“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.” Albert Camus,

Dear Yogis!

I had to share this writing from a yoga teacher with you, (she’s in quarantine as she writes): ‘The future I had built as an image in my mind, and my present circumstances are at odds with one another. I realize so much of my past ability to be content with the present was predicated on the idea that in the future, I’d be somewhere else’.

Covid has taught us a lot about expectations, beliefs, ideas, attachments, and cravings for life to return to ‘normal’. To be honest, it didn’t need Covid to tell us exactly what that teacher said… we’re not living in the present moment and accepting it as the major moment in life.

This is exactly what the Buddha’s teachings were all about. He was concerned to show how change and impermanence are the reality, and any belief or behaviour that ignores this leads to suffering. Yoga philosophy urges us to Still the Fluctuations of the Mind. It’s the same thing. Look how the mind wants to cling and crave and hope and invent and insist that it is right. It’s easy to over-identify with what the errant mind is saying and attach strongly with our opinions and wants. “That means believing that the contents of your mind—your thoughts and feelings—tell you about who you really are, about the nature of your self. This is a critical error.”

If it is the case that your thoughts are not you, that your ideas are inventions of the moment, that your likes and dislikes are just temporary clingings, that’s incredibly freeing! Upsets, dislikes, enemies, rows, harshness, indignities are also all inventions and can be freed from your grasp – un-invented! When yoga asks us to ‘still the fluctuations of the mind’, it is asking us to recognise what the mind is clinging to and to give it a rest – at least for the length of the practice!

Zoom Classes 

Nest week we have a Monday Bank Holiday so I’ll be teaching the Monday class on Wednesday! So, today’s class at 5.00 is the last till Tuesday… that’s too long to go without a stretch!!! Come at 5.00 today and stretch the week off. Get ready for the long weekend!  For all classes and especially today, you can book here.

Yoga in the news 

The Irish Times has: Yoga and Pilates teachers ‘frustrated’ at continued ban on in-person classes.

‘Under current restrictions, indoor group activities including exercise classes such as yoga and Pilates are not permitted. It is unlikely there will be any significant easing of public health rules until the end of next month at the earliest as the Government focuses on the resumption of schools’.

Healthline has: Shoulder stand: How to Safely Practice This Beneficial Yoga Pose. ‘Although research to support its effects is still somewhat limited, the thinking behind the approach is that going upside down relieves pressure on the discs caused by gravity, helping create length. Shoulder stand is considered to be a calming pose, helping people shift into their parasympathetic nervous system, by inducing the relaxation response. As such, it’s often practiced toward the end of class. In addition, a 2018 study showed that practicing Shoulder stand helped reduce the blood glucose levels of people with type 2 diabetes’.

The Insider has: Plans to turn the bungalow of top Nazi Joseph Göbbels into a yoga retreat scrapped after the project was infiltrated by the far-right. ‘The proposal for the project issued earlier this year by the LKC Bogensee initiative included turning the former country retreat of Hitler's propaganda chief into an environmentally friendly village complete with yoga studios and workshops for artisans’.