YogiTunes

Zen Lounge/Soulfood and DJ Free

2012-05-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Zen Lounge comes out of the gate kickin’ on all four hooves with a nice up-tempo number called Go Zen, which GOES. A nice steady backbeat drives synth strings and a male vocal sustaining drone takes the listener (or exerciser) on a nice beat driven directed journey.

Marimba notes in the high end with scratch breaks structure segues in the song and close it out to lead to Funky Buddha a nice swirling dream concoction of funky happiness. Funky Buddha would be a track good for a yoga session of standing poses in a flow-maybe a set where maintaining a consistent rhythm and beat is just as important as aspiring to the optimistic exuberance of the track.

The third track Mystico bumps into play with its own style of new sound on the scene funk. A nice rhythmic push of repeating Indo-Asian voco-samples propels the music listener towards a well-imagined sonic heaven, as elegant string synth work and sweet tabla taps build the groove, great for the sweating, drenched yoga workout.

In Spicy Rice a Miles Davis like trumpet sound drops us into brooding waters for a few seconds before a bouncing soul groove reveals the true positivity of the instrumental. Soon into the track there is a short drum-based break building on the natural rhythmic twang of the bass player-sounds like shakers, beat samples and a drum kit perfectly balanced-then the elegant major chord driven theme picks up again-Indian vocal breaks, followed by another kicking smooth beat break, major chord theme, slight, slight build, major chord theme, synth return and fadeout.

Collective Groove starts with a spoken word hippie UFO recollection then launches into its real mission: to redeem the known world with a COLLECTIVE GROOVE. Built of organ driven jazz, Fender Rhodes fills, and Herbie Hancock style synths a 70s soul scat singer enters once the main spoken word story is played out as a funk flute player takes the song to its inevitable conclusion, as two other spoken word bits are inserted near the end.

A loping trap kit supported by shakers and a sexy back beat sneak Tiki Lounge onto the aural stage. Nice building, cascade synth tracks drive the music to sweet ascension after sweet ascension as a finely dialed marimba player plays support in the mid-range tones.

An alto flute comes into the mix midway highlighting this track as a great accompaniment to a final vinyasana flow for a yoga class or for use as the whole exhausted class gets a chance to rest on the floor in Savasana at the end of a long class.

Tao creeps in under the radar with its spy on a mission groove. Bass and drums kick up the energy element as a sampled Afro-Pop vocalist sings the wordless melody. Nice xylophone work coordinates the rhythm section. By far the most rocking’ track on the whole Zen Lounge disc, yet the breaks are all downtempo and the music almost comes to a dead stop at least two times before kicking back into high gear. These breaks could be used to good advantage to separate certain sections in vinyasana flows.
Green Planet rolls onto stage with a slow sax section groove supported by a rolling Fender Rhodes piano groove. A keening soul singer sings affirmations in the background as the Fender Rhodes player lays down his solo. This track will end any yoga studio session with nice strong support to even the most brutal of classes.

Disco features nice echoey drumbeats that morph into a world of luxurious electric piano tones and a soaring vocalist. There is a nice kick and intensity to this song and despite its title it sounds absolutely nothing like Disco.

written by YogiTunes contributing editor Phil Jefferson

Album Review: DJ Drez - Jahta Beat: The Lotus Memoirs

2012-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

The morning of April 17th, 2012, I lazily scrolled through my iTunes playlists in hopes of finding something awesome to listen to. Then I remembered...DJ Drez's new one was being released on that very day, Jahta Beat: The Lotus Memoirs. Sweet!

I downloaded the precious tracks while I heated water on the stove (for my morning hot lemon water which, by the way fellow yogis, I highly recommend each morning during the springtime for a gentle liver cleanse) and enjoyed the rest of my morning giving the album a good few listens.

I've been a long-time lover of DJ Drez's creations and it's safe to say this one is my favorite of his (four part) Jahta Beat series. I love how consistent the 15 tracks are with each other and as a whole. He combines a little bit of everything so it's likely something will appeal to your ears as you give this album a listen. I highly recommend it! Thanks, DJ Drez, keep em' coming, please!

PS: I'm currently adding quite a few tracks from this album to some of my existing yoga playlists for asana class, including:

Guru Mantra (when we start to warm up and begin our sequence flow)
Dreaming East (when we've got a good flow going)
Dragon Mudra (during a nice balancing sequence)
Nectar Drop (towards the end of class when we're starting to wind things down)
Yearning (right before savasana, when we're reclined on our backs stretching gently)

Be well,

Lauren Forney

Lauren Forney HHC, RYT founder of Center Your Health, is a Holistic Health Counselor and Registered Yoga Teacher based in Red Bank, NJ.

Kevin + Kim

2012-04-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

You know those moments in life when you meet those people who just touch you… in a deep, uncharted space inside.. A space that not many are able to access and brush their fingertips upon. They are Ones who has walked just as far along. Ones who know and see. Precious gemstone radiant eyed creatures that one day, just waltz right on into your life.

Meet my new friends. Kevin and Kim. Better known as Kevin James Carroll and Kim Kinedrsley. Kevin is a musician and kirtan leader throughout Asia and the South Pacific, Kim is a beaming ray of light in a man’s body. They’ve just been added to my list of favorite people. In full devotion to their own hearts and the hearts of others.

As a recent addition to the Bali community, I have just met these two wonderous beings. Kevin and Kim have been leading kirtan circles at their private residence once a week for the community to come together and sing. No charge, no rules, no nothin. Just shoes off at the front door and donation bowl by offering. Some nights it’s been as many as 300 people.

I got to sit down with them the other day and have a little chit chat. Here’s a little melody of how our conversation sang…

I started to play a note and it just sung to me… I’m just being funneled by God… not too much responsibility for my life of what I do. I just follow my heart before worldly ambition. That seems to be the choice that I make when I’m struck at a cross roads. It puts me back on track. My path has been pretty steady and refines itself as I get older..

The inner pull is the connection I have with my heart, I bow to that first. I can give up petty desires to the will of the heart. The less I follow it the more suffering I encounter, I suppose. I’m aware and I’m courageous enough to have the faith even though the rewards are not immediate. I don’t separate my path, my elightenment, my seva, my mission on Earth to my desire to free myself as well as others…

Why through song? You can only ask God that question. I’m not just here to chant. That could change tomorrow. I’m coming out of ten years from separation from society. Unplugged. I was about to get really big but there was something not ripe inside of me. I had to grow into it and cultivate whatever it was within some more.

I go where I’m needed the most. If enough people are asking me to come it’s probably where I’ll go. It’s all organic, there’s no method. It’s all synchronicity and love. If I can see that it’s really helping them, that’s when I go. I don’t really follow method, it’s not really the Truth. The heart is the Guide. The heart is the definite yes or no to know.

I get a tingley feeling— it’s a good feeling that’s not a rational thought beyond reason. If I’m at an intersection, I go the route that feels better. You take the perfection wherever you go. I have an inner knowing that I can’t do the wrong thing. One can follow neurotic thoughts or follow the heart, the intelligence to life all around us. It’s a fluid thing… everyday…

I am being taught. I unfold a different chapter everyday. I will use anything around me to strengthen my inner connection. I can be inspired by this view. I can just be on the balcony and be present, just be completely immersed in the moment and allow spontaneous consciousness to arise. Notice everything around me, the smell, the sounds, the details.

Our relationship… I love Kim because he can do things that I can’t do. But when we come together, we are so powerful.

I’m in love with the music. The energy that comes through me while we sing… we realize that together we can do more of what we want to do in this world. Not a single moment of conflict between us.

Ultimately, the purpose: Find my heart. Find my highest of High. What a sacred journey to awaken here. Love. Love is so ambitious, so present, so real, so profound. A man made of salt, searching for the sea. That’s my path. The love inside of me. The more I so that the more I dissolve into love. It seems to be a process. I’m not afraid of that. I don’t know if it always will be. I’m life a river that is getting stronger and stronger… other people coming.. raging river… there is an excitement… no one wants to leave. A state of complete stillness, completeness, wholeness, connectedness. And I share that with everyone in the room.

And that is pricesless. In my opinion, I feel like I am sharing with people the most precious gift— better than anything material. For some it’s a glimpse, a taste, a state that may even last for days… and then we step back into the world of disconnectedness / separateness…

What we do here is create an island for them to come and rest. To remember the Truth of their Being. The Truth of themselves. We’re not offering salvation. There’s healing that happens, for sure. It’s really just about everyone’s own experience.

Why do I do it? CUZ I LOVE IT! There’s nothing I love more! It’s my passion. I really do it for myself. The more I love myself the more I can share my love with everyone else.

Direct experience, pure channeling with this light. We invite these people to come here and they’re having a direct experience with their own Divinity. No dogma, no religion, no guru. It doesn’t interfere with anything, it doesn’t impose.

Spirituality has been way too marketed. Look what it is over there. I’m experimenting with— the more divine the space, the fire, the food, the offering… and expect nothing in return. People can walk into this space and have this and no one’s asking them for anything.

People have said “it was like I was in the desert… I went straight back into the divine… ecstatic, expanded, grounded, open.."

WE CAN GET SO FU*KING HIGH WITH THIS. All of that sh*tty suffering will just fall away. It won’t last.

