Birthday Yoga

Dear Yogis. 

Amazing positivity comes over me on one day of the year (10th October). Isn’t it funny! One day is not so different to the day before or the day after but when a birthday comes along it’s absorbingly lovely. The day produces a shot of positivity that feels so powerful, it seems to illuminate a higher self and a better state. This state of self-generated specialness seems to bypass the thinking mind.

So, I’m riffing on similarities between yoga and birthdays! From my Kino MacGregor notes: ‘Yoga uncovers your true nature. True nature, according to yoga philosophy, has somehow been forgotten, obscured, by behavioural patterns of the mind. As we operate in these behavioural patterns that identify with ego, with material and physical measurements of self-worth, we are further and further away from the eternal spark of the spirit which is the true self’.

More…: ‘A shift happens while you’re practicing. Direct the mind inward so you can experience the spirit. Only with making contact with that true self, the spirit, you finally have the strength to look out again into the world and realise that all those external measurements don’t matter, you experience communion with the eternal spirit and you return to your normal life and the things that used to bother you don't anymore. A feeling of bliss or immersion, of the hard edges softened.

Yes! That shift! That’s how it feels!

Zoom Classes 

I always learn so much from you. In class this week, corporate classes and evening, we’ve had all kinds of participants from the aching back yogi, two broken toe yogis, newcomers, pregnancy yoga, partners, a toddler in a baby grow (which looks like great yoga clothing) and lock-down university students. I love our gatherings. You can book here and, don’t forget, there’s an Ashtanga class today at 4.30.

Yoga in the news 

The Guardian has:  Fit in my 40s: can a hot yoga lover find inner calm in a rooftop class? ‘The fresh air makes all the warrior poses feel more authentic, which is to say that you feel more like a warrior (whoever heard of starting a war indoors?)… A woman in front of me did the most magnificent headstand. Who knows what, but some primal instinct would put me off ever attempting one of those on a roof’.

Forbes has: Groundbreaking New Study Shows Yoga And Meditation Benefit Physical And Mental Health. Mindfulness meditation and hatha yoga were found to benefit patients with chronic pain and depression, leading to significant improvement in pain levels, mood .

The Indian Tribune has: ‘Yoga to help students beat stress amid Covid-19 crisis’. “To fight a battle against Covid-19, eating healthy food is one way to stay fit while different yoga asanas such as dandasana, vakasana dand and surya namaskar are beneficial whereas pranayamas such as kapalbhati, anulom vilom, can improve immunity and regulate blood circulation,”.