While summer boasts some of the biggest yoga events around the globe, this season offers a slew of luxurious boutique-style yoga retreat packages catering to varied interests, from Bosnian sightseeing to paddleboarding off Turks and Caicos to downward dogs with yoga rockstar Rodney Yee. Here is a selection of a few to consider.

Miraval Journeys: Bosnia and Croatia October 15-24

The famed Miraval Spa in Arizona is leading a 10-day adventure vacation in historic sites in Bosnia and Croatia, with early morning yoga and meditation sessions on the daily menu. $6,740 (most meals included). http://www.miravalresorts.com/journeys

Paddleboard/Core Fusion in Turks and Caicos Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands October 24-28

NYC-based Exhale and Core Fusion cofounders Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito are hosting this five-day retreat at their off-shore at the Hotel Gansevoort Turks + Caicos. Offerings include paddleboarding, barre classes, their signature Core Fusion yoga sessions, and 50-minute massages. $2,050-$2,900. http://www.exhalespa.com

Ojai Yoga Crib Ojai Valley, California, USA October 25-28

One of the few big yoga events happening this season, this event in Southern California draws thousands of yogis and elite teachers such as Erich Schiffman, Patricia Sullivan, Cyndi Lee, Scott Blossom, and Jason Crandell. Expect morning meditations, daytime workshops, and evening kirtan sessions. Tickets range from $200 to $575. http://www.lulubandhas.com/yoga/crib

Yoga Tango Retreat with Ashley Turner Buenos Aires, Argentina October 28-November 3

American yogi Ashley Turner is leading a group to Argentina to mix her sensual vinyasa yoga with wine tasting and tango lessons, with accommodations in the chic VAIN boutique hotel. $2,095-$2,595. http://www.ashleyturner.org or http://www.solyogatrips.com

Escape to Shape Lake Atitlan, Guatemala November 3-9

Excerpt from:
Top October-November yoga retreats around the globe

Larrissa Beckenbaugh and PJ Heffernan from PJ's Yoga Shala. Shayne Broadwell from Core Essence.

Published Oct. 6, 2012 at 3:22 p.m.

September was the official National Yoga Month, celebrating the Eastern tradition that the West and the rest of the world has enthusiastically embraced for its fitness, health and spiritual benefits.

Yoga "teachers" do not need to be certified, credentialed or attend any special "training" to instruct yoga. This may come as a surprise even to yoga teachers, who, when looking for a job, may be faced with the stipulation of "must be an RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) through the Yoga Alliance." Often, these studios looking for teachers are "RYS Registered Yoga Schools" through the Yoga Alliance.

So, eager yoga students passionate about their practice and wanting to progress to teaching are almost forced to take (expensive) "teacher trainings" to qualify to be "certified" as a yoga teacher. They then have to register with the Yoga Alliance, paying a fee to maintain their "RYT" teacher status.

And the Yoga Alliance (a non-profit organization) is doing pretty well because of it, as their website financials state: "Yoga Alliance and YA+ have released their 2011 financials by posting them on this website. The combined organizations reported revenue of approximately $3.25 million in 2011, which represents a 37-percent increase over the $2.37 million generated in 2010. They also ended the year with a surplus of $78,806, which was down from $364,188 in 2010."

Wow. Looks like yoga is one of the only businesses thriving in this economy. (Yoga as a business. This, in and of itself, gets some yogis' mats all up in a bunch.)

On the other hand, how many yoga teachers do you know whose "revenue is up in the last year"? Yoga teachers are typically paid per class, from my experience, starting around $25 per class. This fluctuates where you are in the country, at gyms versus yoga studios and by the teacher's experience. Some studios pay per student in class (again, from my experience) around $5 per student.

Private yoga sessions can be anywhere from $35-$150 per session again depending on so many variables. Yoga teacher celebrities, of course, command much more. But, let's face it your average yogi taking a teacher training has a long way to go before they are "ommming" Sting and Madonna for hundreds of bucks per session.

