The Yoga Podcast

Joy Marzec is a movie writer, producer, director, a music band member, an idea machine, a complete choose yourself case (she invested what she would have paid in film school into making her own films), OH AND...

A yogi practicing the fourth series of Ashtanga Yoga (which in plain terms means something like winning an olympic gold medal three times, not that asana should EVER be on the olympics... But just to give you an idea)

If you cannot see the episode photo with the big play button click here to listen, or play in I-Tunes or Stitcher

For the full post and all info click here

Laruga Glaser couldn't help but being a yoga teacher... It kept calling her, even when she was kicked out of a yoga teacher training!

Even though she experienced hardships growing up, meaning abuse, which I can relate to, she learned through yoga to transcend and heal.

I was taken by her presence and her pace. She exudes stillness, and she is very friendly.

As a teacher she has a heavy international traveling schedule as well as a Mysore program she runs daily in Stockholm.

I also appreciated how she helps us all give ourselves a break when she says (talking about the brutal winters in the Northern hemisphere)...

I do feel it is important to be sensitive to the seasonal shifts and adjust the rhythm of one’s practice during these times of external extremes, instead of trying to force the same pacing month after month

• How she grew up in the United States and stepped into yoga by "chance"
• How Ashtanga picked her curiosity at a very young age
• The role abuse played in her life as she developed into her own
• How teaching came to her
• How she met her boyfriend in Mysore exactly four months before I met James!
• Her daily routine (she wakes up at 2:45 AM people!)
• How she teaches and what her schedule is like
• How she manages her energy
• The one thing that took Laruga a LONG time to understand...

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Claudia A. Altucher: Let me ask you something. It’s 4:00 PM in Stockholm, so I’m wondering: what did you do today?

Laruga Glaser: Oh, okay. Well –

[Laughter]

Yeah, my usual schedule is – I’ll – first thing in the morning, I practice – I’ll do my practice, which is quite early.

Claudia A. Altucher: What is “quite early”?

Laruga Glaser: My alarm come – goes off at around 2:45 AM.

Claudia A. Altucher: Oh, my goodness.

Laruga Glaser: So – but that doesn’t mean that I necessarily get up right away. It depends on – sometimes I hit “snooze” a few times to be perfectly honest.

Claudia A. Altucher: Well, you’re very allowed. Anyone who puts the clock at 2:45 AM is allowed to “snooze it” in my world.

Laruga Glaser: Yeah, sometimes I need a little bit of a buffer. Sometimes I do pop out of bed right away, but sometimes I’ll – you know, it’s a good way for me to kind of segue myself out of bed.

Claudia A. Altucher: So what time do you go to bed then?

Laruga Glaser: In a perfect world: 8:00 PM. That doesn’t always happen. Usually, I really start winding down between 8:00 PM or 9:00 PM, but the best time for me to be in bed is before 8:30 PM, really.

Claudia A. Altucher: Yeah, you need that. For me, too, only I don’t wake up that early. That’s very impressive to me.

Laruga Glaser: Yeah, yeah, that’s important.

[Laughter]

So –

Claudia A. Altucher: And then what did you do?

Laruga Glaser: Then – so I’ll do my practice, then it’s like I have to, very quickly, kind of shower and get ready to head to the studio to teach. So my commute isn’t too bad – it’s about, from door-to-door, it’s maybe about 20 minutes?

Claudia A. Altucher: Do you go by train, I guess? Or –

Laruga Glaser: Yeah. Twenty – twenty-five minutes, really, actually. So, yeah, I catch a train into the city center and make my way to Yogayama to teach. So I start around – a little after 6:30AM is when I start teaching. So my boyfriend leaves, actually, earlier to open the doors; he opens the doors at the studio at 6:00 AM. So some students lik...

I had to go. Badly. But one of my three roommates was taking a luxury long shower in the only bathroom. What to do?! No oh no! The thought crossed my mind...

