The Gift Of Giving

Dear Yogis

It’s gift-giving time. Have you got all your presents ready? Gift-giving has always been around; we practice something at Christmas that has happened since prehistoric times. Originally the gods got the goods. Gifts greased the wheels of barter. Rival tribes needed peace offerings. Father Christmas with his gifts is an old pagan idea about spirits who traversed the sky. Ancient Egyptians raised gift-giving to operatic levels – they even filled pyramids with gifts. Ancient Greeks are thought to have started the tradition of birthday gifts to ward off evil spirits and bring good wishes. We have so many occasions that we mark with some kind of offering... Valentines, Harvest Festival, Diwali, simply visiting someone’s home.

Giving is happily in our DNA. We are wired to give! Gifts cement tradition, spread joy, and strengthen social ties. This is a useful reflection if you have someone in your family that is... erm... not your favourite! This is your moment, your welcomed opportunity, to practice generosity! Give with all your heart!

Giving is good for the giver! There’s plenty of research to show that kindness and the act of giving releases endorphins, decreases stress levels, decreases depression and increases in a sense of happiness and purpose. The more you give, the more you become the kind of person who gives, the more you build up your kindness and compassion ‘muscle’ and the more good you do for yourself.

Charity Class

This Sunday. 15th, I’ll be teaching a charity class in Decathlon Ealing. Details are in Last week’s Frfiday Email, here. I would like donated, good quality, yoga mats to send to a charity that works with refugees in Chios, Greece. The Facebook event page is here. My website has a dedicated page here. Sign up here. Or just come along with your mat ready for 11.00. I’ll have charity buckets on the day to collect donations.

Home Studio

My lucky home studio has a variety of classes and people with a variety of reasons for coming. They bring friends, family or just come for the ‘Me Time’. This week I taught an Introduction to Yoga private class for a birthday surprise gift! What a joyful thing! Balloons, Bunting and Breathing. If you’re interested in a birthday session, pop me a line. In the meantime, there’s plenty of room next week. For those of you who have been coming for a while, please write a small review.

Christmas Presents

A couple more ideas here... For coffee lovers, two Home Studio yogis have a coffee business, 106 Coffee and they have a £21.00 Christmas gift pack offer. (Pattabhi Jois, said No Coffee No Prana!). Their pack includes100g samples of the following coffees: Portal da Serra from Brazil, Gitwe #832 from Rwanda, La Independencia #1 from El Salvador, and AA Maganjo from Kenya. And if you think a No Coffee No Prana T-shirt would help on the mat, here it is.

Yoga in the News

Bikram is back! The Telegraph has Yoga's dirty secret: how Bikram conned the world. An attendee at a Bikram camp said ‘’Bikram was almost a caricature of himself. He was constantly talking about what had happened to him, that he’d been wronged and that he was innocent. He was still giving his long lectures, saying that he should’ve been revered more than Jesus Christ because he’s helped more people. He sounded delusional.”

Science Daily has: Experts review evidence yoga is good for the brain. ‘The amygdala, a brain structure that contributes to emotional regulation, tends to be larger in yoga practitioners than in their peers who do not practice yoga.’