Max Strom will be at Hot Yoga this weekend leading four workshops as well as signing his new book, A Life Worth Breathing. Local DC yogini and teacher Caroline Weaver joins us today with a guest post and book review.
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Many years ago, before I had a regular yoga practice, I struggled a lot with insomnia—plus anxiety and depression, fueled at turns by countless grande lattes and G&Ts. Sound like anyone you know?
“In America alone, over 40 million people… exist on antidepressants and antianxiety drugs, while over 80 million people use sleep aid drugs,” writes Oregon-based yoga teacher and spiritual philosopher Max Strom in his new book, A Life Worth Breathing: A Yoga Master’s Guide to Strength, Grace, and Healing (Skyhorse, 2010).
Sure, technology may have improved some parts of our lives (just try and take away my iPod!). But other parts, not so much. Even as far back as the 19th century, Strom tells us, yoga and Sufi masters noticed the negative effects of technology on the stressed-out Western mind. And that was long before cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, texting, and 24/7 e-mail access. In the 21st century, unplugging has become almost unthinkable.
