The Last Seven Words From The Cross
/Dear Yogis.
Gosh! Remember Easter a year ago? I was cancelling classes and moving bookings forward by a month. By a month!!! People were already talking about the gains of lockdown: the quieter, bluer skies, the louder dawn chorus, a break from commuting… We were already looking forward to shedding the skin of the tired and shabby parts of our routines.
The Easter story of resurrection is a perfect story for reflection as we awaken to Summertime and tentatively come out of lockdown. Rebirth is not easy! Lots of changes are not easy: life and family, career and circumstances, illnesses and ageing. As we know from physical yoga practice, we go through challenge, disappointment, frustration, small physical gains and large mental challenges. It isn’t long before you see that yoga is about rebirth. Yoga points out your quarrelsome mind and how it might have taken you into false identities, unhelpful habits, unsupportive relationships, harmful behaviours… Yoga is unattachment, unshackling and ascending to a freer life. It would be an absolutely impossible mental journey if not for the physical practice.
How can you stay focused, though, when life is such a roller-coaster from highpoints of altruism to low points of feeling alone and abandoned? The story of Easter is exactly what you need! The Seven Last Words from the Cross show a whole epic journey of all of these battles: altruism and acceptance, then care for his mother, then a drop into despair and feeling forsaken, then distress in the body and triumph over worldliness, and finally ‘reunion’. Not one of those words is about escape. It’s a path we have to take!
Happy Eastertide.
Zoom Classes
Yes, I’m teaching today… and Easter Monday. Have a go at 4.30. Come along, even if your energy is an end-of-the-week energy. Skip vinyasas if you need to. My running gave me a very quarrelsome knee so I’ll skip vinyasas with you. Also, my friend Tzaddi is starting a new pregnancy yoga course. See attachment. Pass it on if you know anyone who might be interested.
Yoga in the news
The Metro has: How you can use yoga to boost your gut health and tackle bloating. ‘With IBS awareness month starting tomorrow, yoga teacher Gabriella Espinosa advises anyone suffering with gut issues to take up yoga.’. ‘The gut and the brain are connected by a nerve called the vagus nerve, which is one of the main channels of communication between them. It was thought of as a top-down communication (brain to gut), but we now know the gut microbiota uses various ways to communicate back to the brain’.
The BMJ has: Why I . . . practise yoga. ‘“A lot of digestive health advice focuses on food, but that’s only part of the story… There is an intrinsic connection between the gut and the brain. So, I work on aspects of physicality including breathwork and yoga, and also include some cognitive tools.”’
The Independent has: Alabama fails to reverse ban on yoga as conservatives say they fear rise in Hinduism. The bill ‘says that “all instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises and stretching techniques” and that all techniques “shall have exclusively English descriptive names”.’
Happy Easter.
