several people forwarded this new york times‘ article to me over the weekend titled, “the days of wine and yoga.” the article is about yoga-and-wine retreats planned to be held in sonoma county starting in 2007.
to her credit, the journalist explores two opposing views. “‘yoga can be very serious, sure, but why not have it be really fun?’” this, the question posed by the woman whose idea it is to launch an alcohol-assisted yoga practice. “yoga purists,” apparently, take the opposite view, which is to say that “‘drinking and [yoga] don’t go well together.”‘
i’m not sure how these two views are opposite each other, because the basic problem with calling sober-yoga serious, and wine-yoga fun, is to say that drinking makes yoga more fun. or less serious.
Seriously? another proponent of wine-and-yoga asked where we draw the line: is it at “‘tylenol? refined sugar? caffeine?”’ though this question is exactly where we could stay for a while, this woman’s question also misses the point.
the point is that yoga is about purifying the body. we practice hatha yoga, and indeed all forms of yoga, to cleanse the body’s meridian (or, in sanskrit, nadi) pathways in order to give it more opportunity to absorb and utilize prana, or chi. we breathe through a pose, a yoga class, a meditation, in an effort to stay mindful of how the body operates, as a channel, in space and time.
no matter what country, vineyard, or social custom wine is associated with, it is a toxin. the body recognizes alcohol of any kind as poison. furthermore, wine does not “relax” the body; it temporarily deadens it. wine is a beautiful, delicious, and seductive poison, but a poison it is.
another downside of drinking wine (and don’t get me wrong: we just served wine at our holiday party) is lack of proper sleep. anyone who has suffered from insomnia knows that even one glass of wine up to four hours before bed can disrupt sleep.
like yoga, sleep is designed to help the body clean and heal. therefore, the yoga teacher leading these sonoma retreats, rosemary garrison, is simply wrong when she says, “‘have a glass of wine, enjoy your night, get a good night’s sleep and come to a really cleansing, vigorous practice the next morning [at the wine-and-yoga retreat].’” it’s unlikely that, since the practitioners are at a winery that has many selections of palate-stimulating wines, anyone will drink just one glass.
it isn’t that we drink wine and do yoga, or that that we take tylenol for whatever pain we have, it’s the intention to combine the two. one is a cleansing practice designed to help the person discover her/his union with the higher self; the other is a thousands-year-old invention designed a) to achieve the effect we still desire today, and/or b) to drink in place of fetid water that otherwise killed people.
one last thing. i decided that i really couldn’t comment on a wine-and-yoga practice unless i had a direct experience doing it. so, in preparation for my practice last night, i had a glass of wine. it was a nice glass of red wine.
What I noticed in my practice was how tired I was. I stayed in poses longer, without being as interested as i usually am. I found my mind wandering, particularly to topics, and relationships, that currently leave me feeling sad. I also didn’t have much focus: I usually start my practice with some idea of what my body is wanting, and in this case I couldn’t quite get to it. So I wound up relying on poses I normally do when I can’t think of anything else. in short, for me, it was a less mindful practice than normal.
filed under: the boundless perspective, women and yoga, more on yoga, yoga external, yoga internal, yoga and business
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 10:44 am and is filed under the boundless perspective, women and yoga, more on yoga, yoga external, yoga internal, yoga and business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 19th, 2006 at 11:43 am
I agree that it’s not a virtuous idea to combine the drinking of wine, or any alcohol for that matter, with the practice of yoga. As far as I can tell, the blending of the two is simply a marketing ploy which will probably do well for awhile but I don’t believe it will ever be a long-term success campaign due to the current mileu of conservatism & American beliefs on health & wellness.
I would also like to comment how negative inward thoughts are poisons to the mind-body-spirit as well & perhaps even more debilitating & destructive as any liquor or drug might ever be. Cultivating purity in yoga is just as much about what we feed our minds as what we’ve imbided or ingested just prior to asana practice or the evening before.
