Women-Only Yoga classes? When this makes sense

Yoga for women only: when is this right?

The strength of the Yoga community is its ability to be open and inclusive, promote open mindedness, self-transformation and general understanding. So how, then, could Yoga classes exclusive to one group be justified? In particular, we’re talking Yoga classes just for women.

The discussion almost seems like overkill, since most Yoga classes have a female-to-male ratio of at least four to one. But maybe that’s because Yoga simply appeals naturally to women and its nature has to be learned by most men, just as female fans of American football may need a little exposure to before they become interested in it.

Yoga classes have become of place where women transform their lives, learn to love themselves as they are and empower themselves for the long term. This fact is quite crucial to societal transformation when we consider how many women have been abused and need a safe place to start rebuilding their lives. 

That's why Sumora, a 20-year veteran Kundalini Yoga teacher says some Yoga classes should be offered exclusively for women. 

Yoga Instructor Sumora of Massachusetts

"I think it's great that there are men who wish to practice yoga.  I wish I knew more than the one I know.  :-)   I know that there are those that disagree, but I believe there should be yoga centers that are women-exclusive.  Many women are survivors of abuse.  They have no desire to exercise or practice yoga in the presence of men.  These needs must be addressed and women-only studios is the way to go."

-Susan Sumora Morgaine Stanley, professional Kundalini Yoga Instructor

Sumora is an active feminist as well. Click to read all of Sumora's recent interview that included her above statement.

Colorado Yoga instructor Vincent Gerbino

As a male Yoga teacher, I agree with Sumora that women-only classes have their place. Who knows, maybe someday, there will be enough male interest in Yoga to have men's Yoga classes may also be discussed. 

Controversy has always surrounded gender-exclusive fitness programs. Technically, gender discrimination is never permitted. Private studios may request that gender boundaries by voluntarily respected, but this may be the extent of what is permitted. The fitness industry has always faced this challenge.

The Radical Optimist Guru Speaks From Her Mat and Beyond

"Connect with Your Inner Awesome" instructions from a Radical Optimist Guru

Sarah Lowenstein is many things.  

She is, professionally, A Yoga Instructor and a meditation teacher. She's also very active in Denver's feminist community and is a strong supporter of veganism and for working to end cruelty to animals.

A unique statement about herself: she calls herself a "Radical Optimist"

Today, Sarah speaks to us about her experiences in life-she rarely ever went barefoot before she began practicing Yoga. It's funny how Yoga and going barefoot share the strength of creating peaceful empowerment. 

*Some material has been edited for length. View the unabridged interview on Gaia Yoga of Colorado's blog.

1. How has Yoga empowered you as a woman? 

First and foremost, yoga has taught me how to really reconnect with my body. As women, our society encourages us to have a disconnect from what it feels like to fully occupy our WHOLE body – we nit-pick specific parts of our bodies we like or don’t like, disassociating with its sensations of pain or pleasure. Yoga invites us to go within and occupy the WHOLE body (engaging the toes as your belly draws in and your fingertips extend outward). On the mat is a time to practice this embodied wholeness, embracing whatever sensations arise without the need to disconnect. I love that.

The feet of Sarah, Radical Optimist Guru in sandals

2. Before you began doing Yoga, did you go barefoot very often? 

Not very often. When I danced, as a child with Cleo Parker Robinson’s dance company, being barefoot was the expectation, but once I took other forms of dance, we put shoes on and I lost that connection. It wasn’t until I had a stronger yoga practice in my late teens that I began to fully appreciate my full foot on the earth and spreading my toes wide. I learned from the amazing teacher, Rainbeau Mars to fully love my body, from my toes to my head. Yogi toes are BEAUTIFUL! Now it’s hard to keep my shoes on most days! 

The Teacher at Work-Sarah assists a student in a special a pose modification for mobility development

3. When did you start practicing Yoga?

I began practicing yoga, on a small scale with my step-Grandmother and younger cousin when I was about 12 years old in their house. We would perform a few poses and that would be it. I practiced initially at home, trying some pretzel yoga (pushing and twisting my body to look like the pictures I saw) with no awareness of how it felt or who I was when I got into the poses. After a while, my practice began to deepen – my physical poses were a mirror for who I was off the mat (emotionally, physically and spiritually). I wanted to know more and that’s when I decided I wanted to learn how to teach others and share what I had discovered. I completed my 200 Hour Yoga teacher Training at Shoshoni Yoga Retreat center in Rollinsville, CO in July 2007; living at the ashram for almost 3 weeks straight. I learned a lot about myself, about yoga and it fueled me to unveil more about yoga.

