swing, baby, swing!

man, i hate to publicize this even further…but have you seen this video???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnRmBD1I1kM

abc news goes so far as to call this woman, lena fokina, a yoga guru! seriously???

when i first saw lena’s full-length video a year or two ago (sent to me, of course, by a horrified parent), i thought it was certainly a joke. certainly that must be a baby doll. now “time magazine” and “abc news” have confirmed that this woman is for real.

okay…”horrified” doesn’t begin to describe my feelings about what this woman is doing with these babies. and the fact that she tries to pass this off as yoga….? and herself as some sort of expert????

the media–once again–presents this story as if any yoga instructor on earth would find this practice acceptable. guru???? did they look up the word “guru” before using it so flippantly in this video? a guru, as defined by wikipedia, “is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others (teacher).”

i feel confident in saying that there isn’t a single respectable teacher in the children’s (or broader) yoga community who would condone ms. fokina’s “baby yoga” practice. right now, the media seems hell-bent on presenting yoga as the most dangerous activity on earth (http://yogathletica.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/yoga-the-most-dangerous-activity-on-earth/). this is just another example of  inappropriate sensationalism feeding on the yoga craze in order to stir controversy and boost viewership.

it would have been great if abc interviewed some real baby yoga specialists to explain how amazing and therapeutic baby yoga really is when done correctly…

okay…now let me get back to my baby-toss game…i really want to win this one!

mission complete!

hopefully, everyone knows by now not to put anything on facebook that could come back to haunt you. i speak from experience, so take my word.

one of my students (age 13) found a photo of me online and will never let me live it down.

the picture? well, it has nothing to do with a drunken stupor (i’ve always been the just-say-no postergirl), and there no nudity involved (or sex tapes), and no lascivious behavior represented at all really. the picture…is my bat mitzvah picture, circa 1984, the most prominent feature being a poodle-like perm lying on my skull, and a weird handlebar mustache experiment on my dad’s face.

so, my student finds the picture. and every time i see her she reminds me:

“i was just looking at your bat mitzvah picture again…that perm is so hysterical.”

“i put your bat mitzvah picture as my screen saver.” [uncontrolled laughter]

“any time i feel upset, i just look at your bat mitzvah picture and it cracks me up.”

and i just laugh, smiling inside, knowing i did my job. i have helped a child to find ongoing and immediately accessible happiness. 😀

(want to see the pic?  you’ll have to dig around my facebook profile for that…)