our-yoga

Practice this morning was very nice and refreshing. Especially the backbends. After dropping back and coming back up three times, I succeeded in grabbing my heels in Chakrabandhasana for about two breaths. And then I tipped my center of gravity a little too far back, lost my balance, came down onto my forearms, and ended up in this position:

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My wee one is four months old now and I can barely believe it. I still look at her nearly every day and think... "How cool is it that I made that little person!?" But even though it still seems like she's an extension of me, I know that she's growing and will be more and more independent. Some day, she's going to do things that really annoy me--like get big, grow out of her clothes, and disagree with everything I'm working so hard to teach her right now. I bet she'll even develop her own thoughts about life. And, if she's anything like her momma, she'll want nothing to do with the things I like and find her own interests and hobbies...  Sigh.

That's OK. I figure I still have at least a couple of years before she realizes that her mommy is lame. Until that day comes, I'm going to do my best to brainwash.. err.. guide my little cherub to enjoy the things that I think will help her in life. That means yoga.

I jumped (well, I eased very slowly) back into my yoga practice when she was five weeks old so she's been watching me practice yoga since then. And she practices some pretty lovely, effortless poses herself. But my favorite time of the day is when I read one of these yoga books together.



How do you share yoga with your little ones? Do you have any favorite children's books about yoga? I'd love to add to our collection.

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Or in Kapotasana, for that matter. Last night, I had another bizarre dream. I seem to be having a lot of these lately (see, for instance, previous post). And I know you probably aren't particularly interested in reading about my dreams, but right now, I think they are probably more interesting to read about than my practice. My practice is not bad; it's chugging along, but there's nothing particularly ground-breaking to report on the practice front, so unless you really want to hear about every single little sensation I had in every single asana, I'll spare you the details.

So, last night's dream. This one is not about yoga, but is about martial arts. In fact, the whole dream feels a bit like a Bruce Lee movie or a video-game. Or maybe it is what a video-game based upon a Bruce Lee movie would feel like, if one were ever made. Anyway, this is how it goes:

I find myself on the roof-top of a tall building. Somehow, I need to break into the building, which is heavily guarded (very Bruce-Lee-movie-esque). And the only way into the building is by going into and down this long plastic slide that looks kind of like a slide at a water park, except it's dry. So I slide down the slide. As I am sliding down, I hear movement behind me; somebody (probably somebody evil) is coming down the slide behind me.

As I come out of the slide and emerge into a room in the building, I look behind me, and see that the person following me is this bald wiry guy with a little beard. He is holding what looks like a giant unfolded paper clip in his hands; somehow, I know that he kind of loops this giant unfolded paper clip over the neck of his victims, and strangles them that way. The funny thing is, I know that, and yet I allow him to do that to me. So I get strangled by the giant paper clip, and die. Game over. But somehow, I get to push a restart button somewhere (yeah, just like in a video-game), and I get to fight the guy again. This time, I snatch the paper clip from his hands before he can do anything to me. I stab him with the sharp ends of the paper clip, and kill him.

And then I get to opponent number 2 (again, just like a video-game). This guy is like an old-school karate master. He is dressed in a karate uniform, and politely insists on us having tea together before starting the fight. So we sit down at a nearby table, and sip some tea together. But it's hard to enjoy the tea when you know you're either about to get your ass kicked or kick the other guy's ass. But I go along with him anyway, and try to enjoy the tea as much as I can. I take a closer look at him, and realize that he's really well-built and muscular, and kind of looks like Carter Wong from Big Trouble in Little China:

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Of late, the Ashtanga blogosphere seems to be abuzz in a festive, "workshop-ey" mood. Grimmly will be going to Richard Freeman's workshop/intensive in London in a couple of days. And a couple of days ago, Micqui mused on her blog about going on the perfect Ashtanga yoga world tour.

