Is Yoga "Rad?"

The word radical has connotations of far-reaching and extreme, but it's also a wonderful word that means excellent, cool, and awesome. I think yoga is so vast that it really can hold the weight of both meanings.

Growing up in the mid-1980's, the latter definition was in vogue. Everything that was new, was "rad."  I had no idea about yoga back then because north OC was quite a homogenous area lacking in diversity, but I always felt drawn to learn about other cultures, religions, and alternative lifestyles. 

By my mid-twenties, I had stumbled upon Buddhism and the eastern philosophy and practice of yoga, which contradicted its growing popularity as a strong physical exercise. What I had read about yoga as a spiritual path, a sort of radical departure from mainstream society, didn't align with what I had experienced at the local hot yoga center. 

That's when I went looking for true yoga teachers. (Shout outs to my first "rad" yoga teachers, Juris Zinbergs, Dianne Harman, and Heidi Kuyper who taught me the value of the teacher-student relationship and the yoga of a householder in a modern world.)  

By the early 2000's, yoga had lost much of its connection to meditation and spirituality, taking root in the gyms and fitness centers. It took me a lot of independent research to find teachers who were a little "out there," who practiced and taught a broader range of yogic practices and embraced holistic therapies. Over time I adopted a regular meditation practice, learned some chanting in Japanese and Sanskrit, and learned how to play crystal bowls, also known as vibrational healing instruments, which we have in the studio.

Did you know that one of the original yogic practices of chanting "OM" and other mantras have been repackaged for western audiences? The surging popularity of sound baths (i.e. crystal bowl vibrational healing) came about because Americans didn't like chanting. The original "sound bath" used to be a room full of people harmonizing the sound "Ooommm" over and over again. People wanted the healing vibrations without having to make the sounds themselves, presumably because 1.) they were insecure about making the sound, and 2.) people felt chanting "OM" or other mantras was "too radical" and were concerned about conflict with their religious views, so they stopped coming to teachers' classes that did any chanting.

Enter the "Sound Bath:" open access, harmonious vibrational healing classes that are seamlessly integrated into any yoga or meditation class or healing session.

So, that's why most yoga studios, including ours, have a set of crystal bowls. Folks can still enJOY the benefits of chakra balancing and deep relaxation with no conflict. I still enJOY chanting on occasion, but what began as a so-called "radical" practice evolved into something that is kinda cool. Kinda awesome. And people LOVE IT!

Now isn't that kinda rad? 

~Kristen