There's money being made, but it may not be by your favorite yoga teacher unless that teacher owns a studio and is offering these "teacher trainings."

View original post here:
Yoga "teacher training" is big business

Shameem Akthar, yogacharya trained with the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, takes you through five poses that will help in controlling digestive ailments.

In yoga, for digestive problems most asanas are helpful. You may however have to avoid them when there is an inflammatory condition like ulcer or any perforated condition of the digestive tract.

In fact, to have a gentle yoga practice when you have a digestive problem will soothe the stomach. Even where poses are suggested that apply pressure on the abdomen, care must be taken not to press down into them, but to hold the poses lightly.

Including soothing pranayama practices like seethali (cooling breath) and the alternate nostril breathing (anulom vilom) are also helpful. The most soothing practice, in yoga, for healing digestive disasters, including inflammatory conditions, however is the passive practice of meditation. A ten-minute meditation, lying supine in the corpse pose (shavasana) or as in the crocodile pose (makarasana) will be the best therapy.

In yoga, apart from actual incidents of food poisoning most other ailments are tracked to psychosomatic causes or life-style mismanagement. Having a regular meal schedule, giving sufficient gap between eating and exercising/or sleeping, waking up early, eating dinner early, are some simple tips to maintain a healthy gut.

For more of Shameem's yoga writings visit http://jaisivananda.blogspot.com. Shameem's second book Yoga in the Workplace, with photographs by ace photographer Fawzan Husain, is now available at online shops and bookshops across the country. It is also available as e-book, with Kindle, Amazon.

Read the original here:
Yoga poses to improve your digestion

The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, founded by Swami Vishnu-Devananda and led by Swami Sitaramananda, is offering intensive meditation retreats.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 04, 2012

This course is ideal for people at all levels in their meditation practice. In addition, participants will practice yoga postures, Yoga breathing and meditation twice per day, participate in daily Kirtan chanting sessions, enjoy 2 delicious organic, vegetarian meals, and learn about the specifics of meditation from an experienced meditation teacher.

This meditation course is the only one of it's kind in Northern California, based on the traditional methods of Classical Yoga meditation from ancient India.

Benefits of meditation include:

Increased focus and concentration

Lowers blood pressure, naturally

Balances both right and left hemispheres of the brain

Natural energy boost

Increased problem solving ability

Read more from the original source:
Meditation retreat in California offered in November at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm

Hopkinton's Lesley Reilly recently became one of less than 100 yoga teachers nationally to earn the RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) 500 certification, a Registered Yoga Teacher milestone from the Yoga Alliance, representing 500 hours of certified training.

Reilly is the owner of bCalm Power Yoga in Hopkinton, MA, a Baptiste affiliate studio. Yoga Alliance is the national education and support organization for yoga in the United States. Formed in 1999, it provides standards for yoga teachers and is recognized as a premier designation of certification for yoga teachers. The Yoga Alliance 500 hour standards incorporate technique training, teaching methods, anatomy and physiology study, yoga philosophy and ethics, as well as hands on teaching and observation.

With the 500 hours under her belt, Lesley's enthusiasm about her yoga practice and continuing education is clear.

"I am committed to providing our community with the highest standard of Power Vinyasa yoga. With each hour of training, not only does my own practice deepen, but I feel truly fortunate to pass along that experience to people in the community as well."

bCalm Power Yoga offers a flexible schedule of classes, as well as specialty workshops and teacher training and mentorship. For more information visit http://www.bcalmpoweryoga.com.

View original post here:
Lesley Reilly earns yoga milestone

Kids yoga class at Beth Israel Medical Center (credit: CBS 2)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) A yoga program originally designed for kids dealing with developmental and behavioral issues has opened its doors to all kids in need of a little stress relief.

Beth Israel Medical Center started the kids yoga program for 4- to 13-year-olds diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and autism, but the programs director said the health effects of yoga are beneficial for all kids.

Our kids are overstimulated. The amount of screen time, television, video games, noise, Dr. Asma Sadiq of Beth Israel told CBS 2s Katie McGee. I think the focus on the breath, particularly, and the mindfulness piece of yoga is something that is very powerful.

