Farewell, Timothy McCall. And Thank You So Much!

by Nina

We recently had some wonderful news from Timothy McCall: he and his girlfriend are getting married soon, and he’ll be moving to New Jersey to live there with her. Congratulations, Timothy! We’re all so happy for you.

Of course, we’ll miss having Timothy nearby in the Bay Area and seeing him on Fridays at our regular yoga class (not to mention the occasional lunch). And we’ll also miss his almost monthly posts on our blog because, unfortunately, all these major life changes means that Timothy has to step down from being a regular contributor. 

But we’re very grateful for all the posts he has written since he originally joined us (see Dr. Timothy McCall Joins Yoga for Healthy Aging! to find out more about Timothy in general). To honor him and everything he has done for us, I thought I would take you on a little tour of his posts, which are all as relevant now as when they were originally written. 

Safety. One of the important topics that Timothy tackled on our blog was the issue of safety. William Broad’s articles in the New York Times claiming that yoga was dangerous (suspiciously timed with the release of the hardcover and then the softcover versions of his book) prompted strong reactions in the yoga community. Could what Broad was claiming be actually true? Timothy, who is both a medical doctor and a certified yoga teacher (Broad is neither), was happy to take him on! Two of his posts, Is Yoga Really Dangerous for Men?  and Will Yoga Cause a Stroke? Could it Prevent One?, were in direct response to claims that Broad made. 

And while he was on the topic of safety, Timothy also tackled a couple of other issues that yoga practitioners and teachers are typically concerned about in his posts Keeping Yoga Safe for People with High Blood Pressure  and Many Right Ways to Do a Pose and a Few Wrong Ones.

Meditation. Timothy has a very strong home practice, including a long session of asana. However, an essential part of his home practice is his daily meditation session. His feeling is that meditation is the crown jewel of the yoga practice, and he explains why in his post Is Meditation an Essential Part of Practicing Yoga? And to help you get started with your meditation practice, he provided some simple instructions in Starting a Meditation Practice.

Pranayama. In his travels worldwide, Timothy was surprised to find how few yoga practitioners practiced pranayama (breath awareness and breath control). So he made it his mission to introduce our readers to some simple, powerful practices. Because he believe that the Bhramari (buzzing bee) Practice is a safe, accessible practice, he did two separate posts on it: Pranayama for Everyone: Bhramari Breath Practice  and Bhramari Pranayama with Mudras. He also recommended Alternate Nostril Breathing in this post Balancing Your Nervous System with Alternate Nostril Breathing.

Home Practice. Like me, Timothy is a great believer in home practice. He says, “If you are taking yoga classes but not practicing at home, you may be missing the best—and potentially most therapeutic—part of yoga. Your personal practice is where the deepest work happens, when you go inward and go at your own pace." He explains why—and cites a scientific study—in his post Home Practice: The Best Way to Improve Your Health and Well-Being. And he also wrote two posts with recommendations for home practitioners Wondering to What to Practice at Home? Consider a Private Lesson  and Cultivating Healthy Posture with a Simple Restorative Pose. 

Other Passions.  The other three posts Timothy wrote might not appear to you to fit neatly into a single category, but if you knew Timothy as well as I know him, you’d realize that they’re all on issues that he feels strongly about. I’d have to say I was strongly influenced in my ideas about the importance of stress management by Timothy (we met many years ago when he was co-teaching a workshop on Yoga for Depression with Patricia Walden) and you can see why in his post Stress, Your Health, and Yoga. Timothy is also passionate on the subject of Ayurveda, which he has studied extensively in India. So even though we typically don’t have articles on that topic, I did let him share his some of his thoughts about the value of the Ayurvedic approach in his post Autumn, Healthy Aging and the Ayurvedic Dosha Vata. And, finally, most of us know about Timothy’s strong beliefs in the value of yoga therapy; after all, he wrote an entire book on the topic, Yoga As Medicine. In his final post for us, he reported on a symposium at which he spoke Medical Yoga Symposium at the Smithsonian, reporting that he witnessed there a growing acceptance of yoga as a therapeutic modality, saying that while it didn’t mean that yoga is already fully integrated with modern medicine, that we are getting there much faster than he would have predicted 10 or 15 years ago.

Timothy is not only a very knowledgeable person, with wide-ranging interests; he’s also an excellent writer. So if you’re new to the blog and unfamiliar with his work, I hope you’ll check out some of these posts. And if you’re a long-time reader, it’s worth checking to see if you missed any of his great writing. For information about Timothy's upcoming workshops, 

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