EcoSalon’s favorite quotes to meditate on.

We tend to think of meditation in only one way. But life itself is a meditation. –Raul Julia

A good meditation, even when it is interrupted by occasional nodding, is much more beneficial than many outward religious exercises. –Johannes Tauler

My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel. –Edward Abbey

Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted — in body, mind, and heart — and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow — or we begin to flow more in our lives. – Cybele Tomlinson

I mean the whole thing about meditation and yoga is about connecting to the higher part of yourself, and then seeing that every living thing is connected in some way. –Gillian Anderson

If we know the divine art of concentration, if we know the divine art of meditation, if we know the divine art of contemplation, easily and consciously we can unite the inner world and the outer world. –Sri Chinmoy

Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal bliss and supreme joy in the end. –Swami Sivananda

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. –B.K.S. Iyengar

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation. –Walter Bagehot

Mindful meditation has been discovered to foster the ability to inhibit those very quick emotional impulses. –Daniel Goleman

My workout is my meditation. –Kyle MacLachlan

When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath. –Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Generally we waste our lives, distracted from our true selves, in endless activity. Meditation is the way to bring us back to ourselves, where we can really experience and taste our full being. –Sogyal Rinpoche

Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass. –Owen Feltham

Sleep is the best meditation. –Dalai Lama

Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. –Bhagavad Gita

Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality. –Richard Gere

Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it.  Yoga is universal… But don’t approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain. –Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation. –Milarepa

To perform every action artfully is yoga. –Swami Kripalu

There are different things one can do to establish and hasten the peace process. Meditation is one way. –Mike Love

Yoga began with the first person wanting to be healthy and happy all the time. –Sri Swami Satchidananda

The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practice it. –James Allen

We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. –Alan Watts

If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts. –Alan Cohen

After a few years of meditation practice we can even learn how to occasionally ignore ourselves. And what relief that can be! –Wes Nisker

The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past. -Andre Maurois

This life that has been given to us as a gift, as such a precious gift. To really try to understand it, really try to recognize it, is the greatest meditation. Through the media of this Knowledge we can tap into our inner sources that are so beautiful. –Prem Rawat

Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose. –Eknath Easwaran

I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary. – Betsy Cañas Garmon

All of man’s difficulties are caused by his inability to sit, quietly, in a room by himself. –Blaise Pascal

Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that’s true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes. –Peter McWilliams

When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. –Bhagavad Gita

Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man. –Benjamin Franklin

Sun salutations can energize and warm you, even on the darkest, coldest winter day. –Carol Krucoff

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. –Buddha

Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God. –Diana Robinson

Meditation gives us peace of mind without a tranquilizer. And unlike a tranquilizer, the peace of mind that we get from meditation does not fade away. It lasts for good in some corner of the inmost recesses of our aspiring heart. –Sri Chinmoy

Transcendental Meditation has given me a perspective on agitation… That it’s a temporary state of mind and I don’t necessarily need to take it that seriously. I used to think that TM was for weird old hippies… But then I heard that David Lynch was involved, and that made me curious. –Moby

Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace. –Bhagavad Gita

The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren’t enough. –Amy Weintraub

I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind. –Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better, it’s about befriending who we are. –Ani Pema Chodron

If I’m losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga. –Terri Guillemets

Don’t just do something – sit there! –Author Unknown

Whatever forms of meditation you practice, the most important point is to apply mindfulness continuously, and make a sustained effort. It is unrealistic to expect results from meditation within a short period of time. What is required is continuous sustained effort. –Dalai Lama

If it weren’t for my mind, my meditation would be excellent. –Ani Pema Chodron

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few. –Shunryu Suzuki

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness. –George MacDonald

The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this lifetime. –Sogyal Rinpoche

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Images: Spirit-Fire, Andrew Kalat, digitalpimp, Chantel Beam, Mike Baird.

ColumnThe precious practice.

As a girl, I once read a book where the main character would frown with great purpose every time she saw a smiley face sign. I can’t recall the book, but you know the sign: those cheery yellow faces that blithely instruct you with just one word. Smile! “How do they know I’m not already smiling?” the girl character fumed. Yes, yes, yes! My eleven-year-old self shouted in her loudest inside voice. Finally, someone who gets it! In a good mood already, as a matter of fact, and you have ruined it, smiley. Where’s the humility, you piece of paper? What do you even know? Nothing.

Which brings me to yoga and yesterday.

