Body Not Stiff, Mind Stiff!
/Dear Yogis.
Isn’t it great to see flexibility progressing and postures getting a little easier! And yet, it isn’t the gymnastics and contortionism that keeps us coming back. The flexibility yoga offers is in the mind… yoga really doesn’t have an opinion about your hamstrings or backache! This is crucial in Coronavirus times.
Insecurity, lack of control, shortage of facts; these are key triggers of stress and yet these are the normal elements of 2020 and 2021. Here’s the trick of yoga… it tells us that no external situation need define us; you can be independent from those things. Yoga shows how things are subject to change, that our attachments to those things are unrealistic and helps us unpack our identity to get to a more stable, realistic place.
I’ve been reading a chapter called Things That Darken The Heart in T. K. V. Desikachar’s book, The Heart Of Yoga. He says: ‘The essential purpose of yoga practice is to reduce Avidyā so that understanding can gradually come to the surface’. Here are the four elements of Avidyā. One is asmitā, the ego. It is the ego that unhelpfully identifies with things that change. ‘I am beautiful. I am young. I am popular. I am a (profession). Avidyā is also raga which is the desire to have pleasurable things and experiences. (This is a major culprit of our ups and downs!) A third element is dveṣa which is hate, avoidance and aversion. The fourth element is abhiniveśa or clinging to life.
OK. How does that help? We are so used to our happiness and unhappiness being the result of outside forces and so we believe that to be the truth. It isn’t! Flexibility, Desikachar says, is so that we are still able to react to changes in our expectations and old ideas’. Stiffness in the muscles leads to injury. It’s the same for stiffness in the mind!
Zoom Classes
I’m happy to say that my classes have an element of pregnancy yoga if necessary – and before long I meet yogi babies! Yay! I have Teacher Training in pregnancy yoga but if a more dedicated class is required, please get in touch with my dear friend Tzaddi for her wonderful pregnancy yoga classes. Also on Zoom this week – Yay - another country joins our classes. Tenerife! Wherever you are, come and join the Ashtanga class today at 4.30. For any class on any day, you can book all classes here.
Yoga in the news
BBC News has: Does yoga have a conspiracy theory problem? ‘Cultural historian Matthew Remski argues that yoga has always been driven by charismatic leaders touting alternatives to western medicine, and social media influencers are the natural successors of this tradition… He says yoga also shares three core beliefs which are key to any conspiracy theory: everything is connected, nothing happens without a reason, and nothing is as it appears’.
The Hindu has: ‘Stress lower among yoga practitioners’. “The long-term practitioners reported higher personal control and lower illness concern in contracting COVID-19 than the mid-term or beginner group. The long- term and mid-term practitioners also reported perceiving lower emotional impact of COVID-19 and lower risk in contracting the virus than the beginners,” the institute said’.
Have a happy weekend!
