People begin or continue to practice Yoga for a variety of reasons, some of which include recovery from an injury or illness, surviving cancer or recovery from addictions. YogaVibes, an online site for Yoga video classes and educational material, launched in August, 2009, houses RecoveryVibe, specifically addressing this issue. YogaVibes founder and visionkeeper Brian Ratté describes the site as an aggregator, hosting video content from studios and teachers across the country who would not otherwise have the technology and platform to broadcast their expertise around the world. To accomplish this, YogaVibes has a network of people filming in different locations.
Giving back and creating partnerships is an important part of the model, according to Ratté. In addition to working with studios, YogaVibes donates five percent of all classes purchased to three nonprofits: yogaHope, Street Yoga and Yoga Bear. Some of the SoCal studios and teachers YogaVibes offers on their website include Gary and Melissa Margolin at Home Simply Yoga (who offer instruction in Ashtanga and information on Yoga for addiction recovery), Kimberly Fowler at YAS, Elinore Cohen, Kathyrn Budig, Joan Hyman and Laura Schneider. Additionally, YogaVibes is launching Exhale Spa’s online Core Fusion Program and in RecoveryVibe, Yoga teacher and breast cancer survivor Katheryn Harlan offers a practice and instructional material based on classes she developed and teaches to cancer patients and survivors at a hospital in Hickory, North Carolina.
RecoveryVibe has been important to Ratté from the site’s conception. When he first started practicing Yoga, Ratté picked up a copy of Rolf Gates’ book, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, wherein Gates talks about his own recovery from addictions. Something spoke to Ratté in the story, and an email correspondence and friendship ensued. According to Gates, many people are in recovery from something and practicing Yoga can be the beginning of opening up to surrender from anything that has a grip on us, whatever that may be. “I started seeing parallels in my own life,” says Ratté; this inspired his commitment to hosting material so people in recovery (no matter what they’re recovering from) can access Yoga and the internal peacefulness it has the potential to inspire.
yogaHOPE helps establish rehabilitative Yoga programs in residential facilities for homeless women, domestic violence victims and women in substance abuse recovery: yogaHOPE.org.
Street Yoga gives youth and their caregivers the tools to overcome early life trauma by sharing mindfulness and wellness practices grounded in Yoga: streetyoga.org.
Yoga Bear offers free Yoga classes in a wide variety of locations to people surviving cancer as well as an online resource for people to learn more about Yoga and their specific condition and a forum for people to share their experiences: yogabear.org.
Yoga Vibes can be found at: yogavibes.com.
Yogapalooza
On the days of Yogapalooza, Sunday, June 6, YogaVibes will be donating all of the proceeds to Yoga Bear. This is not limited to classes specifically designed for people recovering from cancer, but includes any classes purchased, an effort that helps Yogapalooza become an international event. For more information about Yogapalooza or Yoga Bear, visit: To participate online, visit: yogavibes.com.
Yoga and Addiction Recovery
Rolf Gates, featured on YogaVibes, and an inspiration for YogaVibes founder Brian Ratté, will be one of the teachers featured at the Esalen Institute’s first Yoga and Addiction Recovery: A Celebration of Healing, scheduled for November 7 – 12. Rolf Gates will be joined by Nikki Myers, Vinnie Marino, Carrie Coppola and Kevin Griffin. esalen.org.
Affirmation cards by.Karen Harte.
Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.