Like many body positivity activists, I’m committed to creating more inclusionary and diverse images of women in mainstream media. I’m concerned that the increasingly unrealistic, unattainable images of beauty in popular culture are contributing to rising rates of body image and eating disorders in young women. That’s why I’ve been busy developing a documentary that…
Rewilding The Yoga Body
Recently a fb image of a young, white, lithe yogini balancing in an extremely deep back bend disturbed me. Not because she was just another example of the yoga Barbie -er yoga body –which saturates my yoga feed, but because she was posing in a sun-dappled forest grove accompanied by the hashtags “Fantastic #yoga” and…
Free Spirits: Yoga Therapy and Girls
“Girls are largely raised without a sense of their own divinity…their worth in the world is tied to their looks, grades, and gifts – not the amazing miracle of mere existence“…Courtney E. Martin, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body It’s no secret that rates of body image disorders, anxiety…
The Yoga of Time: Chronobiology and Your Inner Plant
“We share so much in common with plants that we have to reconsider what characterizes us as human.” Plant geneticist Prof. Daniel Chamovitz Recently a lovely little article appeared in my Facebook feed which invited me to cultivate my inner plant. This was not to be an exercise in anthropomorphism, stated its author, but an…
Yoga Body: The Backlash
Two years ago I wrote a popular post titled Yoga Body: The Conspiracy. At the time it was very warmly received, generating thousands of hits, hundreds of shares and loads of positive comments. But lately the commentary hasn’t been very affirmative. In fact, its been making people pretty angry. One yoga teacher was enraged enough…
Halloween: Shedding Light On The Shadow
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” ~ Carl Jung It’s the time of the year when the veil between the ordinary world and the supernatural thins. A time when children dress as goblins, pumpkins flicker, plastic skeletons rattle, and talk at late night party’s turns…
Coming To Grips With The Divine: The Sacred Language of the Hand
“Our ability to grasp, to build, and to make our thoughts real lies inside this complex of bones, nerves, and vessels”…“The hand is a signature for who we are and what we can attain.” Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body. In the past year…
Our Metaphysical Meat
I have written many times with dismay about the “I am not my body” ideology that permeates contemporary yoga. To view the body, as so many spiritual seekers seem to do, as a vehicle or ‘meat-suit’ – whilst our true self lies ‘elsewhere’ is to fall victim to what author Philip Shepherd calls the “great…
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