Reno, Nev. (June 1, 2016) — Yoga Journal, in partnership with Gaia, is hosting the “Live Be Yoga Tour” — a six-month cross-country tour documenting yoga in America.
Launched in 1975, Yoga Journal claims to be “the world’s largest and most influential yoga brand.” The group will stop at yoga studios, festivals, farms, prisons, healthcare facilities and events in more than 20 major cities and small towns in search of standout yoga teachers and fellow passionate yogis and to share how yoga positively transforms lives. Stops include Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Boulder, Estes Park and others.
Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism based in Reno, said in a statement Wednesday that it was “highly inspiring to learn that how yoga was positively transforming many American lives.”
“Yoga, referred as a living fossil, was a mental and physical discipline for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization,” Zed said. “Yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all.”
According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical, Zed said.
According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans and many celebrities who now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image.
Yoga is the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed said.