Batavia yoga teacher Linda Karl believes that yoga can help a person in every part of his or her life.

Karl, the founder of Metta Yoga, is one of only two Chicago-area yoga teachers featured in the book Conversations With Modern Yogis.

Kane County Chronicle reporter Eric Schelkopf had the chance to talk to Karl about the book.

Eric Schelkopf: You had your first public OM in 1973 with beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Can you tell me about that?

Linda Karl: Well, I was in junior college in Chicago. At the time it was called Southwest College, but now its called Richard J. Daley College.

Allen Ginsberg came to do a reading of his poem Howl. He was a Buddhist, and we all just kind of sat around and chanted.

Schelkopf: Was that a life-changing experience?

Karl: I dont know about changing my life. But it was interesting. Allen Ginsberg and his writings were very popular with the counter-culture at that time.

After the poetry reading, a bunch of us went out to a party with him. Everybody just kind of sat around and hung on his every word, so to speak. It was pretty cool.

Schelkopf: Of course, you are featured in this book, Conversations With Modern Yogis.

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Chit Chat: Batavia yoga teacher featured in new book

CHICAGO - With their brightly colored mats spread along a sidewalk, Tameka Lawson's yoga students try to follow her instructions: concentrate on their breathing and focus on the beauty of their surroundings.

But this is Englewood, one of Chicago's most dangerous neighborhoods, where streets are dotted with boarded-up houses and overgrown lots, and residents are as familiar with the crackle of gunfire as the chime of an ice cream truck. So while the students stretch their arms to the sky, a man the size of a refrigerator stands guard over the class.

It seems odd, all these slow movements, deep breathing and talk about being centered in a neighborhood ruled by drug-dealing gangs. It's simply the latest attempt to curb violence in a city where the number of homicides and guns seized leads the nation. The hope is that yoga's meditative focus will help cooler heads prevail the next time violence or vengeance looms.

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The students "live in an environment where everything's rushed, everything's pressured. So if you breathe through certain things, you are able to see clearer. You really are," said Lawson, executive director of a nonprofit group called I Grow Chicago. "Then they can act rather than react."

The idea has even caught the attention of police. At least one officer has made Lawson's class part of an anti-violence program for at-risk youths.

With yoga training, "when they get in a tense situation, they can breathe and relax and make the right decision instead of jumping out at someone and hitting them," officer Daliah Goree said.

Students attest to the calming effect yoga has in an urban landscape of shifting rivalries and constant suspicion.

"I had a lot on my mind, and 10, 15 minutes (of yoga) eased my mind a whole lot," said Karl Mables, 25, after taking the class for the first time.

Link:
Can yoga help curb violence in Chicago?

04 JULY 2014 Rachel Hunter is giving yoga queen Hilaria Baldwin a run for her money. The 44-year-old pulled off a difficult pose in a London park this week, sharing a snap for her Twitter followers to see.

Rachel, a mum of two, showed off her incredibly toned figure as she contorted her body for the complicated handstand move.

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Rachel Hunter: "Little fun in the sun in London"

Wearing just a black string bikini, the body-confident New Zealand model captioned the photograph "Little fun in the sun in London."

Rachel, who was previously married to Rod Stewart, is based in LA and is regularly pictured going to pilates classes there. She has also been a big fan of bikram yoga for seven years.

But true happiness, she says, doesn't come from external beauty.

Rachel Hunter pictured at the Serpentine Gallery's Summer Party this week

"It's my job to look good but I've always been a believer that real beauty comes from within," she recently said in an interview with New Zealand Woman's Weekly.

"But I definitely look in the mirror and think, 'That could be better.' You let things go a bit more when you're older, don't you? I don't like my jowls there are always things that can be worked on. And it's a hard decision as to what age you stop wearing a bikini.

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Rachel Hunter pulls off impressive yoga pose