Yoga In SAD October

Dear Yogis. 

It’s October! This is my month! October 2020 starts with a harvest moon and ends with a blue moon. Usually I have just returned from Kapsali and our magical yoga retreat. I’m usually armed with anti-ageing cream and other wonderful treatments from  Sara’s shop,  Elixrysos herbal apothecary. The Yoga Show and it’s yoga chaos and hullabaloo is to look forward to. My entry tickets were always a birthday present from Dad.  Boy oh boy, is this year different! The trees still promise their autumnal beauty; warm, sunny days will come, obliging us to talk about an Indian Summer; and our houses will be cosy and heated for snuggling in!

A yogi mentioned Seasonal Affective Disorder this week. SAD starts to appear in journals and columns about now, along with advice to take vitamins and exercise. Absolutely! The darker days can affect non-depressive people like depression. It’s not hard to understand. You know what it feels to look up at a galaxy of stars (not in this country!) and feel the wonderment and positivity and amazing emotions when the glorious view enters under your skin and into your grey cells and gives you joy… Well, clouds can also get under the skin and into the grey cells and do what clouds do - dull the light.

Mind.org reminds us that the darkness tells the brain to produce melatonin which tells the body to get ready for sleep – hence lack of energy. Some people produce more than others and experience depression symptoms. You might combat unwanted melatonin levels with bright light – and you can buy SAD lights/a light box for this! At the same time, you can boost your serotonin levels, the happiness hormone. You’ll need to look at nutrients and supplements – perhaps a dietitian can help with that.

OK, this is a yoga blog so, of course, I think yoga is part of the solution; getting out of the head and into the body! That is your refuge, your place to go, your chance to be kind to yourself! Get on the mat with your neurotransmitters, your chemical imbalances, your hormones, your pineal gland, nervous systems and brain waves. Gather all of the various parts of you together, get on the mat and start practicing being whole.

It will pass.

Zoom Classes 

I always notice that October is a bit like January and with its New Year Resolutions. Gyms fill up a bit more and more newcomers find their way to my Home Studio (online!) It’s happening again. Numbers will definitely increase when people hear of the fun we’ve been having this week with plank after plank after plank. Yes we have!!! You can book here and, don’t forget, there’s an Ashtanga class today at 4.30. Your last chance to get a vigorous class in before our rainy season this weekend.

Yoga in the news 

The Metro has: Can coronavirus anxiety be helped by breathing exercises? Everyone from the Ancient Greeks to the Buddhists, the Hindus to the Native Americans, viewed proper breathing as essential to health. As far back as 400BC, Chinese scholars wrote several books on breath, believing it was both a medicine and a poison depending on how we used it. Pranayama, the yoga of breathing, goes back thousands of years.

I thought this was interesting because I’ve written about crying in class before. ELLE Australia has: The Science Behind Strong Emotions & Crying During Yoga. Sub headline: The body keeps the score. ‘Are we really going to reply to all those, "I hope this finds you well," emails with the truth? Unfortunately, the signs—professionalism and general social expectations—point to 'no'. "And because we are unable to name our emotions, we actually don't understand what's happening to us."  Emotional release yoga is a way of reconnecting people to their emotions, "that's the first step. The entrance point is always the body."’