4. What made you decide to teach it? 

I really wanted (and still do) want to share the profound and deep teachings yoga has to offer beyond the physical practice. I graduated from college getting my BA in Psychology and minored in Religious Studies where I learned more of the academic perspective on healing. After that, I spent many years exploring different forms of yoga, to delve into the varied perspectives this profound practice offered and I’m still learning more every day. Yoga has offered me this integration of so many of my passions (music, dance, humor, mythology, Buddhism, Psychology, art, creativity and introspection) that I am passionate about sharing each week with my students. I am so inspired by so many varying forms of creativity and love to bring them to the table to help students make connections to life in a deeper way. I love helping others find their unique voice, connect with their bodies and become who they really are from the inside out! I am very excited to be currently working on my 500 Hour Teacher Training with the amazing Shannon Paige.

5. As a Yoga teacher, you’re a woman who not only has the power of authority also the ability to empower others. What’s one way you encourage your students to empower themselves? 

I love to integrate dance breaks into my classes. Yoga asana practice can become very bogged down in precision (which it should, to prevent injury) but sometimes we need to shake it off and just let it go. Dancing like no one is watching with a group of strangers or even friends can be so liberating! It gets us in touch with our bodies, own unique rhythms and creativity to learn to connect with this on and off that mat is incredibly empowering!


6. What’s an empowering message you would offer to women and girls? 

Be yourself. Connect with your innate intelligence, creativity and beauty at least once a day. Speak your truth. Stop chasing skinny and instead chase good health. Empower other women and see them as your sisters rather than your competitors. Celebrate your body and encourage the women and girls around you to do the same. Trust yourself. Connect with your inner awesome. Trust me it’s there, you just need to find it! And finally, if you fail or you fall, dust yourself off and get back up again!

7. The Yoga community has also been very welcoming to men. How can we continue to make sure that the Yoga community remains a place where women can empower themselves and have it still be as open as it is today? 

I think we as a society in general need to empower ourselves and others and encourage all genders, abilities and means to join the community. I think yoga, of late, has easily gone down a path to be accessible for only wealthy people who tend to be white. It can be discouraging for anyone outside of that bubble to feel welcome such as people with less expendable incomes, people of color, people with varying abilities and body sizes and the LGBTIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and asexual)community.

I think it is our job as yoga teachers and practitioners to open that door WIDE open and invite everyone in, not just the privileged few who can afford to go to a weekly class. I am very encouraged by organizations like Denver Yoga Co-Op whose mission is to offer yoga to everyone, regardless of financial means or abilities. When we open that door, we invite others to feel empowered and thus, we feel empowered by them – it’s a beautiful cyclical relationship that benefits everyone!

8. Add something else that is your unique thought on this discussion…… 
Yoga is a mirror for who we are off the mat. It is our opportunity to practice and discover who we REALLY are, in a safe environment. We can fall, we can begin again, we can laugh, we can cry, we bring our whole self to the mat. We can open the door to that darkness within ourselves, that which we refuse to look at, shine a light on it and give it space to open up and teach us more about ourselves. Because whatever we deny or refuse to look at will continue to follow us around. So instead, invite it in, as an honored guest of your conscious, say hello, listen and encourage yourself to embrace this darkness within – ultimately transforming our wounds into wisdom.

As one of the teachers I admire, Douglas Brooks has said, “inhabit all of yourself, not just the parts you like.” Thank you for your time. It has been an honor to speak about my passion with you! 

You can learn more about Sarah on website: www.sarahlowensteinyoga.com

Thank you, Sarah!

**All photos of Sarah Lowenstein used with permission

Blessings

Living in the moment

Our busy lives can give us tunnel vision.  We forget about history and repeat past mistakes.  We neglect to think of how what we do now will affect the future.  

It's funny how this total disconnection with the past and future really turned off our metal senses in the present tense. 

