As part of the IOYU’s mission to keep yoga knowledge from disappearing, the Open Yoga Journal was created. The purpose of the Journal is to convey yoga knowledge in simple language for all those interested in yoga: for both experienced practitioners and beginners. The Journal is adapted to modern conditions and the rhythm of life, and contains concepts that are used in today’s society.

The Journal was founded in December 2014. OYJ is the face of both Open Yoga and yoga in general. Therefore, the articles are checked repeatedly. We improve articles, while creating rules and regulations that are constantly changing for the better.

Journal structure 

At the beginning of the journal’s activity, we had, in fact, only one sub-project – the articles themselves. Over time, we also added audio and video versions of articles.

The introduction of English into the IOYU curriculum led to its introduction into the journal project as well. We started translating articles into English and then also voicing them and making videos of the translated versions.

Recently we have added such a project as an interview.

A new section has been added – publications in social networks. Most people use social networks, and therefore we actively advertise the journal in them. We promote our project in various social networks, so you can search for us in OK, vk, facebook and instagram using the hashtag #openyogajournal.

Another new direction is photo reporting. The idea is to take high quality photos and post them along with the articles. The subject of photography is very different: from Hatha yoga asanas to landscapes of nature, staged photographs on themes: karma, dharma and Generic yoga. You can take photographs for all types of yoga that exist. Send your photos to us at OpenYogaJournal@gmail.com, and in the future they will be published along with the articles.

In 2018, we released an Almanac. This is the printed version of the journal, it includes 108 best articles.

To purchase the almanac, write to Yura Zubakov (or Yura Varuna) at Zubakovu@gmail.com, or you can find him on social networks.

The biggest advantage of the Almanac is that the articles are grouped into sections, i.e. you do not just look through the entire feed of articles on our website, but you can open the Almanac and find exactly the section that interests you or remember the main provisions on a specific topic. This is very convenient.

Journal principles: 

1. Friendliness

Open yoga creates a climate of friendliness. When a person comes to our journal, we meet everyone as our friends, or even as relatives. Everyone here is very welcoming and adequate.

2. Flexibility

Each of us have our own life situations and our own karmic history. We all understand this very well. Everyone has studies, work and family, and all this needs to be done in time. Therefore, the journal has a flexible system in terms of the fact that there will always be a person who can replace another for a while or completely. This is the continuity that must necessarily exist, i.e. each employee has an assistant who knows this work and can insure at any time. The only thing we recommend and even require is that you tell us in advance that some changes have taken place in your life. Of course, we are not interested in the details, these are your personal matters so we do not interfere in them. It is important you tell us that on such and such a date you will have some difficulties and will need help. It will be enough.

3. Subordination structure

There are departments. Each department is managed by a manager and this manager works with the employees in this department. The leaders (the curator and the editor-in-chief) communicate directly with the managers only. If the manager does not answer or behaves indecently in some way, any employee has the right to contact the curator or the editor-in-chief directly.

4. Teamwork

Despite the fact that we do not require much from you, we do still expect from you what you sign up to do. It’s okay to expect what the person has agreed to do. Each member of the journal understands that they are a link in a chain, and if work freezes then this will let the whole team down. Therefore, in this regard, everyone has an internal mechanism inside that constantly moves them as an engine forward. Again, I repeat, if you can’t do something, you can delegate your authority to another employee. This is how it is, but the process must go, because we publish articles regularly and this is a rather complicated work of editors.

Work process

Each department has instructions and directives that describe in a very simple way what needs to be done and how to work in that particular department. We use screenshots in the description, and everything is explained down to the smallest detail. 

Articles and any other materials are sent to us at OpenYogaJournal@gmail.com. From there they go to our Google Drive account, where we work together on the material. The author can choose to participate in the editing process or not. We stipulate this right away. If the author participates, then the editing process begins. The editing process takes place in 3 stages : primary, secondary and final check. At each stage, there are several people who are involved in a specific edition.

At the first stage, the structure, consistency and the size of the article are edited, i.e. we are correcting the article.

At the second stage, there is a more subtle editing: compliance with the axiomatic provisions of yoga, consistency and compliance with classical yoga.

And finally the third stage is an even more subtle edition, i.e. it is сensorship, the general idea, conformity to the Open Yoga spirit.

Thus, the work on the article takes about 2 weeks. During this time, the author should constantly contact the editors and respond to the comments given in the text. If he (she) agrees with them, then the editors correct the text. If he (she) does not agree, then answers in the comment why not, logically explaining the reason.

As for other departments, everything is quite simple there: work is already underway with a finished article, which is voiced, uploaded on Youtube and posted on other social networks and of course on our website. The same is done with video, translations and interviews. Everything is first edited, then we post it on social networks. 

I wrote well, but everything is crossed out… Why???

It often happens that an author sends an article by email and thinks that it is very clear and easy to understand, but the editors cross out a very significant part of the article, commenting on what needs to be corrected. Because of this, the author makes surprised eyes: “Why? I wrote everything so well.’’ This is when internal resistance can arise.

I want to dwell on this point in more detail. Firstly, as I already said, we have already been working for 4 years, and over these 4 years we already have accumulated some experience in this aspect and have an understanding of how to convey information to the reader, and what will really be understood from what you have written. Therefore, in this case, you can either rely on our experience and trust us, or you can simply take your article from us and do whatever you want with it. There are also cases when the authors don’t want to change anything and want to leave their own style, and of course we do not claim your style in any way. The internal policy of the journal is built in such a way as to leave as much as possible what was written by the author, i.e. changes take place only in those extreme cases, that will not allow the reader, who is completely unfamiliar with yoga, to understand what you have written.