As for me, this year appears to be shaping out to be the Year of Home Practice. Which is really an euphemism for the Year of No Workshops or Intensives: None of the grand Ashtanga travel plans that I made earlier this year have taken shape. The Mysore trip fell through. So did my plan earlier this summer to go study with Angela Jamison in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And judging from the way things seem to be panning out, it is very unlikely that I will get to go to any workshops for the rest of the year: Money and time seem to be in rather short supply. But maybe I shouldn't condemn my prospects in this area in this way just yet: Things sometimes have a way of working out. We'll see.

But as far as things have gone this year, it seems that I have out-Grimmlied Grimmly.... I mean, even the famous Grimmly, he of Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama Yoga at Home fame, is going to a workshop in a couple of days. Whereas I--with the exception of a couple of trips down to the Twin Cities to practice at the Yoga House--have been practicing exclusively at home this entire year. Hmm... maybe I should rename this blog Yoga in the Dragon's Den at Home...

Hmm... this post is shaping up to be too much of a poor-me, pity-party kind of post. So let me see if I can change the topic a little. Well, let's see... How about this? I actually had a really strange yoga dream last night. Let me try to, ahem, regale you with the details of the dream. And maybe if you're into dream interpretation, you can also try your hand at giving me some suggestions as to what the dream might mean, given the present state of my yoga life. So here goes:

I am in Florida, in the home of this Kundalini teacher who used to teach at the same yoga studio that I taught at when I was going to grad school in Florida. A bit of background information here: This teacher isn't a typical Kundalini teacher. I mean, she doesn't wear a turban, nor does she have any Sikh name. She typically shows up for class in a dance leotard, and she has great asana prowess (at least as great as mine, hahaha...). Well, actually, I really don't know enough about Kundalini to know whether the typical Kundalini teacher wears a turban and/or has a Sikh name, so I may be unwittingly perpetuating a stereotype. My apologies to all of you Kundalini people out there. If you know something about this, please share.

Anyway, back to my dream. So as I was saying, I am in the home of this leotard-wearing-asanaly-powerful Kundalini teacher. For some reason, I decide to start doing my practice right there in her living room. So I set my Mysore rug down, and start working my way through the Suryas. And for some reason, there is a woman next to me whom I've never seen before who is doing Pilates on a Pilates mat. And for some reason, I suddenly decide to find out what time it is. I look at my cell phone, and discover that it is four in the morning. Upon discovering the time, I immediately realize that none of this can be real: I never wake up that early to practice, and even if I do, why would I go all the way to this teacher's living room to practice? And that was when I realized I was in a dream (I believe this is called lucid dreaming?). But I made no attempt to wake up, and decided to just go with the dream, and see what happens. As an aside: If you ever find yourself in a lucid dream, and decide you want to wake up (maybe you don't like the way the dream is going, or whatever...), just drop back into a backbend in the dream. Yes, drop back. Even if you actually can't do a dropback in your waking life. Trust me, it works every time (I've tried it before).

But back to the dream. As I was saying, I decided to go with the dream, and see how it unfolded... where was I? Oh okay, I look at my cell phone, and discover it is four in the morning. So I continue with my practice, right there in that teacher's living room. And I discover that my body is unbelievably stiff and tight: My hamstrings and hips were all tight and out of alignment in Trikonasana! Damn! Should have woken up! But I continue with my practice anyway. And then the teacher approaches me, and tells me that she is going to go practice at the studio with a friend. A few minutes later, her friend arrives. And this friend turns out to be this guy whom I used to hang out and watch kung fu movies with in Florida. Hmm... I didn't even know they knew each other... are they seeing each other or something? Kundalini Woman, Kungfu Movie Dude... Quite a couple, don't you think? They'll probably end up having a kid who goes on to create a hybrid style called Kundalini Kungfu, hahaha...

Well, okay, I think I'm probably straying into the realm of the politically incorrect, maybe even into the realm of the downright disrespectful. Again, apologies to all of you Kundalini folks out there. You wouldn't take the rantings of an Ashtanga Fundamentalist too seriously, would you? In any case, I can't remember what happened after this in the dream, but I'm pretty sure I woke up soon after.

End of dream.