On Sunday nights, when I can, I like to take myself to dinner, notebook in hand, for the express purpose of eavesdropping on humanity. The key is not to go anywhere so cool you’ll only overhear boring bits about things he should have texted, nor to go anywhere so sad you’ll want to die.

Last night, a woman at dinner with her three friends was in a total tizz over being dumped by her yoga partner.

“She says I’m too loud!” said the woman, loudly. “Too loud! Can you believe that?” It appeared her friends could believe it. “I explained, Claire, the entire point of yoga is to breathe! If you’re not really breathing, if you are not really sounding out the breath, it doesn’t work!” Here, she paused to shake her head in disbelief.

“But she says she won’t go. She won’t do it. She’s done with how loud I breathe.” The three friends nodded in silent unison.

“I don’t get it. I just can’t believe it,” the woman continued. “You’re supposed to chant, to breathe, with intention! She isn’t even doing it right. Most people aren’t, which is such a shame! Ommmmmmm” – sucking in a huge breath for the demonstration – “You know?”

My ears sharpened. Could it be? Was it she? The Loudest Lady in Yoga Class? Before she could notice me staring a little too long, I buried myself. Don’t mind me, just nerdy girl with notebook, probably a grad student. (Note to the novice: Bun that hair and wear a hoodie to dinner. You want free pearls, not free drinks.)

Sweet Jesus, I thought, this is the obnoxious Om-er right here, in the flesh, alive and explaining herself to the rest of us. Earthly understanding shall be ours! We have all experienced this woman, and sometimes man, in their terrifically varied but consistently exasperating varieties.

There is the Orgasmic Omer, belonging to the woman who has apparently never had her pelvis opened up the old-fashioned way, who also seems to experience the miracle of revirgination just in time for next class. If her Oms could talk, they would say, “I need to get la-la-laaaaaid more.”

There is the Male variant. He chants so smoothly. He really gets deep. He smiles at you with intention, all right. And, after class, he stares at you as if he’s just given you the greatest gift, because he’s pretty sure he has: your first orgasm. Shall we hold clammy hands over bowls of carrot ginger puree with primrose oil? We can discuss our alimentary tracts. He is wise in the ways of wheatgrass, say his Oms.

There is the Shamer Omer, the bald one who lets you all think she went through chemo even though she didn’t just because she likes the attention of it, as well as the attention that comes from hurtling her chants across the room like a bull moose in rut, and when confronted at last, accuses you of being the angry one, to which you burst out, “I was fine until you got all Om Shanti Shanti on us at 120 decibels!” and you never go back to that yoga class again. You don’t want to know what her Oms say, but they’re a true story.

There is the Quantum Omer, who ascribes spiritual glory to our shared celestial chemistry with stardust, whereas I find it scientific. Hers is a very special knowledge. Her Oms say, “I eat powdered placenta.”

There is Suzy Super Omer, who rolls up in her Range Rover, sporting her Lululemon. She has changed her email signature to Namaste. This is worse than anything that could have happened to yoga, including Portlandia. Her Oms say, “I’m the easy target. But be nice to me. I’m trying.”

My spiraling notebook taxonomy was interrupted by another protest about Claire, and I looked up to see the woman’s friends nodding once more. Two insights came to mind there in that restaurant. First, that woman needs better dinner friends.

Second, while I have loved yoga for years, I’m not sure I’m loving it the way others who love yoga seem to love it. I feel like a fraud, a phony, a huckster. After all, my inspirations are Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde and H.L. Mencken and House and Hitchens, not the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle and goji berries. I like Dorothy Parker and contemporary art and high fashion and alcohol (the last, preferably with rich food). I like comedy and code. The History of World War II was one of my favorite courses in graduate school. I genuinely feel nothing after a superfood smoothie. My years as a vegetarian were, literally, a gas. I am unmoved in the face of granola. Anything to do with groups of women makes me feel like I have a pending case of hives instead of a pending case of empowerment.

Something is definitely wrong with me. But no matter how many times I resolve to try, I find afresh that I must stand by my principles: I just don’t feel the need to get in touch with my inner anus. I don’t want to communicate nonviolently about my two-days-late class bill, I just want to give you my new debit card number because I’m fine, I haven’t lost my job, I just got sent a new card, no I’m really fine, no I’m not being resistant or defensive, if you’ll just let me explain, I…Oh God! Please just let me give you the new number!

