Yoga Christmas Present Ideas
/Dear Yogis!
Well! It’s the time of year to think about Christmas presents. I have a couple of different suggestions. Here we go:
Sponsoring seems to be a good way to go. I discovered that the National Trust has the aim of planting and establishing 20 million trees by 2030 and you can sponsor a tree as a gift. This next one I’ve done and written about - you could adopt a Sunnyside Farm rescue chicken as a gift.
If you want to buy a new present, charity shops have their own ranges of goods. Here’s the yoga page of Barnardos. Cooking your present is a great way to go. Here are 22+ Homemade Vegan Edible Gifts & DIY Ideas.
I think a yoga practice can really benefit from a couple of props, in particular, a bolster. If, by chance, you have a sewing machine, you could make a bolster for a yogi friend. It could be done by hand but that would take a while. If you have a sewing machine, here’s a blog to show you how. A meditation cushion would be similar.
If you have a saw and sand paper you can make yoga blocks by visiting your local timber yard and buying the wood – perhaps a railway sleeper. A timber yard could cut it for you too. Here’s a blog by someone who suggests this and stained and varnished the cut block. They look really nice!
And finally, you could give the gift of being a personal challenge buddy. Give your time and company. So many people are discovering loneliness as a result of the continuing various levels of lock down. Your time and energy might be the best present. Turn your Christmas card into a voucher! You could, of course, sign your loved one up for yoga! Hurray! You could also accompany them on a Couch to 5K or cycle training with a view to a challenge. (London to Brighton is pretty overcrowded but the London to Oxford or Cambridge are quite nice. There’s always top-to-bottom of the UK or cycle to Paris).
Anyway, have a lovely Christmas. If it’s not so lovely, drop me a line and we can chat.
Zoom Classes
My new Thursday morning Ashtanga class had 8 people yesterday. It’s topped the chart as the most attended class. Wow! Ashtanga-starved yogis! For all classes, you can book here. Christmas is on a Saturday so I don’t really need to cancel any classes. Let me know if you fancy classes all the way through the next couple of weeks.
Yoga in the news
Sci-News.com has: Meditation Enhances Immune System without Activating Inflammatory Signals, Study Says. “This suggests that meditation as a behavioral intervention could have important implications for treating various conditions associated with excessive or persistent inflammation with a dampened immune system profile.”
HuffPost UK has: Teaching Yoga As A Woman Of Colour: 'I Couldn't Use Sanskrit Or Say Namaste'. “When I look at diversity and inclusivity,” says Joshi. “I genuinely mean bring everyone on to the stage no matter what your skin colour, your religion, your shape.”
Colossal has: Absurdly Flexible Chicks Lunge, Twist, and Stretch into Perfect Yoga Postures. Lucia Heffernan is showing the lunging and twisting characters through December 15 at CODA Gallery in Palm Desert, California and prints can be bought on her website.