People are having experiences from chanting similar to Ayahuasca or DMT. All we’re doing is giving people permission to be themselves and follow their hearts. There’s no activism, pushing, violence. None of that works.

They cannot compete with this expression of Love. Accept it, allow it, just create what you want and make it so beautiful that everyone wants to be a part of it.

With this, we’re giving people simple, melodic, structure, but you sing the song together from the getgo, everyone finds their way in. there might be different harmonies, sometimes even different words… it’s evolved kirtan. It’s evolved into something even more free. Kevin’s leading it, but you’re the one who’s being led.

Someone said to me the other night, “I felt included.”

That’s music to my ears. We tell the musicians to have a night off and sing with us. Let’s sing together. We’re refining a context of what we know works. Everyone’s feeling that expansive loving community.

It’s a loving loving loving LOVE exercise. The key word is connection.

Through the singing, we connect. The disconnection of society, distructive behavior of themselves, to the world, or even worse to each other… Being connected to a bigger picture that’s not just driven for a separate self. We’re working from a whole. The separation journey is coming to an end. And with all of that is happening in the world, at least we’re having a good time! It’s blissful. It’s definitely not serious.

It’s wild. It’s also free, respectful and orderly. It’s everything. The light. Divinity. It’s a very pure expression of it. It’s sound. There are words involved. Om. Allah. Shiva. Simple chorus. Vibration. Tapping into the Source of Light is a HIGH.

Doing this together to drop into the light. The Earth feels it. We’re rippling it out. We know it’s having an effect. We can see it. We’re surrounded, bombarded by the fearful aspects of out nature—it’s actually a lie. We become a generator for the light.

The circle means equality. There is much emphasis being part of the circle. The candles, the flowers, the cushions… it’s all a part of the circle.

DIVINITY. This bliss and this light is YOU. We are the expression of the Source. We are the light. Kevin’s channeling it for himself. I’m just being myself and having a great time. It’s coming from inside of me. I am the light. I am the beginning and middle road and there is no end.. there is no fear. Whoever would have thought we could have achieved this just by singing together in a circle? But it seems to be true.

The whole world is reverent and irreverent. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot have deep and profound without humor. Yin yang principle. profound teacher of the way of things. There’s always a circle. Drum. Indigenous tribes— the form is universal, it’s timeless. We’ve always been doing it, we just forgot.

People are remembering something that’s in their DNA. There are ways to wake it up and we’re finguring it out. The more we do it, the more we celebarate it.

What’s exciting about it is, we can’t go back to the old once the new has awakened. Now: it’s universal, a little bit of this, a little bit of that—there’s not dogma, no sepateness, it’s Sufi, it’s Muslim, it’s Hallelujah, it’s Christian, it’s Buddha, there is no limitation. One Tribe, One Humanity, One Religion.

It’s not based on beliefs. It’s about internalizing God now. Looking in. We’ve been trapped in a divided consciousness for too long. WHOLENESS. GOD. TRUTH. As seen as part of OURSELVES.

THIS is the new religion. LOVE. Love is the new religion.

Kim and the the Dalai Lama…

“Is it possible that I could have incarnated as a dolphin in a man’s body?”

And the Dalai Lama replies…

“Of course! I am a butterfly in a man’s body!”

Love.

And P.S. Be sure to check out Kevin’s Album, ONE. My favorite song on it is Asatoma. Will ring beauty to your ears, I promise. Music that is healing, relaxing, to play in yoga class or while practicing, ambient...this song has been on repeat as my current playlist.

More on Kevin

www.kevinjamesheartsongs.com

More on Kim

www.whaledreamers.com

www.baliismylifefilm.com

More on Chloe

www.chloeparkhealing.com

May The Whole World Be Joyous!

2012-04-26T12:38:00.001-07:00

My son came with me to the Midwest Yoga Journal Conference last year, although he didn’t attend any asana sessions with me (he was about one and a half), he really grooved to the Kirtan. With several hundred yogis chanting Om, his face lit up like the sun and I could almost swear there was a halo of light around him.

With wobbly walking skills, he kept trying to meander through the people. Nervous about him “bothering” people, I kept trying to still him. Persistence won out (his, not mine!) and I let him be free. Lo and behold, he walked straight to an older man with silver in his hair and crinkles on his face from many smiles. He lifted his arms to be picked up, and with a mix of wonder and fear, I watched him settle in to chant Lokha Samasta Sukino Bhavantu with a total stranger. A stranger to me, it would seem, but not for my son who seemed to know this man with the wordless understanding of soul. He wandered no further and was content.

Lokha Samasta Sukino Bhavantu is a mantra meaning “May all beings everywhere be happy and joyous, may the world have peace.” It seems natural that such a wish would resonate with a child. After all, do not manifestations of spirit seek to have abundance of joy and peace on Earth?

Although not a mantra found in the written Vedas, there is strong oral tradition associated with this phrase. This makes it a very accessible chant for those shy about chanting in general or concerned about religious confusion. Every belief, the world over, can resonate with intending happiness for all.

Beginning or ending your day or practice with this simple chant may be just one small way to bring a little more joy to the world. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

"One of my favorites is Lokha Samasta, by Mike Cohen" - Kirsten Hedden

April 16, 2012

Top 10 Transformational Summer Festivals for 2012

2012-04-26T10:33:00.001-07:00

Last summer I had the opportunity to discover a remarkably inspiring and consciousness-shifting cultural phenomenon that has been evolving for over fifteen years, yet has remained predominantly ‘below the radar’ of mainstream awareness: The transformational summer festivals movement.

As writer, DJ and speaker Jeet Kei Leung says during an engaging and dynamic TED talk about transformational festival culture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8tDpQp6m0A, these transformational festivals are “convergence points for many forms of cutting-edge content. They are playing a significant role in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people”, and this has a palpable ripple effect out into society at large.

With participant-driven art, ceremony, healing spaces, music circles and a wide variety of forms of creative and spiritual expression, transformational festivals invite us to “come together and inspire and empower each other to be our best selves, our brightest selves, to find our place in value within a community, to step into our leadership and our mastery and to start to create real change.” (Jamaica Stevens, producer of Tribal Convergence) www.tribalconvergence.com

Festivals such as Beloved Sacred Art and Music Festival, which I found to be exceptionally remarkable, boast over 30 different cutting-edge empowerment workshops as creative and varied as: Ecstatic Life in Dark Times, Classic Raga Singing of Sufi Pakistan, New Relationships/New World, and Daoist Full-Moon Qi Gong Ritual.

I spoke with Elliot Rasenick, the producer of Beloved and he told me that he was inspired to create the festival by asking himself “What am I saying YES to?”, and from that place of consciousness, Beloved was born.

Live visionary art painting, prayerformances, spiritual workshops, nature mandalas and mini temples all around, combined with the late-night tribal ecstatic dance to sacred, prayerful music, made Beloved Festival an incredibly magical and uplifting experience.

Rasenick and I discussed feedback we have heard, that festivals such as these are a place where change agents, evolutionaries and thought leaders can come together to revitalize their spirits and fill their cups. Additionally, with Beloved Festival staff and volunteers living together during the month the festival is held, exploring their edges, and seeding new systems for being together sustainably and harmoniously in community, measurable positive outcomes are being generated that can then be brought back into the communities these leaders are a part of.

I was particularly struck by quotes from festival participants, speaking to the profound places that these experiences were able to touch and transform in their own personal process: “We went deep! Many of us are now calling it a “work”, much like an annual ritual or ceremony where we drop away what we do not need and invite in what has been knocking on the door all along.”

I was also inspired by how vibrant and dynamic so many of the people who flock to these festivals are, and how much co-activation takes place when they converge to exchange inspiration, teachings, spiritual practices, healing, arts and music.

Councils of elders and wisdom-holders are often held, sharing prayers and visions for ways of being in community and being in connection with the land that merge our new reality with ancient wisdom, and create a bright legacy to pass on to our children. The idea is not that one festival organizer or spiritual teacher has the solution, but that we can come together and find the solutions collectively.

Another potent aspect of these events is that emergent fusions of healing arts both new and ancient are synergistically joining together, and as Kei Leung notes and I have also personally experienced, these healing containers “support spontaneous episodes of healing catharsis” and clearing out unexpressed emotional trauma that is often bottled up in our mainstream society. In these supportive and resonant energy fields, we realize that it is safe to let our guard down and speak and act from our hearts. These gatherings create a safe testing-ground in which to explore the co-creation of a new reality and new ways of being with one another.

These festivals are often timed in harmony with the moon cycles, and seek to bring participants back into greater harmony with the earth’s rhythms.

Ancient tribal rituals such as shamanic trance dance, vocal toning and sounding circles, and full moon ceremonies are rediscovered, catalyzing many vitalizing experiences of personal metamorphosis, that are a deeply welcomed contrast to our fast-paced, high-tech daily culture.

As Kei Leung befittingly sums it up: “These temporary autonomous zones (allow us to) escape for a moment from the hierarchies and agendas embedded into the very material of our mainstream consensus reality, and we are freed to co-create and share the momentary realization of the liberated world we would wish to live in.”

