Prana Magazine Fall 2012 by Nicole McKinnon

prana the pe a c e i ns i de.

6 Tips to

BIKRAM YOGA 1

IS INYENGAR YOGA RIGHT FOR YOU? 5

“Th e re is no n e e d for templ es, no n e e d for compl icate d ph i losoph i es. My brai n an d my h eart are my templ es; my ph i losophy is ki n dn ess.” Dalai Lama

BREATHING LESSONS

THE BENEFITS OF PRANAYAMA 9

YOGA IN PARIS

JAN BENZEL SHARES HER ADVENTURE 13

FEEL THE VIBRATI N By Diane Anderson

November 7 2012

contents HOT YOGA | Tom Matlack An inspiring story and tips to doing Bikram Yoga.

IYENGAR YOGA | Ann Pizer All you need to know about Iyengar Yoga.

BREATHING LESSONS | Tony Briggs

Aproaches to Pranayama Yoga and the physics that go along with the practice.

9 YOGA IN PARIS | Jan Benzel Jan tells of her adventure with yoga during her stay in Paris.

WHERE ARE ALL THE MEN? | Andrew Tilin The answers & the pros and cons of men doing yoga.

WAVE THEORY | Elizabeth Winter Surfing lessons gives Elizabeth a new approach to yoga.

EAT LIKE A YOGI | Dayna Macy

The benefits a tips to eating like a yogi.

26 FEEL THE VIBRATION | Diane Anderson Hear what professional musicians have to say about yoga.

editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s letter In high school I ran 5 five miles, lifted weights, and did agility training everyday. Cross country and and track and field were my life. Keeping my body in prestine condition consumed my mind. My junior and senior year of high school I placed 6th in the state of Florida for the 300 hurdles. Nearing graduation my coach encouraged me to run in college. As much as I loved running I knew in my heart it was time to move on. I had been competitively running since third grade and I was simply burnt out. It was time for me to move on, grow and experience new things in college. My freshman year at Flagler College in St Augustine was one of the most exciting years of my life. My room mate, who I was randomly placed with, to this day remains my best friend. I met such a variety of people and traveled to places I didnt picture I would go to so soon in life. With my new hectic life cross country and track were pushed to the past. I still tried to make it to the gym every once in awhile to pick up some weights and sometimes I would go for long runs on the beach. Unfortunately I didnt do this often enough and soon I started to notice I was loosing my endurance and strength. It was about time for me to get my act together and get healthy again. Thankfully I discovered Bikram Yoga. I had never been to any type of yoga class before but I was familiar with a few poses and my mom used to do hot yoga so I had an idea of what to expect. I went to my first yoga class open minded at a small studio on Anasatia Island. I loved it. During the 90 minute class all your day to day stress is pushed aside and your mind is utterly clear. The only thing you are thinking of during this time is your body and breathe. Bikram became my escape; my happy place. After that first class I immidiately became a member and would go to classes a few times a week. Its been years and I still am a faithful Bikram yogi. Although Bikram holds a special place in my heart I have also done other forms of yoga such as Pranayama and Iyengar. The art of yoga has a special power that helps yogis find their peace of mind while at the same time physically improving your health and well being. There are numerous forms of yoga, for example, Hatha, Vinyasa, Pranama, and Iyengar. All of which focus on different aspect of you body and mind. This diversity of yoga gives potential students the opportunity to choose which yoga is right for them. Prana was created to give the reader insight into these differnt forms of yogas, from the basics of each to the personal effects they have had on individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives. Prana also reveals not only the facts about different types of yogas but the culture and history that follows each one. Every issue of Prana will feature a different part of the world and how yoga is playing a part in those societies.

Editor, Nicole McKinnon

HOT YOGA

E ight years ago, I was a burned-out, divorced venture capitalist with two kids and a pathetic

By Tom Matlack

like cleansing in some deep way that left me lighter and freer than I had ever experienced before. love life. As a last-ditch effort at getting a life, I I realized that during the lunch hour class, my decided to try something that faintly reminded me of the workouts I did as a collegiate rower, despite brain had turned off. For once I wasn’t thinking about my deals, my kids, my ex-wife’s anger, or the fact that the activity also reminded me of my mother who has been a yogi for years (I could the women I wished I could date. I listened to my breath, in and out, and that was it. digress into deep Freudian theory here, but that I started practicing in February, 2002 and in would hardly be relaxing). So I started doing hot yoga at a studio a couple June of that same year I met Elena. I am sure blocks from my office. At first it felt uncomfortable that there were many things that went into the and made me dizzy, and sometimes I did little else significance of that event. I’m not prepared to give hot yoga ALL the credit. But it provided me but go in and sweat while doing child’s pose. But from the very start I noticed unexpected changes. with a foundation; a place to go in my soul, when I slept like a baby. Seriously, when I got home after confronted with the woman of my dreams sitting literally across the table from me. doing hot yoga I had to get into bed early. The We were married that December and are comsleep was blissful. No nightmares, no clenched ing up on eight years together. jaws, just pure relaxation. Doing hot yoga can be very intimidating, dependI felt more at ease with myself in my day-to-day interactions with people in my life. The people who ing on the exact form you are undertaking. So here are a few helpful hints to get you past the always bothered me bothered me just a little less. initial few classes so that you can reap the beneKind of like a sweat lodge, the process of goinginto that hot oven and moving my body felt fits. Who knows, maybe you will meet the man or woman of your dreams as a result!

Hydrate Like You Never Have Before Iwater t’s a good idea to drink water, or better yet, a sports drink, before going to class. Bring into class with you (it’s usually for sale there too) and drink water from the beginning of the class to the end. Then drink tons of water afterwards to replenish. Novices don’t understand just how much water your body will lose. Dehydration is danger and will make it impossible to enjoy any of the benefits of hot yoga.

Only Do A Little At First

A n hour or an hour and a half doing yoga in a hot room when you are not used to it is a very long time. If you start too fast and hit the wall, there will be no coming back. I have

done it more than once and it’s no fun. So just do a little the first few classes. If you are there on your mat, everything else is gravy. Learn child’s pose first and revert to it often to

Dont Compare Yourself To Others If you need to follow someone else to figure out what the heck is going on, that is fine; but in the end you are going to want to keep your eyes focused internally. Every body is different, so every person doing the same yoga pose looks different. There is no right way. Your way is the right way. Alignment comes from just breathing and listening to your

Try Not To Fidget

T his comes over time, but the natural tendency is to keep making small movements to distract ourselves. The idea is to cultivate stillness on the mat. The end of the practice is always a resting pose lying on your back. One instructor told me that the hardest thing for him was to be still during the restorative poses. I agree. But this is also where the relaxation of the mind begins. Yoga was in fact invented as a way to allow deeper meditation.

Just Breathe

E verything in yoga is about breathing. The poses are just an excuse to breathe. That’s why doing an hour of child’s pose is just fine, as long as you are breathing. Try to increase the volume of air coming in and out of your lungs. If you

can, close the back of your throat to give the sound an oceanic quality. During yoga, you literally want to focus your attention on the breath coming in and out of your nostrils. The feeling, the sound, the sensation of that air traveling to

Go To Three Classes Before Quiting

S ome people love hot yoga from the very first class. For others it takes a little time. I hated my first couple of classes because I tried to do too much. But by the third class I realized that something profound was happening in my body 3

and I began to do less and feel more comfortable in my ability to make it through the flow. When you are done, there’s nothing to do but drink lots of fluid, eat good food, get an amazing night’s sleep, and wake up refreshed. Namaste (I honor the light within you).