Does a cat care? I want to stretch like a cat. Does the cat ask his cat friend, respectfully, lovingly, compassionately, for some room on the cushion?

I breathe, even if you can’t hear it. I breathe because sometimes it makes me cry trickles of relief and sometimes it makes me grow pent up with joy. But sometimes it feels like a job, and sometimes I go through the motions and I smile, knowing I actually just need the old-fashioned way.

And sometimes instead of Ommmmmm, I just say, Oh.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.

Image: Christian Parreira

Lululemon’s Atlas Shrugged-inspired bags give double meaning to the Hero Pose.

If you commute, you’ve probably seen women carrying lunch or a change of shoes in a bright red reusable bag with white messages about drinking water and doing scary things alongside figures in yoga poses. This is the signature “Lulu Bag.”

Recently, Lululemon switched things up and started giving out bags that read: Who is John Galt? Many people have seen it and wondered why that name sounds familiar. The question comes from Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged – which is sometimes referred to as the Tea Party’s bible.

Here’s the explanation, straight from Lululemon’s mouth: “You might be wondering why a company that makes yoga clothing has chosen a legendary literary character’s name to adorn the side of our bags. Lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, first read this book when he was eighteen years old working away from home. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is Lululemon’s company vision).”

If you have no information about the book or the author and trust the Lululemon blog, or even bothered to look into the phrase, the idea seems to be fairly benign: don’t settle for being less than you can be. But, at the core of Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is this, “the virtue of selfishness.”

The bag, introduced early in the holiday shopping season, has gotten a fair share of press. The controversy has been covered on NPR, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Forbes and many others—even Steven Colbert chimed in offering the company a hat tip on the segment, “Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger.”

Founder Chip Wilson has declined interviews on the subject.

Will this be the straw that breaks the yoga giant’s back? For many, it just might be. Chip Wilson already got flack after being quoted saying he thinks it’s funny to hear Asians say the word “Lululemon,” and has said publicly that child labor isn’t so bad because kids get an opportunity to not be mediocre.

And this isn’t the first time that Lululemon has faced controversy over their bags. In December 2010, it was reported that, for about a year, the bags had lead in them. And back in 2008, bags were recalled when a 17 year-old found a hidden message revealed someplace between advice on jealousy and oral care: ” Some brief or quick-fix incidences when our minds are clear to be creative are….when drunk or stoned…just after an orgasm.”

Add to that the green-washing, corporate manifesto and strong bond with Landmark Education—a company that grew out of “cult” status EST. (At this time, every employee who reaches a certain level at Lululemon is “encouraged” to participate in Landmark Forum training.)

Nerve, quotes one Lululemon shopper as saying: “I don’t want people looking at me with that little logo on my pants or on my hoodie and thinking I’m going home to read Atlas Shrugged after, you know, downward dog.” And a commenter on the Lululemon blog wrote, ‘Rand’s philosophy is totally incompatible with the roots of yoga, but I suppose it makes sense for a conceited sportswear entrepreneur seeking full license to screw over anybody he wants to in pursuit of a buck.’”

NPR writes that while Ayn Rand is best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, “The ideas behind them — her philosophy — have sunk so deeply into our political thought, most people don’t even recognize them as her ideas anymore.”

That’s what you call good branding.

This week’s top reads from our friends at Elephant Journal. 

Elephant Journal loves serving up green with a side of sass as much as we do. To make sure you get a taste of all the good things they’ve got going on over there, every week we bring you a round-up of the best picks. Brew a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Living Off-the-Grid. - Michael Levin

Living off-the-grid means living without public utilities like electricity. People who live off-the-grid may not depend on municipal water, sewage, or natural gas. It also can mean you’re self-sufficient in various ways. There are many third-world citizens who have lived off-the-grid for generations. Some people choose this alternative lifestyle to save money. It’s also a way to lower your environmental footprint.

The 10 Things You’ll Do Once You Start Yoga. - Lee Anne Finfinger

You’ll get over yourself. If you teach yoga, you’ll hope that people show up because they like taking class from who you really are. If you practice yoga, you’ll keep showing up and you’ll realize that the other shit doesn’t matter.

Eco Boy vs. Yoga Girl: Sunday Brunch - Elephantjournal.com

“Yeah,” Nearly Vegan Girl said. “Nothing worse than…”

And they spoke together: “…getting yer croissant before your coffee.”