I hope you find the dream entertaining. And if you have any interpretations, please feel free to share. I guess I'll also say one more thing about my lack of yoga travel this year. Even though I have been pretty much stuck in my little corner of the upper midwest yoga-wise, I have to say that I have made a few breakthroughs in my asana practice, especially in floating in the Suryas and in my ability to grab my heels in Chakrabandhasana by myself, although the latter still comes and goes. In addition, I have also successfully practiced with and am healing very well from a couple of injuries (the knee injury that I sustained last year, as well as my strained trapezius dating from a few weeks ago). So all in all, practice has been good, even if I haven't been to any workshops. Maybe this is as it should be. Maybe all Ashtangis need to go through a period of extended self-practice in order to consolidate what they have learned. Wasn't it Richard Freeman who said somewhere that Ashtanga yoga is kungfu for hermits? Well, greetings to you from a crazy upper-mid-western Chinese hermit :-)      

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Ok, so I have mixed feelings about the Yoga Alliance in general but I don't really want to get into that debate here. So please don't take this post to be a structured or informed discussion on the YA - it's just my personal perspective.

So yes, although I am a yoga teacher, I am not registered with the Yoga Alliance. I used to maintain my registration, but recently I let it expire and decided not to renew it or update my membership with my 500hour certification.

Most of my reasons for this are practical: I don't run any courses or offer any certificates, I'm not employed by a yoga studio or anyone else who requires or prefers their teachers to be registered, and since I don't teach yoga for money (I collect donations through my classes, and those go to charity), I don't need professional insurance. Even if I did, I don't think that YA registration is a requirement to teach yoga or be insured for it - certainly not where I live!

So from a practical perspective, I don't see the point. Why should I pay the YA $80 per year so that I can have a few letters next to my name? What do I get out of it?

The YA, on their website say that I should register to "enhance my credibility" as a yoga teacher, since their "designations are the premier forms of recognition for Yoga teachers".  According to their criteria posted online, if I were to register, I could call myself an "E-RYT 200, RYT 500", which sounds pretty impressive and gives me a momentary ego-boost, but that's really about it. Oh, except they will send me a graphic image that I can use on my marketing materials. Ooooooh.

What bothers me is that there's no method of really verifying those certifications and what they mean. So while I support the notion of having set standards for yoga teacher training, what good is a standard if it's not upheld?  Yes, I have to scan and upload my YTT certificates, but nobody verifies the quality of those teachings or the standard of my knowledge. I would also have to log my continuing education hours, which are also unverified, and finally, my teaching hours, which, again, nobody has to verify. So I could easily pretend that I have tons of continuing education and thousands on teaching hours, even if this weren't true. Now I know we expect all yogis to be honest, but let's be honest - not everybody is!

This strikes me as a pretty big problem for something that claims to be the international industry standard in yoga teaching.  Of course, as yoga becomes more widespread, I suspect we will see more state or country-based regulation of yoga teachers, as in some countries already, which has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. But in the meantime, I don't think I'll be re-registering with the YA anytime soon.

The only thing i can think of that would make me change my mind would be if I wanted to teach on courses or offer my own trainings, in which case I think itis only fair to give students the option of registering with the YA themselves. Of course, I might think differently if I were employed by a studio or trying to teach full-time - what do you readers think?

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This blogging business is a funny thing. Recently, I have found myself going for days without writing a single post. But then this is my second post for today. It really does come and go, the blogging muse...

But I'm writing now because I just read this really honest and funny and heartfelt post on Patrick Nolan's blog about going to Mysore and getting authorized. Patrick relates how when he first started practicing Ashtanga, he asked his teacher, Greg Nardi, what he needed to do in order to teach Ashtanga. In response, Greg explained that:

'in our thing (please forgive the gratuitous mafia movie reference) the only way it could happen is that I would have to schlep over to India not once, but several times at least, my response was understandable-- "Fuck that, I'm going to sign up for the 200 hour teacher training at the 23rd street yoga shala."'

