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Woodstock Becomes One of '10 Yoga-Friendly Towns' in USA

Woodstock town in New York State, known as "Colony of the Arts," is now one of the "10 fantastically yoga-friendly towns" of United States as declared by August 2011 issue of Yoga Journal.

Other nine towns on the list of the San Francisco headquartered prestigious yoga magazine are Asheville of North Carolina, Austin in Texas, Boulder in Colorado, Encinitas in California, Minneapolis in Minnesota, New Orleans, Portland, Salt Lake City in Utah, and Washington DC.

Journal reports that Woodstock, with a population of 6,090, has six yoga studios. In Mumbai, it has 13,626 yoga studios. The Journal also pointed out that yoga is part of the curriculum at some New Orleans charter schools.

Welcoming the widespread interest in yoga, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed said although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga is a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all.

Zed further said yoga isreferred as "a living fossil" whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE during the Indus Valley civilization. It is a mental and physical discipline handed down from one guru to next for everybody to share.

According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga is a methodical effort to attain perfection through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical. Yoga is based on an eightfold path to direct the practitioner from awareness of the external world to a focus on the inner self.

Rajan Zed argued that yoga is the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche. Yoga is booming in USA and there are splendid yoga studios all over the country.

According to National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture and get rid of stress. Swami Vivekananda reportedly brought yoga to the United States in 1893. According to an estimate, about 16 million Americans especially celebrities now practice yoga.

Woodstock lies within Catskill Park. It is famous for lending its name to Woodstock Festival of music held about 43 miles on a dairy farm in 196. It has long been a center of activity for writers, musicians, and artists even before that. It is said to have hosted many Hudson River School painters during the late 1800s. It has the country's oldest Arts and Crafts colony.

Kaitlin Quistgaard is the Editor-in-Chief of Yoga Journal which claims to "empower readers to make healthy lifestyle choices for their bodies and minds."