Yoga does an excellent job of slowing down our psyche and calming our minds. Even if we cant go to some pretty place to do asana, we can take a Yoga break whenever we have five minutes and the room the do a few poses.

Take a Yoga five or ten-minute break once during your work day 

Focus only on what your doing during that short break-just the motion of the pose and your breath. 

In your Yoga practice, try to live IN the moment, not FOR the moment. 

A Yoga practice means all things, and all moments, are connected. Living IN the moment means loosening the connections between past, present and future, enough so that the present can be appreciated for what it is.

Best Yoga Mat Bag!

The Best Yoga Mat Bag...hands down!

In general I hate Yoga mat bags, It’s not so much the bag but the cramming of the mat into one end of the bag, and having to re-roll it three times to get it right and having it snag the next time I take it out.

• What if there was a mat bag that zipped lengthwise? 
• What if it was one you could wash?
•  What if it was made in the USA instead of some overseas sweatshop?
• Could this actually happen?
• Well, yes, it finally has!

   

Finally, a Yoga mat bag that honestly IS convenient!

The 101 Yoga Mat Bag has been brought to us by the “Apron Babe”, a woman who owns the corresponding business the Apron Shop in New York.

They’re American-made! Apron Shop’s bags are made in the USA- high style with a conscience! That’s living your Yoga practice!

These bags are made of heavy canvas cotton with a no-rust zipper so you can wash them; and they hold oversize mats quite well.

You carry them over your shoulder or on your back and you just zip to get your mat in and out without disturbing your flow.

After all, you do Yoga so you can feel alive, awake and vibrant. So your mat bag shouldn't break your positive flow.

Yoga Empowers Women-a perspective

Yogini Paula Van Alstine in Eka Pada Sirsasana.   Photo by Liesl Clark of Claris Photography


"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
- T.S. Eliot

Thank you for stopping by to read!

Paula had more to say just before her recent photo op that includes this picture.

A powerful woman is many things, and Paula reminds all of us that true power is defined as the freedom from the need for power. 

Paula Van Alstine is a feminist and a woman who is in charge of her own life, with a meaningful career and two children she is raising as a single mom.  She manages a successful career in Yoga and is an inspiration to many.

Paula has seen a lot of reality and knows what she's talking about. She tells us this:

Want to feel more powerful? Practice kindness and
forgiveness. According to some wonderfully wise Sages
when you practice Ahimsa (non-harming) you become kind,
confident, grounded and amazingly powerful...try it on, see how it looks.

and she also said this.....................

So are you a role model or a troll model? Do you walk it or just talk it, represent it or you watch as u sit...take the first step, then keep going- you will amaze yourself to find what you are capable of. Love all because you can. Peace in, peace out!

Read more about Paula: Click here

Front and Center-Paula Van Alstine demos a difficult Yoga pose with grace and agility. 

FRONT AND CENTER

with Yogini Paula Van Alstine

Yoga is an incredibly empowering barefoot activity.

It’s one of the few formal athletic disciplines in the West that is done barefoot. We continue to explore how such a quiet and unorthodox activity has given positive energy to so many people. Yoga in the West is practiced mostly by women. Almost Barefoot explores the journey of women today and how Yoga has helped them become empowered.

Yoga Teacher Paula Van Alstine spoke to us this week to give us some perspective. This is contribution is part of an ongoing series called Barefoot and Powerful, where we explore how being barefoot on a Yoga mat is empowering to women.

Paula has been practicing Yoga for over 20 years, and she has been a dancer for even longer. She lives her Yoga practice to the fullest and has been sharing her wealth of knowledge as a Yoga teacher and for many, a spiritual leader for well over a decade. To everyone who knows her, she is both ordinary and extraordinary, and that helps make her an inspiration. She teaches Yoga and fitness classes in Southern New Hampshire.

Paula shares her story about Yoga, barefoot perspectives and life with Almost Barefoot 

AB:  How has Yoga empowered you as a woman?

Paula: Yoga has so many amazing benefits, one is learning to be comfortable with who you are. When you realize that we, everyone, are miracles, wonderful beings on this earth, and we are all filled with beauty, light and wisdom we become authentic. We let go of "shoulds" and "coulds" and listen to our heart and gut...this to me is empowering. Learning to listen to your heart, and not to media~which can be so violent to a person on how we should look, or be or how we should act...no. We let go of all that and just live authentically.