There are a tremendous number uplifting and activating transformational festivals being offered this year and this list is just a small taste of what’s on the menu for 2012. Here are my picks for 10 of the top transformational summer festivals this summer, in chronological order by date:

Tadasana Festival, ‘A three-day transformative experience on the famed Santa Monica Beach’-April 20-22, Santa Monica, CA www.tadasanafestival.com
Symbiosis Gathering, ‘Intends to facilitate peak experiences through a synaesthesia of art, music, transformational learning, and sustainable living’ -May 17-22, Pyramid Lake, Nevada www.symbioispresents.com
Lightning In A Bottle, ‘A Celebration of Art, Music, Performance, Sustainability and Life’- May 24-28, Silverado, CA, www.lightninginabottle.org
Entheos Gathering, ‘Visionary art, technology, intellectual exchange, cooperation, consciousness, and an optimistic view of the future. "Entheos" is Greek for "the divine within."- June 22nd-25th, British Columbia, Canada www.entheosgathering.com
Dreamtime Festival, ‘Weaving themes of sustainability, personal development, creativity, health and holistic healing’-July 16-20, Paonia, Colorado www.dreamthefuture.org
Mystic Garden Gathering: Gathering Of The Tribes, ‘One of the most beautiful and mystical festivals’-July 18-23, Lake Selmac, Oregon www.mysticgardengathering.com
Wanderlust Festival, ‘One-of-a-kind festival bringing together the world's best yoga and wellness teachers and top musical acts and DJs, in a setting of breathtaking natural beauty’, July 26-29, North Lake Tahoe, California www.wanderlustfestival.com
Gaia Festival ‘is dedicated to serve a growing community of conscious people who are seeking sustainable ways to negotiate the emerging paradigm.’-August 3-5th, Laytonville, CA www.thegaiafestival.com
Beloved Sacred Art & Music Festival, ‘Open Air Sacred Art & Music Festival: A Sneak-Peek of the New Paradigm’- August 10-13, Tidewater Falls, Oregon www.belovedfestival.com
Tribal Vision, ‘A gathering of music, ceremony, prayer and dance’- August 17-19, Taos, New Mexico www.tribalvisionfestival.com

Prema Gaia is a freelance writer, 'new world consciousness publicist', dancer, artist, Lightweaver, lover of nature and co-founder of the Goddess Temple of Ashland. www.goddesstempleashland.com Her writing can be found in publications such as Spirituality & Health Magazine and Open Ways Magazine.

The Sacred Marriage of Music and Yoga

2012-04-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

I still remember my very first yoga class…the one that seemed to drag on forever, with the clock ticking backward in my ears. The one where we did only 10 poses; the one that seemed like it would never, ever end!

I traveled from the 80’s with big hair, loud music, bass thumping aerobics, headphones in my ears on the elliptical to the 90’s, sitting in a silent Iyengar Yoga class watching my nails grow.

What a rude (but much needed) awakening! Yoga was quite a challenge for me right out of the gates! I would fidget, laugh, talk to my neighbor, get up and go to the bathroom…anything to avoid the silence.

There are two things that are REALLY funny about this now…twenty some odd years later. One is that I CRAVE silence! In fact, I tell my daughters, who are seven and nine that after 15 questions …their quota for the hour has been reached. I can’t possibly take in that much information in one hour. The second is that I can’t imagine a day going by without some sort of yoga asana practice. AND presently, for me personally, it HAS to be set to music.

I have ALWAYS loved music…always. There’s a potential story behind so many songs isn’t there? I mean, how many times do you hear a song and it brings you back to a high school dance, a party, a lover, a trip, an event or maybe something you can’t quite put your finger on but you still get goosebumps when you hear it? Most of you could probably create a playlist for your entire LIFE and reminisce about every important event that went on. Music brings you back to a FEELING you had in significant moments.

This IS the power behind music…it gets into our cells, into our subconscious and our hearts. Music is very, very powerful.

So it’s no surprise that when I was introduced to a Vinyasa Flow class set to music for the first time, I fell COMPLETELY in love! Lock, stock and barrel…GONE… in love... never going back to the gym, to running, to any machine… nope. It ALL became about yoga and movement on my mat to my favorite songs du jour.

I blame my obsession to yoga and music as an inseparable couple to first, my love for music but a close second to the art, science and pure magic of yoga. I believe that movement of the body frees us on as deep a layer as we are willing to excavate; exposing our hearts and true selves.

I can’t see one without the other anymore to be honest. And that’s not to say that yoga in silence with the hum of breathing isn’t amazing; I’m just saying that music and movement, for me, is like peanut butter and jelly.

I think I speak for other yoga instructors who use music in their classes that, yes we want to cater to our “audience”. We also enjoy promoting local artists because we know how hard they work to get their stuff out there. I also think it’s important to acknowledge the feeling behind any given song we choose for our playlist. And…it goes without saying really that WE ourselves, strive for that connection to the music. Because when we can connect our own bodies to the song du jour, our movement becomes pure meditation in motion and not a scripted practice.

We can then allow our bodies to move in synch with not only our breath but also with the beat of the music. This marriage becomes sacred and embedded into our cells … shifting our body, minds and spirits to collide.

Try it. See what happens when you compile a playlist that speaks to your heart. Then add some backbends … I dare you! Put on some tunes that are soul shakin’, hard core rockin’ and challenge yourself in a seemingly impossible arm balance. Try it!

It’s true… I promise … it’s ALL about the playlist.

Dana Damara, ERYT
www.danadamara.com

Check out Dana's new playlist!

http://www.yogitunes.com/content/breathing-it

Hello and thank you!

2012-04-18T18:03:00.002-07:00

I am also glad to be posting in this blog. I knew it yesterday, when I have completed three months of daily practice, and I felt it was like a nice gift to me.

I appreciate the fact that, besides selling great music, YogiTunes also work with social projects that have Yoga as a transformation tool to bring more happiness into the world. For all that, I feel honored to be writing to this blog.

English is not my mother language, and I apologize for the many mistakes that you will probably notice.

I also dont have such a nice picture as Ricky, nor can I do such a headstand :) As I said above, I have been practicing for three months now. But I am practicing, and I will get there!

YogiTunes still doesn't sell music in Brazil, but I know they're working hard to open up down here! Brazilian people enjoy Yoga and also music (a lot!), and I am pretty sure we are going to be good customers and friends.

What I write here is also available in portuguese (my mother language), at my personal blog.

See you soon!

Namaste.

Meditating in noisy places

2012-04-17T13:38:00.001-07:00

Photo: Our iamb-three; the view from my window

I am not a morning person, but I like to meditate in the morning, about 8 or 9 a.m., more or less. Before that only in exceptional days, and by 7a.m. only if I am alone at home and it is sunday, and all the neighborhood is silent.

I live with my parents and sisters at a house in front of a very noisy company, and next to a building under construction.

Trucks come and go and stay in front of our house all the time, and the workers at the next building do their job.

It is in this scenario that I meditate.

And I really do, I can meditate even when things get pretty ugly outside or inside the house.

I just have not yet managed to meditate when my 8-years-old cousin come to visit, but I think that this meditation will only be possible when I reach Samadhi.

It is more than possible to meditate in a noisy, turbulent environment.

I started to meditate when I was 16, 17 years old, in a period of my life when meditation was not a trend topic between my school friends, or in my family, so I have kind of experience in getting in a meditative state even if the circumstances around me are not ideal.

If I waited until everything is silent and perfect around me (and in my life) to start meditating, I would never begin.

It would be great to meditate everyday in front of the sun, the ocean, or between the mountains, with nature around me. But as I cant,

I enjoy the view from my window, that allows me to see a gorgeous sky everyday, a "iamb-tree" always green (picture above), which is beautiful and home to a lot of noisy birds, but they do a"noise" that I like.

To medidate in noisy environments isn't ideal, but sometimes I have also felt that while entering in a meditative state, things around me slowly were calming down, and little by little the silence was set. I prefer to call it a happy coincidence, instead of thinking that I have the "power" to change things like that. But maybe it is a stillness that ressonates with people around me and the silence happens. I dont know.

Sometimes, this "coincidence" doesn't happen, and the noise around goes on, and even gets worst. I continue to meditate even though.

At this circumstances, I say to myself that the noise will always be there, that the world is "in ebullition", and that there is intense activity "outside", and it wont stop so that I meditate better, and it should not stop. It must go on, life is movement, is activity.

But all that activity never hindered anyone to meditate and to practice, and to find inner peace, and it wont hinder me either.

It wont even bother me.

Namaste!

I love YogiTunes!

2012-04-17T07:11:00.003-07:00

Thank you for inviting me to contribute to this blog! It's so hard to find good music for yoga when you don't know where to look.. I love www.YogiTunes.com .. it's a wonderful resource for yogis and yoga teachers!

I'll be posting more soon..

Namaste

Ricky Tran

The Shadow Side of Practice

2012-04-13T11:49:00.001-07:00

My early years in yoga found all sorts of blissful paths, the ability to slow and be present, and the ability to calm. Then, when I became more serious, old hurts and painful pieces of my life began to surface. At times, I would wonder if yoga was leading me in a good direction or if it was leading to something crazy, something way down the rabbit hole.

