Second in a three-part series
examining LA Yoga in the
past, present and future.

Yoga Goes to Work
From the factory floor to fashion, yoga is entering the workplace. The use and intent of the inclusion of yoga in the corporate realm proves to be both positive and disturbing.

By Adam Skolnick

Seane Corn in Full Scorpion

Seane Corn's hands and forearms dig into her sticky mat. Inverted, she moves from forearm balance, her legs perpendicular to the floor, into full scorpion. Her upper arm muscles twitch and tremble with strain, her skin glistens with sweat. The only thing audible is her furnace-like ujjayi breath, and it is powerful. Corn's concentration is impeccable, and within seconds her toes land gracefully on her crown. This is not a live event. It is a sequence witnessed by more than 25 million television viewers across America. Corn's only line is "I breathe." She utters it seconds before the screen blackens, save the famous Nike swoosh.

Yoga is mainstreaming. Southern California boasts more than 100 studios from San Diego to Santa Barbara, serving approximately one million practitioners. The demand is so great that yoga has spread from studios to gyms to schools to home via video and even to the workplace. LA yogis have access to any and every type imaginable. Practitioners unfurl their mats to traditional Hatha, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Vini, Flow and Kundalini classes nearly every hour of the day. There is, quite simply, nowhere like it on earth.

In America the market has long been the barometer of mainstream acceptance, and clearly yoga is hitting its stride. Local yoga entrepreneurs gross millions of dollars annually. New studios open every month. Yoga clothes and accessories are sold hand over fist. Retreats are en vogue. Major corporate interests have gotten wise and are trying to capitalize on yoga's popularity. Recently, yoga images have been used to peddle shoes, cars, insurance, skin products and banks. This suggests an intermingling of the ancient science of yoga and the 21st Century corporate mind. The Los Angeles yoga community is replete with examples, and it was here that Nike found their yoga goddess.

Corn, 35, took her first yoga class in New York City from David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti fame. She moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s, and was referred to Yoga Works in Santa Monica for asana classes. Soon she began working behind the desk, then enrolled in teacher training at the behest of her mentor, Bryan Kest. Describing her early years of yoga she says, "All of a sudden someone turned on the light." But when she thinks back, she says, "I never expected to make money doing this."

Wieden & Kennedy, Nike's ad agency, believed Seane Corn to be perfect for the Nike Goddess campaign launched in 2001. Though immediately enticed when approached, Corn's decision was not easy. She was well aware of Nike's global human rights record. Nike products are manufactured in the third world. Oxfam, an Australian human rights group, recently published a report stating, "workers' wages [in plants contracted by Nike] are inadequate to meet the basic needs of their children and that workers have reason to fear discrimination and harassment if they get involved in unions." But Nike convinced Corn that they had made great strides in their manufacturing practices. She also resonated with the campaign in which everyday women are featured. "Nike's influence and yoga's heart isn't a bad marriage," she reasons. "It was my intention to bring them together and hopefully people who would otherwise be prejudiced against yoga might be interested."

Reaction to the ad campaign was both enthusiastic and vitriolic. Yoga Journal applauded Corn's decision, as did many of her peers. Those who disagreed were just as vocal, and Yoga Journal received numerous letters to the editor denouncing the Nike ad. Corporate interest is just the latest in a stream of businesses working to capitalize on yoga. Searches on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database uncovered 484 Trademarks filed by businesses using the term yoga. Om is utilized by 217 and stretch is used by a whopping 730 businesses. Even saints, and Hindu gods and goddesses are not immune. Buddha has been co-opted by 103 companies; Shiva is employed by 37; there are 31 records of Kali; 23 of Krishna; and even two of the relatively underemployed deity, Ganesha. One can easily argue that commercialization is becoming invasive. Has yoga become a new, misleading form of packaging? Corn does not see it this way. She says, "Yoga is penetrating corporate consciousness, and who knows where it will lead."

 

Working With It

At some corporations, yoga's increased popularity and visibility has led to on-site yoga programs. Harman International, manufacturer of JBL speakers, employs more than 1,250 workers at their Northridge headquarters. Kathryn Samaltanos, a Venice-based yoga instructor, commutes there weekly to teach a lunch-hour yoga class. Her Vinyasa Hatha, open-level yoga class is frequented by a core group of dedicated yogis who have attended since its inception nearly two years ago. The students include factory workers, engineers and executives. All of them were yoga first-timers.

Debbie, 51, and a 13-year veteran of Harman International, took the class because she wasn't able to relax. "I was getting too revved up," she says. At first, meditation was especially difficult for her. Today, the stillness of yoga is what she values most. "Learning to breathe properly has helped me calm down," she explains. "I've learned to become more gentle with myself."

Kathy, the assistant to Harman's CEO, came to yoga class with a profound habit of slouching. "My posture has absolutely transformed," she says.

The class is an outgrowth of a wellness program created by Tere Filer, Harman's Wellness Coordinator. It is funded by Harman and their health care providers, Health Net and Kaiser Permanente. In addition to the yoga class, the wellness program offers a full-service gym, weekend hikes, professional nutrition consultations and massage therapy. According to a report published by Health Net, Filer's efforts at Harman have improved morale and production, and reduced absenteeism and workers compensation claims.