The second point is that work in serious journals with a big name takes place in such a way that no one corrects the article, but gives it back with minimal comments for revision. If you bring the article back without changes for the better, as the journal needs, then the article is returned to you and not released at all.

The goal of the Open Yoga Journal is to teach you to write in a way that is understandable, so that your articles will actually be read and they inspire people to practice yoga!

How to write an article?

First, you need to choose a topic. We know that any manifestation in our life is a separate type of yoga. Therefore, you can take any of your areas of activity as a topic: from cooking to psychology, and you can write an article on any area where we manifest ourselves. The main criterion is that the topic should excite you, i.e. it should respond to you inside. You may already have experience in this topic or not, but you really want to get this experience and highlight this topic within yourself. What else helps in choosing a topic?There are things that will help not even in choosing, but in understanding the topic for yourself more comprehensively. There are wonderful lectures by Vadim Openyoga on the openyoga.ru. You can type a topic in the search and it will give you materials on this topic. You can study these materials, emphasize some information for yourself, pass it through yourself and write an article on this topic in the future.

The topic has been chosen. Some processes have taken place inside you, there is excitement and Bhava, you want to share it.

Second, you take a piece of paper and a pen and start writing. Write whatever you want, using the energy method, i.e. write down everything that comes to mind, all your thoughts. After you have written everything you wanted, wait a little, for example, an hour.

Third, read and look at what you wrote. Then read what you have written and correct it using the method of consciousness. Maybe it is worth swapping paragraphs, maybe removing some extra words or maybe rephrasing something, that is, start scrupulous work on the article. So you looked and read, corrected the article, and you seemed to like everything. You improved the article to some level and then left it for some time, maybe for a day or two, or less, it is different for everyone. Some time has passed, read it again, maybe you like everything again or not, maybe you will correct something again.

Fourth, take a dictaphone, read aloud everything that you wrote recording yourself and then listen to the recording. Listen to it as if you are a third-party reader and know absolutely nothing about yoga. This stage is very important and it is connected with the next stage…

Fifth, read your article aloud to someone you know and ask: is everything clear or not? What’s not clear? What points might be worth highlighting more deeply, or more extensively? Are there any points that are controversial or illogical? This all helps a lot and shows you a more realistic picture of what you have written. When you have already passed all these stages: the other person and you listened to your article, and you both like everything, all the moments were settled and everything was corrected. Everything, in your opinion, is perfect, go ahead and… 

Sixth, feel free to send it to the editorial office of the journal at OpenYogaJournal@gmail.com. And then the process described above will continue.

The most important thing

When you are really interested in a topic, then you write an article with Bhava, which is a very important ingredient in the article. Because it is Bhava as the impulse that is laid in the article, that will encourage people to start practicing yoga, to continue studying this topic, if it somehow responds to them in their souls and they want more information about it. Let’s not forget about this main ingredient, about Bhava, and do not forget about the goal that we pursue while working in the journal – the expansion of freedom. Expanding our freedom through bringing information to others, helping others, this is certainly a lofty goal, because yoga, my friends, is rapidly disappearing.

What can a person get as part of the OY Journal project 

The first thing is like-minded people, those people with whom we literally have the same thinking, who understand us and with whom we speak the same language. Working with like-minded people is a pleasure. It is really worth a lot, when a lot of conflicts are smoothed out only thanks to understanding the basic yoga principles. You can get this communication in the journal project. 

Another thing you can get and learn is to write about complex things in simple language. Of course, this is not an easy task, and at first glance it may seem unrealistic, but we do it every day. After all, the material that we write is certainly not to popularize a particular school, but to make people understand the essence of yoga, i.e. this is the format of our school. We are not chasing money or profit. We are chasing to pass on the teachings of yoga, but this task is realizable.

The next point is that we can assimilate the material and structure a large amount of information related to studying at IOYU. This is what our journal does, i.e. our articles are small in size, and readers have the opportunity to sort everything out in their heads, start with something simple and then gradually complicate and read more detailed lectures that are on our website.

Another point that you can gain by participating in the work of the journal is to improve your knowledge of the English language. For those who have an initial level of language proficiency, there is the opportunity to voice translated articles, and for those who are already fluent or native speakers, there is the opportunity to translate articles. We invite you, welcome. Anyone who is interested in this Karma yoga, please write to us by mail.

Next, I want to voice such a moment that we can learn to manage and organize the process. Teamwork is a very high responsibility. You have to remind someone in time not to delay work, and so on. This is a great experience. We don’t know where life’s journey will take us and what skills may be useful to us. Therefore, if you are interested in this, you can join any project and grow up the career ladder in it.

The next point is constant growth. Each article that we publish gives us an opportunity to discover something new, to highlight those areas that we have not yet covered with our understanding.

Well, what else can you get is, of course, Bhava. Without Bhava we cannot live. It’s thanks to Bhava that the journal is still working and moreover, it is expanding, i.e. it does not just work steadily, it expands, and this expansion, of course, is due to Bhava, is due to this inspiration, a state akin to falling in love, as we say. Work for the benefit of living beings moves everything forward, we don’t stop working on ourselves and move yoga further.

And the last moment, this is what goes through all the studies at IOYU – to pass yoga on. Many people think that it is necessary to reach some level of enlightenment, knowledge or mastery in practice in order to pass yoga further. This stops them from passing on what they have already learned. This is such a moment that you just need to realize – you do not need to reach a certain level in order to convey what you already have. You can pass on to others the experience you already have right now. 

Translate by Larisa Skibina and Avlaada 

Editor Inna Shakti