Relax and Renew -- for only three-hundred bucks...
Last month's Yoga Journal was as thick as a phone book, chocker block with adverts from clothing, food, workshop and accessory companies. There's nothing unethical with making money through yoga, but as I flipped through the magazine, the line between editorial and advertising began to blur. For me, that's a problem. In yoga, that line should be razor sharp.
Here's an excerpt from the Lounge About column:
Rest is essential to every yoga practice. Unfortunately, many of us find it difficult to slow down….This week, set aside time to light a candle, get comfortable, relax and renew.
All quite reasonable until you get to the bullet points:
Wrap up -- Restore the goodness in you with a flowing cardigan wrap by Eileen Fisher ($158), layered over this stretch silk jersey ($78).
Stretch Out -- There's nothing cozier than snuggling into a good pair of sweats. If you want the warmth, but not the frump, try the silky-soft Benessere Pant by File ($65).
There's no legal or ethical boundary broken here -- Rolling Stone has portrayed rock stars in fashionable brand named clothing (with price tags) for years, but this isn’t rock and roll. Yoga is about the body, mind and spirit. The commercial side of Yoga, all too often tugs participants toward fashion and fitness. The subliminal message is:
Look good and you'll feel good. And you'll feel better much faster by buying these cool looking clothes and accessories.
That relax-and-renew outfit will set a person back over three hundred dollars. The average person must work double-overtime, or keep a stressful, high powered job, to attain this state of fabric bliss. Or maybe the spouse puts in the hours -- odds are, if that's the case, there's going to be trouble in that marriage soon enough. The point is, nobody needs a three-hundred dollar outfit to relax, but when Yoga Journal suggests it, people think that's the short cut to enlightenment.
Ninety percent of Yoga Journal's audience is women. There's even an article this month about why men don't take yoga. That story was full of clichés -- men are overly competitive; women are nurturing and more spiritual by nature. I had no idea women have a greater predisposition towards spirituality. Is that because they lack abilities in science and math?
Yesterday I took the 9:30 yoga class. It's one of my club's most popular. It's always jammed with women, and this time, there was only one other guy. Some of the women were dressed in simple, comfortable attire, but there were several in those outfits you see advertised in Yoga Journal. Towards the end of class, women started rolling up mats. It was especially disturbing when it continued during Savasna, the last posture, when one is supposed to rest quietly to process what took place during class.
Afterwards, at the front desk, I looked into Studio B. Many of the women from yoga were in that Jazzercise session. They'd left yoga to get to that on time. For them, yoga is simply another exercise class in a daily fitness regimen. There's nothing wrong with that, but clearly the spiritual side of yoga is not what has drawn them to the practice. And from the adverts in Yoga Journal, it seems that much of the audience doesn't rate spirituality high either…
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