Yoga Jammin'

At a foggy Speedway Meadow last Saturday morning, a couple of hours before Michael Franti's Power to the Peaceful concert began, scores of yogis gathered for a free community Yoga Jam. Some were sitting on yoga mats and some on the grass, some wearing yoga clothes, others jeans and even pajamas. The crowd was a mix of yoga teachers, locals, and some hippie teenagers thrown in for good measure. As the scent of the fresh morning intermingled with the faint whiff of a joint being smoked in the distance, I wondered just how this thing was going to go down. But by the end of the two hours, the entire stagefront lawn was buzzing with wild and freaky yoga energy.
The 9am session, led by Maya Yoga founders Nicki Doane and Eddie Modestini, was a great warm-up. The couple took us through a seated meditation, a series of sun salutations, and a number of standing poses to heat us up. The weather was bleak, but no one seemed to notice. Throughout the practice, Nicki reminded us of the reason that we had come here in the first place: to support this annual concert for peace. "Yoga is conscious action," she said. "Make this practice a form of activism."

At 10am, Shiva Rea danced onto the scene. "I think we're here to breathe change," she said, redirecting the now voluminous group into the shape of a mandala. Shiva's yoga was more of a dance, during which we shot arrows of peace into the center of the mandala, and then out toward the community and the world. Her one-hour practice, accompanied by an electric soundtrack, ended in an ecstatic dance of joy where even the most resistant two-left-footers got into the groove beside Michael Franti, himself.

At one point, Shiva joked that if she had been in her hometown of LA leading an outdoor class in such gray weather, everyone would be complaining about the cold. We all laughed. Who needs sunshine when you've got yoga?