Yoga: Sublime or Ridiculous?

In a way, it had to happen.

As with most things that enter Western popular culture, yoga has entered the domain of the dumbed-down. The two latest trends in yoga practice in America are things called beer-yoga and goat-yoga, which involve asana (yoga postures) while gulping pints of beer or playing with furry farm animals. Poor Patanajli must be rolling in his samadhi!

Part of this trend has to do with the way yoga spread in America: through privately owned yoga studios, who keep searching for new trends to keep their clientele coming. Competition between studios, which seem to have sprung up on almost every street corner, pushes owners to keep expanding their repertoire of services; whether in combining yoga with Pilates (fairly common,) or with Zumba (Brazilian dance) and in many other ways.

Representation of Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga-sutras

As a way of popularizing yoga, these privately owned studios, often started by brave souls (mostly women) who, in the early days, travelled to India, or studied, at great cost, under well-known masters, were very successful. Playing by the rules of the market, they struggled to find what the public wanted, and by trial-and-error, became successful. Successful business models were built, and the industry flourished.

But the downside of market-based yoga teaching is that it precludes really deep study of the tradition. In my observation, most studios offer classes in hatha yoga, hot yoga, yin-yang or Iyengar. But beyond this, not much else is taught. After all, if the rent has to be paid, the emphasis is going to be on what sells.

Traditionally, yoga is seen as a spiritual discipline, with the ultimate goal being spiritual realization. Yoga was originally practiced in the forests of India, and knowledge was passed, in the teacher’s ashram, from elder to student. The learning would take many, many years.

Ashtanga yoga, or raja-yoga as it is called in the Bhagavad-Gita, is what most in the west understand as yoga, and asana, one part of it, is what is mostly taught in yoga studios. But ashtanga (eight-limbed) yoga, is much more. The eight-limbs include a moral code, contained in the Yamas and Niyamas, Asana (postures), Pranyama (breath control), Pratyahara (sensory transcendence), Dharana (Concentration) Dhyana (Meditation) and finally, the goal of yoga, Samadhi (connection with the Divine.) The Bhagavad-Gita also mentions other yoga systems, such as Bhakti-yoga, a theistic version of yoga based on devotion to the Divine. As can be seen, yoga is a much deeper topic than is mostly understood. Yoga based solely on the body, and not connected to the spirit, is limited.

The yoga market, in America anyways, seems to have reached its saturation. It seems obvious that many studios will disappear. As a yoga practitioner, I hope that those left behind, and the students they attract, will dive deeper into the subject and discover its true essence.

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper - A Novel" published by Books We Love.

www.yogazapper.com

www.bookswelove.com

Clothes and how to wear them... by Sheila Claydon

In my book The Hollywood Collection, I write about clothes and fashion. I do the same, to some extent, in Golden Girl, another book which will be published early next year. Both these books are vintage romance, however. Books that I wrote in the seventies and eighties when I was into fashion and loved buying new clothes.

Oh how things have changed. Clothes! Do you love them or hate them, and I don't mean that in the 'let's get naked sense.' Me? The older I get, the more I hate them...well hate the ever changing fashion of them, and trying to find what best suits me. No, strike that. I know what suits me, it's just that nowadays I have to plough through a whole lot of 'mutton dressed up as lamb' stuff to find what I want.

Then there's the fit. I'm the same size now that I've always been, so how come pants sag and sweaters often have sleeves whose length is out of all proportion to the body shape. Oh, I know. It's because they are designed to be worn by young girls with pert behinds who like to pull their sleeves down over their fingers, and I have to admit they look cute. What looks cute on a teen or anyone under 40 for that matter, doesn't look cute on a woman of more mature years, however. And it's not going to change because the fashion industry is not interested in the older woman, and doesn't design for changing body shapes.

There are solutions of course. Buy expensive or find a really good dressmaker who does fittings and alterations. This is the advice I saw recently in a fashion column that I can't seem to stop reading even though most of the clothes featured are either beyond my purse or things I wouldn't be seen dead in. The same fashion editor also listed which pants give the best fit. Unfortunately I threw the article away without making a note, so here I am, back to square one.

When I was young I loved fashion. It was mini-skirts and long white boots (with matching lip-stick!) in the sixties, flares and stack heels in the seventies, leg warmers, shell suits and sweaters with garish motives in the eighties, pants-suits in the nineties, and so on and so on. I bought them all, loved bright colours and made some terrible fashion mistakes which I fortunately didn't notice at the time.

