Just B Yoga Blog

I met and befriended some great people at Kulae – they make biodegradable yoga mats that don’t weigh a ton and won’t break the bank. The Kulae peeps started hanging with lots of our peeps and before you knew it we looked like a clan (but aren’t we all anyway?)

As promised, here are some audio and video clips from this weekend’s 11th annual MidWest Yoga Conference outside of Chicago. There was plenty of asana but that was the smallest part of it. We shared our humanity and reaffirmed our need to take our practice off the mat and into action. Check out what Julia Butterfly Hill, Seane Corn and Saul David Raye had to say.

I let out a sigh yesterday at the Midwest Yoga Conference. Yes, there’s clothes and mats and other products. There’s superstar yogis (Seane Corn, David Saul Raye, Jonny Kest).

Happy Mothers Day. Embrace each other and your connections. Celebrate your being together. Honor the lessons. Look hard and remember well for the journey is short.

Well, Mother Nature had another idea about the April 24 Earth Day Lansing event. It was cold and wet but Yoga Lansing for the Earth kept going. Yogis bundled up in fleece, socks and other layers. We practiced smile-asana and had fun.

Dear Earth, Forgive us. Be patient as we heal ourselves in order to heal you. May you get well and be well.

Several yogis around Lansing will work together on April 24 to teach yoga at the Capitol steps for Lansing’s Family Eco Fest, an Earth Day Lansing event. We’re calling it Yoga Lansing for the Earth. By honoring our planet we honor ourselves. Take a moment to reflect on your yoga practice and your daily activities and their impacts on the earth.

Let’s cure breast cancer with an event that encourages drinking shots of whiskey? Apparently Lansing has voted and breasts outrank livers in the bodypart poll. We must be making the choice to support this event based on our eyes finding breasts more visually appealing than livers.

Yoga has inspired me to explore the definition of community and sangha, the foundation of my asana practice and the possibilities of my heart. Some popular yoga studios can leave you empty, confused and in doubt about the depth of yoga. Are you there for a posture contest? Is it supposed to be a popularity club or high school clique? The intentions of Patanjali’s sutras are lost in the chic sheen of fashionable yoga, tweety bodies and trendy accessories.

Belinda Thurston has a yoga logo now.

We practiced mysore at our own pace at 6 a.m. this morning. No chatting. No instructions. Just a room full of breath.
Two people practicing in silence at sunrise is a big step toward cultivating my home practice.