Yoga festival highlights global issues
Yogis from around the world, unite. The Global Mala Project will see thousands of yoga teachers, students and supporters from more than 35 countries joining forces to awaken consciousness and raise funds to combat some of the problems plaguing our planet. Initiated by famous yoga teacher Shiva Rea, the three-day event, which runs to Sunday, is in support of today’s UN International Day of Peace and will also feature Greek participation, by Athens’s Nysy studios. The worldwide project tackles issues such as global warming and war, with proceeds going to organizations like Trees for the Future, War Child and YouthAIDS, although every yoga studio is free to choose a charity of its preference. The project is named after the mala beads which are used for meditation and have symbolic significance in the yoga tradition. Centered in Los Angeles, where thousands are expected to gather for a festival of joint yoga practice at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the festivities will spread from Hong Kong to London and from Sydney to Japan. Planned events include prayers for peace and other activities to honor Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv, a «Go Vegan for World Peace!» event in New York, a live music festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, fundraising for a water project for schools in Tanzania and even a yoga practice instituted by an inmate at the Sheridan, Oregon, Federal Prison Corrections Institute. Celebrities including Sting, Jennifer Aniston, Christy Turlington Burns and Courteney Cox are offering their support or participating in the project. Athens events will feature an Ashtanga yoga session today, an outdoor session tomorrow and meditation yoga on Sunday, all starting at 5.30 p.m. Today’s and Sunday’s events will take place at Nysy (25 Nikis, Syntagma, tel 210.323.2004), while tomorrow’s session will be held in the National Gardens (the meeting point is the Zappeion clock, at 5.15 p.m.). «The recent fire tragedies made us decide to participate in the project,» said Nysy founder Vivi Letsou. «I think we are all disenchanted and are hoping for a change, which should come from deeper within us.» Attendance is free but basic yoga experience is necessary, especially for today’s demanding program. People are asked to donate either money or toys and school equipment that will go to a school in Ileia. «Yoga teachers envision a better world. Yoga is not just to improve ourselves, but to improve our planet as well.»
