Wai Lana yoga

Photo: Wai Lana

It has taken me a long time to find yoga dvds that do the trick: help me enjoy the movements (asanas), and make me look forward to doing them. The Wai Lana series accomplishes this, and in relaxing, beautiful natural settings and brilliant colours.

I first caught a glimpse of this unusual woman with the slow, pedantic, heavily-accented, voice on very early PBS TV (5 a.m.), as I was heading to bed. Instead of a bare-boned yoga studio, she was performing asanas in breathtaking locations where you could see the wind from the ocean blowing her hair and almost smell the salt air. She was dressed in elaborate, colourful, loose-fitting costumes with flowers in her hair and at her wrists and feet -- a strange amalgamation of Chinese, Polynesian, and Indian cultures.

After seeing her videos at a local healthfood store, I bought one, then all three of the beginner series. Her unusual voice, which I was afraid would grate on me, does not. The scenery inspires, as do her outfits (I want to bring colour back into my life!), and the asanas do the trick, simply.

The beginner series is full of simple exercises that are done slowly. I am not, never have been, and never will be flexible, yet these asanas are gentle as pilates is gentle. And I'm well aware pilates is based on yoga. I can feel how they strengthen my core and release tension. Several new asanas (for me), have been a great help in easing shoulder and neck issues brought about by too many hours at a computer.

The woman herself is quite an enigma. For all her success, there is little about her on the Internet beyond product placement. I would love to read an in-depth profile on how she has created this expansive career, apparently with a mystery husband and three children. Though if I were more of a writer than I currently am, I would think she would be a great story pitch.

Her package for little kids looks excellent.