-When: Saturday, February 11, 10:00am-7:00pm

-What: 25% off everything in the store (everything!!), 50% off all jewelry, and a huge selection of clothing & other items at 50% or more off.

-Also: Celebratory refreshments served! (Did someone say… mini cupcakes from Crushcafe? )

Online Customers: You can be a part of our sale too!  Use coupon code 10YEARSOLD in our online store anytime on 2/11/12 for 25% off all items in your order.  It’s a great time to stock up on your favorite Hard Tail and Beyond Yoga pants, or to score on a brand new Manduka mat at a super cool price.
Hope to see everybody there, either personally or virtually! Bye for now!

Check out their write-up about their time with us in SB!

Cahn, who was a dedicated Ashtanga student for four years and who wrote faithfully about her experiences in the Ashtanga room on her blog Yoga Chickie, has since renounced the practice and has chosen to share her reasons for doing so in this HuffPost piece.  Here’s an excerpt:

I practiced Ashtanga faithfully from 2005 until this year (even taught it for a period of time), when for reasons that I cannot even yet articulate, I found myself growing inexplicably repelled by it. I like to say “I threw myself out of the cult.”

Cahn’s criticism of the Ashtanga system includes the many narrow “rules” inherent in the tradition, the “cranking” that students are supposedly encouraged to impose on their bodies, and her observation that “Ashtangis often talk of pain like it’s a good thing”.

After reading this piece, we must say that we are hugely thankful that our own Santa Barbara-based Ashtanga scene headed up by Steve Dwelley and Michele Nichols hardly resembles the strict, close-minded, competitive, gossipy practice that Cahn describes in her article.  Cahn’s own Ashtanga room in her home state might well have been more regimented and linear than the relatively relaxed one we know in SB.  But our personal observations over the years have led us to conclude that to a large extent, the practice of Ashtanga often becomes what the practitioner decides to make of it.  People whose personalities are generally open and accepting often approach the practice with this attitude, while people who tend to be somewhat uptight and competitive will certainly bring these elements into their relationship to the practice.

In our humble opinion, as much as we appreciate honest dialog about the yoga world, we must conclude that this HuffPost piece is at best controversial and at worst unnecessarily harsh. What do you think?  Check out the article here!

[The Huffington Post]

Do you liiiiiike?

Because this line is so new to us, we don’t yet sell it in our online store.  (It’s available in many styles and options in our physical store in Santa Barbara, though!)  If you’re an online customer of ours and you find these tops irresistible, however, we’re sure that you could give us a call and place a phone order for one!  Bye now, everybody!

This is one of our favorite Drishti-made videos to date!  We look forward to more Drishti videos starring the lovely Amanda Hess. For your reference, the clothing item discussed here is the Nomad Pant by OmGirl.

1) The esteemed New York Times just can’t seem to stop writing about the yoga world!  It must be inherently fascinating to them.  (It certainly is to us!)  A few weeks ago they discussed the topic of OM-ing during yoga class in one of their advice columns. A couple of weeks later, they published an article on the hot topic of state regulation of yoga studios.  (We discussed both of these NYT articles here on our blog when they were first published.)  And just the other day, they ran a feature piece on the recent upsurge in popularity of yoga retreat centers’ work-study programs.  Apparently the dismal economy has inspired a significant number of yogis to take refuge at well-known yoga retreat spots like The Himalayan Institute in Pennsylvania and the Satchidananda Ashram in Virginia.  In exchange for daily chores like chopping vegetables and making beds, these work-study students receive free room and board and a relatively small amount of money.  Sounds like a potentially favorable deal, right?  Check out the article to find out more.

2) You’ve probably heard about it (and we wrote about it here on our blog awhile back), but the Wanderlust Festival, the first-ever combination music-and-yoga festival is taking place this weekend in Lake Tahoe, California!  (Think Coachella, but with yoga teachers headlining alongside musicians.)  We’re super curious about this festival: what the vibe will feel like, how many people will attend, how the music and yoga will be coordinated around one another, etc.  Many yoga-based outlets have been promoting Wanderlust, but we noticed that the established entertainment magazine Variety mentioned the innovative festival – that’s sure to gain the event some attention!

3) A new UCLA study suggests that meditation encourages brain “growth” and can result in superior emotion regulation.  Coolness!  From the article: “Push-ups, crunches, gyms, personal trainers — people have many strategies for building bigger muscles and stronger bones. But what can one do to build a bigger brain?  Meditate.  That’s the finding from a group of researchers at UCLA who used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate.”

4) NPR’s Morning Edition featured a great story on diaphragm breathing and the benefits of conscious breathing in general.

5) We personally enjoyed this helpful article entitled “The 10-Ingredient Shopping List” and we thought you might, too.  It was written by Mark Bittman, one of our favorite food writers.

6) Due to the regular workshops and teacher trainings that she holds at Santa Barbara Yoga Center, many SB yogis are familiar with the widely-respected yoga instructor Sarah Powers.  Sarah has been teaching yoga since long before the current yoga mainstream madness, she holds workshops nationally and internationally, and she also stars in an awesome yoga DVD which we carry at Drishti.  (In fact, Jenni, the owner of Drishti, took an 11-day teacher training course with Sarah several years ago at SBYC!)  Anywho, all of that interesting information is leading up to the fact that Sarah was just featured on the cover of the well-known Buddhist magazine Shambhala Sun!  You can check out Sarah’s profile article and cover photo here.

7) Here’s an important question for all of you bicyclists out there (ourselves included!):  Is bicycling bad for your bones?  Well, according to a recent New York Times article, the short answer is (drum roll please)… no, not really. But why don’t you take a look at the article for the full, enlightening, informative answer?