body
Sing Your Heart Open. Sing Kirtan.
24 Feb 2010 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • events • wellness
Kirtan is call-and-response chanting performed in India’s devotional traditions, sometimes called Bhaki Yoga, or the practicing of devotion. Kirtan practice involves chanting the names of the divine in song or hymn like a mantra. Kirtan is traditionally sung to the accompaniment of instruments like the harmonium, two-headed mradanga drum, and/or kartal hand cymbals.
Over New Years [...]
Taking the Waters: Hot Springs in California
10 Feb 2010 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness
I’ve been a fan of getting out of the city and “taking the waters” for as long as I can remember. When we were growing up, Ma and Pa Darland packed my brother and me along on many a family outing to hot springs around California and the Northwest. I know that helped inspire me [...]
Bringing More Country to City Life
26 Jan 2010 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • eco-living • wellness
I thoroughly enjoy my time in the great outdoors. It is great. There’s nothing like waking up to fresh air and the sound of birds and wind in the trees without the distraction of sirens and construction and traffic. For all its vibrancy and convenience, the city sometimes wears on me, my emotional well being [...]
Thai Massage at IO
14 Dec 2009 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • yoga
Often, in the western world, Thai massage is watered down into a version of Swedish massage that incorporates a few faux-yogic stretches here and there. I’ve experienced Thai massage in many spas and the mother land as well as other Asian countries, and wanted our IO bodywork program to incorporate the real deal.
At IO, [...]
The Art of Living
28 Nov 2009 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others [...]
Meditation and Addiction
18 Nov 2009 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness
I haven’t completely renounced myself from alcohol. I still like to enjoy a drink now and then. But on the spectrum of attachment and craving, I think most of us, certainly including me, could use a reminder about our relationship with the crutches in our lives.
A local sangha (or community) group called Urban Dharma [...]
Right Eating: The Slow Food Movement
30 Oct 2009 ~ 3 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • eco-living • wellness
The Slow Food Movement is one of my favorite new crusades, although it’s not exactly “new”. Our IO Spa Yoga and Shop concept was even inspired by the movement. We wanted to be the Slow Wellness business where products and service offerings reflect sustainability, natural ingredients and care.
Conceptually, the practice of Slow Food has [...]
Chakra System
06 Oct 2009 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness • yoga
I’m always fascinated by spiritual systems that help us find out more about ourselves. I think a lot of the so-called “esoteric” spiritual practices that we encounter work best in our Western mindset when we think of them metaphorically.
The chakra system is a perfect example of this.
A lot of us are into yoga. We [...]
Three Words: Organic. Detox. Facelift.
15 Sep 2009 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • eco-living • face • wellness
I try to refrain from making this blog a forum for the blatant promotion of IO products, but occasionally I feel so passionately about one of our services that the need arises for me to get up on my soapbox and blab a bit. So here goes.
The Organic Detox Facelift is our [...]
Real Deal Yoga Teachers at IO
08 Sep 2009 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • yoga
The IO Yoga Program is an integral element of our holistic offerings at IO, and we are constantly on a quest to hone and refine our roster of teachers and classes to stand out from the 80+ other yoga studios and gyms in San Francisco.
As a longtime yogi myself, my philosophy is that yoga [...]