“You wait all week,” he continued, “for brunch with your Sunday NY Times and coffee and croissant. And then you just get your croissant, and by the time the coffee comes it’s cool or you’ve eaten it.”

“Life’s rough,” she said, smiling.

“Seriously,” he said, seriously.

EcoSalon and The Yoga Beauty Bar pair up at the Yoga Journal Conference this weekend in Estes Park, Colorado.

Ever wonder what a thousand oms and stretches under a Colorado sun looks like? We’re going to find out this week as EcoSalon travels to Estes Park, Colorado, to co-host the Yoga Beauty Bar with organic beauty brand Buddha Nose. From September 22nd to 24th, we’ll be celebrating all that is good in beauty and well-being at the Yoga Marketplace, part of the 16^th Annual Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park, Colorado, a seven-day event of 35-plus master teachers sharing their knowledge in the mountains. A gathering for both teachers and beginners, the event seeks to showcase the best and brightest the yoga world has to offer.

Nestled within all this is the EcoSalon sponsored Yoga Beauty Bar, an interactive collective featuring the best in indie organic beauty and wellness brands.

The Yoga Beauty Bar is the brainchild of Buddha Nose founder Amy Galper, whose New York City-based shiatsu practice inspired her to create a line of products to encourage its user to “be still and breathe.” Buddha Nose is certified organic body care to inspire a “mind-body-beauty” connection.

Each day the Yoga Beauty Bar booth will feature a special beauty and wellness treatment, so make sure to stop by and make an appointment to receive chakra balancing, hand shiatsu or mini scalp treatments or simply to chat and sip some organic tea. The Yoga Marketplace at the conference is free and open to the public so if we are all you’re looking for (though we hope you’ll stop and peruse the vendors outside our oasis), beeline it straight to us and we will pamper and educate you on how everything you put on and in your body has a direct effect on your well-being.

On hand for green beauty advice is yours truly, ready to dish out my seasoned knowledge on organic and all-natural beauty products. Meet me at the conference or Friday evening for cocktails with all the participating brands at our cabin in the woods.

After you’ve enjoyed sampling products at The Yoga Beauty Bar, you might want to purchase some award-winning products from their featured brands. God knows we will:

Buddha Nose body care

Dr. Alkaitis Skincare

Wei of Chocolate

Lotus Wei Flower Essences

Pravassa Wellness Retreats

Priti Organic Nails

Runa Tea

Trance Essence Perfumes and Candles

Yarok Organic Hair Care Products

Revolution Organic Color Cosmetics

We look forward to seeing you there!

Questions? Contact Yoga Beauty Bar organizer Amy Galper at info@buddhanose.com or Amy DuFault at amy@ecosalon.com

Additional contributions to this post by Amy DuFault

A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Just when you thought you might be destined to only meet men at dark, dingy bars that reek of Pabst Blue Ribbon, sex columnist Abigail Wick gives them the special sauce in her article Sex by Numbers: 5 Ways Yoga Can Keep Men Out of Bars. Her advice? Take a yoga class and become one with a healthy woman in a bamboo-floored room with Krishna music and temple bells. Dirty dogs can learn new tricks.

The fashion industry is one of the most wasteful cogs on the planet, yet we love it and buy clothes like, well, they’re going out of style. Can we learn to be conscious consumers? Can we fine tune a fashion program for ourselves that isn’t so wasteful? We are in agreement with writer Abigail Doan in Upping the Ante on the Ethical Fashion Frontier that the next step in ethical fashion just might start with being aware of the genius of place. We also put a whole hell of a lot of faith in you as a consumer that you can change – can you?

Even foodies are scared of things; not arugula or bok choy but bigger things like measuring tools. Anna Brones, our fearless food columnist for Foodie Underground, decides to throw care to the wind and take a cheese making class with a friend that requires her to do just that – pull out a measuring cup. Turns out kitchen tools can be fun in Foodie Underground: Fresh Cheese 101.

If you’ve ever had a sleeping partner with a dog or cat that sleeps with them, you may have been repulsed, annoyed, or thought less of them after the “sleeping” was over. I mean really, when the pet keeps you up all night, isn’t that a behavior problem you want to nip in the bud? Get a life and teach your pet they have their own place to sleep taking notes all the while reading Eco Luxe for Four Legged Furry People. Don’t worry, they’ll still be comfortable without your unshaven leg on them.