My cousin was a serious yoga student in the early 70’s & into the 80’s. He was an actor & lived in both San Francisco & Los Angeles during that time. He told me that smoking pot - was all the rage before/after asana practice at several San Fran, Oakland & LA studios at the time. His drug supplier was a well known yoga teacher & owner of a studio! They also experimented with their yoga practice by dropping acid, eating hash brownies, ingesting mescaline, or taking mushrooms. This was all with several yoga teacher’s blessings & actual direct involvement on many occasions.
At many of the studios he was involved with, the students & teachers also combined organic gardening, candle making, creating collaborative works of art like collages, paintings & murals, writing music, spoken word poetry kinds of pieces, dance, theatre, even short films etc…with yoga’s inspiration (and perhaps a few illegal substances too). But it still sounded like it was a very positive community project which involved anyone who wished to join in or donate resources. Children from all backgrounds were a part of many of these projects as well.
I mention this because according to him, there were never any problems. Nothing “bad” ever happened. It could be that since he was practicing yoga during a very free spirited time that such drug experiments, since positively viewed by all involved, actually had a positive affect. But since most of us today would probably perceive the taking of liquor or drugs in tandem with yoga as unhealthy - then we may expect negative results from similar ventures.
I doubt if this free for all yoga-pot-smoking-acid- dropping asana practice would ever happen again with how litigious our society has become. But it looks as if at least one advertiser has appropriated a bit of that free for all hippie mentality by marketing a similar commingling of disparate approaches to relaxation. Although I am personally against such a combination - a glass of wine has never adversely affected my sleep. But I might feel more sleepy the next morning. Whereas when practicing yoga I feel refreshed & energized. I’m certain my kidneys are much happier too.
My cousin? Oh he left the world of acting for the world of (what else?) medicine! Although he rarely practices yoga any more he looks 10-15 years younger than his “true” age.
December 19th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
You know, you can sell white people anything. The idea that knocking back vino will make yoga more fun is absurd. Knocking back vino will make anything more fun. Like driving high speed on the interstate, for example, or duck hunting with judges. Heck, when I’m powerlifting in the gym, I like to do shots of Jack Daniel’s. You really want to know what would make yoga more fun? Having someone else do it for you. You wouldn’t have to worry about stretching too much, or doing a pose wrong. People drink wine in churches on Sundays, French kids knock back a glass all the time, so what are we doing wrong? What was the question again?
December 19th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Don’t have much experience with drugs, wine or other such stimulants. But prefer the stimulation that comes with a clear mind. Yoga is a means to achieve a clear mind–at least for me –with which we can see clearly, both within and without . Using external stimulants — even caffeine — is simply unappealing to me. What helps is good exercise, food, sleep, meditation, and playing sports. Sure, life can be a downer sometimes, but if the mind is calm and clear these times can be opportunities to learn and grow. Sounds boring but if one needs external stimulation to be happy then it indicates a lack of maturation. As you grow up you also grow out of the need for external stimulation. Of course we all need love and friendship but that is a different matter.
December 20th, 2006 at 9:33 am
[…] tori is doing a vigorous practice friday, in a very american approach to the solstice. indomitable optimism is what i like to call it: she will challenge everyone to as many sun salutes as they can hack. it’s a donation class, and it starts at 415 p. the idea behind the class is that, at the moment of the solstice, you can experience the actual energy of the earth heading toward more sunlight. and then you can go out and get drunk. […]
December 22nd, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Hmmm. I agree with some of your observations. For example, I think it’s a bad idea to mix drinking alcohol with an asana practice. Just as it’s a bad idea to drink and drive. Or drink and operate heavy machinery. Or drink and do anything that requires physical/mental acuity.
But I disagree with some of your unsupported assertions. For example, you say that wine is a “toxin” and that it is a “poison.” Wine is no more inherently a poison or a toxin than, say, Vitamin A: both can do a lot of serious damage if consumed in excess. Granted, our bodies need vitamin A, and we don’t *need* wine, but just because we don’t need something doesn’t make it a poison (we don’t *need* olive oil, but it’s certainly not a poison). Moreover, empirical research has shown that a daily glass of wine can have demonstrable health benefits for some. And empirical research has also shown that a glass of wine actually does help some people sleep better.