Taken By Ruth Black

Iyengar Yoga By Ann Pizer

Born in 1918, B.K.S. Iyengar began teaching yoga in 1936, after studying with the yoga guru Krishnamacharya in Mysore, India, in an effort to improve his health while suffering from tuberculosis. He continues to practice and teach today, assisted by his son Prashant and daughter Geeta, at his Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India. His methods are also taught at Iyengar institutes throughout the world, and at many yoga centers. In addition to developing and popularizing his style of practice, Iyengar’s books are highly respected and have become classic yoga texts. Chief among them is Light on Yoga, first published in 1966, which describes and illustrates hundreds of yoga poses and many breathing techniques. His other important books include Light on Pranayama, which focuses on breath work, and Light on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is a translation and interpretation of the ancient Yoga Sutras, from which Iyengar drew the philosophical groundwork for his method of yoga. His most recent book, Light on Life, addresses the mental and spiritual aspects of yoga.

What is The Iyengar Mathod? Today it is quite common to see Ihatha yengar’s method, a form of blankets, blocks, straps, pillows, yoga, is based on giving primacy to the physical alignment of the body in the poses. In the this school, it is taught that there is a correct way to do each pose, and that every student will one day be able to attain perfect poses through consistent practice. Once this balance is created in the body, it will be reflected in the mind. One of Iyengar’s major innovations is in the use

chairs, and bolsters being used in yoga studios. The use of these props is comparatively new in the history of yoga and comes directly from Iyengar. The purpose of the props is to assist the student in attaining ideal alignment, even if the body is not yet open enough.

No Flow

Ihatha yengar’s method, a form of yoga, is based on giving

primacy to the physical alignment of the body in the poses. In the this school, it is taught that there is a correct way to do each pose, and that every student will one day be able to attain perfect poses through consistent practice. Once this balance is created in the body, it will be reflected in the mind. One of Iyengar’s major innovations is in the use

Holding the poses, however, is strenuous, builds strength, and is excellent for increasing flexibility. The absence of vinyasa flow is another reason why the Iyengar method brings yoga within reach of a broad population. It’s a great place to start for people who are not physically fit enough to do a flowing style practice. This includes people who are ill, elderly, and overweight. Iyengar is one of the most popular styles of yoga worldwide.

Is Iyengar For You?

D on’t get the idea that an Iyengar class will be easy, even

though the style of practice is adaptable to different levels. Iyengar is also very appealing to more advanced yogis who want to work on their alignment. People who are very meticulous, technical, have an interest in anatomy,

and an appreciation of subtle movements in the body may enjoy Iyengar-style practice. Even if you never take an Iyengar class, his influence is so prevalent today you will surely encounter it in the way poses are taught and props are used across the yoga spectrum.

Taken By Nora Wendel

B.K.S. Iyengar

Taken By Nora Wendel

Pranayama and Breathing Lessons By Tony Briggs

W hen I first encountered pranayama, I thought it was

a complete waste of time. I had been taking classes for a couple of years and had just found the instructor I later came to see as my first “real” yoga teacher. One day she announced to the class, “Today we’re going to do some pranayama.” Huh? I thought. What’s that? Prana—what? We did some simple resting poses and then some very basic breath-awareness exercises, followed by Savasana (Corpse Pose). I wasn’t thrilled. I wanted a workout, to get strong and stretched out. That’s what I had come for, that’s what I’d paid for—and instead, I was lying on the floor just breathing. This wasn’t for me! Luckily, my teacher taught pranayama the last week of every month, so it was easy to avoid. I just skipped class that week. But my real luck lay in my teacher’s dogged persistence. Month after month, she kept teaching pranayama, and month after month I kept resisting it—though I did occasionally show up for class. I was just like the guy in Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. No matter how my teacher presented it, I kept on turning up my nose and saying, “I do not like this pran-a-yam. I do not like it, Sam-I-am.”

And then one day something inside me suddenly clicked, and I changed my mind. During an agitated and confused time in my life, I glimpsed in pranayama practice the possibility of refuge. As I have slowly gone deeper into the practice over many years, that refuge has gone on opening inside me. Given my own experience, it’s easy for me to empathize with students who are not drawn to pranayama right away. These days, many people get started in yoga when they see a video or some photos in a magazine, or when a friend tells them of the physical fitness benefits. Most new students encounter the outward shapes of the yoga asanas first. For a long time, the inner workings of the asanas can remain unseen, mysterious, and maybe a bit intimidating to the novice yogi. Particularly, the notion of using the breath and the breath’s rhythmic internal energy—prana—may seem a little too esoteric to be relevant or useful. Traditionally, though, the practice of pranayama—releasing and channeling the body’s stores of internal pranic energy—has been seen as the core of hatha yoga practice. Pranayama is meant to nurture a high level of bodily health and mental clarity, both of which are crucial steps on the path to self-knowledge and a wholesome, authentic life.

Energy Control

M any people are aware of the theory in modern physics that

matter and energy are just different manifestations of the same thing. So one way to look at the body or body-mind is as a cloud of energy—a cloud of energy so concentrated that it’s visible. Prana is just another word for that energy.

Prana is the energy that moves the universe,

or that is the universe. So pranayama—literally, “control of prana”—isn’t just breathing exercises. Through pranayama, you use the breath to affect the constellation of energy that is your body-mind. But why should you want to move this energy around? One reason is the deeply seated, perhaps genetically ingrained impulse in the human species to make order out of disorder. When you start paying attention to energy, often the first thing you notice is that you’re not in charge; you don’t have any choice except to be moved by it. If you’re alive, energy

And oftentimes it seems that the way the energy moves you is random and incoherent. Things happen which feel chaotic and out of control, and you long to give them some order. Long ago, people discovered that their own minds are part of that disorder. We are subject to the wanderings and rapid turnings of thoughts and feelings we don’t seem to be in control of. The desire to calm this mental and emotional storm is age-old. In searching for methods to calm the mind, one of the tools that people discovered was the breath. Normally, when you’re not paying attention to your breath, it is quite random, subject to all kinds of fluctuations according to your moods, your thoughts, the temperature around you, what you last ate, and so forth. But the early yogis discovered that if they could even out the breath, they could even out the jumpiness of the mind. Over time, they elaborated that discovery into the practices called pranayama.

Pranayama the Iyengar Way Quietness, stillness, and subtlety T here are as many approaches are much easier to glimpse and to pranayama as there are to the practice of asana. Some schools of yoga immediately introduce quite forceful and/or complex pranayama techniques, like kapalabhati (literally, “skull shining,” but better known as “breath of fire”) and nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing). Other approaches incorporate pranayama techniques into asana practice from the very beginning. But my training is primarily in Iyengar Yoga, in which pranayama is taught, very slowly and carefully, as a separate practice from asana. There are two main reasons for this caution. First, although the physical and mental effects of pranayama can be very subtle, they can also be very powerful. It’s fairly easy to become quite “spacey,” “inflated,” “ungrounded,” or just plain anxious if you practice pranayama techniques before your nervous system is prepared to handle the increased energy they can bring. Second, in Iyengar Yoga the point of pranayama isn’t just to amp up the energy in the body.

The point is to penetrate ever more deeply into a subtle understanding and control of that energy. I believe

that the best way to develop that understanding and control is to practice pranayama separately from asanas, and to build a pranayama practice slowly and steadily, one step at a time.

grasp in pranayama than they are in asana. The movements of the asanas, although beneficial in many ways, are also a distraction. When you sit or lie down in pranayama, the obvious physical movement of the body is gone, and you can concentrate on more inner qualities. When you do that, you become familiar at an experiential, cellular level with the experience of stillness and steadiness. You find that there is a rhythmic quality, like the rhythm of the breath, to the internal body-mind processes. Once you experience these rhythms in an ongoing way—which is what happens if you have a daily pranayama practice—the capacity to notice them (and to modulate them) spontaneously shows up in your asana practice as well. Once you become aware of the subtle, rhythmic qualities of the breath and the body, and of how these help focus your mind, you begin to realize that those rhythms have actually always been present in your asana work; you just didn’t notice them before because you were distracted by the physical, muscular challenges of doing the poses. From the very beginning, underneath the obvious work of bones and muscles is another, much more subtle level of working. Having a daily pranayama practice gives you an experiential awareness of that hidden realm.