Sadiq and the hospitals in-house yoga expert, Jillian Friedman, run the program, which meets once a week in Union Square.

The program is an-all inclusive program, Friedman told McGee.

The yoga practice really helps kids focus. It helps bring them into their bodies, Sadiq told McGee. Theyre aware of their bodies and the boundaries of their bodies, and what theyre capable of.

Im very stressed out with the new school year coming, 11-year-old Michael OBrien said during his first yoga class. I thought this would soothe my body.

The instructors focus on proper yoga poses and breathing techniques, but said the main goal is giving kids an outlet and a place to relax.

Its fun and its interactive. It also could be social, Sadiq said. But youre doing this for yourselfyou are competing with yourself and getting a sense of who you are.

Go here to see the original:
Beth Israel Medical Center Opens Yoga Class To All Kids

Students lined up throughout the studio room of Sweat and Soul Yoga and prepared for their routine class. Instead of the traditional om chant, however, Snoop Doggs tunes fill the room.

While it seems weird, whats really cool about it is that the hip-hop music is really deep, and the beats are really strong and allow people to feel good, said Lynn Begier, a yoga expert and and the founder of both Sweat and Soul Yoga and Back Bay Yoga Studio. Sometimes people dont get it because its really experiential. Then they take it. and they are like, wow, theres something really connecting and powerful to the class.

A number of Boston University students have said that this upbeat twist on yoga helps them enjoy the activity more.

I always get bored because usually [studios] put up music thats like chanting or something, and its fun to focus on something else and go back and forth or dance while youre listening to Snoop Dogg, said Rachel Franklin, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

For Begier, who first opened a yoga studio in Back Bay 11 years ago, there is nothing contradictory about yoga and hip-hop.

When my life felt funky, I started doing my normal yoga practice to this [hip-hop] music, she said. On days I felt so depressed or bored, I would practice to everything from Madonna to Britney Spears greatest hits and I would feel so transformed.

All-Ages Activity

Begier said that very few people during her college days even knew about yoga and that she has noticed an increasing trend in the activity.

Every gym has yoga now, she said. When I opened up Back Bay yoga which was my original studio, 11 years ago, we were really the only studio in Boston. Now a lot of people are doing yoga, and it is spread out and segmented, you dont have to be in the go to do yoga.

More here:
Yoga: Stretching the body, mind and soul

Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | 2:24 p.m. CDT; updated 2:55 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, October 3, 2012

COLUMBIA Robin Crouch is 7 years old and has already been practicing yoga for four years.

Her mom, Shannon Hensley, said she likes the non-competitive aspect of the practice and believes it keeps her daughter centered.

When Robin is upset, Hensley said the two of them will practice relaxation breathing techniques.

"This really calms Robin down," Hensley said.

Robin takes classes with Susan Mathis, a former early childhood educator who owns both alleyCat Yoga and Yoga to Grow.

Mathis, 44,began Yoga to Grow in 2006 to provide a way for kids to feel strong and powerful and to connect to their own bodies. Classes in the studio at 23 S. Fourth St. are arranged by age group, from infants to teens, and geared to their developmental stages.

Mathis adapted her passion for yoga to children by developing classes around songs, stories and games. She teaches them classic poses like dog and frog, as well as poses designed for children, such as rainbow (side plank for adults) and polar bear (a modified child's pose).

In each class, she incorporates play, imagination, breathing, laughter and relaxation.

"As I began to get more and more into practicing yoga myself, I had a lot of interest in seeing the benefits that the practice of yoga could have for kids," she said.

Go here to read the rest:
Yoga to Grow follows national trend in offering yoga to children

For immediate release

Hindus disappointed at Church of England banning yoga for pensioners

Hindus are disheartened over a church affiliated to Church of England banning yoga in its premises.

