Michael Franti, Girish, Deva Premal, Wah, Jai Uttal, MC Yogi.  For most of us yogis we've heard their tunes in our yoga classes.  Or not.  Ask your fellow yogis about how they feel about music in the yoga room and you'll hear a wide range of opinions.  Although it's a personal preference, it can also be a philosophical question with regard to the purpose of our yoga.  If we are in class to calm and still our minds and get in touch with our bodies, does Marvin Gaye, Thievery Corp, or Coldplay help or hinder?  If you like classes that play music does that make you shallow and unyogic?  An article in last year's edition of Common Ground boldly states, ". . . it [music] enhances the experience, allows for creative expression and brings yogis into a deeper state of letting go that allows the meditative and healing qualities of yoga to be heightened." (1)  You think?

Regardless of your opinion of music in the studios, it has become big business.  The most asked question after class is not "can you help me with my triangle pose", but "what was that song you played for savasana?".  You think I'm kidding.  In addition to playlists of celebrity yogis in Yoga Journal, yoga mixes in iTunes, OmStream, there is now YogiTunes(.com), created to connect yoga teachers, students and musicians.   Live music is in the yoga room and has made its way to the festivals--Wanderlust and BhaktiFest, to name a few.  Listen to some teachers and musicians talk about the phenomenon here. Note the cameo (at 0:59 seconds) by Yoga Journal Magazine editor, Kaitlin Quistgaard.

The music question seems to follow the different styles of yoga.  Iyengar and Ashtanga, no way; Kundalini, yes; Vinyasa, definitely, almost required; Bhakti via Rusty Wells, loud and hip.  Judith Lasater is adamant about music during restorative yoga.  She feels that audio stimulation will interfere with nervous system especially if it is tied to memories.  However, many restorative yoga students like the calming effect of music and that it can actually focus the mind rather than distract it.

Personally, I like music with my practice-loud-ish, but not blaring.   I like to shake my booty a bit in downward dog, and the right music can put it in the mood.   You may like hip music before class, semi-hip during and chillaxin' for savasana.  I have tons of yoga mixes for teaching, but since leaving San Francisco, I've found few studios that encourage music and some that forbid it.   Fortunately, along with many different styles of yoga we also can choose whether we want music or not.

What about you?  Do you like/not like music with your practice?  I'd like to know.

(1)  "Introducing YogiTunes" Common Ground, September 2011 

I'll be at Westside Yoga a lot this week.  Erick, Collin, Ginny and John Smith with be doing some intensive training.  So, while the mice are away . . 

Sebastopol is the Yoga Mecca of the North Bay, don't you think.  Find more yoga and movement at the Dhyana Center when they move into prime-time space on Main Street (when Silk Moon Annex moves to their main store).  Look for rockstar Iris Lambert on their schedule.  

Major opportunity!  Study in a private, small group with Anne O'Brien at a killer Sonoma estate.  It's four Thursdays starting 10/11.  Know more at www.anneobrienyoga.com.  And, don't miss Anne on October 6 (first Saturday) at POST Wellness in Petaluma at 10:45.  I'll be there.    

It's easy to forget that the body knows exactly what to do.  The relaxation response is a built in function of our amazing central nervous system.  We just have to let relaxation happen.  I know, it seems impossible sometimes. Thus, the popularity of restorative yoga where we learn to put the body in positions and let it do it's thing.     

Every Monday 

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Westside Yoga, Sebastopol