Eventually, Patrick did go to Mysore, and has now completed his third trip there. He writes:

"In addition to my time with Sharath, I have been extensively trained by teachers of international renown.  I teach yoga full-time for a living and am solvent in doing so.  My asana practice is somewhat strong.  I have a grasp of, and a keen interest in, yogic philosophy.  But I am still not authorized.  Didn't happen this trip.  I was pretty fucking bummed when Sharath didn't call me into his office after my last practice this morning.  Although this disappointment is something of a taboo, I confess this freely and openly.  We're supposed to go to India to learn from Sharath for its own sake, not to be chasing a certificate."

I really like Patrick's brutal and uncompromising honesty concerning his own feelings ("was pretty fucking bummed"...) about not being authorized. I think that talking about authorization in this open and honest way takes a lot of the mystery and emotional charge out of this delicate issue.

Patrick concludes his post by saying:

"One's ability to carry on and convey the message of our lineage should be assessed by Sharath and Sharath alone.  To bring back the mafia analogy, chain of command is very important our thing.  Sharath seems pretty deeply intuitive to me.  I resolve to trust his judgement in these matters, and to keep returning to Mysore, authorization or no."

I like the Mafia analogy. If I may extend the analogy even further, I guess I must be a Mafia foot soldier, since I have yet to go to Mysore :-) Well, hopefully someday in the future, I will go to Mysore, rise up in the ranks of the Mafia. And then maybe (just maybe) one day Sharath might call me into his office and make me an offer I can't refuse...

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Brokelandia - Bikram Blows from Brokelandia on Vimeo.

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I just read Bindy's latest post, in which she commented on this recent article on MindBodyGreen titled "I Love Yoga... But It Didn't Help Me Love My Body." I haven't been following much news or yoga trivia online lately; I've been focusing on and blogging mainly about my own personal life and practice. But I think this article brings up a couple of issues that are worth thinking about.

As you can probably tell from the title, the author of the article, "a high-energy former collegiate athlete", relates her own story about how yoga hasn't helped her to overcome her body image issues, despite whatever other good things it may have done for her. I don't feel like I should argue with her experience. After all, when all is said and done, yoga is probably like everything else under the sun: It works for some people in some ways, it works for others in other ways, and it simply doesn't do anything at all for others. And I probably have body image issues of my own too, so I won't comment on what she has to say about body image issues either.

What I do want to comment on is this rather innocuous thing she said somewhere in the middle of the article:

'As a yoga teacher and a soccer coach – two positions in which I want to be a positive role model – I often end up feeling like a failure if I look in the mirror and think, “Eh.”'

What's with this need to be a "positive role model" in yoga? I mean, sure, if you are looking at being a yoga teacher on a purely professional level, then being a yoga teacher is, in this way, very much like being a high school math teacher or a gym teacher. A math teacher teaches math, a yoga teacher teaches yoga. Just as a high school math teacher would want to model certain behaviors or attitudes that her students would hopefully emulate, a yoga teacher as a professional would probably also want to model certain behaviors or attitudes that her students would emulate. On a purely technical physical level, these might include things like proper alignment in asana, proper breathing, etc. And on a slightly less physical level, these would also include things like having a love for the practice. And perhaps there are also things that the teacher should not model, such as showing favoritism to particular students, fraternalizing with particular students, or having inappropriate sexual relations with students.    

And the list of things that one should role model or not role model as a professional yoga teacher goes on and on. I suspect that one can probably write an entire book on all these things, if one cares to do so.

Now is it just me, or are you starting to feel that talking about all these things to model or not to model as a professional yoga teacher is getting a bit exhausting? If, like me, you are also starting to feel a bit exhausted from thinking in this way, but don't know why you are feeling this way, please allow me to enlighten you (I know, I'm being very immodest today. Please bear with me...). Well, here's why this way of thinking is so exhausting: Being a yoga teacher is more than just being a "professional". It is true that on a purely practical everyday level, yoga teachers, like anybody else who tries to make a living teaching something, need to be held accountable for their actions and practices in the classroom. Hence there need to be standards governing yoga teaching as a profession, standards which tell teachers what they should or should not do or model, and which protect students and teachers alike.