Turns out – it led me down the rabbit hole. But that’s not a bad thing.

The initiation into yoga should be peaceful and should be calming, if only so that you have the ability to deal with the inner turmoil that inevitably arises with persistent practice. For me, suppression of memory is one of my defense mechanisms and there are all sorts of denial events in my past. Slowly, I’m uncovering the events that lead me to repeated and negative samskaras (imprints on the subconscious, habitual tendencies).

It can be painful to recall hardship, but without recollection, you may never understand a samskara and be doomed to forever repeat it. Repetition over and over and over, expecting a different result, is the definition of crazy. Thus, yoga shows it has a shadow side because we are human and we have mistakes and regrets in our past.

The beauty of that shadow is the light required to see it. The yoga practice thus opens you to light, illuminating the best about you – your divinity. Your constant connection to all that is. Your understanding that this moment is what matters and the past is just the past and the future is only imagination.

Practice eventually requires you to look at you, pleasure through the pain. The truth in this shadow is that you would never understand the light if you had never lived through darkness.

Written by Kirsten Hedden

April 1, 2012

Yoga Rocks the Park & YogiTunes

2012-03-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

As part of our Music with a Cause program, and out of a desire to turn you on to amazing yoga + music events around the country, YogiTunes has partnered up with Yoga Rocks the Park.

Yoga Rocks the Park is a weekly summer-long gathering held in Denver & Boulder, CO, Phoenix, AZ and Omaha, NE of like-minded people that connect through yoga, meditation and music.

Each week Yoga Rocks the Park offers heart-opening live music, instruction from top local and national instructors, a fun and diverse wellness vendor area along with a Nationally-recognized children’s program – Camp Yoga Rocks. Please click on your city to learn more. Don’t see your city? Click here to bring Yoga Rocks the Park to your community!

Yoga Rocks the Park donates a portion of net revenue to Colorado-based, non-profit Yoga World Reach which offers yoga and alternative therapy programs to those in need both locally and around the globe.

Such an amazing vision from director Erik Vienneau and his team of dedicated yogis. Erik and YogiTunes have been having fun supporting each other as we both grow, so recently we decided to make our partnership official so that we can celebrate our shared vision and amplify the love field to maximum strength!

Keep an eye out for an on-gong series of 'Sounds of Yoga Rocks the Park' as YogiTunes offers FREE DOWNLOADS from artists who will be appearing at upcoming YRP events.

YogiTunes and Yoga Rocks the Park are dedicated to fostering community and supporting positive change in the world through the combined power of yoga and music.

If there are other events, organizations or people out there you think we should connect with, please let us know!

Yoga Rocks the Park on Channel 9 News! – Yoga in the Wild

The Growth of Outdoor Yoga

Get a taste of past Yoga Rocks the Park events

Interview w/Garth Stevenson

2012-03-03T14:27:00.001-08:00

"It's all about the journey. The music is a part of it, but the way there is just as important."
-Garth Stevenson

I sat down with Garth Stevenson last summer at Wanderlust, Lake Tahoe and enjoyed a lengthy conversation with him over some hot tea and a plate of Lydia's Organics. We talked about everything from his growth as a musician to animal songs. He will be contributing live music to classes and hikes again this year at both Wanderlust California and Vermont. I highly suggest making it out to one of his installments if you'd like to experience true meditative, musical magic!! -Brooke Kettering

B: When did you start playing bass?
G: I started playing bass when I was 14. I was playing piano in the high school jazz band, and the bass player quit, so my teacher made me play bass.

B: So you started on piano?
G: I started piano when I was really young, but like most Canadian boys I was much more focused on hockey than piano lessons.

B: Were you that into bass when you started?
G: Yes, I still remember the day I found a dusty old upright bass in the attic of my high school music building. There was something so much more mysterious about this old instrument then my Yamaha electric bass. In no time I quit the hockey team, found an excellent teacher and started practicing 10 hours a day.

B: Did you want to be a musician or did it just happen?
G: No, it just kind of happened. One thing led to the next.

B: Did you have other ideas of what you would be?
G: My entire family is in the medical field—dad’s a doctor, mom’s a nurse, younger sister's a doctor and older sister...a nurse. So, medicine was the plan until I found that dusty old bass.

B: Were they like, “Oh, that’s not a job!”?
G: No, they were actually really supportive.

B: So you went to Berklee, that’s pretty much the best music school right?
G: For some things, yes. It was a great place for me to go. A lot of the people I work with now went to school with me there. It’s definitely a good community builder.

B: Were you in an orchestra?
G: No, Berklee’s more geared toward jazz, rock, pop.

B: How does bass fit into that?
G: Berklee was just like the real world, everyone needs a bass player. I played so much that I eventually developed tendonitis and had to focus on composition studies for a year.

B: What was your first project?
G: My first band was an improvised music trio named TAQ that was based in Poland. The pianist Marcin Masecki and drummer, Ziv Ravitz became my real music education. We developed so much as musicians and people in the three years we toured in Poland. That's also where I started using reverb and looping pedals.

B: Have you been doing the looping technique for a while?
G: Seven or eight years. I was working on the ambient experimental sound in New York and then started touring with Sonya Kitchell, which was more of an acoustic folk rock sound.

B: Were you into the music or was it more because it was a paying gig?
G: I was definitely into it. Playing Sonya's songs every night taught me about song form and how to create a simple and effective bass part that really serves the song and feels good. It was the perfect contrast for the experimental concerts I was doing in Brooklyn. In a way, I combine these two worlds in my own music, sound and experimental textures with song form.

B: When did you start incorporating bass into yoga?
G: Exactly three years ago here at Wanderlust. I was here on tour with Sonya. Jeff Krasno, who’s one of the founders of Wanderlust, pulled me aside after Sonya's set and told me he had been listening to my first CD, Alpine, and thought the music would fit well with yoga. He's always been a great ideas guy. I never imagined playing bass in a yoga class but I said “okay let’s give it a try,” and he put me with Elena Brower, who’s from New York, and we totally hit it off. The two classes we did went really well and when I got back to New York we called each other and since then I’ve been playing on a weekly basis with her.

B: Did you just figure out how to play alongside her, like increasing the energy of the music when the class needed more energy, etc?
G: Elena walked over to me before class and smiled and said "Hi!". That was it, no instructions. It reminded me of the jazz gigs I used to play in Boston when the piano player would shout out the name of an obscure jazz standard on stage and I'd whisper "I don't know that one," and he would just smile and start playing. So I just took that here goes nothing bass instinct and applied it to playing with the class and it went surprisingly well. Out of the hundreds of musicians I've played with there are only a handful that I have a truly deep and nearly telepathic connection with. It's very rare and special. I felt that connection instantly with Elena.

B: With the classes you’re doing here, do they assign you to a class or are you just put in a random class?
G: I usually get in touch with teachers I have already played with outside of the festival like Elena, Schuyler Grant and Kia Miller who I met in LA a few months ago.

B: And how did you end up in Antarctica?
G: I was playing in Elena’s class, in NY, and a guy came up to me after class and said, “I absolutely love your music. I want you to come to Antarctica with me in three weeks and score my film" I was like,”…REALLY?!” Then we met a few times, and it ended up being one of the best collaborations I’ve ever done.

B: What was your role in going to Antarctica?
G: Well, the idea was, that I would go down there to get inspired for the film score. But then as it got closer he said, “You know I think you should bring your bass. “ So I said, “Why not?!” So I took it down there (to Antarctica) and got to play for penguins, seals, whales and icebergs.

B: Do you have a goal for your music?
G: Definitely. I’d really love to do more film scoring. And more performing, especially with my solo music.

B: Was this the first film score you’ve done?
G: Yes, and it's not quite done yet. I'm very proud of the music and can't wait for the film to come out.

B: Have you ever collaborated with electronic musicians?
G: Yes as well as video artists.

B: Do you see yourself moving to California?
G: I’d like to one day if my career allows me to compose or tour from any location. But for now, New York still feels right. The whole music community I’ve built up is there and I don’t really want to leave it.

B: Have you been with other bands?
G: Yes, many. A lot of jazz groups and singer songwriters.

B: Is jazz your passion, your niche?
G: I love jazz and it's the genre that taught me how to play my instrument and to listen deeply but lately I've been playing much less jazz and focusing on my own music. The great thing about New York City is that there are so many talented musicians it forces you to specialize and focus on your own sound. I think this is true for all of the arts. There’s no point trying to be good at everything just be the best at you.

B: Do you think you’ll be a bass player forever? Do you have other careers in mind?
G: Well, I’ll be a musician forever. I ’ll always play bass, but I could see getting side tracked for a few years into more piano, or producing, or mixing, things like that.

B: Do you get really creative with distortions with your looping or do you use that solely to add more layers?
G: I used to use distortion and other effects on my bass but I kind of grew…I don’t wanna say grew out of it…I stopped wanting to effect the sound of the bass too much. I was more interested in amplifying the subtleties of the bass mainly through the use of reverb…so it sounds like you’re in a huge hall or under water. It brings out the overtones and "nature" sounds of the instrument.