Also, you seem to imply that people drink wine for the buzz. I think that many people, including myself, sometimes just have one glass of wine because we like the scent, the feel and taste of it in our mouths, or the way it makes chicken marsala possible.
My problem with the article was the way it trivialized yoga, turning it into an upscale, more refined version of adult-league kickball (except that it’s wine instead of beer that you throw down afterwards). While I’m not one to attach so much reverence to my yoga practice that I can’t have “fun” or laugh while I practice, I don’t think that yoga is something that you can just pair with a wine and mindlessly sell as if it were cheese.
Finally, I have a small quibble with you regarding “the point of yoga.” I think that “the point of yoga” is the uniting of existential self with the divine, universal self. As you point out, one way of pointing you in that direction is by cleansing the meridians. But cleansing meridians is not the goal. It’s one way towards a goal, and it’s not even the only way.
December 26th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
stoliyoga, you’re a bit off base by not recognizing alcohol as a toxin - it is indeed toxic to the body, and perhaps more deleterious than you have been led to believe. and while, yes, obscene amounts of a vitamin may cause you problems, your argument is a bit skewed, as you don’t take into account possible scenarios. for example, a friend of mine wasn’t killed behind the wheel of a car because she had too much vitamin a. And yeah, a glass a day won’t kill you either, and is probably beneficial. but to link the two together, as you do observe, as the article explains, is ridiculous.
December 29th, 2006 at 10:13 am
alright, stoli yogi, so granted, if the point of yoga is the uniting of the self with the divine, then don’t you think we had better have done the necessary groundwork first. i wish i had your optimism, but very very few people, if any, are ready on any given day to just dive into samadhi or anything even close. in our six-second soundbyte world, most of us can’t even concentrate on
one thing, much less unite the existential self with the divine. because, in all honesty, WE DON”T EVEN KNOW WHO WE ARE! it’s like tyler says, “celebrity magazines, somebody’s name on my underwear, rogaine, viagra, martha stewart”–this is our plaugue, our frankentstein. sad and strange to say, in our body image obesessed culture, we have gotten dangerously far away from our real bodies, to the point that they don’t even really work anymore.
while taco bell is urging us to pick up our “4th meal” between 11pm and 2am, we’ve got zelnorm for the inevitable “chronic” constipation, ambien, lunesta, and seconal for the insomnia, viagra and cialis for the ED (mostly caused by stress), zanax for the acid reflux, etc etc, and i’m not even going to go into anti-depresants. just the body, our mal-functioning bodies that, judging from the multi-billion dollar sales of these drugs, can’t even perform their basic functions. so we’ve got a legion of people out there who can’t eat when their hungry, sleep when their tired, shit, or fuck without a pill, and you don’t think that cleansing the body, the meridians, the nadis, FIRST isn’t all that important?! look around. for our culture, our time, cleansing the body IS the only way to make the “point” of yoga even a possibility.
arguably the greatest yoga teacher of modernity, BKS iyengar has come unfer fire for saying exactly this. in “light on life” he writes, “THERE CAN BE NO REALIZIATION OF EXISTENTIAL DIVINE BLISS WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF THE SOUL’S INCARNATE VEHICLE, THE FOOD-AND-WATER FED BODY, FROM BONE TO BRAIN.” so before we can begin our journey to the center of our being, to the liberation of our true selves, we have to start at the periphery, whith what we can see and feel and touch. in the sutras, patanjali defines asana as “perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirt.” so again, firmness and steadiness in body and mind come first. the last time i had a few glasses of wine, i can tell you that firmness and steadiness were not what i felt.
my differences with stoliyogi’s thoughts aside, i have my own problems with the pairing yoga-with-wine thing.
