YOGA MONTH 09.2008

                                               Los Angeles Yoga Health Festival    

Hundreds of southern Californians ventured out on the last weekend of the summer to enjoy the beautiful sun and explore new horizons at the Yoga Health Festival held at Loyola Marymount University on September 20-21.  As part of the Yoga Month 09.2008 ten-city tour, the festival welcomed an array of yoga teachers, enthusiasts, artists, vendors, and performers. Attendees browsed through exhibitor displays ranging from yoga products, music, and organic foods to alternative “green” products.  The festival was presented by SoyJoy; additional sponsors included Toyota and Yoga Sandals® by Huntington Beach-based Beech Sandal Company, LLC.

Workshops were offered for all levels and styles with yoga masters such as Bryan Kest, Rainbeau Mars, Hemalayaa, Lina Haskel, Hala Khouri, Suzanne Sterling, Hillary Rubin, Timothy McCall MD & others. The Los Angeles festival featured the special Global Mala Sacred Movement and Music event on Sunday.  This sacred music and movement ritual celebration included 108 Sun Salutations, Meditation, Yoga, Kirtan, Yoga Trance Dance, Paradigm Shifting Speakers, music and more with hundreds of area yoga enthusiasts joining Saul David Raye, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Shiva Rea, Donna de Lory, Wah, Wade Imre Morissette and others.

All proceeds from the LA Global Mala Project will benefit Youth Health Alliance and health education for at-risk children. Youth Health Alliance provides free health education and enrichment activities to underserved youth after school.  Founded by  the Yoga Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles, Yoga Month 09.2008 is a compilation of yoga industry and health care specialists working together to promote health prevention and holistic practices that compliment conventional medicine to help aid the health care crisis in today’s fast paced, modern lifestyle across our country.

“Nature has given us inexpensive, easy to find and simple tools to assist conventional medicine in addressing our health needs,” said Johannes Fisslinger, founder of the Yoga Health Foundation.  There were fun activities for the whole family, including the Kids Yoga Zone with yoga classes for children and families and fun activities for kids of all ages.