B: Speaking of underwater, tell me about the humpback whales.
G: Well, humpback whales, whales in general, their calls lie really nicely on the bass because they produce really low notes. You can even tune down the low string to get down there and then if you play really high on the top string, you get these false harmonics, this really high, squeal sound.

B: Do you play humpback calls ever?
G: On the trip to Antarctica there was this famous researcher, Roger Payne, so I bought all his CDs of whale calls and practiced before the trip. One day I gave a concert on the bow of the boat as part of a scene for the film. We were in the middle of a four day open sea crossing from South Georgia to the Antarctic peninsula. I was playing the kind of music you heard in class today—ambient textures with bowed melodies. I thought, ”…I’m gonna play some whale calls. The whale researcher is here, I practiced them.” So I started playing these whale calls and a few minutes later 12 whales came and swam next to the boat and everyone was freaking out. It was so beautiful; the sun was setting. One of the best moments in my life. The funny thing is, the researcher thought it was impossible that the whales would’ve heard me over the sound of the propeller, so it actually started this debate on the boat on whether the whales came because of the music or because it was a coincidence.

B: You should learn other animal calls!
G: Yea, I was trying to imitate the birds today. [During the nature meditation hike on mountain] Do you know if you slow down a bird call it sounds like a whale call? And vice versa.

G: A friend of mine, David Rothenberg, just came out with a book. It’s called “Thousand Mile Song”. He played his clarinet into a microphone that goes into an underwater speaker and he has a hydrophone recording the interactions between his clarinet and the whales. He has really studied the music of whale calls.

B: So if you were to do a Fourier transform on your “whale songs”, would it look just like that of the whales?
G: You mean if you analyzed the frequencies? It would look similar, but not exactly the same. People don’t even know how whales hear. They think it could be by picking up vibrations through their jaws....whales don’t even have ears. The more I’ve researched them the more I’ve realized they’re such a mysterious, kind of mystical creature. So intelligent. Anyway, this book is called the “Thousand Mile Song” because blue whales can communicate a thousand miles away…they sing at a reaaaally low frequency.

B: That makes sense because the lower waves can travel further right?
G: Yes, and there’s this sweet spot or depth in the ocean that allows low frequencies to travel greater distances. If you were a whale and called out at a shallow depth the sound waves would bounce off the surface and lose energy. If you were to deep, your waves would lose energy when they hit the ocean floor. The other thing whales have done is that, with propellers and sound pollution, they’ve actually lowered their note so they could get underneath the propeller frequencies to hear each other. Amazing.

B: Do you want to talk about your new album, "Flying"?
G: I can't tell you how happy I am to have "Flying" released and in the world. I worked so hard on this album over the past two years. "Flying" is inspired my time in nature, especially Antarctica, and from the music that evolved out of improvising in yoga classes.

B: How many albums have you had?
G: Two. "Flying" and "Alpine".

B: Do you feel any pressure to produce another album?
G: Not right now. There will be a soundtrack coming out with that Antarctica movie, so that’ll probably be the next thing I put out.

G: "Flying" has 14 tracks and is over 75 minutes long. I wanted it to work as a stand alone album but I also arranged it to follow the arc of a yoga class.

B: Have you been playing those songs in the classes that you play live for?
G: I do sometimes but I always adapt them to work in the moment. Generally, yoga classes are about 70% improvised music because I really like contouring people. If their arms go up in the air, the music’s going to change, and then finding these moments to not play. That’s one of the hardest things about music—learning when not to play, or just leaving more space. I try to find this place in the class or feel those individual poses or sequences. There are also these bigger waves or cadences in a class, usually five or six, and I try to let the music end or pause. It’s cool because every class is different. It keeps it fresh and getting back to those improvising roots.

B: When we went on that meditation hike were you playing songs from you’re album?
G: That was probably about 50% totally improvised. I kind of started with the album songs and would go off on tangents. But it’d be kind of silly to totally superimpose something on this beautiful nature environment. It’s nice to be sensitive to the other sounds that are going on. That’s what I love about playing in nature—when you don’t play, when you’re silent, it’s not silent. There are birds and a river, winds and so you’re able to not play as much whereas if you’re in a room, if you’re not playing its just dead silence, which is also nice sometimes. In nature, there’s no one to impress—just you and some trees. I feel like that helped me to develop my style, this musical language, just being in nature, being out there alone so much. It would be silly to work on my jazz. It’s like film scoring—“What’s the perfect music for where I am in Antarctica right now, or Walden Pond or California.“

G: One of our last days in Antarctica they didn’t really need me at the shoot so I hiked off alone for the entire day. That was also one of the best days of my life. I was just alone out there, the sun was setting, there were penguins and whales but there was also this strange musical pressure, “…Here I am at the bottom of the earth, what do I play?!” It’s all about the journey. The music is part of it, but the way there is just as important.

B: Is there ever a day when you don’t want to play?
G: Definitely. It’s usually after I’ve been playing a lot or if I’ve done something really good or really creative or a really good recording session. It’s like you almost need space. It’s weird. You kind of have this relationship with your instrument. Imagine if you went away on some spontaneous trip, a romantic get away to Paris with someone you just met, and at the end of the week you were like, “Hey, you want to come back home to California with me? But tomorrow I need to go to Staples and pay my rent and do laundry…“ It’s like you don’t want to play that day.

----
Interview by Brooke Kettering, a San Diego based teacher who recently became a YogiTunes Ombassador and contributing writer to our blog~! Welcome aboard Brooke!

Checkout her new profile page and "Flow" playlist

Celebrate Earth Day Dallas w/Yoga & Music!

2012-03-02T14:01:00.001-08:00

Hey Check out this great event happening in Dallas, Texas!

Earth Day Dallas 2012

4/21 & 4/22 Fair Park
10:00 - 6:00 Saturday and Sunday

Fair Park~ Hall of State~ 2 stages Join us on sponsored by Crow Collection of Asian Art

Bring your mat, a towel and your reusable water bottle and head out to Fair Park for some FREE yoga and amazing LIVE Musical talent!

Lisa Ware as your FREE Yoga And Live Music Creatrix, Kristina Hilliard as your emcee !

• Free Yoga and Interactive Classes : 4/21 Opening Ceremony 10:15a
• 10a- 6p Demos, Classes + LiVE music and DJs Both Days
• FREE Group community classes:
• Join Texas most talented instructors for two round robin classes:
• Sat. 11:30- 12:45 p with music by The Bhakti House Band
• Sun 1:30- 2:45 p with music by The Sound and The Meaning

More yoga and music details to come soon!

Visit our website for details Yoga4Love.net/EarthDay or for vendor application or other main event info go to : Earth Day Dallas.org

Hanuman Yoga + Music Festival, Boulder

2012-03-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well folks, YogiTunes is committed to keeping you informed about the amazing array of yoga + music related events happening around the globe.

The Hanuman Festival is one such event. Located in Boulder Colorado, a global hub for the healthy lifestyle movement, Hanuman is moving into it's second year and has a very grounded approach to it's teacher and music lineup.

It's also located in one of the most breath-taking and beautiful mountain towns in all of America. Steeped in a history of organic living, close proximity to the surrounding lands, and of course, fantastic skiing in just about every direction. Boulder also has some of the best coffee shops i've ever come across...

Last year myself and my YogiTunes co-founders went out and had a great time there... we performed as Desert Dwellers and rocked an awesome show in downtown Boulder for around 300 peeps. A mixed crowd of festival-goers, tourists and locals. That's partly what's so fun about the weekend event - it takes place in different venues around town (the music side of it does anyway).

BUY TICKETS

GOTO WEBSITE

Here is a little excerpt from their About Us page so you can get a better sense of what the event will be like:

"Hanuman Festival is a community-oriented yoga and music festival set at the foot of Colorado`s Rocky Mountains. Join us in Boulder, Colorado for a celebration with world-class yoga instructors, mind-blowing music, inspirational experiences and a nourishing community. Immerse yourself in body, mind and heart as you relax and rejuvenate, dance and devote, connect and expand, have fun and just be…

A movement towards imminent change is upon us as we enter the Aquarian age. Join us as together…

-We honor the beauty of yoga and experience the healing and transformative power of alignment, movement and breath.

-We weave our collective threads to learn, share, connect and celebrate all that is positive in this world.

-We give back in the spirit of “SEVA” (selfless service), and make an impact through the power of community.

Yoga

Yogic practice offers us a pathway into the core of our experience. World renowned yoga teachers will offer classes and workshops in a diversity of styles, including Vinyasa, Kundalini, Hatha, Ashtanga and Therapeutic, creating a holistic yoga experience to dive deep into your practice.

Music

Each night we will gather for an electrifying musical performance. White Swan Records (the largest distributor of yoga-centered music in the nation) will collaborate with Hanuman Festival to bring you the best in yogic, heart centered music.

The celebratory highlight of the festival is the Saturday night dance party featuring Desert Dwellers and DJ Drez.Visual senses will be linked in by movement performers throughout the night with vital appearances from White Swan artists.

Music will fill the air as a nurturing respite on the main stage throughout the daytime experience.

SEVA

Miraculous change happens when people with common interests work together towards common causes. Hanuman Festival’s mission is to practice true SEVA, and give to our local and global community.

