In my everyday life in Vancouver, yoga plays a major role in my identity. People know me as yoga classmate, colleague, teacher, and blogger. People whom I’ve never met know me as YogaSpy; my blog is our connection. In contrast, my closest family … Continue reading Back to yoga teaching and blogging
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” If Carl Jung is right (and he probably is), I haven’t been a blogger lately. I had high hopes to post frequently in August. After all, I had a few weeks’ break from yoga teaching. (In contrast, last summer in Pune I was immersed and extra alert (first time at RIMYI, first time in India). But I averaged a mind-boggling (for me) three posts per week. Then and there, I was compelled to write.) When I don’t write and my blog stagnates, I feel a bit guilty—as I do when some of my New Year’s resolutions remain undone. With only four months … Continue reading Four months left in 2015: What will you do with it?
One of my favorite yoga blogs is Michael Romero’s Home Yoga Practice, which features his writings on being an Iyengar yoga student and teacher in Honolulu. I first “met” Michael when he posted comments on my blog as “yogiromero” in November 2013. He has strong opinions tempered by thoughtfulness and humor. I could tell that he was a serious practitioner. I could relate to his point of view. In December 2013, he launched his blog, which interested me primarily by his tell-it-like-it-is writer’s voice, but also by his connection to my Hawaiian homeland. Michael lives on O‘ahu and teaches at Iyengar Yoga Honolulu, which I’d once visited in … Continue reading Five years a blogger
A post I wrote last August, Was I suckered by the Seacret saleslady?, is my biggest hit: highest average click rate and longest shelf life. Clearly, my experience with Seacret’s aggressive sales pitch (and apparently with the allure of satiny smooth cuticles) resonated with people worldwide. Even those who have never heard of Seacret can empathize with buyer’s remorse and second guessing. Whenever I check my “Site Stats,” this post ranks in the top five. Thanks, Seacret, for boosting my daily numbers! One commentator introduced an idea I hadn’t expected: Reynold urged others not to buy Seacret products because they’re made by … Continue reading Did Seacret work for me? You bet! Well…
I don’t get it. Why do some blogs generate dozens of comments (and shares and likes), while others sit pristine like wallflowers? Bloggers can check click rates to see if anyone’s reading. But what if people are reading but not commenting? What does that mean? And why should I care? Before I launched my blog in 2009, I’d never read yoga blogs, as I discussed in The Wide World of Yoga Blogs. I just wanted to organize my free-floating thoughts about yoga. I was curious to see if I could sustain my stream of thoughts or if the well would … Continue reading No comments?! Blogging as karma yoga
Seven weeks remain in the year 2011. Seven weeks! Are you satisfied with your year so far? If not, you have seven weeks to turn it around. Me, I’ll face off with procrastination. Take my blog. I post infrequently despite a swarm of viable topics buzzing in my head. I take ages to transform them from half-baked ideas to publishable posts. Why? Procrastination. I’m not lazy by nature, and I’m Type A about my work, my practice, and my teaching. But I grapple with non-deadline tasks. The trouble with procrastinating is the snowball effect: the longer I wait, the larger the task … Continue reading On procrastination
Okay, I admit it. I established myself in Facebook and Twitter only on Monday. I’m not just a late adopter, I’m a laggard. I resisted for years, uninterested in putting myself out there. In fact, I was quite averse to Facebook’s online interface of social interaction. Online, one can create any identity by easy “sight bites” (like sound bites). Further, group interaction is different from the one-on-one dynamic. If we are friends, shouldn’t we communicate personally and confidentially? Twitter seemed to encourage even more trivial announcements to the world. That said, people I know and like are Facebook and Twitter … Continue reading Facebook, Twitter, late adopters and laggards
I had high hopes to continue blogging during my Hawaii trip. Dream on. Lonely Planet assignments swallow me whole and, when I’m in Hilo, spending time with my parents is also top priority. In my Hawaii life (a parallel universe to my other life in Canada), sitting for hours at a computer seems incongruous. Even my sacrosanct asana practice has shrunk to a minimum, making way for people and places rarely seen. My blog readership is surely dwindling. Posts are the lifeblood of blogs, and I’ve ceased posting, despite a myriad of free-floating ideas. Can resurrect my blog by flooding … Continue reading Resurrecting my blog: inspiration from a cactus
When I began my blog last August, I told myself that it shouldn’t matter whether anyone reads it. Blogging would be an outlet, a way to gather and release my thoughts (some fleeting, some fundamental) about yoga. As a writer, I process through words. I wanted a free, uncensored forum sans gatekeepers. Whatever the audience size, whatever the response, no matter. After all, words are my work—and also my play. I enjoy the process: choosing a topic, analyzing my thoughts, and crafting a sentence that makes the cut. Such an exercise sharpens my mind. So, why should I be delighted … Continue reading Peer-reviewed blogs
Bear with me as I follow up on my prior post, “Who the heck is Tara Stiles?” If that was my first question, my next thoughts, after my friend Michael mentioned this unfamiliar yoga personality, went like this: “Am I out of it? Should I have recognized this name?” I’d considered myself quite up on all things yoga. Unlike the most serious, old-school yogis, I enjoy knowing yoga in all aspects: the sutras, the Indian gurus, the fashion trends, the iconic teachers around the world. While I study primarily the Iyengar method, I’ve explored Ashtanga, Bikram, and Yin yoga, and … Continue reading The Call of the Fame
In an email exchange several months ago, I mentioned my long interest in yoga to Michael, a magazine editor friend. “The path of the yogin is a difficult (and impecunious) one,” he wrote back. “You could always do what Tara Stiles did and become a YouTube sensation.” Tara Stiles? Who the heck is Tara Stiles? I Googled her name and found her website, her HuffPost blog, her Couch Yoga video on YouTube (which has garnered almost 115,000 views to date), and hundreds more listings. Born in 1981, Stiles grew up in rural Illinois before claiming fame as a Ford model … Continue reading Who the heck is Tara Stiles?
I’m reading a fascinating book, Drawing From Life: The Journal As Art, by Jennifer New, on the hand-written, hand-drawn journals of a variety of people: many professional artists, along with scientists, architects, writers, engineers, a psychiatrist and a musician. Some are famous, others not. The intricate images are stunning as works of art. But what I find equally interesting is the private aspect of these journals. Over decades and lifetimes, the journal keepers filled hundreds of blank pages only for themselves. That, to me, is the modern rarity. Not just the considerable artistic talents, but also the tendency toward autonomy and … Continue reading Get a [private] life
