founded and run by Cyndi Lee, a high-​​profile yoga instruc­tor and pio­neer in fus­ing yoga with Bud­dhism. The owner of the build­ing did not want a ygoa stu­dio on the premises.

Confirmation of meditation’s impact on the brain

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I’ve been keep­ing my head down lately, but I just noticed the fol­low­ing news item that rein­forces the find­ings of more sci­en­tific research into the impact of med­i­ta­tion on the brain:

The unique brain anatomy of med­i­ta­tion prac­ti­tion­ers: alter­ations in cor­ti­cal gyri­fi­ca­tion appeared in mid-​​March and Sci­ence Daily also did an arti­cle, Evi­dence Builds That Med­i­ta­tion Strength­ens the Brain. The work was done at UCLA Lab­o­ra­tory of Neuro Imag­ing by Eileen Lud­ers and col­leagues. The LONI’s lat­est news announce­ments show the range of their investigations.

I should also point you to The Mind­ful­ness Research Guide which fol­lows the prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of med­i­ta­tion to many human are­nas. There is a monthly newslet­ter that has nearly 5,000 subscribers.

Long feature about an old story

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Where have I been for the past two weeks? I did not even notice that my home­town paper pub­lished a long arti­cle detail­ing the upheaval in the Anusara and broader yoga scene because of John Friend’s misadventures:

Scan­dal con­torts future of John Friend, Anusara yoga: “Friend’s empire — an inter­na­tional net­work that claims more than 1,500 teach­ers, includ­ing 25 in the Wash­ing­ton metro area, and 600,000 stu­dents — is in cri­sis now, tee­ter­ing under the strain of a sex scan­dal that has split its most loyal prac­ti­tion­ers and prompted an astound­ing vent­ing of emo­tions, from rage and recrim­i­na­tions to com­pas­sion and sadness.”

The Wash­ing­ton Post piece was so long that I could not fin­ish — I’m at work right now so I’ll have to come back to it later.

Yoga hits Washington baseball team

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The Nation­als are my home town team so I guess I have to link to a story that appeared in the Wash­ing­ton Times:

It’s not a stretch to say yoga gain­ing pop­u­lar­ity with Nation­als “Stephen Stras­burg, Drew Storen and Bryce Harper also are among yoga devo­tees, with Harper and Storen big believ­ers in Espinosa’s pre­ferred Bikram yoga — a class that’s held in a room kept at 115 degrees.

Ryan Zim­mer­man, Jayson Werth and Steve Lom­bar­dozzi also par­tic­i­pated in a once-​​weekly class at Nation­als Park this off­sea­son with strength and con­di­tion­ing coach John Philbin and a pri­vate instructor.”

Each new sea­son of every sport, we get a fresh crop of sport news about a pro­fes­sional (uni­ver­sity or high school) ball player tak­ing up yoga to improve his/​her per­for­mance. It doesn’t mat­ter what sport. I turned the TV on the other evening and the Ten­nis Chan­nel was show­ing a fea­ture on a ten­nis camp that included “mind­ful­ness” in prac­ti­cally every instruc­tion to the trainees. The sci­ence is pilling up so high now that an ath­lete may actu­ally feel that not includ­ing yoga and related dis­ci­plines in a train­ing regime puts him/​her at a com­pet­i­tive disadvantage. 

Broga is latest rage in Martha’s Vineyard

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WBUR Boston Flex­i­ble Men Try Broga — Yoga For Bros is really about one guy teach­ing a class for men.

Broga is not a money maker yet and adding a class on the main­land is a huge com­mit­ment for Sidoti. Every Sat­ur­day he takes a 6 a.m. ferry from Martha’s Vine­yard, which takes him to a bus, which takes him to a sub­way. Then, after a 20-​​minute walk, he arrives at the stu­dio for a 10 a.m. class.

If they develop a reg­u­lar fol­low­ing at the new loca­tion, Sidoti and O’Neill say the next step for Broga is find­ing and train­ing instruc­tors in other cities. Even­tu­ally, they’d like to offer a full range of instruc­tion videos online.

Doug Tribuo, the author, prob­a­bly did not do enough research into yoga in Amer­ica to learn about all the male infil­tra­tion that already exists in main­stream yoga in Amer­ica, from Dia­mond Dal­las Page and his Yoga for Reg­u­lar Guys: The Best Damn Work­out on the Planet to Hot Nude Yoga. So this is not the first time that a stu­dio or teacher put together a rou­tine that meant to attract men to the mat. It’s just that a reporter who usu­ally focuses on sports dis­cov­ered  this mar­ket­ing angle, which may seem catchy a first glance, but won’t build up much mar­ket momen­tum after the first jokes have died down.

I felt com­pelled to blog about it because I am a male doing yoga (I believe that a 61-​​year old does not qual­ify as a “bro.”

The radio audio is also available.

Crime stains a yoga gear store /​ updated

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Washon­g­ton Post - Woman killed, another sex­u­ally assaulted at Bethesda Lul­ule­mon store (the orig­i­nal story of the break-​​in at Lul­ule­mon Athletica):

Police declined to say how the homi­cide vic­tim, iden­ti­fied as 30-​​year-​​old Jayna T. Mur­ray, of Arling­ton, was killed. But law enforce­ment sources con­firmed a hor­rific, bloody scene inside Lul­ule­mon Ath­let­ica, part of a chain of stores that began pop­ping up across the coun­try a few years ago. The stores sell yoga and sports cloth­ing and are designed to give shop­pers a sense of calm.

Sad to see that a place where yoga is prac­ticed (Lul­ule­mon fre­quently holds yoga ses­sion in their com­mer­cial space) is tainted by this crim­i­nal vio­lence. It really seems odd because this is a part of Bethesda that should be extremely busy, even fol­low­ing the clos­ing of shops. This kind of crime is rare around the DC area so I can fathom why it happened.

Update: Full list of sto­ries  both from the Wash­ing­ton Examiner.

Sec­ond Update (March 21): Brit­tney Nor­wood appeared in court today (March 21) for killing Jayna Mur­ray, accord­ing to the Wash­ing­ton Post. Over the week­end, police work turned Nor­wood from a vic­tim of sex­ual assault to the per­pe­tra­tor of the mur­der, appar­ently to avoid being uncov­ered as with stolen mer­chan­dise. Jayna’s par­ents went on national TV this morn­ing to talk about her life.

This story is so bizarre and dis­con­cert­ing, even after the orig­i­nal tale of two men dress in black stalk­ing Bethesda com­mer­cial real estate came unrav­eled. You just don’t expect yoga to be the back­drop for an act of vio­lence wor­thy of crime novel.

Lat­est Update: The Wash­ing­ton Post pro­vides a full write-​​up about the court appear­ance and Norwood’s back­ground. This will prob­a­bly not be the last we hear of this tragedy.