Use the Indian bathroom? Me?

None of the four of us sub-leasing that house in Mysore, South India circa 2008 had yet opened THAT door.

None of us had dared step into the vortex of how two thirds of the world do their business.

But I had to. What was the alternative?

So I did.

I opened the door.... Slowly. Would the walls be splashed? Would there be water in the pot next to it? Would it even be clean? Would I fall into an infinite tunnel of shit?

No. Phew! Very clean.

I went outside to refill the pot with clean water, grabbed some extra toilette paper, closed the door, and did what I had to do.

Wait. What is this?

Fascinating!

Even though it was uncomfortable, everything was easy... It almost felt... Hm, what is the word? NATURAL, human, normal. DIFFERENT.

Imagine my delight when I saw the episode of Shark Tank in which Bobby and Judy presented what they have come to call "Squatty-Potty" a company that created a stool so we can, IN THE WEST, squat easily...

Here is the episode which is fun to watch

Because I have this habit of calling anyone who helps me evacuate my intestines better I picked up the phone and gave Bobby and Judy a call and they agreed to go on the podcast that I do with lovely husband, "Ask Altucher".

The four of us had a lot to talk about. Almost every illness out there starts in the intestines.

Bobby shipped me two Squatty-Potties ahead of the podcast recording so I could try it myself, and I have to tell you, I noticed a few things right away...

If you get put off by talk of how the body works, maybe skip these points...

As a yogi, I am fascinated by this type of things

1) It works JUST like the Indian toilette, only it is EASIER because my muscles don't have to hold me in position, my legs simply raise to the occasion

2) It works. It is the right position in which to do "our business"

3) This is only for women... I know... But I noticed that I was able to empty my bladder to an extent I had never done before... I mean, it kept going and going... Like the pink bunny

I will let you hear the episode and I hope you try it...

I had a chance to record this episode "live". And what a difference it makes!

You can listen on Stitcher - I-Tunes - Lybsin or click here if you are not sure

Kino is one of those teachers that barely needs introduction because she is super famous, he has a quarter million subscribers to her YouTube channel, 679,000 followers on Instagram, 43,000 followers on Twitter and another quarter million (almost) Facebook likes to her page.

She has also been on the cover of Yoga Journal many times.

She is one of those very rare teachers who has gone very deep down the asana route, currently learning the 5th series of Ashtanga Yoga which is the equivalent of performing an athletic feast worth of many gold medals in the olympics, and she is a pleasure to talk to.

Reading her book "Sacred Fire" her story feels like a fairy tale. She caught the yoga bug very early on and started traveling to India in her early 20s. Her ability in asana and her power to communicate and teach make her a great combination, so much so that she attracts massive numbers of students wherever she travels.

But it was not all fairy tale.

She also had to take a lot of heat from the "yoga police" which as you know by now, does exist.... I know... I can barely believe it myself but there is such a thing.

She has been bashed and criticized for her outreach and for trying to expand the circle of people she reaches with her passion, which is yoga.

Today the Miami Life Center is a vibrant store front on 6th street in South Beach. It is always full of people and great energy and there are great instructors always present, with assistants. They also have great workshops going on all the time.

And the best part about Kino is that she comes with Tim. Tim Feldman, who is also a very advanced and serious practitioner is her husband and together they created the center. I hope to have Tim on the podcast soon as well.

Her beginnings with yoga... Her first class

Kino meets Govinda, her first teacher of Ashtanga

Her first trip to Mysore

Meeting Tim and the love story

The hardships of a long distance relationship

Her first Vipassana Silent Meditation 10 day retreat, and her second

Discovering body image issues around the legs and hips

Opening the Miami Life Center - It was NOT easy

The "yoga police" and how she deals with haters

The stereotypes around women being more flexible and men stronger - Not necessarily true

What took Kino a very long time to understand

DVD Yoga For Beginners

DVD Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series

DVD Ashtanga Yoga Intermediate Series

DVD Introduction to Ashtanga Yoga

DVD Ashtanga Yoga Third Series

The Power Of Ashtanga Yoga The Primary Series [Book]

The Power Of Ashtanga Yoga II: The Intermedia Series [Book]

Sacred Fire: My Journey Into Ashtanga Yoga [Book]

Audio CD The Mantra Collection

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Miami Life Center

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Anthony has the most extraordinary yoga story I've ever heard, and perhaps one of the first teacher stories to be fully documented, online.

