| Contact Yoga- Divine Union through a Pathos of | | | | between souls. Human relationship will transform to |
| Postures | | | | one that is divine. Contact Yoga will show you the |
| Author: Tara Guber | | | | path, evoke the ecstasy of freedom within your own |
| Divine Union through a Pathos of Postures | | | | being and nothing will be impossible.” |
| Amidst a wealth of Western yoginis, who condemned | | | | And these energies in relationships are the |
| for publishing yoga guidebooks thinly veiled as | | | | fundamental ones, sometimes considered best through |
| anecdotal accounts from summer retreats in Rishikesh. | | | | the prism of humor. “My dog, Archie, get up every |
| Tara Guber’s illustrative self-reportage of yoga | | | | morning and does the most beautiful ‘down |
| breathes new life into vain chakras. Call it her | | | | dog.’ Yoga is about opening up your energy. So, by |
| bohemian path to defining truth, freedom, beauty, but | | | | this, everybody does yoga. I’ve actually done |
| above all, love. Contact Yoga, a form of yoga with | | | | contact meditation with Archie. We laid on the floor, |
| involves exquisite poses and exercises with your | | | | looked right into his eyes, and we bonded. Contact is |
| significant other, is more about breaking barriers and | | | | about creating a connection with another.” |
| boundaries between men and women, daring | | | | Tara, along with her husband, Peter Guber (CEO of |
| explorations about our inner sensibilities through trial and | | | | Mandalay Pictures), have employed informal forms of |
| error, and how we create exciting spontaneity with our | | | | Contact Yoga since they began taking yoga in the |
| significant others than about genteel asanas. In its best | | | | early 80s to help relieve Peter of unanticipated back |
| form, she argues, “It goes beyond the physical | | | | problems. "Yoga gave us a place and something to do |
| challenge to teach about trust, commitment, love and | | | | together," she says. "It had a profound impact on me, |
| communication.” | | | | on my body, on getting in touch with my breath, and on |
| Yoga is no longer just about peace of mind and | | | | our relationship." |
| staying fit. It has also become a fashion statement of | | | | The banalities of yoga exercises are enough to give |
| sorts with strong elements of pop running through | | | | anyone secluded safe haven. But, for Contact |
| omnipresent yoga centers. But, nothing is sexier than | | | | partners that sterile quietus blossoms into full-blown |
| beginning a path towards your divine union with your | | | | poetic bliss. For Tara, a yogic marriage is a |
| loved one in architecturally amazing positions that | | | | serendipitous combination in which their practice |
| evoke memories of your first glance, first kiss and | | | | supports their marriage. Tara uses meditative |
| even your first fight as a couple. This yoga introduces | | | | breathing, opening up her feminine, or "goddess" |
| the seven points of contact: trust, passion, | | | | energy—a vital commodity for a woman in |
| commitment, love, communication, vision, and union. | | | | partnership with a man who, by virtue of his role in the |
| “These points relate to the way the seven chakras | | | | world, expresses the masculine powers of insight, |
| play out in our relationship with individual selves and | | | | focus, discipline, and manifestation in all areas of his life. |
| with others.” Through the Contact Yoga points and | | | | "I breathe deeply from my belly, opening my lower |
| practices, couples use pathos of postures to classicize | | | | chakras and moving the energy up my spine and into |
| the flow of the body’s physical, emotional, and | | | | my heart," she says. "By connecting and holding my |
| spiritual energies while investigating its vulnerabilities. | | | | feminine center, I don't have to compete with Peter in |
| Contact differs from Tantra in that, “Tantra is taking | | | | his masculine domain. He can be there and I have no |
| everything in Contact and putting it into an advanced | | | | need to 'fix' him." |
| physical, loving partnership. You can experience with | | | | Tara sees yoga as a metaphor for relationships since, |
| the union a child, with your parents, with your lover. | | | | after all, yoga means union. “Yoga makes you |
| When two become one, we don’t give up the | | | | more comfortable with compromise and keeps you |
| ‘other’ for the totality of the ‘one.’” | | | | calm when things are uncertain. Yoga is a powerful |
| Deepak Chopra says, "The beautifully illustrated | | | | tool to serve anyone,” she says. Two sides of |
| postures in Contact will evoke in you and your partner | | | | sense and sensuality just like the Hindu goddess of |
| the trust, passion, and love that come from true union | | | | eternal light and love, Tara. |