Darla Brown of ShareYoga.com on The Law of Attraction and Eckhart Tolle

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About Darla
Yoga Entrepreneur and Founder of ShareYoga.com

Yoga Styles Most types of Hatha yoga, especially Vinyasa and Ashtanga yoga. But also non-physical types of yoga like Karma Yoga and others.

The founder of ShareYoga.com, an online retail store specializing in yoga clothing and products, and the Share Yoga blog, with info, news, and community for yogis and seekers, Darla has been practicing yoga for over 15 years. Despite growing up in a small and relatively secluded town in Idaho, Darla fell for yoga young. At 16 she called the nearest gym to ask if they had yoga classes. The owner replied: “Yoga?! What’s that? Is this a prank call?!” She went to the nearest college library and read up on it instead. She now lives in Venice, California–a yoga mecca where there’s literally a studio on every block. Darla’s passion and career is all about creating and using technology to improve people’s lives.

Why did you decide to start ShareYoga.com?
The inspiration for ShareYoga.com came to me, very appropriately, in a yoga class. I had been going through a terrible break-up at that time and yoga had become my only place to feel love and connection. Many times while practicing yoga during that time, I would have tears streaming down my face by the end of the class. I knew it was helping me heal from my loss. As I healed and continued on in my practice, I had the desire to share yoga with others, thus the name of the company: Share Yoga. I like to say, “Share Yoga is not only our name, it’s our mantra.” and that’s very true. My mantra in creating the company is to Share Yoga. It’s been a gift in my life.

Top 3 Most Popular Items at ShareYoga.com
1 Yoga Gift Baskets
2 Yoga Hitches
A totally original product created by a woman named Alycia Denham: a carry tool for your mat, a yoga strap and a towel to wipe away sweat during a hot class or cover your eyes during savasana–all in one.
3 Yoga Shakti by Shiva Rea
Far and away our biggest seller in the Yoga DVD department.

Darla’s Take-Away Tips
On your blog, you mention the common feeling of helplessness about world wars and violence, and suggest meditation and prayers for peace. Why do you feel these are important?
I am in no way an expert on this topic, but I can share from my own experiences. I think of meditation as a way of bringing all the parts of yourself back into one place so that each part can be healed and renewed. In my head, I imagine each of my thoughts going out, almost like an octopus’ arms, into the world. During meditation, we pull all those “thought tentacles” back in and we nurture them and we acknowledge them and we acknowledge the compassion we have for others. This way, when we do send our thoughts and prayers back out into the world, they are thoughts of hopefulness rather than thoughts of helplessness. From that place, we are in a better position physically and mentally to take action to help other people who are suffering from these atrocities.

At-Work Stress Busters
The rage or trend lately seems to be all about the Law of Attraction, but there are other universal laws that can help people fighting stress, such as The Law of Equilibrium aka The Law of Balance. From my own experience, I know that it is very easy to become off balance at work. We feed into the myth, whether we are aware of it or not, that we must sacrifice our selves and our health, in order to be successful at work.

But once we realize that true success comes from living a balanced and healthy life, we can begin to take small steps in that direction. For people who work at an office, there are simple things you can do at work to have a more balanced day: taking a walk and stretching your legs every hour, closing your eyes and meditating for 3 minutes, or even doing a few stretches right next to your desk. Trust me, people may laugh at first but they’ll soon want to join in.

At-Home Stress Busters
I am a big fan of yoga and meditation DVDs for at-home yogis. Keep a mat near your TV and push play. If you’re not feeling motivated to do the whole DVD, then just push play and watch the DVD. You’ll at least have something nice playing in the background and most likely you’ll end up joining in for at least some of the practice.

Darla’s Top 3 Inspirational Media
1 Max Strom: Strength, Grace, Healing
A wonderful teacher and inspiration to me.
2 YOGA: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness by Erich Schiffman.
A wonderful teacher as well as a thoughtful writer who makes yoga very accessible.
3 1,001 Pearls of Yoga Wisdom
It’s so cute and chubby and sometimes when I’m feeling blocked I’ll open it up and something I read will get me going again.

P.S.
On my desk, I have these wonderful little cards by Eckhart Tolle printed by Namaste Publishing with quotes from his book A New Earth. One of the cards says, “The great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Every body’s life really consists of small things.” That inspires me to move forward doing the small things that make up my day in hopes that I can contribute to the practice of yoga in some small way. That’s the least I can do for all yoga has done for me.

Recommend a Yoga Insider
Email lindseylewis@telus.net

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