Toronto yogahappening yogis making crow not war

Community yoga is booming! Free, by-donation and cheap classes are making the way into the schedules of most yoga studios, if not making up the entire schedule of many studios.

There’s a lot of bad news these days that we are collectively trying to come to terms with and figure out how to live with and live better so we don’t continue to cause so many disasters (oy humanity… why?), and we as a species and as residents of Planet Earth need contemplative practices more than ever.

So that’s why I’m just so pleased to see trends like community yoga (still missing a wiki entry, if any of you want to get on that… but hereby defined as yoga classes for the community at community prices, sliding scale from free to by donation to under $10) and yogahappenings growing and so quickly becoming important parts of many peoples practice.

Here in Portland I’ve started a site for a schedule of community classes around town (soon to also include free and by-donation meditation classes), and there are similar schedules for the Bay Area, and Chicago that I’ve found, and I’m sure many other places too. It’s my hope that maybe we can all link up and form a nation-wide (world-wide?) network for community yoga. That’s union!

The World Food Program is sending out all available resources to bring nourishment to the people of Haiti after the devastation of a massive 7.0 earthquake on January 12th.

Haiti is a place that is described as “hell on earth on a good day”. In the last decade this island has endured a political coup, mass social instability and a rash of kidnappings and murders as well numerous natural disasters including several storms in 2008 that destroyed over 70% of Haiti’s agriculture and most of its roads, bridges and infrastructure, creating severe malnutrition and hunger throughout the island.

Haiti is one of the world’s most impoverished countries with 80% of the population living below poverty line. According to the WFP Haiti’s hunger index was already “alarming” before the earthquake.

A list of organizations accepting donations is here.

I have been so impressed by the yoga community here in Portland and elsewhere coming together to raise funds to assist our human family in Haiti. I’ll be teaching 4 classes in the next 2 weeks here in Portland to raise money for Mercy Corps Haitian Relief Fund. If you know of classes or other benefits going on in your area I’d be happy to post them here on the blog and on FTY Facebook.