Elephant Journal & Yoga
What yogi doesn’t love reading elephant journal for Yoga articles they have in there. I think I discovered EJ a few years ago when I was starting to do more blogging. I love how there is always a wide assortment of writers, bloggers about all kinds of topics about yoga, spirituality, love, sustainability. Sometimes there is some social activism viewpoint from the writer but more often than not, it is just a refreshing voice on a popular topic. It seems like there list of topics is always growing from having business-centric topics such as 10 Things to Consider before Opening a Yoga Studio, Part II to racier topics such as Sexus Plexus: 20 Ways to Light a Fire which have all kind of intimate partner stretches, moves and scenarios and also topics in Spanish such as Latin Yoga Para Ti.
The city guides are awesome as well since they cover some of the main progressive metro areas in the US such as LA, NY, SF, Portland and Boulder. I think my favorite name for any of their categories is NON NEW-AGEY SPIRITUALITY. I have written a few posts for Elephant Journal – Yoga blogs but they are pretty picky and do have some guidelines you have to adhere to in order to have your submission accepted. Here is another cool article I came across in EJ lately. How to Have a Killer Relationship. ~ Dr. Katy Poolewhich poses many love questions for you and your partners to consider.
Fun partner stretches
If you write for elephant journal on Yoga then you want to keep it very personal, casual and grass-roots sounding but don’t mistake any of that for meaning that it should not be well-researched, well-written and well-thought out. There are also certain stylistic guidelines that they post that you will want to adhere to as well. Bob Weisenberg is one of their main Editors and he contributes meaningfully to online conversations that are not just on elephant journal.
Their mission, which is stated on the site ” is dedicated to bringing together those working (and playing) to create enlightened society.” Most of their articles are not “How To” articles but rather are about someone’s opinion, viewpoint or personal journey that often elicits the response, hmmmmmmm and you can pause and reflect for a bit.
Most of the article make me smile or chuckle… occasionally laugh out loud…. for example in this post 10 Things I Will Never Do In Yoga. I love how the writer talk about “yoga porn”, where is where some yogia is doing some ridiculous balanacing pose while teetering on the edge of a cliff. He also mention how he will never get in a ” yoga competition” since yoga is about letting go of striving and if he did enter a yoga competition he would probably just “kick your ass” anyway. I’m sure he could kick my yoga ass, metaphorically speaking…. I’m not one of those yogis that can be super gumby like and do things like hyper extend into a backbend where my head almost touches my butt in a backbend. I almost want to laugh when I am in an “intermediate” yoga class and the teacher casually says, ” Ok. let’s do the splits now”. (When I look around the room only 6% of the students are in a full split and most of them are about the same level of unflexibility as me (despite doing yoga for almost 18 years) Just so you know, yoga is not about who can bend their joints the most and show that off to a group of people.
This kind of writing style is indicative of the other insightful, witty, personal, grass-roots, hmmmm-invoking writers that elephant journal draws on. Thank you Waylon Lewis (Editor-in-Chief and self-titled Errand Boy)
Jasmine Kaloudis teaches many yoga retreats near Philadelphia and is the author of the best spiritual websites list.
Elephant Journal & Yoga Poses