Comments by YogiTunes CEO/Co-Founder Alex King-Harris (aka Rara Avis)

Important Information about iOS devices

2012-03-01T10:41:00.001-08:00

Some of you may be wondering: "Why can't I purchase and download music from YogiTunes directly from my favorite iOS device?"

iPads, iPhones and iPods are all made so that you can only buy music through the iTunes store. Apple wants it that way, so that you shop with them and not the competition.

In order to enjoy YogiTunes music on your Apple Mobile Device, you'll need to first download it to a computer, import it into iTunes, and then sync iTunes with your favorite device.

We have an excellent video tutorial on how to do this here:

http://community.yogitunes.com/faqs/tutorials/

You'll want to watch "How to Make an iTunes Playlist"

For us to develop iOS support would mean putting a fair amount of time, energy and money into some kind of app that at the end of the day wouldn't allow us to sell music. It's for this reason that we've held off on developing any kind of iOS support. As for the future, we do have plans to develop a streaming service, a la YogiTunes Radio. This would allow people to subscribe for a monthly fee and stream music to any device using an app. Long story short - we're on it. We want you to be able to enjoy music on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod - but thanks to Apple, it's not all that simple. I personally am a big Apple fan, but also have to face to reality of doing business in a competitive world.

With your patience, support and love we'll get there... until then - we hope you continue to find quick and easy ways to get music onto your mobile device, so you can move and groove to the sounds of YogiTunes!

Namaste,

Alex King-Harris
CEO/Co-Founder YogiTunes

What Inspires Me: YogiTunes CEO Alex King-Harris

2012-02-29T15:16:00.001-08:00

Hi all... I got the chance to hang with the Gaiam crew at the SF Yoga Journal Conference just last month... which was super cool btw!

They do this really cool video blog series called "What Inspires You?" - a couple minutes to talk about the thing that you find to be most inspiring to you in life.

I chose to talk about kids... one of the things I do outside of running YogiTunes and being a music producer/performer, is work with kids as a mentor. I have an 11 year old step-son, and am actively involved in kids aged 8-18 in a local program called 'Boys to Men'.

We run Rites of Passage weekends for boys and look to develop positive mentoring relationships with youth through weekly meetings that involve playing games, and sharing what's going on in our lives while we sit in circle. Emotional transparency, respect, kindness, honesty, and authenticity are shared in a non-blame, non-judgmental format that seeks to establish meaningful dialog with kids who are often surrounded by adults who are constantly telling them how to behave and what to do with their time.

Unfortunately behavior modification is deeply embedded in our culture... many people experience tremendous anger, sadness and grief when they have to look at the ways in which they've been told in their lives how to behave. I've learned as a mentor that it's this issue that lies at the root of many peoples' negative self-views and/or views about the world they live in.

True freedom doesn't mean living without boundaries or consequence, it means having a meaningful dialogue and connection with oneself and those around us. Experiencing trust and safety at the deepest level of our beings. It's only through disconnection and shut-down that we can continue to act in a way that harms ourselves or others.

Thus, mentoring means maintaining dialogue. If your child or a child you know is 'acting out' - try figuring out what's underneath the action. Usually it's feelings of not being loved enough, not being seen, heard, trusted, or it's based on experiences in life that they find to be overwhelming. With guidance and love, and by using the seemingly chaotic ways of a child as an opportunity to connect in a meaningful way, children, (and adults for that matter) will alter their own behavior based on an unconditional sense of being accepted, and of belonging in this world.

That is the kind of world I want to live in. One where people do what's best because they are seen heard, and truly appreciated for the wonderful, loving, caring soul that they are.

No one deserves to be pushed aside...

We are all here to love and be loved.

Even when I find myself stuck in patterns of old school 'i'm gonna cast you out because you hurt me' type mentality... it's through the love, kindness, and support of others that I return to my center... to my truth where the whole word can live inside my heart. No exceptions.

You killed me, so I'm gonna love you even more.

You hate me, so I want to get to know you better.

Help your fellow human out - show them some love and the world takes another step towards being whole.

There are often many mentoring programs in your local community - it just takes a quick search on Google to find them... if you feel drawn, it's because mentoring is one of the most amazing opportunities to love and be loved. Don't wait another day!

Yoga of Bass @ Wanderlust Vermont

2012-02-29T13:59:00.000-08:00

I’m stoked to say that this year Claire and I will be teaching at Wanderlust Yoga Festival in Vermont for the first time. Wanderlust’s Yoga & Music theme is something we really resonate with and it’s the meeting point of these two passions that forms the basis of all three of the workshops we will be presenting there, including the Yoga of Bass.

We’re going to be teaching at the Vermont festival but there are 3 Wanderlust Festivals around the country as well. And Wanderlust isn’t the only Yoga festival that’s enjoying a boom right now either. They’re sprouting up any where there’s an empty field like magic mushrooms from cow dung in June! Festivals like Hanuman Festival, Bhaktifest, Evolve Yoga and Music festival are also flying the flag for the Yoga massive.

So why is it that people in the West are so attracted to spending our time and money on this ancient and foreign tradition? We could be buying iPods, new clothes, taking expensive vacations, and eating anything we want from all over the world delivered direct to the local supermarket in any season? Why should we give a shit about a 3000 year old tradition practiced by long haired hermits living in mountain caves?

I put it to you that it’s part of a larger movement in western affluent countries. That we are starting to reject the assumption that the current consumerist paradigm has the answers to the question of how to live a sane and happy life. The Occupy phenomenon is part of this same movement...

(http://occupywallst.org/) and so is the slow food movement...

(http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/ ) and the downshifting movement...

(http://www.slowmovement.com/downshifting.php). For 50 years we all happily drank the Kool Aid, but even the most rabid of free marketeers is now starting to realize that this particular brand of corporate Kool Aid is giving us physical, mental and spiritual diarrhea.

Yoga Journal printed a study saying 6.9% of U.S. adults – 15.8 million people - practice yoga (meaning the physical poses). And that Americans spend $5.7 billion a year on yoga classes and products, double the spending of 2004.

http://www.yogajournal.com/advertise/press_releases/10

That’s insane!! On one hand 15.8 million people are hitting the mat on a regular basis and learning that a sense of well being can be generated from an internal and inexpensive source that doesn’t have to come with a commercial transaction once we have learned how. Kinda like a zero point energy source that has actually made it to market (take that, Redbull!). And on the other hand Americans are spending $5.7 billion dollars a year on Yoga schwag! Yoga is selling like crack and yet it’s philosophy is meant to be anti materialistic and anti consumerist. WTF?!!

We live in miraculous times that were literally unthinkable for most of human existence. Even the least wealthy of us can exhaust nigh on every possibility of sensual gratification that even the historical royalty couldn’t have dreamt up let alone fulfilled. But although this is the case, the cracks in the consumer capitalist veneer have started to appear. Or maybe BECAUSE this is the case. In the West we’ve become wealthy enough that we can buy most of the ‘stuff’ we thought would make us happy and then found out the hard way that buying ‘stuff’, the raison d’être of our current paradigm, just doesn’t hit the spot. We invested everything in our careers, our cars, our clothes, and did some questionable things to get them… and for what?

If we don’t completely comprehend our situation here in the US, thank God for the brutal honesty of the Brits. In an article in the August issue of Adbusters last year entitled “Generation F*cked”, Neil Lawson of the Labour political party’s think-tank Compass bleakly admitted: “Society is hollowing out, but not just in the rotting boroughs of south London. The middle classes are anxious too. Many are richer but few seem happier. Mental illness abounds. White-collar jobs are outsourced to India. Everyone looks for meaning in their lives – but all they find is shopping.”

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/71/generation-fcked.html

But is this all depressing news with no hope in sight? Are we all going to hell in a handbag, even if it is Prada? I don’t think so. In fact now we have some hope of real change. Here’s some interesting stats on why I think festivals like Wanderlust are booming in the US, and perhaps the reason why consumerism will eventually eat itself. Even in the relatively affluent West, according to the same Yoga Journal study, 44% of yogis have household incomes of $75,000 or more; 24% have more than $100,000, and 71.4% are college educated; 27% have postgraduate degrees. So is Yoga about having a good education and being well off? No. But success in money, career, and education sure as shit help us reach the point where we realize that happiness doesn’t come from success in those things. They may get you ahead in the rat race, but as the old adage goes “the problem with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat!”. And it don’t feel good to slave for the man 12 hours a day, get all the big toys, and still come up rodent.

Even on the unemployment benefit you could still have the realization that the dangling carrot of consumer capitalism is a fruitless (boom boom) pursuit, but having enough dollar lying around to really indulge in the options that are SUPPOSED to make you happy seems to greatly speed up the realization that they don’t. Considering the rampant poverty in India, the birthplace of the Yoga tradition, it might explain why we in the affluent West are much more likely to show an interest in Yoga than most people in modern India.

So what has this got to do with Yoga in the West? The Yogic worldview is one very good way of saying a good old fashioned “Fuck You” to the powers that be. In fact it is probably one of the oldest fashioned Fuck You’s we know of. For 3000 plus years real Yogi’s (women and men that live the Yoga philosophy off their Yoga mat as well as on it) have approached life based on the realization that buying shit just because it is available to us doesn’t give us any more than an anemic spike of tinny happiness. It’s the view we take when we’ve realized that becoming OCD shoppers isn’t going to make us or anyone around us happy. It’s the same ideal that Kurt Cobain, Chuck D, Johnny Rotten and Funkadelic all fought for. That money and the stuff it buys, the approval of others or any other external superficialities won’t bring us the fulfillment we’re looking for.

