Post-Covid New Normal Yoga
/Dear Yogis.
It’s been a year since the very first cases of coronavirus. Our lives were about to change and we were blissfully unaware – like the poem says: ‘Time held me green and dying, Though I sang in my chains like the sea’. Last year was ‘green’! Evening classes were snippets of a party and everything was fun positive.
Of course, I would argue that yoga is where we can find that joy during Lock Down. I found an article this week by yoga teacher Adam Keen about ‘strict’ Ashtanga teachers and it made me wonder if strictness works on Zoom. Mainly, I have to wonder why anyone would spoil the joy of yoga by imposing strictness upon it. It made me have hopes for Post-Covid Yoga!
The original Western Ashtangis in Mysore were ‘an intense bunch’ who (as David Swenson describes) were like Labradors wanting more and more postures. Pattabhi Jois obliged them with more and more advanced sequences. It was a love-in – appropriate for hippies in India! Somehow, from that joyous start, Ashtanga became po-faced and strict.
One student, Sarah Ezrin said: ‘I loved its strictness, its clear-cut rules, its tradition. I loved that it pushed me to keep going. Yes, sometimes it would hurt. And sometimes I would cry, but that’s normal, right?’. Oh Sarah! The ones that brought Ashtanga to the West were hippies! They didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘strict’! Payment for a class in the 1970s would be ‘one mango, one banana, and one half of a joint’?
Adam Keen says: ‘we have not been put in charge of an Olympic gymnastic training program’… ‘we are teaching yoga, the conveying and building of a certain ‘energy’, or attitude to living’. Hallelujah! That’s post-covid yoga.
Zoom Classes
If you haven’t done Ashtanga yoga before, the first thing you will notice is that you’re moving around the mat, up and down and this way and that way, in a way you won’t have moved before. It involves press ups, back bends, and the famous Downward Facing Dog which is apparently a resting posture. Anyway, come and have fun. If you don’t want to put your camera on, that’s OK.
You can join me at 4.30 this afternoon for some Ashtanga. I’m not strict! You can book/click here. See you later.
Yoga in the news
The South China Morning Post has: How Iyengar yoga helped this man deal with multiple sclerosis. Garth McLean was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his mid-30s, now 61 and an advanced Iyengar teacher. “If we align the body in asanas [poses] correctly, the muscle and nerve fibres are nourished and begin to work again, and the body is given a chance to heal itself. Iyengar taught that yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. I have found that to be true.”
The Metro has: The different yoga styles to keep you healthy and happy in lockdown. Yin is about relaxation, finding stillness and cooling down the body. Kundalini yoga is specifically designed to strengthen intuition and willpower, offering the ‘circuit-breaker’ to help you kick the snack-attack habit. Vinyasa, also called ‘flow’ because of the smooth way that the poses run together, is one of the most popular contemporary styles of yoga. Pranayama, or breathwork, is one of the fundamental principles of yoga and engages students in controlling their energies (prana meaning ‘breath’, yama meaning ‘restraint’).
Music News has: Paul McCartney has a yoga group with Alec Baldwin. "We have this little thing with Lorne, Alec, and a couple of mates. It's called The Yoga Boys, and we do yoga together, and we're terrible!".
