David Swenson, Who Treats Yoga Like Drugs
When my yoga instructor introduced that David Swenson was coming to our studio to show visitor lessons, the best way she stated it made it look like certainly one of The Beatles was dropping in. I rapidly got here to grasp that, whereas there aren’t any winners and losers in yoga, he was one of many all time greats. Like, there are memes about him:
Swenson, who was born in Texas within the late ’50s, has been working towards yoga since he was 13 years previous—his older brother went out to California in 1969 for a browsing journey and returned with books on yoga and well being meals from the thriving capital of hippiedom
And although Swenson by no means slot in with the football-dominated, jocks-as-kings vibe in Texas, his life has, in a really totally different means, revolved round athleticism and the physique. Now, Swenson teaches yoga workshops all over the world, and is extra typically on the highway than at dwelling. GQ went deep on what he is realized over 50 years devoted to wellness earlier than that idea even actually existed.
David Swesnson: I grew up in Texas. My brother is 5 years older, and he was a surfer. He would surf in Texas–sure, you’ll be able to surf in Texas—however he would go to California within the summers to surf greater waves. In 1969, after I was 13, he went to California and realized about yoga from a spot known as Paramahansa Yogananda Self Realization Fellowship. [Yogananda was arguably the first to bring Yoga to the US, and is often referred to as the “father” of yoga in the West. Steve Jobs gave instructions to hand out Yogananda’s book to everyone at his funeral.] My brother noticed folks doing yoga and he went to a bookstore and purchased a e book known as Yoga: Youth and Reincarnation by a man named Jess Stearn, which most individuals had by no means heard of. He additionally noticed a well being meals e book by Paul Bragg [of the nutritional yeast and liquid aminos]. We’d by no means heard of well being meals, we solely knew about meals, there wasn’t a distinction between these issues but.
