editor's blog

Yoga is set to become part of the lives of British 10 and 11-year olds from next month in a government drive to fight obesity.

Hundreds of schools are due to join forces with health clubs, and pupils will be taught in a similar way to classes available at gyms. The scheme will includes pilates and dance classes as well as yoga.

The proportion of children classes as overweight or obese rocketed between the mid-80s and mid-90s, a study by the British Medical Journal found. Overweight children often go on to become overweight or obese adults.

A separate report, published this month, found that childhood obesity around the world is likely to double by 2010. The report, by International Association for the Study of Obesity (www.iotf.org), warned the situation will worsen if people fail to change the way they live and eat.

Invariably, I find, it’s far easier not to do some yoga than to do some. Everyone has that demon inner-voice; the one that’s so adept at reeling off half a dozen excuses not to do something when, all along, you know you should just do it.

My inner voice is particularly vocal and persistent, even in the face of irrefutable knowledge that practising a little yoga every day (or twice a week, even), is A Very Good Thing, both physically and mentally.  

So why, then, is getting down to it so hard? Does the solution lie, perhaps, in a scaled-down, bite-sized practice; one that fits in with our busy lives, or more importantly, our unending ability to procrastinate. I’ll call it the Five Minute Yoga.

Chances are, of course, it won’t be just five minutes by the time the mat’s rolled out and the stretchy trousers are on – and the endorphins are flowing. But maybe some assurances to the self that five minutes is all that’s needed is enough to make us just get on with it.  

Is five minutes – or ten, or 15, by the time you’ve got into the flow – too short a time to bother? Definitely not, I’d say. As soon as the first downward facing dog is over the body has begun to wake up, the hamstrings stretch, the breath flows more freely.

Most importantly, I think, Five Minute Yoga, done regularly, establishes a routine and ensures yoga becomes as integral to your day as sleeping or eating. Of course a longer practice would be better, but, hey, this is far from a perfect world.

So I’m off to do a little yoga. Just five minutes, mind. It would be silly not to: really, life’s too short.

Actress Sadie Frost has been spotted practising the salute to the sun routine on a Los Angeles beach.

Onlookers described Frost as looking “sensational” as she completed the sequence, according to a report by www.mirror.co.uk

The actress has four children, three of whom were a produce of her six-year marriage to Jude Law.

Sri Pattabhi Jois, founder of asthanga yoga, will travel to London this month to witness the screening of the film Guru.

London-based filmmaker and keen yoga student Robert Wilkins spent three months in Mysore, India, last year, filming the film and practicing yoga with Jois.

The film is said to offer new insight into the life of Jois, who turns 90 this year. It includes footage of Jois and his grandson, Sharath Rangaswamy, teaching traditional Asthanga yoga at the Ashtanga Yoga Research institute in India.  

The documentary also interviews yogi travellers, for whom yearly trips to Mysore are seen as essential, and offers a glimpse of the philosophy and spirituality surrounding yoga in India, where the system of pedagog, or guru-shishya, is all-important.

 The film will be screened on Sunday March 5 at 11am, at the Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High Street, London E8 2PB (www.riocinema.org.uk) 

Jois will be teaching workshop classes at London’s Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute on March 5-9 (www.ayri.org/london.html) as part of his world tour, widely touted to be his last.

 Article by: Lucia Cockcroft

Singer Britney Spears is seeking the help of a yoga guru as she plans a career comeback, according to reports.

The 24-year old pop star has visited Singh Khalsa, the Sikh yoga master, at his home in Los Angeles, according to the website contact music

The yoga therapy sessions are based on Kundalini Yoga and clients are exposed to sound vibrations.

The singer is also known to have dabbled with Kabbalah (www.kabbalah.com and www.kabbalah.info), the mystical school of thought originally included in the Jewish religion, and recently made famous by Madonna.  

www.britneyspears.com

Article by: Lucia Cockcroft 

Content added by: http://www.yoga-abode.com