Now, however, I am much more comfortable in quieter clothes, mostly pants and tops, and shoes that are easy to walk in. They are available of course. Jeans, trainers, sweatshirts and gilets are fine for shopping, lounging around, dog walking, housework, but fashion wise they don't quite hack it, so I have a plan. From now on I am going to wear a uniform of sorts. I know what I like: slim cut pants, longish tops, scarves, boots, and on the rare occasion I wear a dress, something plain brightened up by accessories. I also hate mixing too many colours, so my future uniform will be a mix and match wardrobe that doesn't stray much beyond navy-blue, black, grey/charcoal, and to brighten it, fuchsia , pale blue, emerald green or turquoise, the colours that I know suit me well. I might also go searching for a seamstress who can take the sag out of those pants, unless I'm lucky enough to find some that fit properly. Of course I'll keep the jeans and sweatshirts because the dog still needs walking.

OK, so it might sound boring, but oh the relief. A uniform that I can put on and forget, knowing that while it might not be up there in high style, it is too conservative to ever really go out of fashion. Oh, and I'm going to buy lots of scarves as well. Bright, bright, cheerful scarves.

Go to Sheila's Books We Love author page to see the rest of her books, which are available on:

Amazon

iTunes

Kobo

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

Also visit her on Facebook and have a chat :

Sheila Claydon on facebook

Support of my Writing by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 

 

My family and friends have been very supportive of me during my writing career. When my first two non-fiction books were published, my parents would look for them in bookstores. If they found them with only their spines showing they rearranged the books on the shelves so that the covers of mine were facing out and could be seen easier.

 

My husband is constantly telling people that I am a writer and where they can find my books. My parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren have come to book launches, sat with me during a book signing, and passed on advertising information about my new books through social media and other means.

When they were younger my grandchildren helped out at some of my launches: acting as doormen by opening doors for customers at bookstores, singing, or playing a saxophone or flute during the interlude before my reading.

I have some friends who buy and read all my books and continually tell me how much they like them.

Thank you to my family and friends for your continued encouragement.

Prepping for Bouchercon

For more information about Susan Calder's books, or to purchase visit her Books We Love Author Page.

I'm gearing up for Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto. This October the annual mystery writing and reading event will take place in Canada for the first time since 2004. With a new mystery novel in hand, I decided it was time for me to tackle the huge happening, which will bring together 1800 readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers, librarians and other lovers of crime fiction.  

Another reason for me to go is the involvement of Toronto-based Crime Writers of Canada, a group I've belonged to for six years. I also served on the CWC board for two years and this winter volunteered for their Bouchercon planning committee to get a foothold on the convention's activities.

Once committed, my next step was to send a query to the Toronto Public Library offering to do presentations to promote my novel Ten Days in Summer. One library branch responded. So Friday evening Oct 13th I'll take a break from Bouchercon to talk to members of the library community about "How Hoarding Inspired My Murder Mystery Novel," a subject I blogged about on the BWL site last spring. 

Grandma's living room

Bouchercon offers attending authors promotional opportunities, although demand is so high that I was lucky to get a panel moderator assignment. The topic, "Urban Noir: city settings, where, despite the light pollution, there is darkness ..." isn't quite my genre. I suspect, I got in because not everyone wants the moderator's role, which is arguably harder than being a panelist. The organizers sent me tips on moderating a great panel, which include researching the five author-panelists and couching their introductions with a question specific to each writer to avoid boring introductory exposition. I've started my research, find all the authors interesting, and agree this is a great approach to moderating.  

For other promotion, I missed out on Author Speed Dating, but was given a 20 minute spot to speak to an audience of up to 50 people about the backdrop for Ten Days in Summer, The Calgary Stampede. 

Through Crime Writers of Canada, I'll get two hours in the popular Refreshment Room, to display my novel, talk about my writing and hand out materials. I'll get more chances to promote Ten Days in Summer during my shifts at the CWC information table. 