But ultimately, being a yoga teacher is more than just a profession. It is ultimately a... I don't have a name for what I am trying to describe here. Well, let me put it this way: When was the last time you heard somebody say that she wants to be a yoga teacher so that she can be a positive role model as a yoga teacher? Doesn't this just sound... weird? I mean, in the universe in which I live, people decide to be yoga teachers because they have personally felt the power of the practice within their own lives, and they feel a strong desire or calling to share this powerful thing with others. It just so happens that the way to go about doing this is to become a yoga teacher, and to accept all the responsibilities and roles that come with being in this position. It is only when the individual decides to take this step of sharing her practice with others that all these considerations of adhering to certain professional standards and being a role model comes into play. Not the other way around: People don't want to become role models, and then decide to become yoga teachers because being a yoga teacher fits this mold of being a role model. Or at least they shouldn't: I dare say that anybody who thinks in this way--who puts becoming a role model before being somebody who simply loves the practice and wants to share it with others--is setting herself up for occupational burnout. How can she not, when she is preoccupied all the time about what she should or should not do, or what she should or should not role model? And this seems to be what is going on with the author of this article. And maybe, just maybe, it could also be aggravating her body image issues ("Am I looking as fit and healthy as I should be? Am I as slim and lithe as I should be? Do I look like I care too much about being fit and healthy and slim and lithe? Oh no! What should I do?! What should I think?!...").

To use a very cliched phrase: Where's the love? Where's the heart that burns for the practice in any of this? But maybe I simply live in a very different universe from the one everybody else seems to be inhabiting. Does this mean I'm crazy? Or maybe everybody else is...         

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This morning I spent an hour looking for my iPhone. I searched in all the usual places: under the covers of my bed, the bathroom counter, my desk... I even went outside onto the back porch to see if I left it on the railing when I let the dog out and opened the washing machine to see if it could have fallen in. It was nowhere to be found. I checked all of its usual hiding places again... and again... and again.

In a near panic, I opened my laptop and sent my husband an urgent message. "I can't find my phone anywhere! Will you call me?"

I was ready to make my rounds again listening for the familiar vibrating I hear 10,000 times a day. I'd have to move quickly from room to room so I wouldn't miss its subtle buzz.

Finally, my husband answered. "Dude. I have you phone!" (Yes, my husband addresses me as "Dude" half the time. Isn't that sweet?) "I have no idea how that happened. I'll bring it to you. Give me 15 minutes." Phone thief. He must have picked it up by accident thinking it was his.

Relief.

As I was waiting for my beloved to arrive (the phone, that is... well, the husband, too), it dawned on me how completely ridiculous the whole interaction was--and how dependent I am on my iPhone. When I lose it the first places I look are in my sheets and my bathroom counters? What is wrong with this picture!? Ridiculous!

Then I panic. What if someone tried to send me a text message and I missed it? What if my daughter does something cute and I can't take a picture of it and immediately post it to Facebook? What if I wanted to walk away from my computer.. and I couldn't refresh my email inbox every 30 seconds? What if it was lost forever?!

It's true. Smartphones have dramatically changed our lives. But they also have robbed us of the ability to live our lives without constant worry. Actually, it's not fair to blame the technology--I should blame my inability to create boundaries for the use of the technology instead. It's ironic, though, that I feel like I can't be without my phone for an hour because I might miss something, when on a daily basis I actually spend so much time refreshing the browser on my phone--or computer, or tablet, or other tablet (I have one upstairs and one downstairs.. yes, really!)--that I'm missing out on things that are actually happening right in front of me. You can bet that when the day seems to get away with me and I've accomplished little it's because I was so worried about what was happening in the virtual world that I wasn't present in the real world for an entire day. It's sad. And it's STUPID.

How do you create boundaries around technology so you can enjoy your life more fully, more mindfully, and live in the present? Obviously, I could use some pointers.

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I usually don't weigh in on the heavy yoga debates, and I'm not about to start now. I have the curse of always being able to see both sides of an issue. But this article about how a woman quit yoga after an injury has been making the rounds and caught my attention.