Taken By Nora Wendel

“Excusez-Moi, ParlezVous Yoga?” By Jan Benzel

PARIS — When I moved to Paris from New York last year, about the first thing I did was seek out

yoga. The city, job, language, food, telephone numbers, currency, even the way the milk was labeled: every element of my life from the most major to the tiniest details, had changed. Sure, it was thrilling, but it was also exhausting and humbling. At least on a yoga mat, I thought, I could feel at home. But where to practice? New York City is Yoga Central, rivaled in its fervor perhaps only by Los Angeles. Manhattan yoga studios must outnumber Starbucks these days, and practically every third person on the sidewalk is toting a mat. You can find classes in many styles and levels at just about any hour of the day, in studios, gyms, offices, schools and, in nice weather, in the parks. The 5,000-year-old practice, like sitar music and batik bedspreads, first arrived in a big way in the United States and in France in a populist wave from India in the 1960s, but the current American yoga boom is sweeping the country in all age groups, from the prenatal to the elderly. The mind-bodyspirit practice has a lot of appeal as a panacea for stress as well as a way to stretch out and get some deep exercise, with the bonus of savasana, a sanctioned little rest at the end and, for those want it, a

spiritual context: a Westernized interpretation of the sacred Sanscrit texts. of the sacred Sanscrit texts. In recent years, the yoga boom has spilled from the U.S. into other parts of the world, particularly European and Asian cities. American yoga teachers are traveling, opening studios abroad, using translators to train non-English-speaking teachers in various styles of yoga, and offering retreats and yoga vacations from Bali to Biarritz to Costa Rica. There’s something for just about everyone in yoga: those wary of chanting and invocations of a higher being can find classes where those elements are de-emphasized. Those who want to sweat profusely with others have Bikram, a prescribed set of moves performed in a hot room. There’s restorative yoga for the tired and injured. Those who like a little circus in their practice can try acro-yoga. But, Parisians, as the New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik notes in his book “Paris to the Moon ,” tend to be less enthusiastic about exercise than they are about — well, cheese.

Finding a class wasn’t as easy as walking down the street; I’d have to travel.

Taken By Nora Wendel An Internet search led me to Rasa, an airy, skylit studio near the Sorbonne entered through a massive wooden door from rue Saint Jacques and across a postcard-gorgeous stone courtyard. Classes were offered in English and French. “Ah, good for my rusty French!”’ I thought. I chose a class with a teacher exotically named Rajeev. Turned out he was from Chicago, né Aaron. His English was impeccable. That was more than a year ago; since then I’ve branched out and taken classes with a dozen or more teachers, some Americans, but also French, Dutch, Lebanese, Venezuelan, South African and Italian. Yoga teachers in Europe do a lot of traveling, more so than in the United States, subbing for each other and taking guest turns at studios in other European cities. In the time I’ve been here the number of classes offered, and class sizes, have swelled.

Yoga knowledge in Paris is spread mostly by word of mouth. and fliers. At Rasa I learned of Marc

Holzman , a teacher newly arrived in Paris from Los Angeles who was offering Saturday classes at the American Church on the Quai d’Orsay. From that

class I learned of a newish studio in the 14th Arrondissement called Be Yoga, a cheerfully painted little neighborhood place adorned with a string of prayer flags and some bells outside the entrance. Many other studios dot the city; yoga events are drawing ever-bigger crowds. On Oct. 2 some 3,000 people turned out at the Eiffel Tower for la White Yoga Session, led by Elena Brower, identified in the weekly French magazine Marianne as a grand priestess of “new-yorkaise yoga.” Ms. Brower is the founder of Vira Yoga in Greenwich Village. One of my favorite classes is an energetic Sunday session with an infectiously joyful teacher named Carol. She leads the class in French — “Inspirez ... cradle of Jivamukti. Yoga in France, at least the yoga I’ve found, is inescapably American. Two of the teachers whose classes I’ve most frequented, Jackie Prete in New York, who teaches at the World Yoga Center and Equinox gyms, and Mr. Holzman in Paris, are both certified instructors of Anusara, a style of yoga begun by the American John Friend in 1997. These instructors have dedicated themselves to making yoga more global.

Ms. Prete started traveling to Japan half a dozen years ago, and has trained teachers in Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya and Yokohama. “It’s a challenge to work with a translator,” she said. She has learned that the key is to keep instructions clear and simple. “Sometimes they get my jokes, sometimes they don’t. But the studentship is very high in Japan,” she continued. “The idea of the sensei, the teacher, is afforded a lot of respect.”” Mr. Holzman is based in Paris but frequently travels to other cities in Europe and North America to teach workshops. He started a community class in Paris at the American Church, which he calls Guerilla Yogi, open to all, with a pay-what-you-can donations box. (Yoga is not cheap in Paris; a class can cost €20 or more, or about $26.) Mr. Holzman’s goal is to help yoga people in Paris find each other more easily. “Students would go to the teachers and studios they’ve always gone to — they have their own little kulas — their people. They’d only come together when a visiting teacher showed up,” he said. “It seemed to me we needed a neutral space, a big enough space, where we could all come together.” When I moved to Paris I had the notion that I would be immersed in French life and language; that turned out not to be the case, although I’ve managed to make some progress. I did find a new culture, though, one to which I could belong instantly: the surprisingly large, welcoming expatriate community.

Au pairs, professors, students, filmmakers, actors, in international businesspeople, and Parisians who’ve spent time in the States all climb the steps to the second floor of the American Church for the Guerilla Yogi class. We spread our mats in a lightfilled room with views of beautiful-stained glass windows and stone arches. At this time of year, we share the space with a chubby Christmas tree garlanded with construction-paper chains made by children with glitter and glue. Our oms are often layered with the sound of young choirs rehearsing their carols. It’s not just the yoga practice I crave. I could do that by myself at home, and sometimes do. Going to class, a luxurious two hours, is my Saturday morning social life, the place where I see Sebastian, a French Canadian builder full of tales of his escapades the night before; Harriet, an Australian former surfer chick with an enviable backbend; Joel, who’s lived all over the world, works in film and showed up for a spell last winter with the mutton-chop sideburns he grew for a role he played in “Sweeney Todd” at the Théâtre du Châtelet; Sophie, a French professor of linguistics who jumps up to take photos of the class with her iPhone; Sharon, from South Africa, who sometimes teaches when Marc is traveling. “People feel a sense of belonging around yoga,” Ms. Prete said. “If you want to get connected quickly, it’s a good alternative to hanging out at bars. You see familiar poses, you have a familiar way of feeling, that feeling you get in yoga of being at home in your own body.”

All that and le chien tête en bas — er, downward-facing dog — too.

Taken By Beth Foster

Taken By Beth Foster Taken By Beth Foster

Where Are All The Men? By Andrew Tilin

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning and I am in, of all places, a yoga studio. While my cycling buddies set out for a ride, I waited by racks of flowery yoga clothes, then filed in for class. While my pals pedaled and, no doubt, rapped about racing, I unrolled my black mat near someone else’s pink one, beside someone else’s painted toenails and a pile of voguish flip-flops. Now, my fellow riders are probably engaged in some testosterone-fueled sprint, while I’m grunting loudly to stay balanced on my forearms. I’m inverted and self-conscious:

Taken By Beth Foster In a class filled with women, I alone am emitting primal noises. A world turned upside down— that’s yoga for most of us men. We still run most of the government and hit the major league home runs, but yoga is a woman’s domain. “What I find myself constantly contemplating,” says Michael Lechonczak, a yoga instructor who teaches at Equinox Fitness in Manhattan, “is how to get more guys into class.” It’s not that we don’t know what we’re missing. Nowadays, there seems to be a yoga studio on every corner; our girlfriends and wives are walking, talking testimonies to the practice. At home, we watch them rushing out the front door, brows furrowed, only to return standing tall, with big, tranquil smiles on their faces and compassion in their eyes. Because my wife Madeleine is a yoga instructor and an avid student, I witness this stress-to-bliss transformation several times a week. When she comes home, I often mumble to myself, “Don’t I want to be that happy?” Yet I haven’t practiced yoga consistently for years. So I asked highly qualified doctors, scientists, and veteran yoga teachers

exactly why so many men stick to yoga’s sidelines. I also polled members of that rare breed known as the male practitioner—from pro athletes to busy investment managers—to find out how they came to embrace yoga. In the end, I discovered social, physical, and emotional realities that discourage men from practicing. I also heard about the moments of inspiration that got men over such barriers—and ideas about what might help other men make the leap, too. If you’re a man who’s hesitated to try yoga—or you know a man you’d like to introduce to the practice—read on.

