Where Hope Comes From
/Dear Yogis!
I’m making my way through The Yoga Manifesto by Nadia Gilani. I opened up this morning to the chapter ‘Where Hope Comes From’. That already gave me hope! She says: “It comes from having something to believe in. If you believe in it, it exists. It’s believing when there’s nothing there. No proof, just blind faith. It’s realising that you are not falling apart even when it feels like you are. It’s remembering that you’ve lived through enough to know that, as the poet Rilke wrote, ‘no feeling is final’ and therefore all emotions – however despairing – will pass”.
In an earlier chapter she says: “Somewhere along the line I’ve developed a relationship with what I call my Acceptance Muscle. It’s a metaphor I use for trying to strengthen an important aspect of life that I’ve struggled with for so many years. I still don’t always find accepting what life throws at me simple, but practicing acceptance of where I am on my mat has helped me cultivate an ability to apply it to other areas of my life,
She says: “I think of the therapeutic process like Kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold. The philosophy behind the practice is that through embracing flaws and imperfections you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art”.
NEW CLASS
Our in-person-only Friday Ashtanga class started today. What a joy! It’s been ages – since March 2020 – since I started the Friday morning Ashtanga class at Eden Fitness with 10 minutes meditation and my mind was having none of it! Anyway, onwards and upwards. Join us next week. It’s just lovely!
On the booking page you’ll find all the options, including this morning’s class. You can book all the classes here.
Yoga in the news
The BBC has: Lina Nielsen on yoga, rivals and Olympic aims. ‘It's early. Not yet 06:00. But through the gates of an ashram, in a large open courtyard, Lina Nielsen is pouring salt water from a small jug into one of her nostrils. "It cleanses the nose to prepare for breathing exercises," she explains to BBC Sport. "After that we would hike into the Himalayan foothills in silence, concentrating on our breathing. We would reach the top, come back down, drink some tea. Then there was a two-hour Ashtanga yoga class before a breakfast of coconut oats and fruit at 10:00.
The Guardian has: ‘Skinny, bendy and blonde’: women of colour challenge racism in UK yoga. ‘Amanda Evans from Brighton said she had quit teaching yoga in commercial studios because some white students had walked out of classes when they saw a black or brown teacher. “It happened to me a couple of times and with south Asian teachers I know as well,” she said.’
ABC has: Chris Thompson-Lang came home from Afghanistan with PTSD. He says yoga saved his life. ‘A trauma-aware yoga class is different. "We take a lot of stuff out of trauma-aware yoga, [for example] strong sensory inputs like oil, incense, candles, music, and we don't touch the participants," Thompson-Lang says.
The Shanghai Daily has: Can yoga deliver in times of pandemic? ‘"Meditation is the only way for adults to enter that alpha wave state... "When you are in the alpha state, you are also in control of your breathing. You are in control of your body. It heals the body and makes you calm down.”’
