Drishti – Santa Barbara Yoga Store: Yoga Clothing, Workout Clothes, & Yoga Supplies

Hello, hello! Have you been paying attention to your yoga-and-other-interesting-items news lately? If not, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. Here is our assemblage of “interesting news items you might have missed” from the past few weeks (volume 8)!

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?