Kindness Pandemic
/Dear Yogis.
Well! You can call me Two Jab Tania! I walked home barely touching the pavement. I felt as though my heart was huge and turned up to face the beautiful blue sky! A lady who just had her first jab was almost in tears of joy, her voice was high and quivery. Her body showed all of her emotions and conveyed how much she could have used a big hug… which is impossible!
It made me think of the Emotional Body (did you know we have four bodies: the spiritual, emotional, physical and mental bodies?) and how uncontrollably present and visible our emotions can be. Michal Levin, a one-time Newsnight reporter, wrote a book about meditation and describes the Emotional Body like this: ‘This is where the emotions and their impact are held, felt, and exert their influence. The emotional body holds both the individual’s emotional history and emotional capacity. In infants, the emotional body far outweighs the mental body which is hardly developed at all’.
Emotions are all we have as babies. They get controlled, perhaps deadened, as we grow older. Some people have to deaden their emotions (did you see Ian Wright’s programme last night?). This is why you might hear yoga teachers talking about ‘energy blocks’ in the body. It’s Mental Health Awareness Week next week and a good time to think about how to look after this aspect of our being and how to remove blockages.
Of course there’s physical yoga which includes some pranayama and meditation. You could sit down for a separate meditation session or pranayama session. The COVID Symptom Study suggests these: Be kind to yourself and others; Get your information from trusted sources; Keep in touch with family and friends; Take care of yourself; Bring some structure to your day. The best one is kindness. His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “My religion is kindness.” When you are motivated by an attitude of kindness you are ‘creating’ good karma. That’s not some magic accounting system. ‘Karma’ simply describes cause and effect. Your kindness will spread good feeling which will result in someone else’s kindness… and so on.
Zoom Classes
I get quite a few calls about teaching classes in person. I’m afraid I don’t have a start date for that yet. Thankfully, many of you like yoga online and some really prefer it. When I start up my studio again I’ll keep the online option. In the meantime, start your weekend early with some yoga! It’s Ashtanga today at 4.30. Come and have a go.
Yoga in the news
The Moscow Times has: Russian Astrologer, Yoga Teacher Charged for Promoting Popular Hindu Festival. ‘The attached prosecution file notes that (the teacher) Kalinkina’s posts constitute illegal missionary work because she is not an authorized religious leader and “no religious association of the Hindu god Shiva is registered” in the central Russian republic of Udmurtia.’
ELLE has: Love Yoga? India's Covid Crisis Demands Your Attention. ‘As author Mira Jacob wrote in an Instagram post to companies like Lululemon and Alo Yoga, “Make no mistake: this is giving *back*, not giving charity. This is protecting the people who created and honed the practice of yoga for millennia before Western companies found a way to monetize it, people whose lives are being ravaged beyond recognition while corporations who have the means and muscle to help them post another picture of a hottie in tree pose.”
The Metro has: Try these 'office yoga' moves at your desk for more energy at work. Here are the Metro’s suggestions: Seated crescent moon, Seated Pigeon, Chair pose, Hand and wrist mobiliser, Upward Dog. Torso twist, and De-stress pose!
Have a blue sky weekend.