A few bloggers have criticised the author of the article for quitting, but personally, I don't see that as an issue. Yoga is a personal practice, not a panacea. It's not right for everyone and not everyone will like it. Some people will quit.  So what? The author of the article made her choice, learned something about herself in the process, and found a physical practice that she thought suited her better. It sounds like a happy ending to me.

The issue that I have is that this woman was medically diagnosed with high blood pressure and was not aware, or made aware, of the potential impacts, or told that she shouldn't be doing inversions, especially not intense inversions like headstand and handstand.  The resulting injury she suffered led her to quit yoga, rather than to quit inversions - which is her personal choice and it's really not my place to judge, opine, or argue with that. It's a free world, as they say.

From my perspective, reacting to tales of yoga injuries by denying them, defending yoga, or attacking the injured person or their teacher is not a constructive response. Yoga-asana is a physical discipline and the possibility of injury is always there. Find me one yoga practitioner who has never felt the twinge of over-stretching a muscle, fallen over while attempting a balancing pose, received a bad adjustment, or simply wound up feeling dizzy or nauseous while practicing. I think it's our responsibility to acknowledge that the risks are there and to do our best to become safe and knowledgeable practitioners and teachers. We need to remember that the principles of Ahimsa (non-harming), Aparigraha (non-grasping), and Satya (being truthful), among others, are more important to a yoga practice, or teaching yoga, than the asanas.

Being a pragmatist, I have tried to draw out some lessons from this story, and here are a few that I can think of.

1. If you have a medical condition, discuss it with your doctor and your yoga teacher, and do your own research, so that you can make safe choices - and then make them! (Ahimsa!) Don't make the mistake that this woman made, of keeping silent about her new medical condition and finding out the hard way what the consequences were. If neither of them know what to tell you, find a new doctor or a new teacher! And of course, do the research yourself - including drawing on your personal practice - so that you can make safe choices. Everyone is different - it's ok to explore and test your boundaries and find out where your personal limits are - but don't ignore them (Aparigraha - let go!).

2. If you are a teacher, know your contra-indications and always state them. (Satya!) In the reality of teaching large-group classes, we can't always know the medical histories of each and every one of our students. But we can take 10 seconds to make sure we talk about the contra-indications of the classes we are teaching and the poses we are instructing.  Especially with "higher-risk" poses like inversions. [I say higher risk because in a person with untreated high blood pressure, holding a long inversion could potentially lead to serious medical complications, possibly even a stroke. And that deserves to be taken seriously.]

• Because students often come in late, what I have found best is to make a short announcement after the opening meditation or when I bring the class to standing for the first time. I talk about the level of the class, and if it's a physically demanding class (as I usually teach), I warn people that it might not be appropriate if they are pregnant, or have medical conditions or injuries. 
• When I talk about contra-indications, I often say "please". As in, "were going to do shoulderstand now, but if you have high blood pressure, please don't go into this pose straight away - just relax until I can come around to you".

This also means learning about conditions that might affect your students as they age - more and more people are practicing or even starting yoga in their golden years, and it's worth the extra study to find out about osteopenia/osteoporosis, high blood pressure or Type II diabetes, for example.
 

3. If you are a teacher, create a safe space, and actively encourage people to acknowledge their bodies' limitations and explore alternatives.  This doesn't mean you can, or should, force people to stay within artificially drawn boundaries. But you should be able to set the foundation for your students to make informed choices, and create an atmosphere where nobody feels pressured to go too far. (Ahimsa again!)

I'd love your comments and thoughts... Readers, from your experience, what would you add to these suggestions?

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Over the last week or so, I made a very interesting discovery while practicing dropbacks and standups. Quite simply, it's this: How evenly you distribute your weight in your feet during dropbacks directly impacts the quality of your backbend.

