Hi Beth, I just noticed that at some point you 'liked' one of my posts. I'm so very sorry to read your news. A friend of mine also had a stillbirth earlier in 2011. It's unimaginable. I hope you're finding your way through it all, slowly but surely. And I wish you all the best. xx

Hi Ben,

Yep. THIS is exactly what I've been trying to get to. I've asked this question a couple of times of my kinesiologist, and we've tried to address it (she tests for conscious versus hidden & suppressed) and I think we've gotten to some of it, but I don't think we've hit the target full on just yet.

I fully agree that with my current and past health issues (PTSD/depression/thyroid dysfunction) there is definitely a secondary gain I haven't quite been able to name yet. I'm a bit of a slippery sucker you see...

Right now I'm a little tapped out financially with all of the things I'm doing for my health, but perhaps in a little while we can have this discussion and see if we can work together across the miles. Dang but I wish I could just pop over to Slovenia! ;)

Thank you for linking to my post! :)

I'm currently half way through a two-parter looking at this issue in more detail (and with a little less obvious outrage!).

The first part is here: <a href="http://svasti.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/samskaras-in-samsara-%E2%80%93-part-1/">Samskaras in samsara
The second part is coming soon.

Though I've calmed down a little, I still very much object to the Tara Stiles type of yoga marketing, and in general, the terrible use of women and in particular, naked or partially clothed women to promote yoga.

Not only does it demean women and play on their existing self-esteem issues, there are also many men who find the impossibly glamourous-skinny-white-female promotion of yoga to be intimidating. Not to mention that it's all incredibly out of touch with the essence of yoga!

I personally don't believe that any yoga is good yoga. If someone comes to yoga in a way that obscures the rich body of teachings and mind/body wisdom that goes with it, then that can be damaging.

As a yoga teacher, I can already tell you that people have a hard enough time understanding yoga as anything more than "stretching". But they come anyway. Sure, they might come to lose weight, and hopefully that's not the only reason they stay.

But having yoga sold out by yoga teachers is quite shocking to me. And I wouldn't say those yogis who support such things are enlightened in the least...