Andrea Marcum - Close to Om: Stretching Yoga from Your Mat to Your Life

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For all of my teachers

I HAD MY FIRST RUN-INwith yoga in the 70s. I cant remember if it was Lilias Folan on TV or if I started with my workbooks at home, but somehow I got turned on to yoga at fifteen years old. And then I got off onto my whole drugs-wild-lifestyle and drifted away from yoga. I moved to LA in 1990 and started taking flow classes with people like Bryan Kest and Seane Corn. Then, because I had no idea what to do with my life, Grace Slick told me, Youve got really strong legs, you dig this yoga stuff, try that. And she gave me money to go to White Lotus and do my first teacher training.

Not long after White Lotus, I was at 24-Hour Fitness, the teacher didnt show up, and the two other people in the room said, Why dont you teach the class? Despite my training I really had no clue what I was doing. But I did know that when we practice we come in with such mishigas, tumult, stuff from the world, our worries, anxieties. Then we practice, and all of a sudden something shifts. We get up out of savasana and think, Wow, I feel a lot more peaceful and calmIve got a different perspective on life.

Yoga has seen me through treatments for hepatitis C from my intravenous drug use in the 70s and 80s. And it has kept me grounded and healthy enough to be celebrating thirty-two years of being clean and sober as I write this. My years of teaching have made me aware that underneath every normal-looking person theres divorce, illness, fear, mental instability, financial issues. Were all going through so much. Thats why Andrea Marcums book Close to OM: Stretching Yoga from Your Mat to Your Lifeis so important. Andrea shows us that yoga doesnt mean you have to do gymnastics. In fact, the real transformation comes out of the stillness. With her unique voice she guides us out from under where were Stuckat (to use her word) and toward a better understanding of what brings purpose and meaning to our lives.

I met Andrea many years ago in my classroom in Los Angeles. Even back then, she had a fire about her. She was an intense student whod show up pretty much every day to my flow classes wearing her baggy black Thai-style pants looking ready for jujitsu. Andreas passionate about learning. As Ive watched her evolve from student to teacher, shes stayed on the path of being a seekerquestioning and truly integrating what shes learning into what she feels is real. Andrea isnt afraid to take risks. Whether thats opening a studio in LA, organizing her own retreats, or writingshe puts it all out there, travels, grows, and is committed to really looking at the integrity behind what shes doing.

Close to OMis accessible for newer students while it resonates with those of us who have been taking or even teaching yoga for years.

Andreas combination of relatable stories, down-to-earth philosophy mixed with clear alignment points, and straightforward meditation invites us all into a conversation thats as fun as it is serious. She manages to make us laugh as we learn about ourselves, about yoga, and about life.

V INNIE M ARINO

I WAS IN THE SIXTH GRADEwhen I discovered gymnastics. One typically foggy afternoon, my mom dropped my friend Addie and me off at the Santa Cruz Gymnastics Center. Located in Northern California, Santa Cruz is part college town, part beach town. The UC Santa Cruz campus stares down at the Beach Boardwalk and Fishermans Wharf from stunning redwood forest hills. I grew up there, when middle-aged mothers surfed Steamers Lane and men with shoulder-length beards in No Nukes T-shirts and vintage VW buses were at nearly every intersection.