Desikachar's Heart Of Yoga At Home

Dear Yogis.

I have to say... I absolutely love teaching online. There’s some really great yoga practice happening in the Zoom boxes on my conferencing screen! Is it my imagination or is your yoga improving in the more relaxed, home environment? I can see that the particular feng shui of your home has taken you to your regular spot for your yoga. And maybe, in that place of home and harmony, you’re uncovering more of the reason you keep coming back to the mat. The hubbub and buzz of practicing in a gym or studio may have hidden that.

I read a really nice passage in TKV Desikachar’s book ‘The Heart Of Yoga’ that made me ponder this. Who was Desikachar? Only the son of Krishnamacharya – inventor of modern yoga and teacher to BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois! The horse’s mouth! We’d better sit up and take notice.

Desikachar says: “There are many possible ways of understanding the meaning of the word yoga. Yoga has its roots in Indian thought, but its content is universal because it is about the means by which we can make the changes we desire in our lives. The actual practice of yoga takes each person in a different direction. It is not necessary to subscribe to any particular ideas of God in order to follow the yoga path. The practice of yoga only requires us to act and to be attentive to our actions. Each of us is required to pay careful attention to the direction we are taking so that we know where we are going and how we are going to get there; this careful observation will enable us to discover something new. Whether this discovery leads to a better understanding of God, to greater contentment, or to a new goal is a completely personal matter”.

Nice, eh!

Zoom Classes

Oh my goodness, it’s time for a disclaimer! Summer is over and we have to turn on the lights! At 7.00 there’s still light outside and we’re good to go, but I have to laugh when I look up at the screen half-way through a class and a couple of shadowy, dusky, dark grey boxes are looking back at me with the intermittent glint of glasses or teeth catching a lonely street light. Sometimes I see hands cutting through the darkness and I wonder what’s going on out there. I know of one new yogi whose internet connection is so bad that my carefully honed instructions are an ear-aching stream of electrical interference! Stand-up or sit com material. I’m going to have to ask you to take responsibility for your conditions or concerns and discharge me from liability for any injury.

Also, there was almost zero interest in a Friday 6.00 Restorative class! Back the drawing board. I have a feeling that Friday morning might be more popular but not for restorative. Hmmm.

Yoga in the news

Fab World Today has: Kavitha Bharanidaran has made the Guinness World record for performing yoga continuously for 7 days. ‘Kavitha Bharanidaran smoothly beat the previous record, and claimed the Guinness Book of World Record by performing yoga for seven days long’. She 'has broken the record by huge margin by completing 170 hours. According to Guinness world record, she is now officially amazing.'

British GQ has: A simple breathwork routine for a calmer day. The author writes of Richie Bostock, the self-proclaimed “Breath Guy.” “He's an author and speaker who has made this “free medicine” his whole thing. By incorporating breathwork into my day, Bostock told me, I'd be able to operate more from the parasympathetic nervous system—the automatic systems that govern relaxation and recovery.  I'd be more centred and less reactive to the environment around me. This is a more important skill than ever, given the state of the world, he pointed out”.