We had a yoga guru over for dinner last night and the conversation was varied, but a lot of it was about yoga (surprise). The yoga guru was telling us that The Place To Be in the world for yoga was Southern California - no big surprise there. The surprise is: he thinks in Canada The Place To Be for yoga is either Toronto or Montreal - not Vancouver!
I lived in Toronto for 9 years. I escaped Toronto a decade ago, so my knowledge of the area may be old, but I just don't see it. There are no fit-focussed people or communities that stand out in my memory of Toronto. Just a lot of people walking about quickly underneath the buildings: getting off transit underground; walking through the underground tunnels to get to work; eating in food courts in the underground tunnels; and then walking back to transit underground at the end of their day. If they ever saw a window they just squinted and hurried by.
Not really a celebration of life and the wonders of your own body to be had in Toronto.
I've been to Montreal a couple of times. The one thing that comes immediately to mind from there is the huge number of stinky people sucking on cancer sticks. I have seen many people eating and smoking at the same time (a tricky thing to do if you aren't concentrating) and smoking everywhere by everyone in Montreal.
Unless yoga mats come with built-in ash trays for Montreal yoga practitioners, I don't see how that could be The Place To Be for yoga in Canada.
I think this idea is just the symptom of "the grass is greener over there" syndrome for the yoga guru. He has always lived in Vancouver. It's natural to think things are better somewhere else.
It's interesting how prevalent the "over there" pull is for people.
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