But rather than ending up in a downward spiral of cynicism that killed some of music’s best and finest (RIP Kurt), the hardcore yogic view is also the view that says if I can’t be a good person to those around me now, it’s going to be no different when I’m a successful musician/DJ/Producer/whatever-I-aspire-to-be. So a Yogi works to change their mind and body into a vehicle that’s fit for this worthy goal: To be a good sane person that is together enough themselves to be available to help others when they need it. Yoga ain’t about looking good while doing scorpion pose in your underwear like this woman in the Equinox Gym ad. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loszrEZvS_k )

So if this is the aim of the Yogic lifestyle, how in God’s good name are we managing to spend 5.7 BILLION dollars on Yoga swag- destination retreats, Lululemon, and Manduka? Come on, we’re doing a practice we could do in a loincloth on a rug in a cave, like the old days! Well, if you’re like me you need a little help to get the revolution going. And this is where festivals like Wanderlust fit in. They provide all the cool shit we love about festivals in general. Great food and music, and a chance to get out into the country and hang out with our mates. But it also has incredible teachers like Kelly Morris, Lama Marut, and Seane Corn that know the Yogic texts and physical practices inside out and can help us engender this inner revolution that will change the world we live positively much faster than a paint bomb on a McDonald’s store front will.

What about the $350 festival ticket, is that just another consumerist ploy? Personally, I know I could spend $350 bucks on one night out in LA on food, drink, and a club and have nothing to show for it the next day but a headache and some embarrassing pictures on Facebook. I feel encouraged by the fact that people are actually spending their unmatched affluence on something that could change their lives and the lives of those around them for the better. Back in the day these teachings were considered so valuable that seekers would convert all our possessions to gold, grind it up and lay the pile of Gold dust at the feet of the spiritual teacher they wanted to teach them as a request for lessons. And then watch as the teacher threw their life’s earnings handful by handful into the wind. So paying $350 for a ticket for the secrets of these ancient traditions is way cheaper than the way we would have gotten it in India 3000 years ago… and we get to keep our iPhones and sneakers and Manduka mats while we do it. Which, I have to say, isn’t such a bad thing at all .

Here’s our the class schedule if you want to join us:

2-3:30 pm - Friday - The Union of Shiva and Shakti in Music, Dance, and Sound - with Lama Marut and Cindy Lee - The Big Tent

2-3:30 pm - Saturday - Art, Music, and Spiritual Practice - Manduka's Nest

12-1:30 pm - Sunday - The Yoga of Bass - Manduka's Nest

Article written by Darin McFayden aka "Freq Nasty".

EarthRise Warrior Flow Instructional Yoga Sequence by Derek Beres

2012-02-29T13:23:00.001-08:00

The setting for this DVD, which is muted and minimal, makes it immediately clear that EarthRise Warrior Flow by Derek Beres, featuring EarthRise SoundSystem’s ‘The Yoga Sessions’, is not about beautiful and exotic locations. It's all about the music and the flow.

This open level yoga practice is jam-packed with poses and offers sophisticated sequencing that any flow-based yoga instructor looking for inspiration will love. Each of the twelve mixes on the disc has a specific focus or theme whether it’s a series of twists and hip openers all starting from downward facing dog in Desh Nayad, combination of standing and forearm balances in Rama, or a very fluid and freeing backbend mix in Daylight As Sunset. Be forewarned, however, that the floor work in Makyen Ghrir Allah is far more difficult than Sasha Dmochowski makes it look.

EarthRise Warrior Flow is a stellar DVD, but with such a wide range of poses and mixes it shouldn’t be considered a single yoga class, but rather a collection of intelligent vinyasa mini-sequences that make sense for the body. With so many nuanced modifications of poses worth exploring, even the most experienced practitioner will come back again and again.

Check out Derek's YogiTunes playlist

You can purchase the DVD here

Review by Tricia Sletten- tricia@purelandayurveda.com

Boston's Irene Solea offers Kirtan/live music classes in Denver, Colorado

2012-02-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

Denver is quickly becoming a top U.S. location for Kirtan and Yogic music. Krishna Das, Deva Premal, Dave Stringer, Shantala, Wah! and many more have visited the Mile High City in the last year. Local Kirtan leaders including Scott & Shanti Medina, Vamadeva, Dakini Ma and Tom Fuhrmann are putting Colorado on the chant map.

An upcoming Boston-based Kirtan artist, Irene Solea, known very well on the East Coast, is back in Colorado following her summer 2011 appearance at Yoga Rocks the Park this week. She'll offer live music to accompany a yoga class with Jeremy Wolf and Asiana Harper at Friday Night Yoga Club on Friday, February 24 followed by a Kirtan. The next morning she'll offer a live music along with a 10:30 a.m. yoga class at Karma Yoga, Denver.

Irene Soléa blends traditional and non-traditional kirtan with soulfully dynamic vocals, urban and world rhythms in a band that has quickly rooted itself within the chant/kirtan world. She accompanies artists including Girish, Karnamrita Dasi and Mike Cohen and has been a featured artist at Kripalu (MA), Integral Yoga (NYC), Yoga Tree (SF), Denver's Yoga Rocks the Park (CO), Boston Yoga and Chant Fest and her homebase, South Boston Yoga. Trained as a jazz vocalist and music therapist, she was introduced to the heart-opening potential of Kirtan in 2000 and has been hooked ever since, offering concerts and workshops filled with love, laughter and devotion.The anticipated 2012 release of her second album --eight tracks featuring original melodies, lush vocal layers, and Pop/Soul, Latin and Reggae flavors-- comes on the heels of her now sold-out 2010 EP release.

Tickets for the February 24, Friday Night Yoga Club are $25/adv./$30 at the door (if space is available).

Yoga of Bass

2012-02-14T17:17:00.000-08:00

Comments by YogiTunes founder, Rara Avis
I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting Darin McFayden and Claire Thompson, who together have developed an amazing practice called 'The Yoga of Bass'. It draws parallels between the spirituality found in the yogic path with that of the musical & artistic lifestyle. 

Through my own intensive studies of music history, I also realized that music and art have been considered sacred channels to the divine in almost every culture previous to ours... yet with the modern day commodification of all things profitable, sanctuary has been diluted and often replaced with a formulaic repetition of 'creative' expression that at times borders on the profane.

  Darin, more commonly known as Freq Nasty is a prolific, talented DJ/Producer who hails from the UK. He has been setting the tone of bass oriented music for many years and I for one have been on several dance floors late at night that have been rocked to their spiritual core by the sounds emanating from the speakers during Darin's memorable performances. Claire is a gifted yoga teacher who aside from studying and teacher various healing arts, also sings with the Dub Kirtan All Stars which is a project created by Darin and our dear friend David Starfire and is aimed at fusing the electronic underground with the magic of kirtan.

The following is an excerpt from their Yoga of Bass Blog:

The Yoga of Bass is a series of workshops led by Darin McFadyen and Claire Thompson which look at the parallels between the ecstatic, life-changing experiences people have on the dance floor with music, and the peak states of meditation as experienced on the path of Yoga. Using personal and musical examples from their lives as DJ, singer, meditation teachers and Yogis alongside explanations from the foundational texts of Yoga and Buddhism they explore how a yogic and spiritual practice can help you bring this feeling of ecstasy, unity and inter-connectedness off the dance floor and into your life.

Darin McFadyen aka DJ FreQ Nasty has been practicing Yoga for 13 years and has studied the great texts of Yoga and Buddhism with Venerable Sumati Marut. Claire Thompson has been practicing yoga for 6 years and massage therapy for 12 years. She travels as a yoga, dharma, and meditation teacher, and sings with the Dub Kirtan All Stars. Both Darin and Claire have completed the 200-Hour Classics of Yoga Philosophy course with the Yoga Studies Institute and the 18 Foundational and 18 Advanced courses in Tibetan Buddhism offered by Asian Classics Institute, Los Angeles.

Audio excerpts and pics from some of the past 'Yoga of Bass' talks: http://freqnasty.com/yoga-of-bass/

A Dub Kirtan All Stars tune featuring the mighty Rik Shiraj + pix and video of the band ( 13 piece inc. Scratch DJ and 2 ableton setups and live drums/guitar/bass/sita/tabla and singers ( Arjun Baba and Chaitanya, Clairity + 3 backups ) and a VJ - lotsa fun in the LIB video: http://freqnasty.com/dub-kirtan-all-stars/

Vibe of the yoga, music & art blog post: http://freqnasty.com/blog/music-rebel-spirituality/

Yoga Philosophy audio from our Teacher, Lama Sumati Marut. One of the Founders of the Yoga Classics Institute, a Professor of comparative religion at Columbia NY, and Tibetan Buddhist monk. :http://aci-la.org/teach_marut-yoga_phil.html

Also, stay tuned for some amazing new offerings from Darin & Claire as we pair them up with other teachers for our forth coming 'Ombassador' program that brings together the DJ community and top yoga teachers in support of yoga related non-profits!~

And... while we wait to get some releases from the Dub Kirtan All Stars, check out this:

Jai Uttal: Dial M for Mantra

A selection of Jai Uttal's songs from his last 4 kirtan albums Remixed by Rara Avis & Shaman's Dream into a dubbed out kirtronica odyssey

Sat Nam!

