Groundhog Day Meets Monkey Mind Yoga

Dear Yogis,

It’s Friday! Who knew! In one way or another, everyone has discovered something new about their Groundhog Day personality. How’s the Monkey Mind doing under lock down? How’s the attention span? An article in Time Out (renamed as Time In), Why Do I Have The Attention Span Of A Goldfish?, caught my interest this week. Yes, indeed, the definition and the purpose of yoga is to Still The Fluctuations Of The Mind... but there’s a reason that it’s different under lock-down.

Alexa Frey from The Mindfulness Project says: ‘The mounting stresses and uncertain future are causing our limbic systems to work harder than usual right now. This system is activated by real or imagined threats and tells our body to fight, flight or freeze to keep us safe. In this state, we also don’t have access to the prefrontal cortex part of our brain which helps us pay attention, rationalise, stay calm, plan and seek creative solutions’.

(So, this is the reason that my website and booking system are not ready yet... but they will be over the weekend! Sorry!)

Back to the monkey mind... All the elements of yoga step up to take you by the hand: mindfulness, compassion and connection. Mindfulness is quite hard when the monkey mind has you fidgeting all over the place. Mindfulness asks you to be in the present moment, bring awareness to what you are feeling but in addition, compassion puts its arm around you to bring warmth and support.  

Clinical psychologist Chris Germer says: ‘Mindfulness basically asks “what am I experiencing right now?”, and compassion asks a different question, “what do I need right now?” The combination of the two, allows our mind to settle and then we can see things again.

Training

I must make mention of pregnancy yoga classes held by a friend of mine, Tzaddi Love. Dedicated pregnancy yoga classes are definitely the place to be for mothers-to-be!

Next weekend I’ll be doing the Paul Grilley online workshop ‘yin yoga: the five archetypal poses’. It's on Saturday 9 May 17:00 - 18:30 for £20. Fancy joining me?

Home Studio Zoom Classes

For classes next week and hereafter, you can book through this website.  

Monday and Tuesday - 7.00-8.00pm - Easy, Stretchy Yoga

Wednesday and Thursday - 7.00-8.00pm Ashtanga-Based Yoga

Friday - 4.30-5.30pm - Afternoon Ashtanga

Yoga in the news

The Guardian has: Yoga With Adriene: how the YouTube star won lockdown. ‘In recent months, she has been described as “the patron saint of quarantine” (Paper magazine), “the most influential yoga teacher on the planet” (Refinery29), and “Our saviour” (a fan on Twitter)’.” As a teacher, Mishler is not doing anything revolutionary, but she has struck a chord in these anxious times. By not doing too much, and not asking us to do too much, she’s become the woman of the hour.”

The Irish Times has: Yoga Lab: Switch off, relax and be at one with your breath. The article confidently tells us that: ‘In yoga nidra the body sleeps, but the mind remains alert and aware, following the instructions from the teacher’. I have never found it to be the case. Luckily, you still benefit if you fall asleep. There are some great tips in this article

If you’re going through the pain of losing someone at the moment, love from the depth, the breadth and the height of my heart is for you.