Social Obstacles G etting men to identify with yoga has long been a challenge in this country. It doesn’t matter that yoga, since its beginnings in India thousands of years ago, has mainly been taught and studied by men. Restrictive American immigration laws of the early 1900s stunted the spread of Indian culture on these shores, and only a handful of influential yogis arrived here through the decades.

One such important teacher was Indra Devi. Russian born and Indian taught, she came to the United States in the 1940s and was championed by none other than celebrity cosmetologist Elizabeth Arden. That name resonated, of course, with the women who gobbled up her products, and Arden encouraged her customers to try yoga. A few years later, teacher Richard Hittleman published yoga books and landed on TV—but always had women perform the poses. Yoga’s next media celebrity was a young instructor named Lilias Folan, who began teaching asanas on public television in the 1970s. Folan had a gentle style that empowered millions of stay-at-home moms to follow right along. By the time Power Yoga emerged in the 1980s and began attracting more men, the mainstream view of the practice had, fairly or not, taken root: Yoga was for housewives. Sure enough, the first thing many men notice on entering a yoga studio is that they’re in foreign territory. Pensive women readying for class sets as strong a tone as a locker room of guys snapping towels. “Men walk in needing a challenge,” saysJudith Lasater, who has authored six yoga books during her 35 years as a teacher.

“Women often come to the mat seeking refuge.” The instructor can be equally alien. A female teacher might seem like just another pretty face in the intimidating crowd. A male teacher, who will likely be more humble and sensitive than your average toughlove personal trainer, may be met with disdain. “A student walks in from corporate America, and he encounters this man who exists in such a different realm,” Baptiste says. “The instructor might not be a guy’s guy.” Lechonczak, who consulted on the book Real Men Do Yoga, sympathizes with such concerns. Before coming to the practice nearly 20 years ago, he had a consuming business career and was a weekend warrior who ran and played basketball. Lechonczak thinks more men might be willing to try yoga if they perceived it as yet another test. Albeit a unique one. “The guys coming to yoga have to be ready for the next level, be ready to let down their defenses,” he says. “They have to have heart.” A guy’s first act of yogic bravery, Lechonczak says, is to introduce

the class is appropriate,” he advises. “Admit any fears or anxieties.” Once the line of communication is open, a good instructor will tailor a class for individual students— male or female. Scott Achelis, a general contractor in Walnut Creek, California, began taking classes locally early last year because his back was tweaked from decades of construction work. The key was a positive first experience at the Yoga & Movement Center: a men’s only, one-day workshop held by studio director Diane Valentine. Her agenda? Make it fun, and let guys be guys. “It was unthreatening,” Achelis says. “We were all stretching and making off-color jokes.” Achelis quickly became a regular in a coed class. “It’s still difficult for me when I’m partnered with a woman. I’m uncomfortable touching anybody who’s not my wife the way you have to in yoga,” he admits. But otherwise being a man among women no longer bothers him. He couldn’t care less who’s in the room, or that some very unathletic-looking females can enter poses that he can’t. “I don’t feel like I’m doing 10 percent of something being done by a woman next to me,” Achelis says. “I’m doing 100 percent of what I’m able to do.”

Physical Hurdles: Overcoming Groins and Gray Matter G et a man past his reservations about asana time with the ladies and he’ll still have a

well-founded reason to drag his feet to a studio: Yoga can be painful. Men, it seems, are naturally tight. Boys and girls may be born equally limber, with an ability to comfortably put their feet behind their heads. But by adolescence, boys generally lose flexibility faster than girls, and as boys become men, the differences in flexibility tend to grow. Researchers have noted this gap, although they can’t specifically link it to differences in hormones, musculature, or connective tissue. “It’s hard to attribute to any one thing,” says Lynn Millar, a professor of physical therapy at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Whatever is to blame, the typical man’s pursuits and lifestyle, from sitting at a desk all day to grabbing beers after a twilight softball game, put little importance on flexibility.

Lasater says stretching takes a back seat in a male’s life as early as high school. “Look at the way they stretch in football—they push on each other and bounce. It hurts,” she says. “How could anyone emerge from that with a positive view of flexibility?” Investment manager Ron Bernstein was certainly ambivalent about stretching—until his 80-hour workweeks caught up with him. Back in 1998, Bernstein, a former competitive high school golfer who’s a managing director for the investment firm Marathon Real Estate in New York City, realized that “everything hurt,” he says. “My wife was doing some yoga and suggested that stretching would be good.” Bernstein went to a class in lower Manhattan and muddled through. “On my walk home, my back felt so much better. All those Upward and Downward Dogs really worked.”

Emotional Challenge: Try Beating Yourself years of yoga has done for his head. Men, like women, E motional Challenge: Try Beating Every morning, Gross leaves his Yourself Even if a guy turns a physical corner and starts adapting to yoga’s demands, he may still miss out on many of the practice’s benefits. Yoga’s internal rewards—everything from better focus to less stress—are the hardest for men to realize. Brizendine says that this problem, too, begins with men’s wiring. Men’s brains have a high capacity to process emotions like fear and aggression. Put an average, aggressive-feeling man on the mat, add thoughts about hostile takeovers or Shaq dunking a basketball, and you get someone who isn’t looking to quiet his mind but to let go of pent-up energy. That’s easy in traditional recreational sports, with their scores, times, and rivalries. But guys in Downward Dog may still be looking for something, or someone, to beat. “For men, physical activity—nonsexual physical activity—has always been closely associated with competition,” Brizendine says. “Studies have shown that for the last 40 years.” Brizendine adds that with time and training, men’s brains can get past such competitive urges, and the proof lies in the men who have found enormous benefits from tapping into yoga’s more emotional offerings. Bill Gross, chief investment officer for asset management company Pimco and one of the most powerful men in his business, appreciates what 12

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Southern California office to gather his thoughts in a gym. Part of the workout always includes yoga. Gross loves doing Headstand. “Some of my best ideas come during Sirsasana,” he says. And, he adds, often after his routine, “a light bulb turns on, and I’m on to something.” Away from the multiple computer screens and trading-room hubbub, Gross gets more than inspiration. The mat offers him a place to calm his nerves and breathe deeply. He returns to the office rejuvenated and relaxed, ready to work with a purpose. “Focus is a huge part of what I do,” Gross says, “and when you are trusted with nearly $700 billion of other people’s money, you’d better be focused. Because of my practice, I can sift the noise from the facts of an investment.” Yoga can also teach a guy who’s overwhelmed by his many responsibilities that the best way to get things done is by being present—focusing on one thing at a time. “If I go from breath to breath, I’ll find myself at the end of class,” says Zito. Similarly, when he’s playing a game, he says, “If I go hitter to hitter as opposed to letting my mind drift, I’ll suddenly be in the seventh inning.”sees his daily yoga practice as an escape, whether it’s from surgery or scorekeeping.

can get addicted to yoga’s emotional benefits.

