Yoga Online?: How Yoga Is Growing to Match Our Modern Day Needs
Online Yoga Videos?: How Yoga is Growing to Match Our Modern Day Needs by Kai Rawson-Ahern and Tiffany Chion
Founders of Sundari Yoga Studio and www.YogaUniverse.com Yoga and technology??? The Question Our first reaction to seeing these two words together is, "hey those are opposites!". Most people think of Yoga as being about challenging themselves spiritually and physically, whereas technology is something you use at work, something that allows you to pay bills, stay in touch, and acquire information faster than ever before. To older or uninitiated folk, technology often means something new and scary. Can these two worlds have anything to do with each other?
The Promise Once one looks a bit deeper, one finds that not only are Yoga and Technology a perfect match, they are actually one and the same. Together can bring our lives greater meaning, flow, and connection.
Imagine not having to skip your yoga class, and neglect yourself, just because you have a big project due, the kids are under the weather, or you just simply can't work around the studio's schedule. Imagine being able to advance your practice when and where it suits you. Imagine being able to integrate your Yoga into your everyday. It could be by the light of dawn, getting an aligning and invigorating start to the day before the world wakes up. It could be a quick refresher on your lunch break, as you feel the emotional stress, and physical strain of the workday melt away. Or it could be late in the evening, when work is done, when the kids are asleep, when you have a little quiet time to sooth your spirit and relax your body. These are times that traditionally have been all but impossible for us to get a wonderful guided practice, save for a few tired old tapes or DVDs or a once a week early morning class at a studio.
Now you can bring the studio home/with you, on your terms, and with a greater variety of classes and community support than ever before. That is why Yoga Universe was created…Yoga meets life.
The history Yoga, for many, brings to mind spirituality. A calm man in a cave, thin, alone and ruminating on something holy and most certainly detached from most of our daily realities. He seems to be involved in something esoteric and seemingly beyond you. While Yoga's roots go back several thousand years, it is a common misconception that Yoga is a practice that is strictly specified, a definite. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Just as the earliest seedling of what we now know as yoga was revolutionary in its time, yoga has continued to be reinvented time and time again making it a constantly evolving living thing. This is what gives Yoga meaning to each and every one of us, it is what allows yoga to nourish us today, just as it did that man in the cave. It is what keeps Yoga fresh and relevant rather than inapplicable and remote. In fact, what most Westerners now know as Yoga, or more specifically Hatha or Ashtanga yoga, did not even arise until the 15th century when Yogi Swatmarama took the learnings of the previous millennia and applied them in a new way. A way that, based on the dramatic spread of this new form of yoga in subsequent years, resonated with a global audience on a scale and in a way previously unseen. In fact, Yoga's very essence is perhaps best summed up by taking a moment to understand the Etymology of the word itself.
Sanskrit yoga is a derivation of Proto-Indo-European yugam, from a root yeug- (Sanskrit yuj-) meaning "to join" or "unite"; cognate to Latin iugum and modern English yoke. History has shown that the Yogis who have made the greatest contributions understood what this meant, a complete joining and uniting of all aspects of one's existence, not just a couple, to truly live your yoga, rather than just practice it. Kundalini Yoga has itself been described as a "science, art, and technology" which may be surprising as, for most, those terms call up visions of chemistry, painting, electronics, and the like. When one looks a bit deeper though, we find that those terms are much broader in meaning and Yoga actually falls into all of their definitions, being a constant process of invention and reinvention, application of method, and bringing together of knowledge for the purpose of creation.
The Application When we allow ourselves spiritual time it is often quite separate from what we see as our daily life, our "real life". We squeeze it in when we get the chance if we are lucky, but more often than not putting it off along with that vigorous walk that we have been wanting to take. Spiritual health needs, like our physical and mental health needs, often end up playing second fiddle to our work and family commitments, but it does not have to be so.
It is possible to live a holistic life, one in which your morning routine, your workday, and evening family time do not preclude taking time to nourish yourself and in fact all interweave. Mixing your yoga practice into all aspects of your life can bring more value to your yoga of course, but just as importantly, it will bring more value to everything else. Imagine bringing a new, clean, calm to interactions with your coworkers. Imagine having the presence of mind that normally only comes with hindsight to gracefully handle a challenge offered by your children. Imagine having the energy to support your spouse in the way they need, and ask for the support you need, in the way that you have always wanted…This is what letting yoga out of studio means.
We do all of this, by offering you the physical, spiritual, and emotional nourishment you need, free from constraining schedules, impractical commutes to the nearest good studio, or videos and DVDs that cost too much and then disappoint in quality and variety and style. With seemingly ever busier schedules and longer workdays people are hungry for an alternative to adding the Gym or Studio to the list of places to drive to daily. The home ecercise markety continues to expand with over 10 million tapes and DVDs sold in 2004 and with double-digit growth annually. Unfortunately, the majority of those programs, even if they are good to begin with, get stale quickly. That is why Online Exercise programs are set to explode. People are growing accustomed to viewing TV clips online and with broadband internet connections and improvements in computing we can now watch DVD quality clips in a full screen format, without downloads. Many of these early attempts have fallen short of satisfying the yoga enthusiast, due to trying to mix in aerobics, kickboxing, etc…or lacking in fresh updates, only adding a class every month or two, so you end up with a spectrum that may be a mile wide but is only an inch deep.
The Solution We have all heard the commonly repeated lines about how, in the 21st century, the presence of the internet and its value in our daily lives escalate. That is old news though. What is truly revolutionary is that besides the more utilitarian uses that most of us are familiar with, the Internet can also help us to express ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and most recently of all, physically. It can allow us to express our enthusiasm, and share it with likeminded others. They key to this is providing specific niches where we can find a home in a resource rich environment, where we can get help in following our unique paths. This type of approach differs greatly from the cookie cutter methods of early online exercise sites but has already caught on strongly with many other enthusiast groups, from soccer skill hungry kids, to salsa dance loving boomers. The new leaders of this online enthusiast revolution will meet the needs of their faithful community members, offering daily updates, the most extensive archived class libraries, and easy navigation. This is what the savvy yogis of the 21st century want, a constantly evolving community forum for true sharing, teaching, and learning with other yogis--joined and united. As a complement to your studio practice or as your primary mode of practice, taking online yoga classes from an invigorating, inspiring and knowledgable teacher can help you get connected, stay with your practice, and continue to learn and grow in your yoga practice--all in the comfort of your own home, home gym, office or while traveling. All on your own terms and at your own pace. Yoga and technology seem to be a very good team indeed!
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