How corporations fool us every time! Why are we so surprised?!

Photo: click to article about the tactics of lululemon founder chip wilson! (Use your back button to get back to this page)

And no I'm NOT wearing their clothing!

My response to this article:

If you ever looked closely at the corporate culture of this place (can't even say the name) it was never meant to embrace the "values" of yoga. It was a marketing ploy - as simple as that. And it worked. Why? Because it never really embraced the depth of the "values" of yoga and was a marketing ploy.

Chip wanted to turn it into a cult and it almost happened - only stopped by the constant stream of people leaving the place.

I sold my soul and became an ambassador years ago. What did it get me? Not much - except $1000 worth of clothing which at the time was great because I was poor and couldn't afford anything let alone at their prices. I've stopped wearing their stuff the minute I got a whiff of their cultish corporate tactics.
I worked with them for three years and tried to instill a yoga-sensability to no avail. I was the only one who tried to encourage participants to bring the only "payment" asked of them (on the website) for the Sunday yoga class which was a dry or canned good for the food bank. Only one person would bring anything every week out of sometimes 30+ people. I was appalled. There was no encouragement from the staff and I sometimes got looks. This to me was fostering a selfish, ego-driven, entitled culture of lemons and I wanted no part of it.

So yoga values - what are those anyway? Telling us to "breathe"? "Be Happy"? "Do one thing that scares you". These are not yoga values. The New Age equivalent of yoga values. You ate it up. That's why they're so successful. What a great marketing ploy!

To Chip and the lemons yoga values meant one thing and that was looking good in your expensive enviable yoga gear even if you didn't do yoga.

Restless Spirit Is Back In Business!

Hi everyone

After that nasty mishap with the rad flooding my space, we're back in business!

Restless Spirit is open... again!

I'll be in the studio next week - Tuesday-Thursday 11-7pm (unless there's a snow fall - I'll let you know!)

Come in for a visit!

We'll be launching all sorts of great things in the new year! Things about investigating and giving voice to the spirit within of course, through a variety of expressions.

Please stay tuned!

Restless Spirit

688 Richmond St. W. Ground Floor.

Toronto, ON

1restlessspirit@gmail.com

Reflection: Looking into the Mirror...

What if the only mirror you had was the one sitting right in front of you...

Practicing: Loving 1st Series

Urdhva Muka Paschimottanasana

Loving 1st Series again! Practicing in LA.

How to Book My Services...

You can book me for: Private Yoga, Mediation, Deep Immersion Program or Therapy (short or regular sessions available)

Book My Services Online here!

You can email me and ask any questions about the services anytime: 1restlessspirit@gmail.com

Namaste

Christine

Restless Spirit Blackboard #2

Restless Spirit Blackboard

at 688 Richmond St Ground Floor, Toronto

I've had this on the board for about a month. I'm going to change it this week.  I post something different at least once a month - soon I think every two weeks.

Peace!

Christine

Letting Go...

Vulnerability IS the human condition. Yes - You ARE vulnerable to EVERYTHING.

We get on a plane - we can catch a cold or worse. We could fall out of the sky - yet we fly!

We live, work, ride on buses, drive on highways, interact with people who are in variant stages of insanity (including us) yet most of us get home every night. By the GRACE of the Universe, we do not live in a war zone!

We get up every morning and we step into the world in some form or another.

We are by virtue of being human - Vulnerable.

What a cruel joke it is that at a moments notice you could be gone - heart attack, stroke, getting hit by a car - simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time... or is it right place at the right time... There are countless stories about people 'cheating' death in one instance and weeks/months later It catching up with them.

Our hearts are vulnerable - how many of us have lost those near and dear to us, family, friends, lovers one way or another? Everyone has! Being in relationship is part of the human condition which is what makes vulnerability a part of the human condition. You can't "fight" it - it is not "like height". It is not measurable, it is not material - it is as it is.

Stop fighting it. Let go!

Beyond the layer of fear is a place of warmth that is the embrace of the Divine. The Ecstatic Surrender. Do this and vulnerability will not be your enemy. Look at the sculpture of the "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" by Bernini - it is her surrender to the Will of God - Ecstasy through Grace.

To know and live through your own heart is to know the Divine - and isn't that ultimately what we are here for!?

Give up the need for control. Shit happens for better or worse. If you must, learn from it. We always want reasons for everything - 'why' is a question that can never be answered. Especially to our satisfaction - so let go.

Everything makes sense when you die to your own idea of yourself. Fear of vulnerability comes from an Identification with the small self. Me and I; an attachment to you and your physical and mental ability to stave off intruders. To protect oneself at all costs - to the cost of one's Heart (not the sentimental heart though).

Non-attachment is key.

This energy that we live, flows through us whatever we are masquerading as - take it off - take off your costume and live as you truly are.