Yoga Spy

Tag: travel

  • Reading list: India

    In late February, I got the green light to go to Pune in August. (Among Iyengar yogis, “going to Pune” means going to study at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute.) Five months to prepare. To me, this meant buying Lonely Planet India, finding an apartment in Pune, booking flights, getting vaccinations, avoiding…

  • Have you ever cried in yoga class?

    “I couldn’t stop crying in Savasana,” my friend Elaine once told me. She was struggling through a bad time and finally, in yoga class, she felt at ease. It was such a relief that she broke down. Yoga can catalyze emotions in people. I’ve witnessed spontaneous crying, during or after asana,…

  • Home practice in my hometown

    Flying into Hilo, my hometown, two weeks ago, I gazed out the airplane window. An endless, supersaturated palette of green, along the Hamakua Coast. While much of the world, including California (my subsequent stomping ground) is suffering from drought, Hilo has had over 12 inches of rain in the month of April alone. The aerial view was striking.…

  • An Iyengar yogini in a flow yoga class

    During my Lonely Planet research trip to Hawaii, I dropped on 75-minute classes at two Hilo studios: Balancing Monkey and Yoga Centered. Neither offers Iyengar yoga , but one teacher’s bio mentioned that she’s in training for Intro II certification. Curious, I attended her “basics” class–and a half-priced “community flow” class at…

  • Hilo, my hometown

    After a month on the road, I’m finally returning to Vancouver (and blogging). On leaving the island of Hawai‘i, here’s a shout-out to Hilo, my hometown. For a beautiful coastal town, Hilo is remarkably untouristy, thanks to its average annual rainfall of 130 inches (which doesn’t preclude lots of hot, sunny…