According to the New York Times, the Western-brand of yoga is all about dispelling the “spiritual hokey-pokey” and getting “real.” Well ok, but we have to just pipe up and say that we honestly can’t even recall a class where they upheld this rigid, austere image as mentioned in the article; it seems humor has always been a key element and “don’t take yourself so seriously” a constant mantra. So articles like this always seem kind of silly to us. But maybe it’s because we only concern ourselves with the lighthearted yoga fare, which is apparently now considered “Western,” although we’ve never encountered any rubber ducks. What have we been missing out on?
Havi Brooks, 31, a yoga teacher in Portland, Ore., tries to lighten the mood by using a rubber duck named Selma that she refers to as her co-teacher.
If students seem to be a too uptight during, say, breathing exercises, Ms. Brooks might have them balance Selma on their heads. “I wanted to make yoga accessible for people who think chakras are a bunch of bull and that yoga people are hippie-dippie gullible fools,” Ms. Brooks said.
“As soon as you bring out a duck and say this is my co-teacher, people know this is a different kind of yoga.”
Boy, this American yoga sure does sound like a real circus!
The Enlightened Path, With a Rubber Duck [NYTimes]
Earlier…Yoga ‘Don’ Bikram Choudhury Calls American Yoga ‘Fucked Up Circus’