Barefoot biking in summer

AB: Before you began doing Yoga, did you go barefoot very often? 

Paula: YES!!!! I love going barefoot, and cannot wait until the warm weather to do so. Barefoot in the grass, on the sand, even in the mud...ahh the feeling of opening up your feet, spreading your toes and feeling connected to earth...absolutely...

AB:  When did you start practicing Yoga?

Paula: I started practicing yoga my freshman year of college...back in 1992. We used sun salutations to warm up for hours of dancing. I felt yoga was just an extension of dance...in a way it is my dancing outlet now. 

Paula poses in Vrksasana-Tree Pose

AB: What made you decide to teach Yoga?

Paula: I graduated college and was teaching kindergarten and taking yoga classes. I am such an emotional being, and parents would come in sometimes and be on the verbal attack if their child fell or got in trouble in some way. I would go home crying...My partner at the time looked at me one night and said you don't make enough money to be crying all the time, why don't you do something you love doing...so before he knew it I was off for my month long training at beautiful Kripalu in the Berkshires. I followed my heart and never looked back. I fall in love with yoga a million times over, and my happiest times are when I am teaching.

AB: As a Yoga teacher, you’re a woman who not only has the power of authority also the ability to empower others. What’s one way you encourage your students to empower themselves?

Paula:  I try to help my students let go of the chitta vrittis, to listen to their bodies...if only for the 75 minutes that I have them. If we can control our thoughts we can begin to have more control over our lives...I can sit here and discuss how amazing it is to have students to their first headstand etc but in order to do that we still need to still the mind, let go of fears that are by monkey mind so yes, I feel the best way to be empowered is to control what we are thinking.

Barefoot and Powerful, Paula shooting skeet

AB: What’s an empowering message you would offer to women and girls? 

Paula: You are beautiful and strong and unique right now, in this moment. Never compare yourself to others, how can you? No one is exactly like, it's like comparing grapes to strawberries, they are all yummy and juicy...hahaha, and so are we!

Barefoot and chillin' 

AB: The Yoga community has also been very welcoming to men. How can we continue to make sure that the Yoga community remains a place where women can empower themselves and have it still be as open as it is today? 

Paula: Hmmm...I would like to see more men doing yoga. I mean, I have a handful of male yogis, but at most they only make up less than 25% of my classes. But with that said, I think the worst thing the yoga community can do is not represent all levels, shapes and sizes of yogis. This is a practice that is gentle on the mind, we are not on our mats because we feel we ate to much and need to loose 10 pounds, or because we hate our bodies. 

We are there to stretch,and strengthen and align our bodies so we feel comfortable in our skin. Yoga is about loving and embracing who you are, doing what you can do, and feeling good about it. 

As a mom of a young daughter I am so aware of all these crazy images of how women are supposed to be. I want all that to stay of the yoga world. All bodies, all shapes, ages, sizes, colors...yoga is for all and all is beautiful. 

AB: Add something else that is your unique thought on this discussion…… 

Paula: Without yoga I wouldn't be where I am today. I am a single mom raising two children and thank yoga for keeping me grounded and focused and strong! My priorities are taking care of myself so I can take care of my kids...yoga keeps me healthy, strong and clear minded. I know what is important, my family, friends, my yoga career ~ and I believe everything else will fall into place. I am not confused or beaten down by the things that have happened in my life, sadly I see many women going through divorce etc who are grasping whatever they can and being exhausted and overwhelmed. I think, if I didn't have yoga I would be right there with them. Instead I feel strong enough to stand alone, find my place on this earth and do my best. My children, the most important aspect of my life, are proud of their momma, and I thank yoga for it.

Paula's most-awesome new tattoo! We didn't even know she was getting this when we did the  interview!

Thank you, Paula!

Blessings!

Vegan Detox Doesn't Need to Be Boring!

Vegan Detox doesn't need to be boring!

All it takes is good, organic vegan food and a bit of self discipline. Yoga helps a lot with getting through it and staying clean after!

Learn more! Click here now!

Gluten-free grains, beans, nut and seeds can all be eaten during a vegan detox. 

Organic Fruits and Vegetables are the main ingredients in a vegan detox.