Mehmet Oz, neurosurgeon otherwise known as Dr. Oz, is also a sports nut. But the doctor, who played football at Harvard and has a basketball court in his basement, “That’s where the freedom comes in. You can let go,” he says. “You realize that the bigger game you’re playing in life isn’t about competitiveness.” What life is about, Oz says, is awareness, equanimity, and keeping one’s ego in check—after all, the world is a bigger place than any one...man. Indeed, in topping off the list of yoga’s benefits for his male colleagues, Oz even uses the word “spirituality,” although he’s aware that some men might find that term a turnoff. “Try to get a man in contact with the spiritual element of yoga right from the start, and he’ll be lost,” he says. “He isn’t ready for that.” Bernstein, the investment manager who has practiced yoga for seven years, admits that he still doesn’t like “chanting Om too many times and closing my eyes.” But these days Bernstein’s biggest problem concerning yoga is an inability to share his experiences with the very wife who persuaded him to try it. She abandoned yoga eight years ago. “I have no idea why Keri quit,” he says. “She just won’t do it.” Maybe she needs a few more male practitioners to tell her what she’s missing.

Wave Theory By Elizabeth Winter

It’s midday, and the sun is beating down on the sleepy Mexican beach town of Sayulita. As the surf teacher and our group paddle out to where the waves begin to break, I’m grateful to be surrounded by the cool Pacific waters. Looking out onto the ocean’s expanse, I feel an adrenaline-charged mix of confidence and fear. When a wave approaches and begins to crest, instructor Israel Preciado signals me to turn my board around so he can push me strongly into the wave. “Paddle, paddle,” he yells. “Now up!” To my amazement, I settle into a standing position. Following instructions from our first lesson on the beach, I keep my knees bent, shift my weight from one foot to the other to control my speed, and ride the wave all the way into shore. I’ve traveled here to dedicate some time to my yoga practice and also to learn how to surf—something that I’ve wanted to do for years. Via Yoga, a Seattle company specializing in yoga vacations, has been leading yoga and surfing retreats in Sayulita since 2002. Our seven-day trip is divided between daily surfing lessons with Preciado and some serious time on our mats. Our twice-daily Ashtanga Yoga classes emphasize balance as well as core and arm strength to improve our chances of catching waves. But to start, one of our first lessons is about how to balance effort and surrender. In my yoga practice and in my life, I often find myself straining more than relaxing, and thriving on the rush I get from pushing myself to my limit. This approach, we’re warned, won’t work for surfing. Instead, this week we’ll engage patience and nonjudgment even as we do the physical work it takes to get up on the board. Back on the beach, though, I am elated. I had hoped that by the end of the retreat I would be riding waves, but I never expected to get up on my very first try. The five other yogis in our group cheer from the water, where they’re waiting for their turn, and I dash back into the ocean, ready to do it again.

Reading The Waves At the start of the second day of lessons, Preciado announces that he’s no longer going to push us

into the waves. Instead, we have to wait in the ocean where the waves crest until we spot one building toward the shore. He tells us to point the board at the beach and then to paddle—fast. Timing is critical: Start paddling too soon, and we’ll tire out before building the speed needed to rise ahead of the break. Begin too late, and the wave will roll right underneath the board without lifting it onto the crest. However, if we time it right, we’ll press up from the board and, if all goes well, stand balanced as we fly toward the beach. I’m up for the challenge, but with the first few waves, I find myself paddling too early; then, becoming increasingly frustrated, I work more and more furiously to get out there at the right moment. Each time I do get up, the board simply sinks, leaving me defeated as I watch the wave roll on without me. “You’re standing up too soon,” Preciado says. “Patience, Elizabeth. Patience.” Although I’m combining two of my loves—yoga and the ocean—in the most picturesque of settings, I’m not enjoying the experience. Instead, I’m annoyed that I haven’t mastered surfing yet. Back on the beach, I look out onto the ocean’s expanse and meditate on its ability to change effortlessly—from completely calm to ferociously turbulent. It’s so vast and powerful, so much bigger than any effort I could ever make. So why not surrender to that power and let myself go along for the ride? During one of the glorious breakfasts of fresh fruit, huevos rancheros, black beans, and fresh-squeezed

Calmer Waters

juice, I look out at the ocean and notice how calm and serene it looks. Our morning yoga practice takes place in an outdoor studio perched on a hill above the beach. Seattle-based Ashtanga teacher Troy Lucero leads us through a series of Sun Salutations, standing poses, and loads of Chaturanga Dandasanas (Four-Limbed Staff Poses). My yoga practice has always been strong and dynamic, and I revel in the athleticism this particular class requires. Still, as I move through the practice, I wonder if my drive, my eagerness to assert myself, can be a limitation as much as an asset. Thinking back to the ocean waters, I imagine bringing more stillness to the mat, the board, and life in general. In the afternoon, I return to the water for a surfing lesson. The ocean is still quiet, and this time, instead of paddling, I simply float and wait.

I watch the palm trees swaying in the wind, waves crashing against jagged rocks in the distance, the sunlight dancing on the smooth sea. And I begin to realize that this

quiet moment, the waiting that is often dismissed as a waste of time, is as much a part of surfing as riding into shore. Finally, in the distance I see a small wave begin to arc. I turn my board around, paddle strongly, not rushing anything, and finally push up to standing. The water lifts up my board, and I surf toward the sandy beach. When I return to California, I’ll take with me a new love of surfing. But more than anything else, I’ll have found the willingness to surrender to the quiet moments, the downtime, in yoga and any action-packed experiences to come.

GET OUT THERE.

Taken By Dan Brown

Why Go?

Taken By Dan Brown

Apply aspects of your asana practice, especially balance and core strength, and elements of yoga philosophy— such as surrender, patience, and humility—to an exhilarating sport that fosters calm and connection with nature.

Tips

Taken By Dan Brown

Many yoga and surfing retreats take place in tropical locations—Bali, Mexico, and Australia to name a few—that offer a chance to enjoy hot weather year-round. If you choose a retreat with a busy schedule, you might want to stay a few extra days to visit with the locals and explore nearby towns or wilderness areas.

Eat Like A Yogi By Dayna Macy

Go on. No one’s looking. Just take a quick peek inside the kitchen of Ayurvedic educator and yoga teacher Scott Blossom’s Berkeley, California, home. In the pantry you’ll find ghee and sunflower seed butter, plus dozens of herbs, spices, and teas. In the ‘fridge, bundles of kale, carrots, and beets. On the counters, jars of homemade jams, organic raw honey, and a warm loaf of sprouted spelt bread. On the stovetop a pot of dahl (Indian lentil soup) simmers. All of these foods reflect Blossom’s quest to meet his nutritional needs while honoring his yogic values. He spent 20 years experimenting with veganism, vegetarianism, and other dietary styles, while studying Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, before figuring out the right diet for himself and his family. In 1998 he settled on an Ayurvedic diet in which his daily food choices reflect the needs of his individual constitution, what’s going on in his life, and the season of the year. “Eating is perhaps the single most important act for one’s yoga practice,” Blossom says, “because nourishment of the body’s tissues forms a foundation for nourishment of the mind and emotions.” One way to think about this is to imagine devoting your days to practice while feeding yourself nothing but sugar and caffeine. What effect would that have? It’s easy to see that a balanced, calm mind is much easier to come by if you commit yourself to nourishing your body properly, just as you commit yourself to asana, pranayama, and meditation. But what exactly does it mean to nourish yourself properly? Just how do you eat like a yogi?