What have we learned about shopping from this recession? Our global economy has taken a beating and consumers everywhere are changing their buying habits which alters everything worldwide. We are more frugal, cautious and conscious, which makes sense when you realize how loose we’ve been for so long. Maybe we all forgot mom telling us there were kids starving in other countries and not to waste a thing – so we made the most of what we had. In No Easy Sell: 6 Traits of the Post-Recession Consumer, we get to suck up the fact that mom’s metaphor for not wasting was spot on.

ColumnMen tired of looking for relationships at bars should consider a yoga class for a more healthy approach.

Most of my columns are directed at the ladies, but I know plenty of men seek out Sex by Numbers to shore up on skills by which to shack up with the fairer sex, and this article is penned especially for them.

So, we all know the drill: Guy goes to bar with pocketbook in tow. Girl goes to bar with skirt slit up to there. Guy approaches girl with this offer: Let me buy you a drink. The two of them swallow down cocktails to the tune of a pretty penny and move slosh-faced from said bar to a nearby bedroom.

Or, as is more often the case, aforementioned guy and girl go their respective ways and wake up the next morning feeling a bit woozy, more than a tad guilty about the previous evening’s drunken foray, and resolve to a) never drink again, b) find a finer specimen than just somebody who is beer-glasses attractive, and c) get their ass into yoga class as partial penance, partial recovery, and partial maybe-there’s-something-more-to-life-than-getting-wasted-in-search-of-a-woman.

Yoga:  It’s the panacea for everything from flabby abs and lonely lives to emotional healing and the development of those fine pectoral muscles for which women have such a penchant.

It’s my business to promote the salutary effects of the practice – apart from my career as a freelance writer and sex columnist, I moonlight as a yoga instructor and have spent the better part of the past five years trotting the globe in search of it – from San Francisco to Southeast Asia, from Guadalajara to Germany. There is no discipline by which I swear more by than yoga and my experiences have led me to this conclusion: Classes are female-dominant and men, for purposes of both sexual and spiritual enlightenment, should consider yoga studios in an open-hearted search for a woman who is worth their time.

Here are five reasons to check out yoga:

1. According to a recent study conducted by Yoga Journal, roughly 16-million people practice yoga in the U.S. Of these, 72.2-percent are women and 27.8-percent are men. These figures are powerful, especially since yoga has historically been male-dominant domain. Western women are flocking to gurus and ashrams like never before, seeking communion with others and tapping into something greater than themselves. It’s a healthy antidote to counter-balance our society’s hyper-individualistic culture.

2. I’ve heard many a man protest that he wouldn’t be caught anywhere near a yoga class for fear of ridicule: I’m not flexible enough — I can’t even touch my toes! Yes, one aspect of the practice is cultivating a bendable body that can collapse on itself like a folding lawn chair. But there is far more to the discipline than this; stop looking for convenient, ill-informed excuses. The physical practice of yoga includes both lengthening of muscle tissue as well as strengthening — men, you already excel in this department, and won’t you look fly holding a Standing Warrior pose without so much as breaking a sweat. She’ll notice and, I promise you, she’ll like what she sees.

3. Guys often express simple nervousness about not being physically fit enough to perform and are intimidated by the thought of being so exposed. The great thing about yoga is a guiding ethos of accepting people as they are — both the rock stars and the reed-thin dorks have a place in the studio. Think about it: After a night of whiskey sours and spending three times as much money on drinks as you would paying for a yoga class, you wake up the next morning feeling like Golam. Conversely, after a session of deep-tissue muscle, good-for-you-all-over yoga, you come out fresh as the morning dew. Good girls like fresh-faced men, plain and simple.

4. The suit makes the man. You sport your business get up before an important meeting with your boss, because an outfit can help you connote a sense of command and purpose when it counts. Similarly, donning fitted, yoga appropriate attire sends a signal that what you’re doing — hitting your mat to connect with yourself and others — matters.

5. Finally, and this is imperative, do not become a creepy cruiser. Do not linger and stare at girls emerging from the dressing room. Do not hover by the purified, triple-reverse-osmosis, room temperature, lemon cucumber water cooler waiting for your shot. Do not ever, ever ogle a girl while class is in session. She is there seeking her bliss and peace, and your ocular advances will render you her object of scorn. That said, do put on a friendly face and let the post class endorphins pump you up enough to approach a girl. Tell her how much you admire Shiva or Ganesha or something. Tell her how much you admire her practice. Ask her out for organic, fair-trade Oolong at the fancy, kitschy tea-house up the block. And, most of all, just be the warm, sincere, and simply-transformed being that is the new yoga you.

