Beautiful Gestures

Dear Yogis!

I wrote a little while ago about ‘Namaste’ and whether we should use it at the end of class with the gesture of hands together and a little bow. I was brought up with this gesture at the Chiswick Temple where my mum practically lived and was a Sunday School teacher. I have an image in my mind of my big six-foot-something Dad put his hands together for the small five-foot-nothing Sri Lankan monks and it’s a sweet image. I love to see the gesture become more widespread. It’s versatile it can express respect, gratitude, devotion, or greeting or parting. Hands can even be put together in celebration. Put together with an exhalation, it can really centre you. It is understood beyond language or culture barriers.

Namaste as a way of ending class is distinctly not part of the Ashtanga practice. One teacher kindly took the trouble to respond to my question with this: ‘I have no idea when people started using Namaste in yoga classes. I had never, ever seen it in all my years practicing, and only heard about it as a recent phenomenon maybe 10 years ago. So I don’t know, but I definitely don’t do it - it’s silly!!’.

Silly, you say! Have you tried saying ‘Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana’ with a straight face in front of nonplussed faces? More silly than that… I’m terrified of the word ‘Pada’ which means ‘foot’ but, pronounced wrong, might sound like ‘Paad’ which means fart!

The final sensible word on whether to end a class with a gesture, I think, goes to the first teacher to bring Ashtanga to America, David Williams. He now resides in Hawaii and finishes his classes with ‘aloha’ which, just like Namaste, means beautiful things! There must be so many words in so many languages that convey something beautiful in greeting and parting such as this!

Zoom Classes 

I taught office desk yoga this morning and I absolutely love it. It’s incredibly practical. We do what we can with what we’ve got and feel better for it! This will definitely be making it onto my yoga timetable when I have a studio! In the meantime, today at 5.00pm, we will do some of the office-critical stretches (shoulders, neck, back!). Join for your last-of-the-week stretch! You can book here. Come along!

Yoga in the news 

The Times has: From asana to antivax: how yoga is helping to spread conspiracy theories.  Online wellness gurus are getting rich off ‘conspirituality’, an unhealthy collision between new-age philosophy and dangerous hoaxes.

Mindfulness Blog has: Woman becomes first inmate to train aspiring yoga teachers. ‘Inmate Fergosa Bluff is teaching draper yoga at Utah State Prison on Wednesday. Bluff is the first inmate to complete 500 hours of yoga teacher training in prison and has been commended for “serving life” rather than serving a life sentence’.

Pragativadi has: Simple Yoga Asanas To Improve Your Vision.  Yoga for eyes is a certain type of eye workout that can be done at any given time of the day, all you need are a few minutes.