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The Diet of Patanjali

A dmittedly, extending your yoga practice to the dinner table is not an

easy task, mostly because the classic yogic texts such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita don’t list any specific foods for following a “yogic diet.” And even if they did, it’s highly unlikely that the foods prescribed in India thousands of years ago would be appropriate today for each and every one of us. But while there is no prescribed menu for yogis, there is a yogic diet, says Gary Kraftsow, the founder of the American Viniyoga Institute. “These are ingredients that enhance clarity and lightness, keeping the body light and nourished and the mind clear,” he explains. In other words, a diet that offers your body a great basis for practice—or encourages the same effects as practice— makes for a great yogic diet. In the Ayurvedic tradition, foods

most vegetables, ghee (clarified butter), fruits, legumes, and whole grains. In contrast, tamasic foods (such as onions, meat, and garlic) and rajasic foods (such as coffee, hot peppers, and salt) can increase dullness or hyperactivity, respectively. But maintaining a diet that keeps your body light and your mind clear doesn’t necessarily mean eating only sattvic foods. What is best for you and what in the end will best support your yoga practice is informed by your constitution (known in the Ayurvedic tradition as vikriti) and your current state (prakriti), Kraftsow says. “Both need to be considered,” he adds. In this way of thinking about nourishment, what you need as an individual may be very different from what someone else needs. And what you need at this moment in your life may be very different from what you needed five years ago or

will need five years from now. Perhaps the ancient sages were relying on wisdom when they chose not to lay down a yogic diet for all to follow. Just as you learn to listen to your body on the mat, so you must listen to your body at the table. Beyond the basic needs of the body, many modern yoga practitioners suggest that a yogic diet should take into account the values and philosophical teachings of yoga. Many people name ahimsa, the yogic precept of nonharming, as an influence on their dietary choices—although how they put that principle into action varies. Just as different styles of yoga teach different versions of the same poses, and different teachers offer different, even contradictory, interpretations of the Yoga Sutra, so do yogis consider a wide range of possibilities in exploring a yogic diet. But while personal interpretations

may vary, there is a consensus that exploring a yogic diet is important. “For yogis, food choices reflect personal ethics,” says Blossom. “They are inextricable from our spiritual development.” Or, as Jivamukti Yoga cofounder David Life says, “Not everyone can do Headstand, but everybody eats. Because of this, what you eat has more impact and matters more than whether you can stand on your head.” With this in mind, we asked several well-known teachers and self-described foodies how they arrived at their current food choices. Because different yogic values resonate with people in a variety of ways, everyone had their own ideas about what constitutes a yogic diet. But what these yogis can all agree on is that their yogic principles have strongly influenced how they feed themselves.

Value Meals W hen she was 21 years old, Sianna Sherman became a vegan as

part of her practice of ahimsa. For seven years she followed an animal-free diet, including two years on a macrobiotic diet, which consisted largely of whole grains, fresh and sea vegetables, nuts, beans, and fermented foods. Sherman spent several more years experimenting with a raw food diet for its promise of increased vitality and prana (life force); at another time she followed Ayurvedic dietary principles. Somewhere down the line, though, Sherman, who spends much of the year on the road, discovered that she needed a different kind of fuel to support her body as she devoted herself to teaching others. She found that to keep her energy up, she needed to step away from strict diets and simply listen to her intuition. That intuition, Sherman says, has her eating a lot of grains, vegetables, some fish, and milk. She now mainly eats organic, local, seasonal whole foods. “I try to eat close to my food sources so that the gap from earth to kitchen table is bridged with greater gratitude and awareness,” she says. “My choices are not only about serving myself but also serving the earth and the world in an authentic way.”

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Ana Forrest, the founder of Forrest Yoga, also began her exploration of the yogic diet by focusing on ahimsa. “I was very attracted to vegetari the yogic diet by focusing on ahim sa. “I was very attracted to vegetarianism and the philosophy of nonviolence for years, but the diet made me sick,” she says. “I’m allergic to grains. I gain weight, my brain shuts down, and my bowels stop working. And my yoga practice does not improve.” So with her body screaming for a different regimen, Forrest chose an omnivorous diet, one that consists mostly of meat, especially game, and vegetables. But, she says, this doesn’t mean she can’t practice ahimsa. “Since I do eat animals,” she says, “I honor the elk, buffalo, or moose by not wasting its life force or mine. I use that force to heal myself and others, and to teach, inspire, and help people evolve.

My ethics about what to eat came down to my personal truth.

Eating in a way that impairs your health and thinking is immoral. And the truth is that an omnivorous diet physiologically works for me.” As an Ayurvedic practitioner, Blossom views the occasional red meat as medicine for his specific constitution. He still follows a largely vegetarian diet, though: “That’s what nourishes me in the most balanced way,” he says. And when he does eat meat, he sources it with great care, choosing only organically and humanely produced meats. Not surprisingly, the interpretation of ahimsa is widely debatedwithin the yoga community. Life, for example, has been committed to an animal-free diet for decades. He became a vegetarian in the 1970s; since 1987 he has been a vegan. “One’s suffering is another’s suffering,” says Life, who actively encourages yogis to see veganism as the only dietary choice that truly honors ahimsa. “In the Yoga Sutra, it doesn’t say be nonharming to yourself or people who look like you. It just says do no harm.”

Freedom Food C learly, with such varied perspectives on what feeds the body and

spirit, developing a diet that reflects your ethics and honors your physical needs can be challenging. In the end most yogis would agree that part of the practice is to develop awareness about what you eat. It’s worth spending time educating yourself not just about the possible diets you could follow but also about the origins and properties of the food you buy. And it’s essential to listen to yourself so that you’ll know what kinds of foods might serve you best in each moment. But, as you explore the parameters of your own yogic diet, allow for some flexibility. “Remember, yoga is about freedom, including freedom from your own strong beliefs and ideas,” Kraftsow says. “So don’t get caught in them.”

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For example, Blossom recalls that once, while traveling to a yoga event, the only food he could find was fried artichokes with ranch dressing. “Instead of wrinkling our noses,” he says, “we prayed over it. And it was deeply nourishing.” To begin forming your yogic diet, think about which teachings best resonate with you and how you might put those teachings into action. If ahimsa is a focal point in your value system, explore how your food choices can cause the least possible harm to yourself, other beings, and the planet. If you are attracted to the principles of bhakti yoga, you may want to make every morsel an offering—silently give thanks to the food as you prepare it and offer it as nourishment for the Divine in everything before you eat it. Or if you’re focusing on compassion for others, you may want to emphasize sharing fresh, home-cooked meals with friends in need. “When you get all these factors in alignment with your personal value system,” Blossom says, “that is the yogic diet.”

Taken By Ruth Black

Feel the Vibration By Diane Anderson

Alanis Morissette, 37, was thrust into stardom’s spotlight back in 1995, making rock history with Jagged Little Pill, which sold 33 million copies worldwide to become the best-selling debut album by a female artist. The pop-rock anthem “You Oughta Know” embodied the raw emotion and the conflicted feelings of a spurned lover. Although disc jockeys may have bleeped out the most explicit words, they gave the song widespread radio play, and listeners around the world found themselves identifying with the young Canadian’s tale of heartbreak. At the time, Morissette was just 21. Her ascent to stardom was grueling and left precious little time to unwind or reflect. Looking back, she says she’s glad she got to meet so many people and see the world, but admits that touring blasted her body and soul. The intensity was wearing. Craving some alone time, she would hide out backstage, in hotel rooms, or even in bathroom stalls—anywhere that she could get some distance from the madness and tune back in to herself. She needed to recharge between performances, interviews, and all the demands on her energy, and at some point she realized that, rather than hiding out, she needed to truly rejuvenate herself. “I wanted to find a practice that was both physical and spiritual. Yoga was perfect for that,” she says. “I felt like I was born to do yoga.” Her first taste of the practice was Yoga Mind & Body, a DVD made by the actress Ali MacGraw with renowned yoga teacher Erich Schiffmann, which Morissette discovered toward the end of the Jagged Little Pill tour. Since then, she has tried everything from Ashtanga to Bikram to Kundalini, Iyengar, Shadow, and Yin, and she has studied with a variety of well-known teachers, including Kathryn Budig, Sara Ivanhoe, Matt Pesendian, Nicki Doane, and Eddie Modestini. She loves vinyasa flow. Fortunately, Morissette’s twin brother, Wade Imre Morissette, is a yoga teacher and kirtan artist. He is, she says, one of her favorite teachers, not just because of their close connection but also because he combines a respect for tradition with “a recognition of the realities of modern life.” The realities of Morissette’s busy life now include marriage, to rapper Mario “MC Souleye” Treadway, and a new baby, Ever Imre, born on Christmas Day 2010 at home in Los Angeles. Morissette’s new album will be released this winter. She’s been committed to yoga for years now, something that was evident when she rocked a full Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (One-Legged King Pigeon Pose) with both hands clasping her foot on the day of her cover shoot. Her husband has started practicing, and you figure it’s just a matter of time before Ever gets on the mat, too.

prana: What do you love most about your practice? Alanis Morissette: It gives me a great microcosmic

snapshot, a clear picture of what’s going on in my life. If I push myself on the mat, it’s likely I’m pushing myself off the mat as well—a cue to be gentle. When I don’t practice, there’s a lack of checking in on my part. How I approach my time on the mat gives me a glimpse of my needs. It’s a great invitation to tune in to what’s really going on.

