Title: Shiva Rea Yoga in Greece
What’s the goal? This is a vinyasa flow practice designed to strengthen the body and restore energy.
Who’s it for? People new to yoga and seasoned practitioners will enjoy this video. It offers something for anyone interested in yoga.
Format: The DVD contains more than three hours of yoga and guidance for meditation.
There are seven 20-minute segments that can be mixed and matched to customize a practice that meets your needs, plus 83 minutes of meditations and interviews with Rea.
What’s to like? The scenery is breathtaking. The video is filmed at several locations on the island of Santorini, southeast of Greece’s mainland in the southern Aegean Sea. If you’re not in the mood to practice, just sit on your yoga mat and watch the boats slowly move across the water while Rea practices in the foreground. That would be a meditation in itself.
But if you do want to follow along and practice, the unique matrix option allows you to select as many segments as your time allows. Each 20-minute vinyasa offers something a little different.
Included are classical sun salutations, a soothing lunar back-bending flow, a hot solar back-bending segment and others related to earth and water elements. There is something to please everyone.
Rea teaches using voice-over and mirror image cuing. There is an option to practice with music and instruction or with music only, which I like because the music is enjoyable.
Distractions? One segment shows Rea doing the practice on the ledge of a patio wall that appears to be about two feet wide and overlooking the water. While I knew she wasn’t going to fall off the ledge, it did concern me.
Necessary gear? No blocks, straps or bolsters are needed for this practice. You will need a sticky yoga mat and at least 20 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Yogini’s credentials: According to her website, Rea is a yogini firekeeper, sacred activist, global adventurer and leading innovator in the evolution of prana flow yoga, and transformational vinyasa flow integrating the tantric bhakti roots of yoga. Vanity Fair called her “one of the world’s greatest yoga masters.” She is the creator of several top-selling yoga workouts.
Price: $19.99
ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 12/09/2013