when i read the article on wine-and-yogi retreats, i instantly pictured some late-twenty, early-thirty-something girl with a jennifer-aniston-clone haircut and highlights shrieking into her candy cell phone that she just took out of her ridiculously expensive mini kate spade or coach or LV mini-purse . . .”ok, so, like, oh my god, so, like, that yoga studio i go to? is having this, like, yoga with wine, thing, . . .yeah, well, like a class, but, like, a wine-tasting too. so, yeah, like i have to go to lululemon and get an outfit fot it . . .blah blah, ” if you’v ever seen the saturday night live skit ‘Two A-holes and a . . .” you get the idea. a knee-jerk reaction, i know. very un-compassionate of me. but i live in clarendon, and this rather harshly sketched image is pulled straight from a reality I observe daily. it’s like yogi beer says, stupid white people will pay for anything.
so if stupid white people are buying, what exactly are the purveyors of these wine and yoga retreats selling? what they are selling, shamelessly, openly, is the arbitrary american notion that yoga is fun. of course i wasn’t at all surprised to see that the name of the studio mentioned in the article was “Bliss Flow”. don’t think, don’t be, don’t expand, don’t work, just do this down-dog, chatturanga, up-dog, warrior pose sequence 20 times in a row to experience bliss. this is what the tradition, the philosophy, the art and science of yoga has become in yoga-for-sale market: a cute, fun-filled world of butterflies and daisies, and ridiculous books with titles like “the hip chick’s guide to everything ‘om’” and chocolate and wine. krishnamacharaya is rolling in the ganges, poor guy. SINCE WHEN IS YOGA SUPPOSED TO BE FUN?????????!!!!!
when you practuce yoga, you are setting in motion a process to de-condition your mind, to break free of old patterns, to strip away the murky layers of all your issues and defense mechanisms and delusions to see yourself as you are, to be on the path toward moksha–personal liberation, freedom. this is not easy. it’s more like peeling an onion–you go layer by layer and cry the whole time. we’ve all spent a lifetime so far making pets out of our inner demons, they aren’t just going to leave us quietly. this is why the bhagavad gita opens as a battle. it is a metaphor for the battle we must wage with our illusions, the parts of ourselves that do not serve us–all to hopefully come to the realization that the under all the shit we hide behind, there is a beautiful soul, a divine soul.
yoga is a discipline. it requires practice. it requires work. it requires that you listen to and respect your teacher. before i began practicing yoga, i studies and practiced martial arts for about 10 years. my first experience was with a school that was fairly traditional, but had that “fun” element. the second school i trained at (in hapkido) was very different. all old-school korean masters. they spoke little english, but made sure you understood them. when we kneeled in the brief meditation before practice, no one moved, no one coughed, the synergy was palpable. it was from these masters that i learned the difference between the Eastern student-teacher relationship and the Western.
in the East, a student comes to the teacher for the privlege to learn. in the West, the student comes to the teacher expecting to be taught.
my most recent experience in martial arts was in Brazilian jiu-jitsu with the late great Carlson Gracie Sr. talk about a privlege and an honor to be a student. i started teaching myself yoga from books to try to heal my myriad of martial arts injuries. so when i first started coming to classes, i was shocked at the the whole lackadaisical approach i experienced with many teachers and students. “just honor yourself” seemed to be a catchphrase.” so i dug in. read iyengar, the sutras, krishnamurti, the gita, no bullshit. found some good teachers who taught with reverence and walked the talk and did everything they said. no wine.
now i teach yoga. still, no wine. and yes, i am known to crack a joke here and there, but i never lose sight of my belief that yoga is about self liberation. and i challenge students to keep that in mind as well. i enjoy yoga, not because it is “fun” but because it brings me moments of pure joy. joy manifested in the physical body, a body that has worked hard, done the groundwork, a body that has, in brief but unforgetaable moments, felt some spark of what iyengar and patanjali are talking about. and i’ll take those moments of joy over all the fun in the world.
