Hi Balanced Babes! I’m Carin Gorrell, Editor in Chief of Yoga Journal. I’ve been a magazine editor in the health and wellness world for about 16 years, and I love it. It allows me to translate my love of yoga, science, and psychology into information that can help people live healthier, happy, more fulfilling lives.
BB: How long have you been working with Yoga Journal?
I’ve been with Yoga Journal full time since January this year. My favorite part of my job is seeing our readers’ and editors’ passion for yoga. They are so engaged in their practice and lifestyle; it’s hugely inspiring. I’m also learning so much, something new every day, and that’s what life is all about—discovery.
BB: Tell us about the re-launch of Yoga Journal and what readers can expect to experience from the revamped magazine.
The yoga world is changing—it’s growing, and yogis’ wants and needs are more and more diverse. We want Yoga Journal to better reflect and serve everyone who’s doing yoga, whether they’ve been practicing for years or are relatively new to the mat.
The redesigned magazine has a new look and feel that is much cleaner, more sophisticated, and modern—think great photography, a little more white space and less dense text. We’ve also tried to make our content more accessible and easy to use. For instance, we married two of our great asana columns—Basics and Master Class—into one we call Yogapedia, which has more step-by-step visuals and pose instruction to go with them so it’s easier to follow along on your mat. We also have video to go with on yogajournal.com, for even more follow-along instruction. We’re including a little bit more yoga lifestyle content, so you’ll see a touch more on clean and conscious eating, yoga style, natural beauty, and yoga-related travel, because readers have been asking for it, and today’s yogis want information for living their practice both on and off the mat.
And we’re going to be addressing some of the more controversial topics in the yoga world, such as our piece in the October issue on yoga and eating disorders. But what hasn’t changed is the yoga teaching—we will continue to go to top teachers for authoritative yoga instruction and wisdom just like we always have. We just want YJ to be a welcoming and trustworthy place for anyone who wants to practice yoga, wherever they are in their practice.
BB: How can a Yoga newbie be educated and motivated to give this meditative practice a try after subscribing to Yoga Journal?
Reading our pages every month should both inspire and educate you to practice yoga and meditation—that’s our number one goal! Try practicing along with the top teachers and their instructions in Yogapedia, Home Practice, Yoga for Athletes and our feature stories. And I also highly recommend checking out yogajournal.com for more pose and meditation how-to, philosophy and wisdom from top teachers, videos and more.
BB: What is life like outside of working with Yoga Journal?
Busy, but wonderfully so. I have a baby boy who turns one this Wednesday, so my husband and I are very busy chasing him around as he threatens to go from crawling straight to running. We’re all getting settled into a new home just outside of Boulder; we spend our weekends hiking, cruising the farmers’ market, exploring the neighborhood, and playing music.
BB: How do you personally live the Balanced Babe lifestyle?
Boulder is such a great place to eat healthfully and be active. My husband and I support our local farmers as much as possible (which is pretty easy considering our house is surrounded by beautiful farms) and cook dinner together almost every night. Now that Hank (our son) is old enough to eat most grownup foods, we’re having fun experimenting with new recipes to see what he loves and what makes him make that hilarious “what is this?!” baby face when he doesn’t like something.
Lucky for us, he has a great palate—loves olives and guacamole and black beans— so we aren’t stuck with bland food. And I try to do yoga and go running and hiking as much as possible.
BB: What is a typical meal plan for a day like for you?
Breakfast and lunch are pretty much the same every day–oatmeal and coffee for breakfast; veggie sandwich (avocado, sprouts, tomato, pickles, cheese) for lunch. Dinner varies—baked fish with beans and rice; egg white quiche with salad; veggie mole chili; veggie burritos.
BB: What else can we expect to see in Yoga Journal in the near future?
Look for more of what you see in the October issue—more home-practice inspiration, great instruction from the world’s best teachers, in depth discussion about topics important to yogis, Ayurveda how-to, and yoga news and trends. We’ll also be featuring more local teachers and unsung heroes who are doing great seva work. Specifically, in our upcoming November issue, look for our tribute to the great B.K.S. Iyengar (we weren’t able to do it in the October issue because it was already printed), a transformative heart-opening sequence from Seane Corn, and Ayurveda tips for cultivating your ojas (your body’s internal energy reserves) for winter.