P: Has it affected your creative process? AM: The impetus to do yoga comes from the same

place where my songs are birthed. When I’m writing songs or doing yoga, I’m curious about what’s really going on: What’s happening in my body? What’s happening in my heart? What’s happening in my life? What’s happening in the larger context of the planet? What’s happening in the evolution of consciousness? What’s happening in my knee? It’s all the same muscle of curiosity.

Taken By Chris Tanner

That’s the most powerful quality I bring to my own creative process. It’s just this curiosity that shows up, which I love. There’s also a lack of judgment. When I was 21 and doing yoga, I would kick my ass because I wasn’t flexible enough or because I was depleted. Now, I just notice.

P: Has yoga helped you in relationships? AM: I think that the more mature qualities, such as

curiosity, nonjudgmentalness, and noticing—those benign qualities help. In my moments of conflict with the people I love, I aspire to manifest those qualities.

Taken By Chris Tanner

but I moved beyond the “Wow, his eyes are so deep, and I just wanna make out,” you know? Later, the first question I’d always ask became “What’s your mission?” I didn’t want someone overly obsessed with work or travel. When my future husband said his mission was to be an incredible husband and father and to be of service through his art, I was like, “Whoa, this really warrants more time and energy.”

P: Did yoga help you during your pregnancy? AM: It’s all about awareness. I am a naturally flexible person, and relaxin, that hormone released during pregnancy, made me more so. I had to learn not to overstretch or injure myself. I’ve always attempted to focus on the spiritual-ascension process and philosophy and intellectualism—all heady pursuits, you know? But I’d have these moments of revelation when I was taking a walk, when it would hit me like a ton of bricks: I’m an animal. There’s a physiology to me, DNA, genetic predisposition, muscles, bones, ligaments, and hormones. I turned into this science experiment!

P: How has your practice changed over the years? AM: There’s a quiet power that I hadn’t really culti-

vated 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, everything was kind of balls to the wall, soldier style. Now I can call upon the soldier when I need it, but it’s not the default position I go to.

Interview With Moby

These days, my practice isn’t uninterrupted. I’ll practice for 35 minutes, and then I’ll have to breastfeed. Then I’ll go back to my yoga. The mat just stays there, and I just keep coming back to it.

Moby, the master of ambient electronica, sold 10 million copies of his 1999 album Play and has been touring the globe creating awesome musical mixes ever since. He released his latest album, Destroyed, in May. A native New Yorker now living in LA, Moby (born Richard Melville Hall) is a longtime vegan and animal rights activist. One of his oldest friends is Eddie Stern, director of Ashtanga Yoga New York; they were drinking buddies in their preyoga days. Over the years, Stern has instructed him in Ashtanga, and Moby says he’s tried Kundalini and many other styles, ending up with “my own strange, cobbled-together practice that I do five times a week.”

prana: What Inspires you to practice? Moby: I enjoy the quiet strength, both physical and mental, that results. I’m reminded that I’m human and need to be patient with myself. The constant reminder to focus on the breath is key. Yoga infuses my life with a greater sense of calm. It’s quiet and meditative, and it makes me a little less anxious, less inclined to indulge anger and fear. It’s certainly turned the volume down on the more desperate thoughts.

P: Are you plagued with those?

Moby: I used to be. I went to the Academy Awards

this year. I had a few good conversations and, at a certain point, I was perfectly happy to go home and read my favorite book, the Tao Te Ching, which makes me laugh and reminds me what my orientation to myself and the universe should be. Before I had a yoga or meditation practice, I’d want to stay out until six o’clock in the morning and desperately grab every last bit of fun I could—with selfish behavior and really nasty consequences.

P: What is your “orientation to yourself and the universe”?

Moby: Listen to the quiet voices and try to conserve your energy, not waste it. Ultimately, in all things, don’t take yourself too seriously and, whenever possible, don’t feed your ego.

P: That’s got to be hard in the LA music scene. Moby: It’s easy for me because I’m bald and I don’t

sing very well. It’d be harder if I were 22, gorgeous, danced well, and sang beautifully. But my limitations are always clearly in front of me. Humility is thrust upon me left and right.

P: You’re a passionate vegan. Moby: And yoga helps with my activism. My

inclination is to be really harsh and judgmental, but unfortunately I’m not omniscient, so whenever I’m harsh and judgmental, I just end up making a lot of mistakes. Yoga and meditation remind me not to be harsh, not to be judgmental. Even if I disagree with someone, I don’t have to be a jerk about it. If I meet someone eating a bacon sandwich, who loves Glenn Beck, thinks Obama was born in Kenya, and firmly believes that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, I might disagree on all points, but getting angry doesn’t accomplish anything. I’ve learned, over time, to be a more decent, more effective advocate for the causes I believe in. My approach in the past was to yell at people. I’ve learned that when you yell at people, you just make them defensive. So I try not to yell as much.

P: I’ve read you’re Christian. Taken By Ruth Black

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Moby: I love the teachings of Christ, but the universe is 15 billion years old and complicated beyond anything I can understand. I like the teachings of Christ, Buddha, everything. I’m wary about calling myself a Christian; when someone calls themselves by a label, they are implying that they are right.

I have a feeling the universe is more forgiving and loving than we have traditionally, culturally, given it credit for. If God ended up being petty and angry, it’d be so sad. If you are God and you understand how everything in the universe works, why would you judge these poor, stumbling, shortsighted humans who are just blindly trying to figure out how to stay alive from one day to the next?

I do not for a minute think that I’m right about

Maybe we die and go to heaven, and a guy with a long, flowing beard sits in judgment of us, but I doubt it. anything.

Interview With Ziggy Marley Yoga helped Ziggy Marley arrive at his life’s philosophy: Love is his religion.

Son of the legendary reggae sensation Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, 42, says yoga has long been influential in his life. As a young man, Ziggy and his siblings formed a group called the Melody Makers and sang positive songs with consciousness-raising lyrics, creating hits like “Give a Little Love” and “Reggae Revolution.” Since 2003, Marley has released four albums on his own, including the Grammy-winning Love Is My Religion (2006), which was a major hit with the yoga community and is still in heavy rotation in many studios. His 2009 release, Family Time, featured Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, and Jack Johnson and won a Grammy for best children’s album. His new album is called Wild and Free. Marley and his wife, Orly, have six children, and they split their time between Miami and Los Angeles. “I didn’t get into yoga for the exercise,” says Marley. “For me, it was about spirituality, not poses. I got into the poses after.” He was seeking wisdom and started reading books about yoga when he was in high school in Jamaica. Autobiography of a Yogi was one standout. “Then I started doing the postures and got meditation from books, which was especially beneficial.” Marley’s favorite poses are the inversions Plow and Headstand, which he finds energize his brain. An avid soccer player and frequent runner, Marley says his body is tight. “The postures open up energy centers and help keep me on an even keel. Very, very calm. Very centered. I just accept that I feel good and calm.” Nicki Doane and Eddie Modestini are among his favorite teachers and have joined him on tour, but Marley is basically self-taught, with no set routine. He practices because it feels good. “I have to say, it gives me a high. It does make me feel a nice feeling, a high. And then I can settle down to meditate.” His kids occasionally join in. “They are much more flexible than I am,” he jokes. But he likes that yoga helps him feel alive and good. “I just feel better when I do it. My own philosophy is love. Yoga was a part of me reaching that full realization that love is the ultimate thing, the only thing that lasts. And yoga helps us realize the big questions of life, and yoga helped me realize love is the answer.”