The second thing I did after registering was enter a short story in the Bouchercon Passport to Murder anthology contest. I wrote the story while on holiday in Mexico and used the holiday settings for this tale of a woman who makes a devil's deal to escape an abusive marriage. To my delight, "Zona Romantica" was one of 22 stories selected for the anthology. It will be on sale at the convention with the proceeds going to the literary charity Frontier College. Saturday evening at Bouchercon will feature a signing for Passport to Murder.  

In between these promotional activities, I'll take in some panels, attend the opening, closing and awards ceremonies and catch interviews with Guest of Honour authors, who include Louise Penny, 2017 recipient of the Order of Canada. 

And there will be time for fun, liking dancing to big-band music on Saturday night, maybe dressed in the flapper-style outfit I wore to this August's When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers - but this time without the feather boa. 

Most of all, at Bouchercon I hope to meet a bunch of new mystery writers and readers from across Canada, the United States and the rest of the world. Who knows where these connections and varied experiences will lead me next? It's a mystery.   

    

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow? by Karla Stover

bwlauthors.blogspot.com

I love the feeling of fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair. Evel Knievel

Lady Godiva hid her naked body with flowing locks of hair. Anne (of Green Gables) Shirley died her red hair green. Jo March cut hers off. Since time immemorial, women have been doing things with their hair.

In ancient Greece, (unless you were a slave) the only time women didn't have long hair was when they were in mourning. Most of the time, they let their tresses fall over their shoulders and down their back, sometimes restraining it with a headband or diadem. Over the ensuing years, buns, headbands, scarves, and hair covers came into play.

Meanwhile, Roman women were constantly changing their hair styles. Fashionable, elaborate dos were how they showed "worth and social standing." And in Egypt, while both boys and girls had their hair "cut short  or shaved off, except for a long lock--the lock of youth-- on  the side of the head, women liked a "smooth, close coiffure, a natural wave, and a long curl."

In Europe, the years passed by until the Renaissance came along. Women still preferred long hair, but they also wanted to expose their foreheads. To achieve this, they created coils above their ears through braiding (think Princess Leia). They then covered these coils with hoods and wimples, or with hairnets and snoods decorated these with gold, pearls or semi-precious stones.

When red hair became popular, thanks, in part to Elizabeth I, men and women used borax, saltpeter, saffron, and sulphur to achieve the desired red color. The combination made them sick ,but that's never been a deterrent to beauty. One wonders if Anne Shirley ever knew how popular the color was..


Which brings us back to Jo March. Thanks to the Civil War, and that Monarch  of Melancholy, Queen Victoria, the Victorian era was extremely sentimental. And for some reason, this inspired women to make a variety of ornaments out of human hair. It was used to make bracelets (when your sweetheart is going to war, what says, I love you more than a bracelet made from your hair?) When family members have died, what better way to remember them than earrings made from their hair? Or if you have a  lot of  time and a  lot of deceased relatives, how about a framed hair wreath?

Human hair artifacts were first made by the Norwegians. Then the French perfected the craft. Soon, companies were manufacturing gold mountings for jewelry, and selling the tools needed--bobbins, thread, a stand and counterbalance, and molds--and Godey's Lady's Magazine was printing instructions.

And if women weren't doing arts and crafts with hair, they were "carefully pulling the broken and spent strands from their hair brushes, and storing them away in a pretty hair receiver." When they had enough hair they "either put it in a hairnet or rolled it into a sausage-like shape" and use it to help create those "fabulous victory rolls that we see in old photos." These clumps of hair were called rats, and the practice continued until "well into the 20th century" As a very young girl, I saw my grandmother's rat and thought it was a bit creepy.

Through out history, women have used henna, indigo, senna, turmeric, black walnut hulls, red ochre, leeks, and whatever else nature provided to dye their hair black, gold, green, red, yellow, and white. Though why white is a puzzle since most women were trying to hide white hair. According to The Art of Hair Work, both extreme fright and excessive grief can turn hair white. When my neighbor's mother died, her (the neighbor, not the deceased mother) dark hair turned white over night.

And both sexes have worn so many wigs for so long. that's a blog of its own.

Cocoa Chanel once said, "A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life." There are a few celebrities who I wish would do something with their hair. Angie Dickinson has the same style she wore in her Police Woman days, and Marie Osmond could add five pounds to her weight loss ad if she cut hers.

With age, a woman 's face begins to sag. Hair hanging down the side of the face accents this.  From what I see on Nexflix, British woman are smarter about this than American  women are.