This is how I came upon this discovery. Over the last week or so, I found myself paying more attention to my feet during dropbacks. Why did I suddenly start paying attention to this part of my body during dropbacks? Well, no particular reason, really. It's just that, after you have been dropping back and standing up for a while (in my case, it's been more than two years since the first time I dropped back and came back up successfully), you stop treating dropping back and standing up as this thing in the practice to be gotten over with quickly. And once you stop seeing it as something to be gotten over with quickly, you also start to stay in and with the pose more, and pay more attention to the sensations created by the placement of various parts of the body.  And if you are walking your hands towards your feet in backbends (like I am), you can't help looking at the feet :-)

And so it was that sometime last week, I noticed that over the last two years, I have had a tendency to place more weight on the inside rather than on the outside of the feet (I think the technical term for this is "supination", although I'm not 100 percent certain about this, and I'm feeling too lazy to google it right now :-)). I think I do this because I try too hard to rotate the thighs inward, so much so that I supinate the feet in order to bring the thighs closer together.

Anyway, the moment I noticed this tendency last week, I asked myself, "Hmm.... is this right? Shouldn't the weight be evenly distributed on the feet in all postures, including backbends?" The moment I pondered this question, I decided to try shifting more of the weight onto the outside of the feet, in order to balance out the weight placement. The moment I did this, the quality of the backbend changed: Somehow, I could feel more of the backbend in my front body rather than in my back.

This morning, I made another discovery. As I walked my hands towards my feet in dropbacks, I reminded myself again to try to shift more of the weight to the outside of the feet without sacrificing the inner rotation of the thighs. I discovered that once I did that, it also became easier for me to lift my vertebrae out of and away from the pelvis, creating more space in the spine. This gave the entire backbend a lighter, more expansive feeling, not to mention protecting the vertebrae from compression.

One of my teachers, Eddie Modestini, always emphasized that the feet are the foundation of the asanas, and that if you take care of the feet, everything takes care of itself. I always thought that applied mainly to standing asanas. But I guess it applies to backbends too. Then again, if you think about it, dropbacks and standups are also standing asanas. Pretty cool, don't you think? ;-)     

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I've definitely had fashion on my mind lately. Of course I'm more worried about what my sweet baby girl wears right now. I change her clothes several times a day--sometimes due to diaper leakage, sometimes just for photo opportunities. Even though I rarely find myself in a yoga studio these days, yoga clothes are my go-to for my home practice and grocery store runs. (I figure I only have a few more months when it will be acceptable to wear yoga clothes 24-7 so I might as well take advantage of it!)

I love seeing what the yoga clothing companies come out with for Fall. Here are a few of the new and noteworthy things I've noticed in the new collections.

Studio Spirit Wrap by Lucy

Yummy knit cover ups. I love these for their versatility because they are just as appropriate for everyday errands over a blouse with jeans. All the big brand yoga clothes companies seem to have something light and drapey that's perfect for before class or to bundle up for Savasana or meditation, but you can just as easily find a cute functional sweater at a department store for less. I can't wait for it to cool off enough for me to start wearing mine!

Zen Layer Back Tank by ALO

Royal Blue. Zobha's blue looks a little purpley. ALO's is a little brighter. Both are right on par with the trend in general fashion (well, if Project Runway's winning dress is any indication anyway.) I love this blue! It's dramatic, fun, and wearable any season of the year.

Ayana Pant by Prana

Miniskirt Pant. It's a legging with a kirt-like fabric covering just a little bum. I like to keep things positive, but this one confuses me. It doesn't seem very flattering to the hip/thigh area. I'm not sure what the functional purpose is since it doesn't even provide much coverage. On the plus side it does look different than every other legging, which is nice.

No Limits Tank by Lululemon

Peekaboo Bra. I hated this idea until I tried one of these tanks on. Now I'm a believer. I must not be the only one because Lulullemon is making two styles the No Limits Tank and the Turbo Tank. It's modest, but still shows off the body (teachers cam see alignment of shoulders). It gives that soft, drapey look that's so in right now, but without showing skin in inversions. Plus the mesh keeps you cool and dry.

Hangout Tee by Be Present

Vote! This is an election year, and yogis are getting political. I love the idea of YogaVotes, a nonprofit backed by Off the Mat, Into the World that encourages yoga students to get out there and vote. This shirt by Be Present isn't new for Fall (I don't think), but a stylish way to send a message: I'm a yogi and I care about what happens in the world around me.

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities