You Are Not Who You Are

Dear Yogis

This week I have been captivated by a book called Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope. In a chapter called ‘You Are Not Who You Appear To Be’ he quotes Amrit Desai, a ‘yoga pioneer’, who says “In yoga there is only one problem and one solution: the problem is that we’ve forgotten who we are; the solution is to remember who we are, to reidentify with the entire reality of atman (the true self/soul). We are like people walking around in a room with the lights off. We are attempting to move around and live in this room without light. So naturally we bump into things and into each other. We continually hurt ourselves and others. And we feel a sense of dissatisfaction and pain. We are deluded because we think that our fundamental dilemma is that there is something wrong with this place that we’re in. Even more painfully, we think there is something wrong with ourselves. Actually, there is nothing wrong. If we could simply turn on the lights, we would see reality more clearly.”

“With the light of vidya (knowledge) we might align our movements and our behaviour with the way things really are and we could be quite content and effective in living life with ourselves in the very same reality.” Cutting through avidya (ignorance) “is simply turning on the lights. One problem; one solution”

The author follows this with: ‘Through millennia of practice, yogis learned to reverse the process of extroversion. They discovered that they could unwind the painful misidentification, retracing the steps of the human self back through the layers of reality, from the gross, physical plane with which we now exclusively identify, to the most refined planes of pure consciousness. They mapped the process, and called it, not surprisingly, introversion (nimesha). The process of introversion required the use of practices that worked directly with both consciousness (chitta) and energy (prana), and included deep states of concentration (samadhi) as well as the refinement of energy through postures (asana) and yogic breathing (prana). This path eventually came to be called yoga.’

I’m attaching a couple of other excerpts that I enjoyed… there are so many.

Home Studio

I have been asked about mats again. Keen yogis want to have a decent mat at home! I have previously written about the mats that I have experience of (click links)… Cat on a Mat, Under The Mat, (about thin mat toppers) and I have a little stock of the LOVE MAT by Lāal which I describe in my Christmas present suggestions. (That email includes the beautiful Destination Karma travel mat).

There are so many new year resolution people are coming to class and it’s lovely seeing new faces. It’s such a positive time of year, but classes are filling up so book in advance. You can see class availability on my website (which I update often).

Training

I write about these workshops in the hope that you’ll try one with me. I had absolutely no idea about workshops before my teacher training and I can’t imagine what magic I missed. Here’s what I’m doing in the near future: tonight I’m going to Triyoga Ealing at 19.45 for a silent yin + gong workshop – 2 hours of bliss. Tomorrow over to Triyoga Camden at 9.30 am for Dr Jacques Anthony Soyer + Tracy Elner breath, stillness, movement + holistic modern medicine – exploring the benefits of pranayama and qigong and combining ancient teachings with scientific developments that support the efficacy of these systems.

Yoga in the news

The Metro has: Why Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic and Aboubakar Kamara were dragged apart at yoga class. How I wish I’d been teaching that class! The paper helpfully tells us: ‘Maybe it’s a good thing that the players are able to relieve their feelings in such a way during Yoga which is good for body and mind’. The Sun, on the same story, tells us that they were: ‘at each other’s throats during the relaxation session’.

Hurray for The South China Morning Post which tells us: How yoga and a vegetarian alkaline diet can help you run faster and further, and cheer you up. A runner quoted in this article says: ‘the more veggies one consumes, the more balanced one’s blood pH level, and that yoga contributes to this state from the deep breathing that oxygenates one’s system. Both conditions contribute to raising energy levels’.

Home Practice, Studio Practice, Doctor's Practice

Dear Yogis

This week an article called Characteristics of Yoga Practice and Predictors of Practice Frequency captured my interest. The article is from the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and the reason for the study is to understand ‘practice behaviors’ to ‘better enable health providers to implement yoga for health’. Good so far.

They found that the least frequent place of practice was at work (that’s got to rise!) and the most frequent was the yoga studio.  However, most of the people they surveyed (61%) had a regular home practice and, of those, roughly half followed a routine taught by someone else and half made up their own practice. That’s a really high number! Not many people (1.6%) had private classes and a tiny amount (0.6%) used a dvd at home – incredible given the sales in yoga dvds and apps.

I can’t help thinking that the outcomes would have been fascinating if the survey had been taken in India, not America. Yoga therapy in India is taken seriously and has a long history, longer than yoga for sport or pastime or fitness. (To pass his ‘teacher training’, Pattabhi Jois had to cure a sick person with yoga.) However, this survey is looking for answers for health providers. If group classes come out on top then perhaps doctors’ surgeries need to become venues for yoga therapy classes! That waiting room, after hours, can host a class!

Yoga for health is something very different to what we find in gyms or studios. Here’s a list of 101 different health conditions that can benefit from Yoga from Dr Timothy McCall who wrote Yoga As Medicine. People don’t generally go to a happy, skippy gym or studio class hoping to combat alcoholism, obesity, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, cancers, PTSD, Psoriasis, Kidney failure, Parkinsons... - Dr McCall's list is mind-blowing.

Getting back to your home practice, here’s something for you. The totally free method, online video at home, came up with 2.9% in the survey (which doesn’t explain the popularity of Yoga with Adriene – people love her). Here are another couple of videos to try to inspire you: David Swenson 30 minute practice with his beguiling voice; Kino Macgregor’s Half Primary Series, Power Yoga, Mark Gonzales which will work up a sweat for you.

Home Studio

Come to class! Come and be inspired. Come with health issues and I’ll see what I can do. You can see class availability on my website (which I update often).

Offer

I received this very kind offer from Sara Castoldi, an osteopath at Osteopathy West London on New Broadway. She would like to offer a 25% on the first consultation and treatment and 20% discount on further treatments for yogis who come to my Home Studio. She also specialises in paediatric and pregnancy care. Contact her on 07988661917 or castoldi.ost@gmail.com

Yoga in the news

Prince Charles funds yoga and meditation for young prisoners the Telegraph tells us. He wants to restore “hope and positivity” behind bars and so has given a grant to the Prison Phoenix Trust whose project is to bring harmony to young offenders through yoga. £5,000 was granted to yoga; £37,000 to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust; £118,000 to Oxford Plant Sciences.

The independent has Plus-size woman becomes yoga teacher after noticing lack of diversity among instructors. The Californian teacher says ‘she is the healthiest she has ever been, just wants to help and inspire other people to exercise and feel confident through yoga’.

The London Post gives us FREE Yoga Classes at Boxpark Shoreditch. A French yoga company, Baya, is hosting a pop-up yoga shop from January 15th-21st and offering free classes on the 16th and 20th.

Tempted by Temperance

Dear Yogis

Are you trying Veganuary or Dry January? Are you harnessing the magic energy of the New Year and taking the plunge? I read that February this year will see the British Heart Foundation’s Dechox campaign– you give up chocolate for the shortest month of the year! In March, Lent will begin on the 6th so you’ll need something else to forgo till April 18th. We can think about the other months later but caffeine will need to claim one of the subsequent months! Pairing down wants and needs and navigating the way towards essentials means that treats are all the more appreciated in an uncluttered life.

I am particularly interested in Dry January since I heard this week of someone being refused a pay rise at work because, HR said, they provide ‘Beer O’Clock’. I couldn’t help thinking that promotion of drink at work and pressure from an employer to drink has an unsavoury past. History finds many examples of rulers who created a pliable workforce and increased tax revenue by promoting taverns and liquor licences. My mother’s father was a member of the Temperance Movement in Ceylon and Hansard in 1912 records how ‘minor English officials’ harassed members of the movement (which became the independence movement!). Under apartheid, the ‘dop system’ was one in which employers pay their labourers with cheap wine, kept them addicted, dependent and loyal to the farm or vineyard.

Back to yoga! Traditional yoga suggests avoidance of alcohol because it clouds the mind. If yoga is about stilling the mind, it’s incompatible with yoga and the focus on meditation. Regular yoga practice highlights effects of drinking, perhaps lethargy, unhealthy digestion or constant colds. In yoga terms this is ‘Tamasic’, one of the three basic human qualities (Gunas), the others being Ragastic (activity) and Sattvic (goodness). In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes the Gunas and says that Tamas ‘Is born of inertia. It binds by ignorance, laziness, and sleep.’

Try it for January! It’s more radical than you think!

Home Studio

Yogis are working hard in the first classes of the year. It’s a total pleasure to see the little Home Studio full of hard-working yoga practitioners. There’s plenty of room next week. Come along. You can see availability on this website.

Yoga in the news

The Observer in Uganda has: How yoga is saving lives of street kids. In the largest slum in Uganda an American started yoga classes, picking up children from the slum area and from the street for yoga, a hot meal and protection from police raids.

 Should yoga be compulsory at work? asks My Business. The article says that ‘several companies around the world have already trialed making such programs mandatory for their staff: Swedish company Björn Borg has reportedly introduced compulsory gym sessions for its staff each Friday, while KPMG reportedly included sessions on yoga and mindfulness as part of a three-day course for its auditors in the UK.’

Happy New Year's Resolutions 2019

Dear Yogis

Season’s Greetings! I hope you had a nice time this week. Just a few days of not teaching and I miss you! However, it’s so important to take time off to rest and reflect. It’s what makes the New Year the right time for resolutions and aiming for a higher version of yourself. Not for nothing people try to stay dry in January (alcoholically speaking) and Veganuary has been going since 2014 and looks like it’s here to stay. Here are some non-alcoholic drink recipes and/or, for Veganuary, you could join me for a cooking course by Yuuga Kemistri. And if you live in East London you have your very own M*lkman doing rounds with his nut-milks of joy.

What about a yoga resolution! Do you need one? Just enjoy classes! Maybe you could try a class you wouldn’t normally take. Triyoga has end of year special packages: 5 class festive pass for £65 (£13 per class) 8 class festive pass for £96 (£12 per class). Try something different!

Home Studio

I’m really looking forward to starting up again next week. Only two classes next week; the Ashtanga classes on Wednesday and Thursday. Updated bookings and spaces left can be seen on the booking page of this website.

Training

I’m signed up for a few things this year and I hope you’ll join me. Teaching Yoga in Sport is a course that takes place over six weekends over the year with Sarah Ramsden. In February you’ll find Day Christensen in Winchester. She’s a favourite teacher of my friend Lisa and you can register interest here. I’ve signed up of Ty Landrum in April at Triyoga. Whatever you do, try a workshop.

Yoga in the news

GQ Magazine is promoting meditation with this: ‘Before you swear off meditation for good, try a gong bath’. ‘Leo Cosendai is a gong meditation teacher who believes sound baths are the way to meditate if you don't like the mainstream approach.’ He says: ‘“I think meditation can seem really abstract and complicated and reserved for certain people. Really a gong bath – or a sound bath or sound meditation – makes meditation accessible. It makes it an experience rather than homework or something on your to-do list.’

This is one for cricket fans. Sky Sports tells us: Cameron Bancroft 'nearly quit cricket for yoga' following ball-tampering ban’. He says: ‘"Until you are able to acknowledge that you are Cameron Bancroft, the person who plays cricket as a profession, and not Cameron Bancroft the cricketer, you will not be able to move forward.’ How yogic!

Happy New Year!

Shimmering Silvery Sound of Silence

Dear Yogis

Are you ready with your New Year Resolutions? Get your ideas together so that you can get excited by them. Yogis are great at resolutions. We know exactly how to set our focus and intention. I found my main resolution for next year when listening to an interview about the recent climate conference in Poland. The studio guest said that he converted from shower gel in plastic bottles to bars of soap. I’m stealing that idea. I can’t even remember why I stopped using bars. I’ll also add laundry liquid refills to my resolution list.

I keep meaning to make meditation a more regular practice but I hesitate to make it a resolution in case I fail to keep it. I’m adding it this year because a cure to my hesitation came when I read a booklet by Ajahn Amaro, Abbot of Amaravati Monastery called ‘Inner Listening’ (downloads and pdf here). Maybe this little extract and the one attached will spark your interest.

Inner listening “refers to attending to what has been called ‘the sound of silence’, or ‘the nada-sound… a high-pitched inner ringing tone. When you turn your attention toward your hearing, if you listen carefully to the sounds around you, you’ll hear a continuous high-pitched sound, like a white noise – beginningless, endless – sparkling there in the background. See if you can detect that gentle inner vibration... We can use it, just like the breath, to dominate our attention”.

“It becomes like a screen on which all other sounds, physical sensations, moods and ideas are projected… It helps to sustain objectivity and untangled awareness, an untangled awareness in the present.”

I have to tell you, when you first hear that shimmering silvery sound, it’s magic and there’s a feeling of a voyage-of-discovery about to begin. It’s about time I made this resolution!

Home Studio

Can I tell you what a joy it is to teach you here! It amazes me how lucky I am that you come week after week or that new yogis pitch up for a class after a Google search for yoga in Ealing. What everyone has in common is that they want a small class. Hurray! And it’s always a joy to teach you. However, the studio turns into a bedroom and playroom for the Christmas week and there’ll be no classes till 2019. Classes are booking up for the first week in January. There are classes on the Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd. You can see what’s available on my website. Also attached on this email.

Training

Valentina’s last Aerial Yoga class of the year is tomorrow, Saturday 22nd, at 10.30. I’ll be there to do my assisting session which is part of the course. Come along. Book here.

In 2019 I hope you’ll join me for some classes and workshops with the phenomenal teachers who come to this country and give us the best of their years of learning and teaching. It’s always such a joy to train with David Swenson or discover phenomenal teachers like Gregor Mahler. London is a blessed place to be a yogi!

Yoga in the news

Yoga exponent Geeta Iyengar, daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar, passes away, reports the Hindu.

“Like her father, Geeta Iyengar kept ill-health through much of her childhood…This caused her father great consternation, as he was not able to afford the high cost of medication; he instead recommended that she practice asanas to improve her health, spurring her lifelong devotion to Yoga.”

Happy Christmas, Happy holidays, Happy Kwanza, Happy Eating with loved ones.

Yoga Christmas Presents

Dear Yogis

It’s time to think about Christmas Presents. There is usually a funny top you can get someone. Here’s a Namasleigh T-Shirt! Here’s a Namasleigh sweater and lots of other top ideas there. For Christmas leggings there are lots of ideas here. I might have to succumb to that website. 

Back when we were in Kapsali on retreat I made a mental note to tell you how important a heavy mat is for outdoor practice! A light breeze turns a light travel mat into a flag. I have four sturdy mats in my home studio for sale at £55 - the LOVE MAT by Lāal. They’re similar to the Liforme mat but half the price! On the other hand, if you do want a beautiful mat topper, Destination Karma’s mats feature inspiring scenes from Bali, The Greek Islands, and Cornwall and other gorgeous places. The company also donates a percentage of profits to charities from those countries. You can also design your own.

Home Studio

If you want to try the Destination Karma mat, let me know and you can use it here. I have a beautiful one that reminds me of Kythera. Some classes next week are filling up fast but Tuesday 6.00 and Wednesday 8.00 are crying out for yogis as people start going away or skipping yoga for office parties! Can you imagine! You can see whats available on my website.

Training

I’m half way through Aerial Yoga teacher training and I have to recommend that you have a go; you will find that it compliments mat yoga and works muscles that you can’t possibly use on the mat. If you don’t know what aerial yoga looks like, there’s a ‘hammock’ from the ceiling, pegged to the ceiling at a little more than shoulder distance apart and the material falling down to your hip level. First of all, there’s a lot of joy in the practice, from floating in the hammock, from giving your weight to the hammock and moving with speed and grace and lightness. Everyone can achieve inversions. It’s a democratic practice; there’s no drama, no-one has to move their mat to the wall, everyone can do a handstand and get the benefits of lengthening the spine.

Valentina’s last class of the year is on Saturday 22nd. I’ll be there to do my assisting session which is part of the course. Come along. Book here.

Yoga in the news

Today is the centenary of BKS Iyengar’s birth, 14 December 1918. Newsd celebrates the day with: BKS Iyengar: The Father of Modern Yoga and says ‘we bring to you some lesser known facts about the yoga guru’. The paper claims this: ‘he taught an 85 year old Queen Elizabeth to stand on her head’.

This article from Deccan Herald has pictures of mass yoga sessions celebrating his anniversary and a couple of interesting details about the great teacher: “After suffering a spine dislocation in a scooter accident, he began the usage of props to help disabled people practice yoga”

Gu Ru - Darkness To Light

Dear Yogis

During the weekend with David Swenson recently he gave details about his life that he has apparently never given before. In his search for the purpose of life he studied philosophy, astrology, palmistry and past life regression. He joined the Hare Krishnas where he got up at 3.00am with a cold water bucket bath, studied scripture, did deity worship and chanted on the streets. His CV jumps from yoga to Hare Krishnas to salesman to homeless yogi. How can I encourage you to seek him out next time he’s in this country?

Here’s a definition he gave of the word ‘Guru’. Guru, he says, is made up of two words; Gu and Ru. It means ‘from darkness to light’. To illustrate the word he said this: imagine you’re in a dark cave, you have a candle but no way to light it and you’re stumbling around. Deep in the recesses of the cave you see a glow, a person with a candle. They extend their candle, yours touches it and you get light. ‘From darkness to light’. It means passing on knowledge. No demands are made, no drama.

That’s what he’s like to learn from. He simply gives you light. This is more remarkable when you think of the strictness of the old school teachers including his teacher Pattabhi Jois who’s own teacher Krishnamacharya was known as the ‘Lion Guru’. He would bark and yell and injure. He had three famous students, his brother-in-law BKS Iyengar, his son Desikachar and Pattabhi Jois. Iyengar was fierce and had a stick to hit people with! Pattabhi Jois would show his students a deep scar from Krishnamacharya. Desikachar refused to learn yoga because his dad was so mean. When he was a child, he would hide in a tree so that he wouldn’t have to practice yoga. When he came down, Krishnamacharya would tie him up in a posture, tie his hands to his feet, and leave him for three hours in the yard. Desikachar didn’t practice till he was fifty!

Home Studio

There’s only mild tying up in my home classes. No sticks! And there’s plenty of room in all but the 7.30 Tuesday class next week. And you’re welcome to bring your asana requests to class and I’ll be your DJ. One yogi this week wanted Mayurasana -take a look at the link – it’s me a few years ago with David Garrigues! It’s doable. You can see what classes are available on my website. Also attached on this email.

Training

I’m wondering what to book for 2019. Let me know what you’re doing.

Yoga in the news

The Business Standard in India tells us: Yoga exposition in Pune to mark BKS Iyengar's birth centenary. 1,000 people from 50 different countries are expected to attend over a week of celebrations.

The New York Times gives us: How to Relax With Yoga. Not an article but give a little 3 minute routine which is nicely filmed and edited. That’s all!

Reuters tells us: ‘Yoga, acupuncture might ease menopause hot flashes’. Women tested acupuncture, attended yoga sessions or took health and wellness education classes. Not surprisingly, their health improved. This would improve anyone’s health! It’s not news!

Time Travel With Meditation

Dear Yogis

For a while now I have been starting my Friday 8.30am Ashtanga class at Eden Fitness with 10 minutes meditation. I know some find it really hard and some love it. Some think we’re not really doing anything and some come in late and noisily. (Better to wait outside, I think.) I found this great You Tube called Debunking the 5 Most Common Meditation Myths by Light Watkins. I think he might help us all persist with the practice.

Meditation, he says, has a reversal effect on biological ageing. We have a chronological age and a biological one. Chronology stays the same but we can speed up or slow down our biological ageing depending on how much stress we have. Meditate and become younger! It will refund the time you spend on it, busting the myth that we don’t have time to meditate. (Dr Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated at the age of 39. How old do you think the pathologists in autopsy thought his body was? Check out Light Watkins’ You Tube for the answer. They concluded that the age they gave his body was the result of a highly stressed career.)  

Light Watkins concludes that meditation repairs some of the wear and tear on the body and brings orderliness and efficiency to the mind. Meditation will cultivate inner peace and happiness and that’s what you in turn put out into the collective consciousness. I will add that yoga practice is meditation! Teachers introducing a new practitioner to meditation will tell them to watch the breath! Hmm! Sound familiar!

Home Studio

Some yogis in my lucky Home Studio are making the trepidatious move from Stretchy Yoga on Mondays and Tuesday to Ashtanga Yoga on Wednesdays and Thursdays… It’s going down well! Some are doing both. Come and have a go! Half the classes next week are fully booked, half are not. You can see what classes are available on my website. Also attached on this email.

Training

If you missed David Swenson last weekend, he’s in Cambridge for a Sunday evening class this weekend. It’s a privilege to know him and learn from him.

Tomorrow morning I’ve booked Aerial Yoga, 10.30-11.30 with my teacher, Valentina Candiani at COCO YOGA - 1 Dalling Road, W6 0JD. Come with me! Next weekend she starts her 40hrs Aerial Yoga Teacher Training which I’m signed up for. It’s the only Aerial Yoga Teacher training in the UK for Yoga Teachers. Come with me!

Yoga in the news

Eurek Alert publishes this press release which is widely covered today: £1.4 million grant to research benefit of yoga for people with multiple chronic health conditions. Northumbria University will study the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a specially-adapted yoga programme for older adults with ‘multimorbidity’ -  two or more long-term health conditions. Two thirds of people over the age of 65 in the UK have multimorbidity and account for 70% of NHS expenditure.