That had never happened before.

WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT

The embarrassment factor of starting a yoga practice after 40

How he had let himself go and

How he lost 50 pounds and regain health

How he used anything as props (furniture)

His desire to get the strong poses "done" in the beginning

Here is Anthony in Marichasana D so you can see the photo when he talks about it (forgive the quality I took it from a screenshot of a video of his)

I ask him: Did you ever get injured in yoga?

The impossible poses: here is Anthony in Karandavasana, you can see a video of this "impossible pose" as he calls it and how TERRIFIED he was of this one

How he got into retaining the breath during asanas as per Krishnamacharya

Why he thinks Ashanta is a good place to start for someone getting into yoga

WHY ANTHONY IS UNIQUE

The internet has made it possible for us to witness the making of a yoga teacher, and Anthony has the most fascinating story, take for example how it all began:

He started practicing at the age of 43/44, while being 210 pounds, with knee problems, kidney stones and a horrible diet.

But it was not because of his health that he got into yoga. NO.

He actually believed he was pretty healthy, you know, average?

But then his house was broken into and all his saxophones were stolen.

That is what upset him. And then he was upset at being so upset.

So he remembered the practice of meditation, and he wanted to take it back again because he needed more peace.

That is when he noticed that many meditators used yoga as a complimentary activity, and so he went to the library, and, very embarrassed, borrowed a yoga book, just to check it out.

That was early 2007.

As soon as he got into yoga (which was "brutal" as he says), he started sharing his findings and documenting his progress on a blog.

You have likely seen it Grimmly2007.blogspot.com Heck! Everyone has seen it! He is known as "Grimmly"

The whole thing is online, if you go back to the archives you will find him completely obsessed with the jump backs and jump troughs throughout the first year of his practice, and then progressing into future obsessions.

He took a lot of heat from the "yoga police" (yes there is one of those) who did not approve (if you can believe it!) of him practicing at home with books, and progressing as he saw fit.

The nerve, right?

The internet turned against him with rage many times, because, as we all know, it is fun to hate someone online.

Anthony also took it upon himself to translate one text from Krishnamacharya (the grand-father of yoga) which was not available.

The Yogasanagalu from 1945 is something we know, or at least I know about thanks to him.

He also has brilliant insights that challenge people reading his blog constantly. That is one sure thing you can find with him, a different way to look at things, a constant questioning, a search for truth.

Whenever people attacked Anthony he has always been very polite in responses. He does not shy away and welcomes conversations, although sometimes he (like me) wishes people would just not read his blog if they are to dislike him so much. It makes sense, and yet...

His blog became so popular that recently studios from around Europe, Rusia and the USA have began to invite him to come over.

"I don't teach", he says. "I never wanted to teach or imagine I would be a yoga teacher".

He is very humble, yes, but at the same time he realizes he was able to progress fast in asana, and his practice went deep, and so he feels the responsibility to pass it along.

I, for one, am grateful.

I have learned A LOT from Anthony.

I think that thought is the mark of a teacher, not someone who set out to do it, but rather, it happened because he simply happens to know quite a lot about the tradition, lineage, different ways of practice, and so he can share with others.

I was surprised to his response of my usual question: "What is one thing that took you a long time to understand" towards the end of the podcast.

I am always surprised by that one, but Anthony has a way of taking it to the next level.

ABOUT ANTHONY

His Ultra Famous Blog

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