The Drishti Blog

There is a compelling article in today’s New York Times about a new finding, reported in the current Nutrition Journal, that a great number of people do, in fact, lie about the amount of vegetables they eat. The tendency to fib about your veggies stems from the widely-emphasized “Five-A-Day” golden rule and the pressure we all feel to eat significant amounts from this all-important food group. Are you surprised? Do you lie (to yourself or others) about your daily vegetable intake?

FYI, the new classes at Santa Barbara Yoga Center beginning July 1st have been announced. You can check them out here (all 33 of them!)

Just in case you were like us and had a general (but not so detailed) idea of which disposable items are recyclable and which aren’t, we found this nifty chart that lays it all out with appealing pictures and to-the-point wording. We printed it out and posted it next to both of our recycling cans for our employees here at Drishti. Now the whole Drishti crew has had a thorough review of what is and is not recyclable, and the next time we have a wrench that we’re done with (that’s right, we said a wrench!), we’ll be sure to put it in the recycle bin and not in the trash. (Look at the poster - in addition to all sorts of household items, it does happen to feature a wrench and a screwdriver. Who throws items like those away, we wonder?)

This chart is specific to Santa Barbara County, but if you don’t live in SB, we’re sure that your local recycling center should publish something similar.

(Click on this small version of the poster to be taken to a full-size, printable version.)

Yoga class schedules are shaking up around these parts as of late. Heather Tiddens, one of Santa Barbara’s most senior yoga teachers who has held her classes exclusively at Santa Barbara Yoga Center for years, is shifting two of her regular classes from SBYC to Yoga Soup beginning in July. This would be her Monday/Wednesday 6:30pm Level 1-2 class. (At Yoga Soup it will be called an “Active Beginners” class instead of “Level 1-2″, but same diff, dude.)

Popular yoga instructor Niav Connor, who currently teaches at Yoga Soup, is taking over the Monday/Wednesday 6:30 time slot at SBYC that Heather is leaving open. Niav has actually taught at SBYC before, but she left the studio a couple of years ago and has since held all of her classes at Yoga Soup. This July will see Niav’s return to her old stomping grounds, where we’re sure she will be very welcomed and appreciated.

The lovely Emily Kligerman, who has taught classes at Source Yoga Studio and Yoga Soup in the past, will also be picking up some classes at SBYC starting in July. We’re not sure which exact time slots will go to Emily, but look for her name on the new SBYC schedule due out by July 1st. Yoga Soup is saying hello to a new yoga instructor, Chloe Conger, who will teach 2 classes a week at the studio beginning tomorrow, June 20th! And as we previously reported, pilates and NIA instructor Ken Gilbert has also just moved all of his classes to the dynamic venue of Yoga Soup.

How much more shifting around of teachers and classes can happen in this town? We’re not sure, but if more developments arise, we’ll be sure to report them to you here on the famous Drishti Blog.

P.S. Denise Zaverdas‘ classes at SBYC are amazing and we highly recommend them.

We stopped by Yoga Soup a little while ago to check in on their exciting new studio. The last time we saw it, about a month ago, the studio had been freshly taken over by the Yoga Soup crew and construction work on the space was just beginning. During our recent visit, we saw that significant progress had been made. The dark wood flooring was just about to be laid down (dark wood - how beautiful!), the ceiling had been painted a pretty powder blue, and a doorway had been installed in the back wall.

Although the work was not quite complete yet, we were told that the space would be ready to host classes beginning last week. In other new-space news, it’s confirmed that popular pilates and NIA instructor Ken Gilbert will begin holding all of his classes at Yoga Soup. And while not officially confirmed yet, there is a strong rumor floating around that Yoga Soup will see the addition of Mysore-style Ashtanga classes in the near future.

Congrats to Yoga Soup and their newly-acquired studio! We wish them the best with this new venture.

Here are some pictures that we took that day:

You can see the brand new door in the back wall. The pile of boxes underneath the blue tarp on the right is the dark wood floor, waiting to be laid out.

You can see the glowing powder blue color of the ceiling in the upper right-hand corner of this photo.

And what exactly does “advanced” yoga mean? And what makes someone an “advanced” yoga practitioner, anyway? A May 29 New York Times article attempts to address these potentially off-putting questions. The article states that typically, “advanced” practitioners can hold headstand for several minutes, and “they work on free-standing handstands and attempt deep backbends, forward bends, twists and other arm balances.” The article is wise to point out that “If they’re truly advanced, they don’t radiate smugness as they practice difficult postures.” So true!

The article also points out that as the popularity of yoga increased tremendously over the past few years, the proportion of the yoga-practicing population that could be considered “advanced” decreased. As new students flooded into yoga studios all over the country, the more experienced yogis found themselves outnumbered, and with less “advanced” yoga classes to attend as a result. This phenomenon of “advanced yogis without advanced yoga classes” was significant enough that the NYT decided to write about it.

What do you think? Do you agree with the NYT’s definition of an advanced yoga pracitioner? Have you noticed a lack of advanced class offerings at your studio? Do you think this is a major yoga problem that needs addressing ASAP? Or do you think that the complainers out there should just step into a Mysore-style Ashtanga class and they’ll find all of the challenge that they need?

And therefore, here’s our gift to you, oh wonderful Drishti people who read our blog from time-to-time:

Click here for the printable “in-store” version of this nifty coupon if you would like to redeem it in person in our physical Santa Barbara store. Thanks for being such great Drishti supporters, guys. Enjoy!

There must be countless experiences and thoughts that take place in Ashtanga class which are nearly universal. (When will the chaturangas (push-up poses) ever stop? Is there any chance that my teacher won’t notice that I’m ready for backbends so that I can skip them today? How do I keep my eye fixated on my drishti (focal point) when that woman over there is doing a free-standing scorpion??) By the same token, there must be other nearly-universal Ashtanga experiences which are specifically from the female perspective. (Where did my mula bandha disappear to after my pregnancy? Why exactly am I told to avoid Ashtanga practice unequivocally if I am currently menstruating? Is it true that a woman caused the silicon implants in her breasts to explode by simply doing Mayurasana pose??)

It is observations like these that blogger Skelly at The Only Ashtangi in the Village is hoping to gather. She has put out an open call to fellow female Ashtangis from across the globe, asking them to submit their female-oriented experiences in the yoga room for potential inclusion in her book(let) on the subject. A unique idea indeed! Check it out and send along your Ashtanga thoughts if you have any!

Click here to check out an interesting article in today’s New York Times on the use of mindfulness meditation in modern psychotherapy. Pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s, this Buddhist-based method for working through emotional blocks and issues has grown significantly in popularity in recent times. The practice is inspiring-sounding - we could all benefit from incorporating some of these ideas into our own personal practices.

(Also interesting to note is at the time of this writing, this mindfulness meditation article is currently today’s top most-emailed NYT article!) A good sign indeed.

Dinner in the sky?  A service offering a 22-person meal, suspended high in the air by a crane?  Do you believe it?  If invited to a dinner in the sky, would you attend?

Wonder what it would be like to practice yoga up on that table… 

(Thanks to The Restaurant Guy for posting this crazy link!)