Taken By Ruth Black

Interview With Maroon 5 Los Angeles rock band Maroon 5 won a Grammy as best new artist in 2005 for its debut album, Songs About Jane. In 2006, some of the band mates took up yoga as a balm for the tour-heavy life that has helped the group sell nearly 15 million albums worldwide. Frontman Adam Levine, 32, an avid weightlifter, had broken his sternum, and his trainer suggested yoga to keep him in shape and release tension. He came to love it. Now, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, 32, has completed teacher training and hopes to make yoga a regular part of their touring life. And there’s talk of a Twitter contest for fans to join in a backstage class before shows.

prana: You started practicing in the last few years.

Adam Levine: A lot of things I’m passionate

about I didn’t set out to do and maybe even resisted. Singing wasn’t a major aspiration—I wanted to play guitar, but I sang because I could. Same with yoga. I was weightlifting when my trainer recommended yoga for tightness. After my first vinyasa class, that was it. I was totally blown away and never worked out with weights again. I felt exhausted but also peaceful and relaxed. It changed my whole approach to life.

P: What changes did you notice? AL: I won’t lie: At the beginning, it was 100

percent physical for me. I had lactic acid from working out. I couldn’t touch my toes. People who say that they don’t do yoga for the physical benefits are full of it. It makes you look great, which is cool, but it also makes you feel great. Both are awesome. It puts me in a completely different place mentally now. The practice slows me down. I have to focus so intently, I’m not thinking about anything else. My mind is free of the typical thoughts. Yoga really revolutionized my life.

P: When you’re on tour, when do you practice?

Jesse Carmichael: So much of the weirdness of the touring experience has to do with the time differences traveling around the world. The lack of roots can make you feel pretty ungrounded. Yoga instills the idea of being in the now. So I don’t get as lost in the weirdness of touring. Plus, just physically, it helps keep up endurance for the shows. And my meditation practice helps me center and connect.

Right now, I’m working on the mantra, “May I be filled with lovingkindness. May I be well. May I be filled with peace and ease. May I be happy.” Next, I’ll expand and include people around me being well until everyone is included. It sort of reminds me of the security video in airplanes: Secure your own mask first.

P: What do you enjoy most about your yoga? AD: Right before I go onstage. It’s my prep,

absolutely. Performing is an unnatural thing to do for a living. You get up onstage with bright lights. It’s loud and people are screaming. It’s not a peaceful environment, you know? So if you can create that for yourself and have a bit of silence before going out there, it’s a good thing. It’s nice to have routines to come back to when you are in a constantly fluctuating state. I’m here, there, on a bus, on a plane, in a hotel. It’s sensory overload. An hour or so of yoga a day really recenters me.

P: It seems like a lot of musicians turn to yoga on tour.

Taken By Ruth Black

JC: Yoga is an exciting mystery that helps me

physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I don’t worry as much about the future or the past. It helps me with my sense of impatience. Things change slowly. Improving as a musician, and as a yogi, is a gradual process. That’s what I’m most grateful about. And the idea of structure or discipline has carried over into my creative life. Structure is like the sides of the river. In order for the river to flow, you have to have these sides. Otherwise, the river would just spread out and evaporate. Whenever you introduce structure, your energy can flow.

P: Is there such a thing as a yogi rocker? AL: When I’m on the road, I practice every

day to keep me sane. But I’m also not a saint: I drink and party and do stupid stuff every once in a while. But I balance it out. Everyone thinks, “Oh, you do yoga; you must be serene.” If anything, yoga makes me more intense. It’s such a primal practice. It definitely puts me in a comfortable place, but it makes me even more spirited. It magnifies aspects of my personality that are fiery, and it brings out my natural tendencies. Your nature shines through when you do yoga a lot. It’s made me really confident and comfortable with who I am. Taken By Ruth Black

Taken By Ruth Black

Interview With Bonnie Raitt Blueswoman Bonnie Raitt taps her creative wellspring with yoga.

Guitarist and singer Bonnie Raitt, 61, is something of a music legend, with 18 albums and nine Grammy Awards to her credit as well as a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of of Fame. She’s played with such legends as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Committed to political activism as well as music, Raitt lives in Northern California and is a passionate yogi.

prana: Tell us about your yoga practice. Bonnie Raitt: I’ve been practicing yoga since around ‘91, when I was off the road, and a friend invited me to share her home practice. She was a wonderful teacher, and soon after, I began classes at my local yoga studios. I felt the benefits immediately and knew that this was a way for me to be able to both get and stay fit and to also deepen on a spiritual and creative level. I’ve enjoyed investigating different styles, like Iyengar, hatha, Yin, vinyasa, and various blends. I like mixing up my teachers and styles, as I feel it enriches both my practice and my understanding of the sutras and yoga tradition. The last 15 years or so, I’ve mostly been practicing an intermediate-level vinyasa flow about three times a week when I’m home, and I carry my mat and props with me to practice in my hotel on the road. I occasionally drop in on classes when I’m traveling, but I find, in my situation, using DVDs and just creating my own program works fine. Although I don’t usually get a full hour and a half of practice outside class, something I’d like to get better at, I find doing little “yoga bits” during my walks or in between business or household chores also brings great benefits. It’s amazing how much privacy you can get on a hiking trail, using a park bench, steps, or even tree trunks for leverage.

P: Why do you practice? BR: I have found so many benefits from my

yoga practice. Aside from its being a wonderful way to get and stay fit and strong, I love the calming effect it has on my mind and nervous system. I was raised in the Quaker tradition, and yoga provides a similar path to achieving quiet, centering on your true spirit, and connecting to the earth and to a bigger community.

Like a lot of us, I spend too much time in my head, always trying to catch up with my list of what’s to do. With all the increasingly fast ways of communicating and the pressure to fit more things in, I find that yoga, meditation, and pranayama breathing are essential to helping me achieve more focus, balance, and peace.

I love the fellowship I feel with my community in class. It’s one of the places where I can really feel part of the group. I love that there’s no sense of competition, no pressure to be perfect, and very little sense of being checked out. I love the variety of ages, body types, and abilities around me, and even when we’re being challenged, the fact that we’re all pushing together with the same goals helps us spur each other on. I’ve told my teacher that I’d probably never push myself as far as she gets us to go. It’s a devotion that brings me pride as well as making me feel great after every class.

P: Has yoga made you a better artist? BR: I think that having an anchor practice has helped me cope with fitting my business and home lives with my artistic life. As asanas prepare you for meditation, so practicing yoga and meditating help you center into yourself. That includes the deep well of creativity and expression inside us all. But for an artist, it is crucial. Honoring that more spiritual, intuitive side is as important a part of the gift of yoga as feeling healthier physically. Anything that can help you take better care of yourself—all parts of yourself—gives every aspect of your life more aliveness and meaning. The way yoga brings you to yourself can’t but help an artist tap into that deeper well. Yoga and art are actually very similar: The challenge of stretching beyond your comfort zone, of learning to breathe and surrender into places that are painful or tight, is sometimes also what allows a profound artistic opening. Opening to our true Self, tapping into the bigger One that we are, after all, that’s the gift of yoga for me.

Taken By Jack Toft