December 29th, 2006 at 10:34 am
[…] i was driving back from vacation in upstate new york last night and i thought it was a joke. i’d been on 15 north most of the time; it’s a road that takes you through neighborhoods, strip malls, and, the other half of the time, a pseudo-highway. i quite like it, because most of the time it feels homey. it was late, around 11 pm, by the time i hit I-270. all of a sudden, as though a switch had been turned on, every car on the road was hurtling past me at 20 miles over the speed limit. i was already speeding — my self-justified, cop-friendly, nine-miles-an-hour-in-excess — so i, too, was one of these speeders. but as perhaps is the underlying debate on drunk yoga, it seemed a matter of degrees. we were all still going very fast, and as we all know high speeds in any car at any time are dangerous, but the shock of being passed by court-worthy speeders was an interesting experience. […]
January 5th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I’ve read your postings and I think it’s a fascinating topic. I came across the blog posting while searching for what people who are looking for the deeper spiritual roots of yoga are reading, watching, listening to, and though I am encouraged by the presence of folks who are interested in yoga as a spiritual practice (that I agree is more often challenging and rewarding than pretty and fun), it’s things like the yoga-and-wine retreat that, to me, display the darker side of (north) american culture relentlessly commercializing yoga to the point of its extreme comprimise. That, I find disheartening.
I also don’t think that someone taking a drink is anti-yogic. I am familiar with people of many different spiritual paths who will savour a fine wine, or drink a beer, etc. (and indeed some renouned teachers have reputedly been alcoholics, even). But I have also personally noted that the effects of even a glass of wine when my body and mind are in a particularly pure (for me - and I’m not usually that pure) state, are an increase of negative thoughts, sluggishness and a certain irritability.
It makes the idea of a yoga-and-wine retreat somehow ridiculous. I guess I am not of the target market.
January 29th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Just thought I would respond to some of these posts….since I am one of the co-creators of the Yoga and Wine concept. I think that yoga can be different things to different people. It is a long, large tradition that has plenty of room in it for lots of different spiritual needs and journeys. This concept was not something that came out of the need to market or sell something new or trendy. It came out of a deeply held belief that as a culture we have lost our respect and reverence for the food that we put into our body. I come from a Sicilian family and we have wine on our table at night with dinner. I was taught to respect the labor and love that went into creating it, not to villainize it as a toxin. Anything can be toxic if used to excess, just as we can find a healthy moderate place for anything we love in our lives. It is part of a lot of people’s traditions and lives. I think that so long as we mindfully have a glass with food and savor and appreciate every sip, it can be an exercise in mindfulness meditation.
I do not drink wine with the intention of getting drunk. I also do not believe or condone drinking to excess or driving after drinking. Our retreats were not, and will never be about getting drunk. They are about the sense of community that comes from practicing yoga and then ‘breaking bread’ together afterwards. They are about stepping into a vineyard and appreciate the earth, sun, labor and love that goes into creating each glass of wine.
For the record, I do not drink wine before a yoga practice nor do I condone it, as it would make it very difficult to practice. I would never recommend that my students do so as it could open them up to injury. Instead, I taste after class and use my yoga practice as a way to heighten my awareness of all of the little joys that life has to offer off of the yoga mat. We all know that feeling that you get after a yoga class, as if your senses are more highly attuned and open.
If that doesn’t interest you than that is ok too…but I really believe that there is room within the world of yoga for lots of different styles and beliefs. And in response to Tyler’s comments about the name of my studio, Bliss Flow Yoga. I named it that because I believe that yoga is blissful, joyous, beautiful, disciplined, spiritualy awakening, transformative….and oh yes, fun! And for the record, I don’t think it makes me less ‘yogic’ or less ’spiritual than you. Even if I do wear lululemon and own a cell phone. Even if I don’t fit into your idea of what a yoga practitioner should be. Our spiritual journey as teachers is to let go of judgement and accept, with compassion and love, that everyone who steps on to a yoga mat belongs there.
I am glad that this article sparked a discussion…wishing you all the bliss that your heart can hold. Namaste!
Angela
January 29th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
this is beautiful, angela. thank you! this is indeed a very important discussion and debate to have. I was just thinking today, on listening to Doug Brook’s cd on the origins of yoga (have you heard of it? I highly recommend) that the defintion of yoga is changing rapidly in our society today because of its myriad ways of rediscovering the same-ness that exists between self and Self. the part of this science that is hatha yoga is only part of the discussion.
so glad you wrote!