Six years ago, about a dozen women in transition got to know each other through a special seminar about achieving prosperity through creative, heart-centered work. It was a quintessentially L.A. crowd comprised of actresses, executives, moms and recovering publicists, all looking to achieve abundance in ways that were more in sync with our true selves.
The most recognizable name in the group was Anna Getty, daughter of Paul Getty III and Gisela Getty, who was born into a world of wealth, possibilities and pitfalls. She had already begun her journey into a lifestyle with the kind of depth that prompted me to take her yoga classes at Golden Bridge Yoga Studio. Given Hollywood's small-town nature, we would cross paths many times.
Fast forward to 2006, and I find myself catching up with Anna at the Tea Garden in West Hollywood, a spiritual oasis in one of LA's busiest and trendiest quarters. We sit in a partially secluded area of the shop/restaurant amid festive orange furnishings. Owner Mark Ukra tends to our needs with macrobiotic sandwiches and a tea specially blended to fend off the effects of cold season.
This is not just a sanctuary, but effectively Getty's second home and office, especially since Ukra was among the first to carry her premiere DVD, "The Divine Mother Prenatal Yoga Series."
She energetically points out that her reach as a yoga teacher is now expanding into such retailers as Borders' Books, A Pea in the Pod, Target and Amazon.com. Additionally, she heads a company, Pure Style Living, that encompasses fitness, beauty products, yoga, parenting, travel and fashion. She hopes it will do for yoga what Martha Stewart did for cooking and decorating.
"Some critics have brought my family history up, and asked me, ‘What do you know about suffering and spirituality?' and ‘Isn't spirituality just some kind of hobby for you?' People go through good and bad stages of life for a reason," she explains.
"My past was very eclectic and bohemian," Getty acknowledges. "My parents were both hippies and actors, we lived all over the place. When I was 13, my parents divorced, and at that point, I jumped into the car with my dad and moved down to Los Angeles determined to get my own acting career going.
"Later, I lived in Paris for several years, studied acting there and then returned to LA to hit the audition circuit. However, rejections and partaking in the party lifestyle in my early 20s left me craving something to uplift me spiritually.
"Many friends suggested yoga, and several others suggested Gurmukh (founder of Golden Bridge Yoga). I showed up at her house, experienced her Kundalini class and left the room sobbing. But it was a joyful moment — I was home at last," she says.
Getty eagerly plunged into her new life, practicing yoga five to seven days a week, touring India with Gurmukh, adopting a vegetarian diet, going through teacher's training, adding daily meditation, studying spiritual psychology at a local university and becoming wholly committed. She found it as much a cleansing process as well as a life change.
"I went from being just another young insecure actress to somebody who could honestly say I had a real purpose," she says. "The second I started teaching I felt like I was of greater service to mankind and could be in a position to help others help themselves. Also, because of my last name, I feel I have a responsibility to use it wisely. I did not take on my husband's name because this is who I am. I am not just about teaching, but about getting people excited about having their own yoga practice, and getting as much information as possible to as many people as possible."
Getty had been contemplating for some time how and in what form her first major project under Pure Style Living would take shape. But the timing of her pregnancy ultimately prompted her to develop a user-friendly pre-natal set, shot in her eighth month. New Zealand actress Simone Kessell and Sunrise Ruffalo (wife of actor Mark Ruffalo), whom Getty thought represented the diversity of her potential market, took part in the video.
Kessell, six months pregnant at the time, represented somebody wholly committed to her yoga practice, who brought a definitive good energy to the floor. Getty also liked that she was clearly not the "rail thin blonde you tend to find in other yoga videos." Ruffalo, then four months pregnant, represented somebody who was new to yoga and interested in learning more about it to benefit herself and her baby.
That being said, Getty makes clear that no one needs to be pregnant or a mother to benefit from her current DVD or from Kundalini yoga in general. "A movie producer friend of mine (with a 22-year-old daughter) who probably will not get pregnant again loves the DVD because the exercises address her personal lifestyle needs," she notes. "It gives her something that's low-impact and nurturing, yet challenging."
Her first DVD will be reissued with a companion CD soundtrack and new DVDs will soon be shot (addressing pre-conception, post-natal and PMS). Others are in planning stages (menopause, couples and a set focused on beauty). Ukra also plans to launch a special pregnancy tea bearing her name as a nutritive companion to the DVD.
Based on Getty's experience, getting into a more yogic way of life is easier than it may seem. She recommends visiting the 3HO website, www.3ho.org, which features sample exercises and listings of Kundalini teachers and centers around the globe. And she suggests trying a variety of DVDs (she especially loves Gurmukh's pre-natal sets).
She wants people to understand what makes Kundalini yoga unique. "Kundalini is not the same as Hatha, the kind of yoga people are most familiar with, involving repetitions of the same exercises," Getty explains. "Kundalini is as versatile as it is challenging, as one can design a set or a series of sets that addresses a specific physical, spiritual problem or focus on things like strengthening the heart center or cleansing the body of toxins. Every set you do has a different purpose.
"You need to go through what you do because you can learn from it, empower yourself and be the best you can be. I needed to go through that. It was divine and perfect for me. I learned and healed from it, and it has brought me to where I am now."