Sex By Numbers is an ongoing look into the emotional and sexual lives of the modern day woman. Follow Abigail Wick weekly here for insight and inspiration as she explores the “sex” of women and the terrain they must travel.

Images: adria.richards, lululemon athletica

“Stylish” is the clothing one dons after yoga, yes?  Yoga and fashion have never been soul sisters, and getting busted wearing my yoga pants in the grocery store, hours after class is over, has never been my proudest fashion moment.

No more, says Tobie Orr, Denver, Colorado stylist and fashion expert, best known for her annual Riverfront Park Fashion Series in the Mile-High City, “Lifestyle plays a lot into this movement of yoga apparel going mainstream. We need to achieve a lot in a day, and busy women are looking for clothes that are easy, efficient, and streamlined.”

Georgia Benjou, Fashion Editor of 5280 Magazine in Denver adds:

“Fashion has definitely embraced the sport world over the past few seasons with both European and American designers filtering sport and yoga influence into their collections. I think designers have been able to use core items – racer back tanks, bandeau tops, drawstring sweat pants – to create comfortable pieces that are still stylish and give an urban edge.”

Better yoga clothes are popping up everywhere. High-profile designers like Alexander Wang and Stella McCartney have brought a chic and sophisticated twist to the utilitarian clothing usually relegated to yoga class. This year, the marketplace at the Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park, Colorado featured the curve-hugging Lycra, cotton and microfiber styles of hip yogawear purveyors like Lucy, Lululemon Athletica, and Be Present.

Eco-minded trendsetters will be delighted to learn that modern yoga clothes not only look better, but actually are better – using innovative natural fabrics, socially conscious manufacturing practices, and fewer chemicals and waste.

Canadian designer Eric Wazana makes his Second Denim Yoga Jeans with environmental principles in mind. Not only are the jeans comfortable enough for yoga class (yes, you heard that right), but Second Denim’s new line of Eco Jeans are manufactured using 97 percent organic cotton, less water, and fewer dyes and chemicals.

Natural lifestyle company Clary Sage Organics is on a mission to make dressing easier by providing fashion-forward workout wear with an urban edge. Their thoughtfully designed yoga clothes, like their sophisticated scalloped seamed leggings, or the carefully detailed, corsetey vintage swim girdle, reflect the company’s efforts to “empower people to live healthy, thoughtful and ecologically responsible lives,” and look good doing it.

So go on. Find your inner yoga rockstar, your downtown hipster, or your spiritual diva and sport those clothes to yoga class, and beyond.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post written by Sandja Brügmann. Sandja is managing partner of Refresh Agency, a leading specialist PR and digital media agency focusing on the green lifestyle market [LOHAS – lifestyles of health and sustainability].  Sandja was born and raised in the fashion-centric and sustainability-minded Denmark. She grew up in a household run mostly on solar power by an entrepreneurial mother and an eco-conscientious father. Sandja’s vibrant and passionate commitment to inspiring positive planetary change, without compromising on style, is visible throughout her work. Sandja is a certified yogini, a Danish national team and former Olympic hopeful archery champion and she adores her daily lessons as a parent. Follow Sandja on Twitter @sandja.

Images: adifansnet, adifansnet, lululemon athletica

Strike a pose? Sure. Unleash enough sweat to fill a small Dough Boy? Hey, if it reduces that fleshy upper thigh mass, I’m in. Tolerate a melange of putrid stench for 90-minutes? Hmm. That’s where this ever blossoming lotus needs to draw the line.

I recently returned to heated yoga after a three-year hiatus and was quickly reminded of why I’m so Bikram challenged. I have an acute sense of smell, not just strong mind you, but someone known by authorities as a woman who can detect a fire two counties away. Five minutes into the grueling repetition of nearly impossible contortions, I inhaled the unpleasant aroma of a moldy bathroom towel. Unfair! It was all downward dog from there.

Next came the rank cologne of stinky male body odor (I’m not sexist but my keen animal sensor knows Martians emit far fouler scents than Venetians).

But the coup de grace: Freshly applied Wella Balsam conditioner. The signature chemical properties of the popular hair product truly put me over the edge, conjuring memories of my days as a cubby reporter interviewing a 6-foot bulimic in the Chicago North Shore whose hair was shellacked with Wella.  I have the inexplicable urge to gag the moment I whiff that stuff, and it is seriously inappropriate to vomit in Bikram because it introduces a smell which could take years to eradicate from the hallowed hot haven of enlightenment.

