Comments on: Lululemon’s Gospel of Sweat: New Yorkers are “praying through their pores”

By: MarkG

MarkG — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:11:04 +0000

Living in another city, as I do, this event and those like it in NYC are out of my choice range. None-the-less, I really applaud Lulumon for hosting these events and WellandGoodNYC.com for placing it in front of our faces.
Spirituality is becoming more a part of so much of our culture. Right kinds of spirituality do not exist. Either one contemplates the what, why and how of their existences and those of others or one does not. That there was little else than Yoga emphasized just supports this idea. Yes, spinning and (originally for me) running can be amazing opportunities to get into our bodies and minds, our souls and our spirits, to note the strengths of our resolve and to witness the sharing of those feelings and thoughts as others have them too. This is spirituality in action.
Yoga as we know and practice it today is descended from a deeply spiritual tradition of meditation and mindfulness. When on the bike or on our feet, when lifting or rowing, we can remember that tensions lead to body awareness and from that the contemplation of that body as it links to our minds and emotions.

By: Christopher Pelham

Christopher Pelham — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:51:20 +0000

No Gabrielle Roth, author of Sweat Your Prayers? Didn’t she invent this genre? I think this all begs the question of why anyone would or should look to their personal trainer (more than to anyone else) for spiritual advice….

By: Lyn

Lyn — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:33:15 +0000

I attended and left feeling really uncomfortable. Gospel of sweat? I left thinking “Gospel of swhat was all that about? These speakers were way off the mark with their audience. It was a church filled with lululemon amabassadors and yoga teachers and yet, all we got were these speakers BIO’s. We don’t need to be told what yoga, or physical movement can do for us. We live it! It was a self-aggrandizing display of egocentricity at it’s worst. Elean Brower asked us to take a deep breath so that our lungs were aligned. What? How? And the love was everywhere – but it felt like that sticky sweet kind. Not deep in the trenches, this is what is real and what I know kind. This sort of display of nauseating self-help soundbites is what turn so many people off the practice. Physical movement that induces sweat feels good, and gives us a high because of the endorphins it releases. Of course you feel good about yourself when you’re working out – it’s called biology. I don’t want to take away the intelligent thought that is placed alongside these practices but there was nothing new revealed here and I wish they understood their audience and actually spoke to us as being who already know what these practices are all about. Shame on these teachers who are clearly intelligent and charismatic and shame on Lululemon for not respecting their audience more.

By: Kayla

Kayla — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:09:10 +0000

I wish I could have attended this event and hope Lululemon will have more lectures on the topic.

I am sad to hear that the focus was mainly on yoga. I feel like that is something that everyone automatically thinks of when they hear “yoga”.

What is more interesting is broadening the topic of spiritual sweating, which I believe there is also a lot of evidence of — especially in New York City where people adore their fitness instructors and follow them around from studio to studio.