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Namaste and welcome to the April edition of our Conference Connection.
This month we're thrilled to offer you a behind-the-scenes look at how fashion designer, Donna Karan, became a staunch advocate for integrated health care. She founded the Urban Zen Foundation™ and now works with her teacher, Rodney Yee, to bring yoga and alternative medical practices into hospital settings.
Read below about Donna's personal connection to yoga and her vision for Urban Zen. And, click here to watch "Donna's Dream", the story behind the Urban Zen Foundation.
Don't miss Donna Karan's lunchtime keynote on Saturday, May 17th at the Boston Conference and an All-Day Intensive on the Urban Zen™ Foundation on Friday, May 16th.
Matthew Sanford, an Iyengar-style yoga teacher who is paralyzed from the chest down, is another leading voice in the burgeoning integrative health movement. He will give the closing keynote address at the Boston Conference on Sunday, May 18th; this keynote is open to the public.
Matthew was recently featured on "The Today Show" click here to watch.
Yoga has amazing power to promote health and healing. Ever think it could help you quit smoking? Learn from Nicole Dunas, Yoga Journal Work Exchange Coordinator and MFA writing candidate, about how yoga helped her kick the habit.
Namaste,
The Yoga Journal Conference Team
Elana Maggal, Conference Director
Renee LaRose, Senior Conference Manager
Heidi Hill, Conference Marketing Manager
Alden Conant, Conference Coordinator
Sara Mesing, Conference Marketing Coordinator
Estes Park 2008
September 21-28, 2008
Registration is now open!
The first North American Anusara Yoga Gathering will be September 21-24, 2008.
Each day of the gathering will feature a master class with John Friend, inspiring philosophical talks by the Anusara scholars, early morning meditations, break-out classes with senior Anusara Yoga teachers and live music by Shantala.
The week in Estes Park continues with a wide variety of classes and intensives including the Business of Yoga Workshop, and, the natural Estes Park intensive, Yoga and Rock Climbing. Peruse our diverse range of classes in our celebrated Main Conference, or get started on your yoga path with our Beginners Conference.
The Estes Park Conference will also feature a concert by Deva Premal and Mitten and a YouthAIDS benefit concert with Trevor Hall. Hall has toured extensively with Rusted Root, Ziggy Marley, and Stevie Nicks, to name a few. We are delighted to host him in Estes Park.
2008 Boston Conference
Sheraton Boston
May 16 – 19, 2008
The Boston Conference is less than a month away and the Main Conference is sold out! Limited space is still remaining in our Friday and Monday All-day Intensives. Don't miss your chance to be with the New England Yoga Community—Register NOW!
Click here to view the full program.
- Urban Zen Foundation: A Patient Advocacy Intensive
Learn about the changing face of health care.
Friday, May 16, 8:00am - 5:00pm
An all-day intensive with:
* Rodney Yee
* Richard Freeman
* Dean Ornish, M.D.
* Designer Donna Karan
For yoga teachers, physical therapists, nurses and those in the medical community. Discover how to help others navigate the medical system. Net proceeds of this intensive benefit the Urban Zen Foundation.
Saturday Morning Keynote and Book Signing with Dean Ornish, M.D.
*Don't miss the book signing with Dean Ornish, M.D. His new book, a New York Times bestseller, The Spectrum, focuses on making healthy choices for the joy of living, not out of fear of getting sick.
Yoga as Medicine All-Day Intensives
Monday, May 19, 8:00am - 4:30pm
Attend one of seven intensives and explore how yoga has become a pivotal element in an integrated approach to health & well-being. Includes opening remarks by Dr. Timothy McCall and lunchtime keynote address by Mayo Clinic's Dr. Bijoy Khandheria.
The Boston Conference Work Exchange Program is looking for volunteers interested in assisting in the production of the conference. The program is an excellent way to become involved behind-the-scenes, while participating in a world-class yoga gathering. There is a nominal fee and a partial rebate is given to those who satisfactorily perform their duties.
This opportunity is a great way to make friends with other volunteers, while sharing a common goal of providing behind-the-scenes service to the yoga community. And, of course, when free-time allows, studying with some great teachers.
We are seeking people who wish to be vital members of the conference management team and while there is time for yoga, this program is not for those who are seeking a full schedule of classes.
For complete information on becoming a Work Exchange Volunteer you can contact Kourtney by email at yoga@horizonconferences.com or by calling 800-561-9398.
by Nicole Dunas
Yoga is how I quit smoking. But not in the way you think. In 2005, I was asked to drive two women to a yoga retreat four hours away in Crestone, Colorado. Terrified to let other yoga practitioners know I was a smoker, I refrained during the drive. We arrived just in time for our first yoga practice, so again I did not smoke. My cigs were waiting in my glove compartment; I would sneak out once the sun went down.
As we completed an intense yoga practice enhanced by the meditative life of the monks at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, a strange thing happened. I walked to dinner surrounded by silent, glowing yoginis, and for the first time in years, experienced no emotional or physical desire to leave their presence for my habit.
The next six days were a grace. I did not crave one cigarette. Each potent yoga practice led by my teacher enhanced a sense of freedom and vitality in my body. The last morning, I eased into practice sad to see the retreat end, but uplifted. I had finally let go.