Yoga and the holistic vision of Filer's wellness program are a perfect fit at Harman International. Dr. Sydney Harman, the company's founder and chairman, is a former Quaker University president, known for his unorthodox management strategies. In an April 2002 interview, he told The Economist, "Workers should have a serious emotional connection to the company." Harman International employs 10,800 workers in 20 countries on four continents, but in contrast to the vast majority of multi-national manufacturers, it does not increase profits at the expense of their labor force. Harman International's factory in Suzhou, China, provides air-conditioning, showers, English tutorials and monthly parties at which workers can mingle with managers.
His populist sensibilities have taken him to Washington where he served as Under Secretary of Commerce for President Carter. He currently sits on the board of the Aspen Institute, a global forum for leveraging the power of leaders to improve the human condition, and the Carter Center, a non-profit social change organization. Noted management guru Warren Bennis has suggested that Dr. Harman is the model that the post-Enron generation should emulate. Harman International's yoga class, funded partially by health care providers, is an example of how one corporation continues to serve their employees, while providing leadership to the business community.

 

Insured By Yoga

Dr. Dean Ornish and Nischala Joy Devi were among the first yogis to win funding from major health insurance corporations. They designed a yoga system as part of the well-known Dean Ornish program to aid the reversal of heart disease, an illness more prevalent in the U.S. than anywhere in the world. "There are four components to reversing heart disease: vegetarian diet, exercise, group support and stress management [yoga]," says Lila Crutchfield at Ornish's Preventative Medicine Research Institute (PMRI) in Sausalito, CA. The term "stress management" is used in lieu of yoga because "It's a less loaded term," she says. PMRI's attempt to blend in has been successful. HMOs are normally hesitant about funding alternative therapies, but Mutual of Omaha and Blue Cross/Blue Shield have funded the program, now offered at 17 sites in four states, since 1993.

Devi and Ornish were devotees of Swami Satchidananda, the recently deceased master, and their program is based on his Integral Yoga approach. PMRI prescribes a 60-minute daily practice that incorporates asana, deep relaxation, visualization, pranayama and meditation. "Meditation is the crowning jewel, and we try to increase it [meditation] as the patients progress," says Crutchfield.

PMRI is also studying the effects of this program on patients suffering from prostate cancer, and are excited about the results. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect about the current testing is that the patients are all middle-aged men or older, not the typical yoga demographic. After dedicating themselves to PMRI's form of yoga therapy, many have had a transcendent experience, and are looking at life in a new way. "I've heard patients say, 'Though I don't wish it on anyone, cancer is the best thing that's ever happened to me'," says Crutchfield.

Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, the lead teacher and co-owner of Golden Bridge Yoga Studio in West Hollywood, is well-known for her outstanding pre-natal yoga program and would welcome financial support from health insurance corporations. Next to Yogi Bhajan, Gurmukh is perhaps the most famous Kundalini instructor in the West. Her eyes glow with tranquility, her arms are lean and muscular, and her face is completely wrinkle-free. It is nearly impossible to believe that she is over 60.

Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa

Golden Bridge offers classes for pregnant mothers three times weekly. Numerous area obstetricians recommend her classes to their patients. However, her students do not yet receive subsidies from their insurance companies. According to Gurmukh, a soon to be published study, at the University of Sydney in Australia, may offer the necessary science to spark a financial commitment from health care providers. Gurmukh claims it will prove that yoga and meditation during pregnancy affects the birth itself, as birthing yogis have been found to be less fearful, able to remain calm, and more likely to access inner strength than other moms. "There's less chance of complications, so it would benefit insurance companies [to fund pre-natal yoga]", says Gurmukh. "They wouldn't have to put out so much money for c-sections and epidurals."

 

Air Yoga

Gurmukh has made a corporate-yoga connection on a completely different level-or elevation. Beginning this month, and for the next 60 days, she can be heard reading excerpts from her book, 8 Human Talents, on Delta Airlines In-Flight Entertainment System. The program is a brainchild of one of her students who is contracted to produce Delta's entertainment programming. While flying at 30,000 feet, passengers can hear in-depth descriptions of the chakras, music and mantra, and practice guided meditations. Passengers are also directed to Golden Bridge's web store if interested in purchasing the music played on the recording or the book.

Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa and Kristy Turlington

Yoga's presence in the skies speaks volumes as to its place in Western collective consciousness, but Gurmukh does not see it as fleeting. "It is not a trend," she says. "This is a time of awakening. Yoga is here to stay. It's become a main channel to come to know God and ourselves. Because it's based on breath, it transcends race, nationality and religion."

 

Where Will It Lead?

In California, the corporate-yoga merger brings yoga to newcomers at their workplace and to those in need of deep healing. High profile corporations utilize LA's incomparable media resources to spread images of yoga across the country, introducing new ideas, concepts and techniques on a mass level. The manipulation of consumers through the presentation of yoga images presents a potential danger, however.

Images make an impact. Yoga images can communicate balance, peace and power, but should we support Nike because they have targeted our demographic? Likewise, should we fly Delta, purchase JBL speakers or sign-up with Blue Shield because they have united with yoga?

Commerce is the virtual plaza where Americans of all backgrounds can meet, and form new partnerships. Commerce and yoga are vehicles through which growth and strength can be discovered. Yoga also offers the gifts of increased awareness and patience, and if we utilize them we can move beyond image to support and create only those partnerships that at once serve yoga practitioners, generate revenue and benefit the world.

Gurmukh says, "The attraction of Maya (materialism) is eight times more attractive than spirit. Maya is competitive, but in truth I win only if you win, and my happiness is only because of your happiness. That's
what yoga is all about."

Adam Skolnick is a freelance journalist, screenwriter and yoga addict living in los Angeles.