According to reports, St. Andrew's Church and Centre, opened in 1999 in Dibden Purlieu, banned an 81 years old Christian instructor Eileen Meegan who is great-grandmother of five, from teaching yoga in the church hall, claiming that it was against the churchs religion and dangerous for the mind. doing yoga has enhanced my faith as a Christian, Meegan was quoted as saying and termed churchs action as ignorance.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. One could still practice ones respective faith and do yoga. Yoga would rather help one in achieving ones spiritual goals in whatever religion one believed in. It was not at odds with any faith and rather made one spiritually healthier.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged the immediate intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Douglas Williams in this matter to permit the yoga classes in St. Andrew's to bring goodwill among the communities.

Rajan Zed stated that yoga, referred as a living fossil whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was a mental and physical discipline handed down from one guru to next, for everybody to share and benefit from. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical. It was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.

Zed pointed out that an Episcopal News Service article titled Yoga for Episcopalians a healing discipline in the past said: Yoga can teach us to improve our posture, or sharpen our focus during Mass. St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington (DC) has offered quality yoga instruction since 1978 emphasizing effective breathing, mastery of asanas (comfortably held postures), relaxation, positive thinking, and meditation as elements of healthy spiritual living that promote happiness and true knowledge of self. St. Davids Episcopal Church in Wayne (Pennsylvania) offered in the past A Quiet Morning of Yoga and Centering Prayer which included 30 minutes in a guided meditation for a deep, conscious rest. It also offered Yoga with Spirit vigorous yoga classes. Episcopal Church was derived from Church of England.

Rajan Zed argued that it was simply un-Christian to refuse services to a yoga instructor who was trying to help the pensioners de-stress, calm their minds and improve their flexibility through yoga. Love and compassion was the hallmark of Christian ethics. Gospel According to John 13: 34 said: Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Zed stresses that in our shared pursuit for the truth; we can learn from one another and thus can arrive nearer to the truth. Dialogue may help us vanquish the stereotypes, prejudices, caricatures, etc., passed on to us from previous generations, Zed adds.

See the original post here:
Hindus disappointed at Church of England banning yoga

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Gaiam, Inc., the leading distributor of lifestyle media and fitness accessories, today announced the expansion of its Gaiam Sol Collection, Gaiam's professional quality yoga accessory line. This premium collection, developed by yogis for yogis, is crafted from responsibly sourced materials, and an eye toward mindful design and quality construction.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121003/NY85805 )

"We are thrilled to expand Gaiam's Sol Collection beyond just mats to now offer a variety of other quality yoga accessories," says Bill Sondheim, President of Gaiam. "Each of the Sol products is designed to be used in conjunction with one another to deliver all the tools necessary to enhance your yoga practice."

The Sol Collection will feature the following new products:

In addition to these new products, the Sol Collection continues to feature premium quality yoga mats that meet the technical demands of even the most advanced yoga practitioners and professionals. All made from 100% natural rubber, these mats offer slip-resistance, superior cushioning, and excellent traction. With the new line, the mats are now grouped into four separate collections, which are the English translations of their Sanskrit names reflecting the spirit and tradition of the practice they embody.

Every mat from the Sol Collection comes with the Gaiam Lifetime Mat Guarantee. Any registered Gaiam Sol mat that wears out will be replaced with the same or a comparable mat at no charge.

For more information, please visit http://www.gaiam.com/gaiamsol.

About GAIAMGaiam, Inc. (GAIA) is a leading producer and marketer of lifestyle media and fitness accessories. With a wide distribution network that consists of over 60,000 retail doors, close to 15,000 stores within stores, 5,600 media category management locations, a digital distribution platform and more than 10 million direct customers, Gaiam is dedicated to providing solutions for healthy and eco-conscious living. The company dominates the health and wellness category and releases non-theatrical programming focused on family entertainment and conscious media. For more information about Gaiam, please visit http://www.gaiam.com or call 1.800.869.3603.

Media Contact:Lauren Aboulessan Krupp Kommunications (212) 886-6710 LAboulessan@kruppnyc.com

Original post:
Gaiam Expands Gaiam Sol Yoga Accessory Line