Get ready. Here it comes.
Earlier this week I saw Kevin Costner and Jennifer Anniston in their new movie, Rumor Has It.
If you're looking for a straight movie review, I like Mark Ruffalo as an actor and Shirley MacLaine is very funny. That's all I have to say about that.
Yoga themes showed up several times in this movie.
First, when Jennifer Anniston's character, Sarah Huttinger, woke up from an alcohol-induced blackout at Beau Burrough's (played by Costner) oceanside estate, she found him out on the patio overlooking the surf in sirsasana, head stand. He said, "five minutes with your feet over your head, followed by a three mile run and a swim in the ocean, is the best remedy for a hangover. It beats coffee and aspirin." Jennifer went for the coffee and aspirin.
Are inverted poses a hangover cure? I don't know. I've never done any of the things Beau recommends, with a hangover. So you'll get no Daily Yoga Tip from me on that one...other than do what's necessary to avoid a hangover in the first place. Take it easy with the adult beverages.
Next, Sarah and Beau spotted a party-goer whose strapless dress was a bit tight around the top. The dress made two rolls of fat on the woman's back bunch up to form a vertical crease along her spine. Sarah pointed this out to Beau and called her "the woman with the back cleavage."
This got my attention right away, because I often refer in yoga class to a hollow trough between the shoulder blades as a "shoulder blade cleavage." It's a desireable thing. You can make one for yourself by simply drawing your upper arm bones toward your back body.
My "shoulder blade cleavage" is a bit different from her "back cleavage." I don't have any fashion recommendations for an evening gown that makes your back skin wrinkle up in funny rolls. But I do recommend proper arm action for good posture and optimal alignment of the shoulder girdle.
I wrote about this a while back in an Daily Yoga Tip called "Relief for the Rotator Cuff." You can read it here.
Lastly, Sarah's newlywed sister has an anxiety attack on the airplane while on her way to her honeymoon vacation. She told Sarah she was 35,000 feet in the air on her way to Belize when she stopped breathing. Hmmmmm. Not good.
They had to land the plane and give her sedatives.
So here's a good tip you can take from Rumor Has It: breathe.
The benefits of conscious breathing and a regular pranayama practice are many. You might even want to make the study of pranayama one of your New Year's Resolutions.
It doesn't have to be rocket science either. Five minutes each day of ujjayi breath will amaze you.
Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!
Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org
p.s., I've never been to Belize. But I have been to Yelapa. It blew me away. The beauty and simplicity of this place, and the hospitality of the people are amazing. I knew before I left that I would return. And there's really nothing like spending a week Mexico with 20 yogis who intend to have fun. Will you join us in February?
Sallie and I are taking a group back to Hotel LaGunita February 18-25. We still have space available. Find details at http://experienceyoga.org/vacations.asp.
p.p.s., While I was looking around for a picture of sirsasana, I found this fabulous photo of BKS Iyengar in niralamba sirsasana. Enjoy!Niralamba means "without support." You can see in the piture that his arms aren't supporting him at all like they would in salambha sirsasana. Salambha means "with support."
These are the kind of connections we make at the Experience Sanskrit workshop.
Our next workshop is just 14 days away, January 14th in Kansas City. Register here.
Tuition is only $50 for this fun four-hour workshop that makes the Sanskrit names of yoga poses unforgettable. You get a 100-page course guide to use and take home with you when you participate in the Experience Sanskrit workshop.
We're flying out to Ft. Worth, TX to do the Experience Sanskrit workshop on January 28. Don't wait. Register now. Procrastinator rates will soon go into effect. That means the price goes up!
p.p.p.s., We still have the fun Experience Sanskrit yoga pose name refrigerator magnets. So if you've got some spending money left over from the Holidays, go to our store and pick one up for $5. You can use it in conjunction with our on-line virtual refrigerator magnet, that shows you how to arrange the word roots into yoga pose names. Shipping is $2 for any order of 10 or fewer magnets. It's free for orders of 11 or more. Order here.
p.p.p.p.s., Be sure to check my Daily Yoga Tip tomorrow. It's a New Year and we'll be offering our CHITTA HAPPENS shirt, starting tomorrow, for the first time to the general public. Up until now you've only been able to get one of these shirts at the Experience Sanskrit workshop.The garment is made by American Apparel. It's imprinted with Patanjali's second sutra in both Devangari script and English: yogas chitta vrtti nirodhah.
I'll put it an order button up on our online store sometime tonight after midnight.
p.p.p.p.p.s., Happy New Year!
Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.
Kevin Perry
Mo Yoga LLC
905 Eastland Plaza Suite B, #106
Jefferson City, MO 65101
(573) 680-6737