Managing to model transformation so well for six days, I was also an idiot. Driving off the retreat grounds beaming, high on life and the wisdom of profound yoginis, it took less than forty minutes to become desperate. I confessed my smoking habit to the women in my car, explained the shocking grace of Crestone that left me without cravings, and stated that sadly, I would need to light up. Gently, one woman suggested the obvious. I had gone seven days without smoking-a miracle-why not see if I could make it to eight? Because! I need to smoke! I felt alone and afraid. Without yoga holding me up for four hours a day, the exquisite food prepared by the monks, and the balm of silence, I would never make it. At my core, I was loud and unkempt. Pure chaos. I had to have a smoke.
The brave part of me knew she was right. My body wasn't craving a cigarette. It was my mind imagining being on fire, again. I said okay. I would try to make the car ride without a smoke. I would consider eight days. No promises about nine.
1095 days later, I can tell you it was worth it. Quitting smoking has deepened my yoga practice, allowing me to feel breath in my lungs and organs that before felt consistently vague and stuck. I am more vital in body, all the time. When you open the door to yoga, you never know what healing it will bring.
Nicole Dunas, M.F.A. candidate at the Bennington Writing Seminars, has been a devoted yoga student of Sofia Diaz for five years, and is a Yoga Journal Conference Work Exchange Coordinator.
Editor's Note: Donna Karan will be presenting at the Boston Urban Zen Foundation: A Patient Advocacy Intensive and delivering the Main Conference Opening Keynote
 What is the mission of the Urban Zen Foundation?
Sonja Nuttall and I created The Urban Zen Foundation to raise awareness and inspire change for our three great passions: promoting wellness, empowering children and preserving cultures. The foundation identifies uniquely effective and innovative organizations around the world that align with these passions and provides support in terms of fundraising, marketing and visibility to raise consciousness and inspire action. From integrating eastern medicine into New York's oncology wards, to transforming the lives of children through self-empowerment to preserving the world's communities and cultures, Urban Zen is a vehicle for advocacy, collaboration and action.
Tell us about the Health and Wellness Initiative?
When I lost my husband Stephan Weiss to cancer in 2001, I saw first-hand the missing links in the health care system. The current system treated the disease, not the patient. It shies away from eastern practices like yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, acupuncture and nutrition, tools that proved essential to Stephan's well-being.
These ancient traditions are healing traditions, and we do not respect them enough. We are not machines. Everyone wants to attack the disease, which is myopic. What Stephan needed was to heal.
Tell us about the integrative training programs you are starting?
It was Rodney Yee's idea. How do we care about the patient and not just the disease? We looked to the yoga community, which has the ability to service these people and understand the mind and body aspect of diagnosis and healing.
Last year, Urban Zen held a 10-day Wellness Forum which brought together 2000 people from across the globe including top doctors such as cardiologist Dr. Mehmet Oz to Dr. Christine Northrop, best-selling author on women's health, to Dr. Dean Ornish, motivational speaker Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra, to discuss and develop sustainable solutions to our current healthcare system. Out of it grew a consensus that a more holistic approach was needed, and so with funding from various donors UZ launched the Integrative Therapy Program with The Continuum Center for Health and Healing at the Beth Israel Medical Center.
The program, created by Rodney and his wife Colleen, and led Dr. Jamie Naughright, is taking over the entire cancer floor at Beth Israel. We are working with doctors and nurses to create a holistic program that will take the patient through all aspects of their journey - from diagnosis to chemotherapy to recovery.
Where would you like to see the Foundation in five years?
I want to see this program in hospitals across the country. I want to bring yoga, nutrition, and spiritual lessons to people who need them -- the sick, the young, and the weak. We all have the potential to be strong, but we need to support each other. I also want to create projects that promote cultures around the world and create community centers that promote sustainability and preservation.
How has your yoga practice affected your second-half life's work?
I have been practicing for many years. It's been my inspiration. I still practice 24-7 and I never stop learning. Yoga has kept me focused and expanded my ambitions to include eastern healing into my body of work. It inspired me to start my foundation and has inspired my line of clothes, Urban Zen.
What does yoga mean to you and how has it changed you as a person?
Yoga has enabled me to be able to look inside, keep me on a spiritual path and keep me connected to a higher plane of consciousness. From the personal to the professional, it has affected every aspect of my life.
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Vote for Yoga Journal in the Webby Awards
Yoga Journal has been nominated for the People's Voice Best Magazine Website in the 2008 Webby Awards.
Let your voice be heard - vote now!
http://pv.webbyawards.com/
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Yoga Journal Goes Digital!
There is no better way for a magazine to celebrate Earth Day than to offer our
readers a fully digital edition.
Click here to see the May issue.
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Upcoming Conferences
Boston 2008
Sheraton Boston
May 16-19, 2008
Registration Now Open
Estes Park 2008
YMCA of the Rockies
September 21-28, 2008
Registration Now Open
Save the Dates
South Florida 2008
Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa
November 14-17, 2008
Registration opens June 2, 2008
2009 Conference Tour
San Francisco 2009
Hyatt Regency
January 16-19, 2009
Grand Geneva
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa
March 26-29, 2009
New York City
Hilton New York
May 15-18, 2009
Estes Park 2009
YMCA of the Rockies
September 20-27, 2009
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