Who's Your Yoga Teacher, Baby?

Ah, America, the land of innovation.  You're free to choose.  Change it. Dissect it. Try it, you’ll like it…or not. You’re in control. That's the American way.

But does the American attitude work in yoga?

Once upon a time, Yoga was once a very specific, very secret practice designed to bring you to enlightenment. For thousands of years, yoga was for the initiated only. Warning on the box: do not try yoga at home.

In the 1890s, yoga made it’s first appearance in America. We approached with caution at first, and sometime around 1970, we embraced it and made yoga our own, sprinkling in American invention, innovation, individuality. The mantra of American yoga: to the people, for the people, by the people.

Now, more than 100 years later, Yoga is the Ben & Jerry’s of American exercise. What are you in the mood for today?  Iyengar, Bikram, Ashtanga, Kundalini? How about a nice taste of Anusara or Jivamukti yoga? In a no frills mood? Try Yoga with No Fancy Toppings: Yoga Nidra. Want niche yoga? Try yoga for seniors, yoga for infants, yoga for Mid-life Moms who wear Manolos. Want yoga chic? Move your body with Rodney Yee, Christie Turlington, Baron Baptiste. Madonna might be in your yoga class today. Or - dream on - Sting.

Yoga for everyone. Yoga round the clock. Yoga here, yoga there, yoga in your underwear. Yay, yoga, yes...?

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Angry Hot Yoga!

Isn't yoga supposed to make you feel calm and serene?

Not if you've got some surpressed anger. Hot yoga is sure to bring up whatever you've been keeping down. And that's a good thing: because when those emotions are finally ready to come up, they're ready to be done.

Hot yoga is a science of letting go: a set sequence of 26 poses done in a very heated room with specific instructions offered to keep you safe in the heat, to occupy your mind so it doesn't wander, to take you

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