How sound can help quiet the mind...

2012-02-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

In my first YT Blog I pondered the question of why we love music so much and how it supports yoga and our spiritual practice. In this second entry I am beginning to explore reasons why or how music, or sound for that matter, might help us quiet the mind and aid in the process of awakening. There are at least three ways I have come to realize yoga music might help end our discursive thoughts, and no doubt there are more.

First, certain sound frequencies are said to be spiritual in their own right. They are said to cause the human mind to resonate at a frequency that puts us in touch with deeper levels of consciousness. Then the loud and distracting (not to say annoying) mind stream becomes quiet. Several videos featuring these frequencies are posted on You Tube and they are quite soothing. Some, like the one located at the following link, are said to also activate chakras or the pineal gland. It has a nice kaleidoscopic visual with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h2mJnvRbZ8&feature=related

Probably, the truth is as we focus the attention on any single thing, be it a tone or a candle flame or the breath, the mind settles down or seems to as our attention is turned away from the inner dialogue. But this attention is not easy to hold. Zen practitioners know this, who use counting of each breath as a means to turn the attention from the distraction of discursive thought. At first, one might make it only to 5 or 10 before the grocery list or the tape of an old argument kicks in.

These sound tones are also excellent for focusing attention for a few minutes. But, this is just a tone at one frequency. Music we know moves from note to note and each different note in a scale is essentially a wave at a different frequency. In fact, the way multiple frequencies are arranged in order is one component of music, melody, which we admire and enjoy. Music also has rhythm plus the timbre of various instruments, tempo, and other components. So the single frequency approach doesn’t really account for why music as a whole might help us to awaken.

Some cynical people also might wonder (I wonder) if we are expected to believe that just buying a CD or downloading a track of a certain frequency and listening to it can bring one to awakening or Samadhi. A few people seem to awaken spontaneously, but for most the process of transformation requires considerable effort. I can believe it might give one an experience of peace or quietness that could be part of one’s practice or upon which one could build. However, it still doesn’t completely account for the attraction and effect of music. There must be something more to it.

Check out Bodhiron's playlist @ the YogiTunes Music Store!

Gratitude for Gayatri

2012-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

I sat on a mountaintop (a mountain for a Midwesterner, a hill for mountain folk) in Baja Mexico, looking out onto the Pacific, trying to meditate for 8 hours in fast and in silence. In practicing Satya (truthfulness), I must admit my silent and still attempts at meditation are challenging to say the least – I create an instant ADHD monkey child mind when I first try.

Around hour two, I found a random pair of pants, from where I don’t know. I had matches for some incense with me and so to avoid clarity, I built a little fire and literally burned the pants (saving the mountain from mysterious clothing litter) as a symbol of burning up distraction. That worked to still the mind for a bit because I was doing something and yet I still couldn’t settle into the silence. Now I was just laughing at the nonsense of having a pants burning on a mountaintop in Mexico. Oh the things we humans concoct just to avoid reality!

Next, I noticed a rock that was somehow shaped like a recliner. That was a place I could really relax and get still and quiet, or so I thought. A beautiful sea bird began to call. I watched it swoop and dive and circle. Then my mind jumped to stories about the bird. Was it migrating? Where was the nest? Was it a male or female? Did it have babies? Would I ever have babies? If I did have a baby, what would it look like? On and on and on it went. My mind was not still, my mind was not clear. Cultivating space in the mind was elusive.

Finally, I recalled the mantra that was passed to me during my first yoga training - the Gayatri Mantra. I had my mala beads with me and I chanted aloud 108 times. There was space. There was silence. There was everything and nothing all at once. It was my first glimpse at true meditation. I suddenly understood that meditating was not about being blank, but about energetic space for creative flow, creative unity, creative compassion. I felt free.

For me, the chanting of the Gayatri Mantra cultivated the space for enhanced awareness and increased understanding. Why did it work? I believe that practicing a mantra gives an active and devotional focus for the mind so that it can then let go. Think of Yin yoga or restorative practice – you remain in a supported position with props so that the muscles and deep tissues of the body have some support so that the nerves will eventually allow them to let go. Why should it be different for the mind? After all, the brain is an organ of activity and part of our physical existence.

I’ve been singing the Gayatri Mantra to my son as part of our nightly bedtime ritual for nearly two years. Last night he sang it with me. Even so young, he becomes calm and serene as we finish, mentally ready for sleep. I wonder if the Gayatri Mantra has the same resonance of focus and then release that it had on me on my mountaintop. I cannot know for sure, but it seems to help him find peace.

I present this not only to illustrate the effect of mantra on your meditative or yoga practice, but to show that Bhakti yoga is beneficial to all, regardless of age or time constraints. Taking 3-5 minutes a day to chant can be your practice even in the busy circumstances of modern life. I cannot accept it when someone says they have no time for yoga. All of life is yoga to a yogi.

While there may not be space to do asana everyday or to have 8-hour meditations, the soothing of mantra can take minutes. You can chant while you run or walk, you can chant in the shower, in the car, in the restroom. You can practice mantra whenever and wherever you need space and calm.

If you don’t have a mantra, I offer you the Gayatri Mantra. There are many great sources to learn the meaning and significance – I will leave that for your own discovery. If you already have a mantra, commit to practicing it every day for two weeks and then make a note of how it felt or any changes noted.

Written by Kirsten Hedden

Check out her YogiTunes page!~:

http://www.yogitunes.com/content/kirsten-hedden

Celebrate Earth Day w/ Shantala in Denver!

2012-02-01T05:54:00.000-08:00

Shantala to celebrate Earth Day with a concert in Denver Sunday April 22

Benjy and Heather Wertheimer lead kirtan (sacred chanting) worldwide as the duo Shantala, with soul-stirring vocals, sacred lyrics and exotic instrumentation. Catch them Sunday April 22, 6 p.m., at Kindness Yoga on Broadway, Denver.

The weaving of Benjy’s Indian classical singing and instrumentation with Heather’s soaring vocals is freshly original and profoundly moving. Together they create music with beauty, passion, and reverence. Shantala has performed and recorded internationally with such sacred music luminaries as Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, and Jai Uttal. In summer 2008, they were named as one of the top “Wallahs to Watch” by Yoga + Joyful Living. Kirtan is a celebration of spirit through the chanting of sacred names, carrying the audience into a state of heightened awareness, bliss, and devotion. The audience is invited to participate fully through call-and-response chanting, dance, and meditation.

Date: Sunday, April 22, 2012
Time: 6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Location: Kindness Yoga, Denver, Broadway Studio
Cost: $20 early-bird/ $25 at-the-door

Click here for info and here for tickets!

Check out their latest album:

Music, Yoga and Spiritual Practice

2012-01-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

We all know that we love music, and especially music that supports our yoga practice. But what is it about music that makes us love it so much?

I wonder this myself as I think of the playlists I create to support yoga classes I teach in Portland, and I also wonder why I am drawn to compose and record yoga music myself. How does music fit into a spiritual practice?

I asked myself this question and am still asking it, because in my spiritual practice and yoga practice, there is an emphasis on quieting the mind. It is the almost incessant chattering of the mind that distracts us so and prevents us from seeing our true selves, according to current and traditional non-dual teachings. And the Yoga Sutra, verse 2, states, “Yoga is the cessation of mental modifications.” The translation of this sutra might vary a bit, but the basic meaning is the same: quieting the mind and its preoccupations with past injuries, future calamities, and creation of a false identity, will allow our real nature to shine forth. Our own experiences meditating, in reverie, in moments of stillness and during Shavasana bear this out.

So how can music, or sound for that matter, help us to quiet the mind? This is the question I plan to answer or explore in my next few entries, so please stay tuned and check back. Meanwhile, you can explore my website, www.nopoyoga.com, to sample yoga music, find books and apparel for yoga, plus more.

Namaste,

Bodhiron

Check out Bodhiron's Effort & Release playlist!

Dave Stringer LIVE in Denver Friday Feb 10!

2012-01-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

Dave Stringer, an internationally-beloved chant artist, is coming to Denver's Temple Event Center on Friday, Feb 10 to perform at Friday Night Yoga Club.

Tickets are available for a yoga and live music class followed by a concert or as a concert only ticket. Catch the live music/yoga class with Denise Cook and Hilary O'Toole at 6 pm or come for the concert only at 8 p.m. Tickets for yoga and concert are $25 adv/$30 night of. Concert only tickets are $20/adv/$25 night of.

As always, yummy organic food and drinks, free massages and wellness sessions will be offered. Also, 10% of net proceeds benefit the Chanda Plan Foundation. Please bring a cushion, blanket and yoga mat. More info is available here, limited amount of tickets are available here. This event will sell out! Use the CODE 'EARLYBIRD' by Jan 25 to save $5!