Clever Crow

Dear Yogis.

Happy Diwali. If ever we wanted light to triumph over darkness and the chance of a new beginning, it’s now! How nice to have a celebration of removing inner darkness and negativity, starting afresh, having patience, sharing sweetness… The perfect posture for removing inner darkness and for Lock Down, well, there are so many but Crow Pose (correctly named Crane pose - Bakasana) represents the whole journey of the yogi.

Here’s what the author of The Myths of Asana says about this pose. It's named after a crane (the God of death, Yama, disguised as a crane!) who promised a King that he would bring his dead brothers back to life if he would answer some questions. To the first question, ‘What is the news of the world?’, the King answered: ‘All living beings have forgotten their inner divinity and live in ignorance which causes suffering’. To the second question, in front of his brothers’ corpses: ‘What is the greatest wonder?’ he replied: ‘Although we see death around us, we believe this will not happen to us’.

To the third question: ‘What is the true path?’, the King said: ‘The true path lies in following the saints and yogis who have achieved self-realisation. They will share their knowledge and grace with anyone who cares to receive it. By associating with those great teachers who have no egocentric attachments and live only to give, we will emulate those qualities’.

Finally, the last question: Who is happy in this word? The King’s answer: The self-realised person who has cleared his debts by resolving all of his or her karma. The Crane revived the brothers as promised! That’s a whole lot of lesson in one posture! It teaches us about focus and balance when there is chaos, loss, grief, or any condition that causes extreme imbalance. Cool, eh!

Zoom Classes 

Join me at 4.30 this afternoon for some Ashtanga. I’ve been teaching the seated postures lately. It feels less dynamic and more stretchy than the standing postures but there’s a huge amount of vinyasas! Of course, Crane Pose will be there! You can book/click here. See you later. 

Yoga in the news 

The Telegraph has: ‘Yoga really helped me after 9/11 and I’ve been doing it ever since’. This is about Genny Wilkinson Priest… Genny was a gymnast since the age of seven and trained at the USA Gymnastics Olympics camp, graduated from Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, and was a journalist at Reuters in Times Square when the World Trade Centre came down. Now she is director of yoga at Triyoga Camden. (You might have taken a class with her).

Cnet has: The workouts that burn the most calories, ranked. Stretching/Hatha yoga burns 73 calories per 30 minutes. That's a little less than weightlifting which comes in at 88 calories per 30 minutes. PS. Ashtanga would be at least four times that!

Reuters posted a yoga story on Twitter: Egypt's iconic Giza pyramids play host to a yoga event. Ancient wonders inside and out. Oh to be there.