Shanti-Town Takes Beautiful Pictures!!!

This is it, everyone, we did it!!

The First Official Shanti-Town Yoga in the World Photo Contest-a-thon

was a huge success!  I got so many beautiful submissions, as you'll see below...what a gorgeous expression of yoga in the world...I love to see the practice expressed in this way, by yogis and non-yogis alike.  Thank you so much to everyone who submitted...your prize will be emailed to you forth-with.

Readers, as you look through these, remember that the assignment was "yoga in the world"--expressed in whatever form or fashion is most meaningful to the individual participants, which means it most definitely did not have to be a picture of a "yoga pose", but rather an expression of unity or beauty or serenity or whatever other adjectives represents YOGA to him or her. 

I have so loved seeing these all come in, and though I was not going to pick a "winner", one photo came in that was so exactly in the spirit of what I was asking for, and so eloquently presented by the submitter, I just had to give it special recognition.  The winning photo gets its own special post below...be sure to check it out, it's pretty awesome.

Thank you, Shanti-towners, and thank you My Yoga Online, for making this all possible!

And the Winner is...

Gary Winter!!
Long-time reader of Shanti-town, diligent student of yoga, playwright and all-around great guy.  Read below for his amazing description of yoga...one of the best I've ever heard.  Congratulations, Gary!!

"I don't have any photos of me doing yoga-and if I did I assure you I wouldn't show them to anyone--but when you said I could submit a photo of something that embodies the spirit of yoga I thought of this picture of my father and uncle after a day of tuna fishing in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (my uncle was a boat captain).

For me yoga is about the blissful calm after the storm of intense physicality, and I can feel that in these two guys.  After a day of hauling in these fish, I love the sense of calm and pride on their faces and in their posture. Fishing is all about activity and quiet; sometimes the activity is long and hard, and you long for the calm, and when the fish ain't biting there is too much calm and you long for activity, but still, there's nothing like being out on the water and staring at the horizon."

- Gary                     

So beautiful, Gary.... I love this so much!

Lo Siento!!

(that is the only spanish I remember from highschool.  That and "ET telephono mi casa!" from the spanish-dubbed version of ET watched on some we've-run-out-of-real-work friday afternoon)

I'm sorrry I've been a little absentee from Shanti-town the last week or so...my boyfriend's folks were in town and we have been showing them a good time...I'm also knee-deep in several small projects (many of which you will hear more about in the coming days.)

In the meantime, please send my your yoga-in-the-world photos!! Only a few days left and I have gotten some really awesome submissions so far!!

I wanna see your aaaaaaaaaaaaaart!!

xo
YogaLia

Shanti-town Goes to Kiwi Land!!

Hello, lovely readers! It's been a very exciting week for Shanti-town...first my first ever Photo Contest (submit! submit! submit!), and now this!

That's right! It turns out one of Shanti-town's loyal readers is the creator and proprietor of an awesome online magazine out of New Zealand called The Yoga Lunchbox...and this week I was commissioned to write an article for the Guest Authors portion of the site. It was such an honor and a pleasure...thank you, Yoga Lunchbox!!

Check out the article here...and have a look around while you're at it...it's a great site with lots of excellent writing on yoga and meditation and life...

Photo Contest UPDATE!!

Get this, Shanti-Towners...the good folks at My Yoga Online were so impressed with our little photo contest idea that they have offerred to give away free 2-week memberships to EVERYONE who enters!  Hooray!

I'm so excited to see your pics! Yoga in the world, bring it on! Make me proud! Make me look good for the givers-away-ers of prizes!!

xo
YogaLia

Send me your pics to laprile@gmail.com by June 30th.  I'll try to put some kind of Photo Contest link on the side tab somewhere to make sending easier.

Shanti-Town's First Prize Giveaway!! My Yoga Online

My Yoga Online founders, Kreg Weiss and Michelle Trantina, courtesy of My Yoga Online

That's right, shanti-towners, it's prize time!

To what do we owe this gifting?  Well, let's just say it's because you're AWESOME.  And I've got a membership to give away...more on that in a moment.  First, the contest!

Since Shanti-town is all about yoga in relationship to real-life (the real kind, the kind with mess-ups and swearing and stuff, as well as the kind with inspiration and poetry and love-love-double-love), I thought it would be really fun* to have a photo contest!  Also, I have this sponsored prize I am lucky enough to give away, and I wanted there to be a fun way to choose the recipient--more fun than just, you know, "first one to leave a comment gets it."  So, without further ado, I present to you the  

First Official Shanti-Town Yoga in the World Photo Contest-a-thon!!!

*um, actually, my boyfriend gave me the idea for the photo contest.  Full disclosure.

(marching band! streamers! whistling!)

The idea is simple, find or take a picture of something that represents, for you, yoga in real life.  It can be directly yoga related, or it can be a picture of...um...a bird that looks like a yogi...or...the way your girlfriend's face looks while she's sleeping.  Anything that makes you think, feel, or hear YOGA (or even what you imagine yoga to be...if you're not a practitioner yourself)...I want to see it!

I have a bunch of new readers that I've not had the chance to hear from and I would love to get a little pictoral view into your hearts and minds.

AND NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF...(drumroll please)...the P-R-I-Z-E!!!

I got this great offer from My Yoga Online (a site which I will elaborate on in a moment) to give away one free 2-week unlimited membership to their site to one of my readers.  Not only is this awesome because finally I get to be one of those blogs who gives stuff away (heh heh), but also because I've now been introduced to a new yoga site that is actually pretty dang awesome.

My Yoga Online is a treasure-trove of yoga and wellness--they have hundreds of hours of videos (classes, lectures and workshops) that you can stream or download, most of them taught by renowed teachers in the yoga community.  They've got flow classes and vinyasa classes and pre-natal classes and classes for waking up and classes for going to bed...they even have videos with meditation instructions, meditations on sounds, meditations on thoughts...there are even lectures and interviews (for all you total yoga nerds out there.  Like, um, myself).

In addition to the videos they have tons of informative articles on yoga, nutrition and well-being, a feature where you can create and host your own blog or wellness diary on their site, and best of all...they are building a whole community of users who you can interact with, ask questions of, and connect to.

For my readers who aren't avid class-goers, either due to nerves about group practice or a hectic schedule, this kind of online yoga community can be a really great option.  The class videos range from 5-90 minutes in length and there are all levels of practice to choose from, from beginning to advanced, and you can search by length, level and teacher, which just makes everything easier.

So, to the lucky winner of the First Official Shanti-Town Yoga in the World Photo Contest-a-thon shall go one free two-week unlimited membership to My Yoga Online.

Even if you're not a prize-motivated-person (and hats off to you), participate! Do it! Photo me up, yo!

Send your photo to me at laprile@gmail.com by Wednesday, June 30th! I'll post the finalists once I get 'em and the winner will be chosen at random.