The proliferation of Yoga Studios is now gone totally out of control. Not only are there studios in second floor buildings next to train tracks in the burroughs of major American cities, but those professed supposed guides to meditation and strength-- a sure way to improve one's quality of life-- are found nowadays in all sized locales from backwood dives to college towns to mountain cities, and all throughout the largest metropolis here in New York City. In each place I have lived, there's never been a shortage of yoga studios. Even in my hometown of Ashtabula,Ohio there are now places to go take yoga.(Something unheard of 20 years ago.) Here in Astoria in Queens would you believe me if i told you that down the street somebody just opened 'Yoga For Kids'?!
The thing that really bothers me is that I can not exactly figure out why this bothers me. I realize that people all over the country are helped by going to take Yoga; that for them maybe even if in small ways, their life is made healthier. I also appreciate anything that gets people out of their house, away from the computer screen or blackberry screen and into the real world. So why should I joke with friends and put 'yoga studio' and 'epidemic' in the same sentence? What's more, kids these days grow up saturated in digital media, social network technology, youtube. They grow up developing routines early of checking e-mails, and tweets, and facebook first--checking in with themselves and physical interactions with people come later or not at all. So wouldn't a Yoga For Kids be a helpful tool for children developing their own healthy minds and bodies and abilities to reflect on their own actions in the world? Maybe the greatest thing it does is to slow things down a bit. I guess I just wonder if there aren't other ways to acheive these things; if we might as adults, try to develop our own homegrown way of the same thing without always attaching 'yoga' to the equation. A kid can just go to a playground or to a feild with other kids and play a game of wiffle ball or Freeze Tag or a million other things. Childhood doesn't-- or shouldn't-- require yoga.
My roommate Danielle says, "I'm done with yoga because they're a bunch of pretentious fucks."
Now let's all take a deep breath.
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