Yes, I shed three pounds the week I was Bikram-bound, despite my friend Denise’s argument that “you don’t lose weight doing it.” And it can be said, I was a proud human pretzel during the class, too, glad I could still resemble a bendable Barbie, crouching lower than Shawty (and slowly standing back up while my knees creaked) and wrapping one profusely sweating leg around the other leg, evoking the image of the buff master in white trunks on the poster in the front room.

Still, I can’t get past the smells. As I lumbered to my car in the cold of night, feet slippery in flip-flops with soaked hair greased back like a scary landlady clad in a floral moo moo, I too was a smell for sore nostrils, like a Barbie abandoned in the bathtub for a few days, plastic absorbing that bathroom bacteria, reminiscent of that moldy towel I had to tolerate during class. I was never so happy to take a shower.

The next day I returned to a tap dancing class after a two-year hiatus and was instantly reminded of the reason I had left. That awful, clattering noise!

Image: Ron Sombilon Gallery

Work stressing you out? Or maybe you just want to chill out and wind down after a long day? Yoga can alleviate stress and help you chill out and wind down. If you’ve never practiced yoga don’t be shy! Here are some great yoga poses for beginners from Michael Taylor to help get you started. You can even practice these beginner poses in the comfort of your own home.

1. Butterfly Pose

How-to: Sit with your knees close to your chest. Relax your knees out to either side, and gently press the bottoms of your feet together. Hold your feet or your ankles.

Tips: Lean forward slightly, so you can feel your “sit bones” on the ground. You can round over your feet to open up your back and relax your neck, or stay more upright and breathe your chest.

Benefits: Opens the hips. Calming. Deep breath in, stress out.

2. Child’s Pose

How-to: From hands and knees, untuck your toes and lower your hips back to your heels. With knees apart or together, lie your body on your thighs and rest your forehead on the ground. Arms can be straight forward on the ground, or reaching behind you for an extra shoulder release.

Tips: Before relaxing completely, press your palms into the ground with arms straight and elbows lifted, pushing your hips firmly back toward your heels. For an extra back release, breathe deeply into your whole back. Use this pose to rest between challenging poses.

Benefits: Opens hips and back. Calming.

3. Pigeon Pose

How-to: From a low lunge, lift or walk your front foot over so the ankle is behind your opposite wrist. Lower your back knee to the ground, and using your hands for support at the front of your mat, lower your front knee behind your wrist. Front shin can be parallel to the front of your mat, or angled slightly back. Walk your hands forward and come on to your forearms, or extend your arms and body out on the floor in front of you.

Tips: Before coming forward, walk your hands back so your body is vertical over your hips, breathe and press into your hands to take some weight out of your hips and roll them square to the front of your mat. Take your time coming forward, and keep the front of your body long and open.

Benefits: Opens the hips and the fronts of your upper thighs. Increases flexibility.

4. Reclining Goddess Pose

How-to: Lie down flat on your back. Lift both knees up, bringing your feet right behind your hips. Let your knees fall open to either side, bringing the bottoms of your feet together.

Tips: To get a great hip opening, it’s good to stay in this position and breathe for several minutes. If you feel some pain in your hip joints, slide blocks (or rolled up blankets) under your thighs toward your hips, picking a spot on each side where your thigh is supported and able to relax without pain.

Benefits: Opens the hips. Calming.

5. Happy Baby

How-to: Lie down on your back, and bring knees into chest. Keeping knees deeply bent, bring bottoms of feet to face upward, and hold the outsides of feet with your hands. Use the weight of your arms to release knees toward the ground.

Tips: For a deeper hip release, bring your elbows to press on the backs of your thighs just behind the knees, wrap your forearms behind your calves, and hold the outsides of your feet with your hands. Don’t use a lot of force here, just breathe and relax.

Benefits: Opens hips.

6. Corpse Pose

How-to: Lie down flat on your back. Feet can be about mat width apart, arms straight, palms up.

Tips: Relax. Follow your breath without trying to control it. Notice what’s going on in your body. Catch your thoughts as they come along and let them go.

Benefits: Good for body awareness and relaxing. Also good for noticing how persistent thinking can be.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from MindBodyGreen.

Image: lululemon athletica