The Times OF India tells us that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Buenos Aires for the G20 summit and the first thing he did was address thousands of Argentineans in a yoga class. Why can’t our Prime Minister do that! Modi said: "Yoga is bridging the vast distance between India and Argentina”

Kathina Robes and Yogi Clothes

Dear Yogis

Last weekend at Amaravati Monastery in Hemel Hempstead was the celebration called ‘Kathina’. It’s a robe offering ceremony and the day sees enormous generosity from the lay community and mountainous donations of necessities for the lives of the nuns and monks.

I asked Ajahn Amaro, the Abbot of Amaravati, how to write about Kathina and relate it to yoga. He told me that the word Kathina actually means frame on which cloth to make the robe is made. To make a robe in the Buddha’s time, his disciples collected bits of cloth from rubbish piles, cemeteries and any other discarded fragments they could come across. The Buddha asked his first disciple, Ananda, to arrange the pieces of cloth in the pattern of the paddy fields of Mahavagga which were divided into short pieces, rows and boundaries. Robes are still made in this pattern. Ajahn Amaro tells me it’s the oldest style of dress still “in fashion” after 2,500 years.

Does this relate to yoga? Well, the Buddha was from Yogi times. He was a yogi. Yogis inhabited the outskirts of society and scavenged cloth for clothing. The Buddha determined on making something beautiful out of something unpromising. I feel completely like that with some postures! This’ll never happen, I think, and then the posture comes only because of the strong framework that supports our practice, the breath. It’s the framework on which we pull all the pieces, all the postures together. Kathina can also be translated as ‘difficult’ which reminds us that our practice is not easy.

Kathina is also about tremendous generosity and we’re coming up to Christmas, a festival of generosity. (Imagine a life with no provision in our calendar or in our culture to celebrate giving!) Generosity does us good. It will debilitate those self-defeating qualities such as selfishness, greed and lack of compassion and therefore can only strengthen us. The more we practice generosity, the more we can meet the more demanding acts of self-sacrifice that life demands.

Home Studio

I’ve been teaching some Iyengar stretches. I have to admit, I’m not sure Iyengar himself would recognise them but I fashioned an Iyengar-style fixed rope. I’ve attached some of the stretches used in a pregnancy class. You don’t need the bump to give them a go. You can see what classes are available on my website. Also attached on this email.

Training

David Swenson sessions start tonight and last all weekend. See if there are any spots left and come along! The Centenery of BKS Iyengar’s birth is coming up. On the 14th and 15th of December at the Iyengar Institute there will be two events: a ‘100 Asana Practice’ interspersed with readings and poems by or about Iyengar and an evening of music, dance, song and storytelling.

Yoga in the news

The Times asks the most important question of all: ‘Will your bum look better in £200 leggings?’. Whereas yogis in ancient times scavenged for scraps of cloth, The Times tells us in tabloid-hyperbole that: ‘in the workout world there is nothing that tells you more about a woman’s fitness ethic than what is worn on her legs’. There is apparently ‘legging rivalry in New York’s gyms’.

The Evening Standard tells us: Black Friday 2018: The best fitness class deals in London this year. There are some good deals here – even a couple of free offers. firstlightcycle.co.uk. in Westfield looks good as does bloklondon.com in East London.

Making A Meal Of Meditation

Dear Yogis

We’re coming into the season of eating (!) so I thought I’d tell you of something we did recently on The Happiness Retreat. We practiced mindful eating. You probably won’t employ this kind of meditation on Christmas Day but you could have a go beforehand! Eating mindfully means eating in total silence. It’s a little strange at first and the urge to make conversation, which seems the polite and friendly thing to do, can be so overwhelming that we forget our task. However, a simple introduction to explain exactly how to set your mind makes the experience surprisingly satisfying.

Deborah Smith led us into the practice: set your intention to eat with presence; take time to appreciate where the food comes from, the time and expertise behind the recipes, the water needed, the infrastructure, the transport… Then, while eating, the tastes and textures, how the tastes combine. Maybe you can feel hunger beforehand and satiated afterwards.

While queuing at the buffet I started by thinking about the plate and how many it had fed before me. Before eating I took five long Ujjayi breaths to drop right down into my rest & digest system. I looked at the food to figure out where it had come from, I pictured the farmers, the miles, the time and the trouble it took to get it to me, the flights, trains and trucks, the water systems and plumbing. Then something I think I’ve never done before: proper slow eating, appreciating the combinations of textures and tastes, how some foods melt, some need chewing, and waiting for one mouthful to finish completely before taking another one. Deborah said that we typically notice the first mouthful and the last. (I would add to that. Imagine that you run in from work and take half an hour to whip up and eat a meal, snatch a bit of Bruce Willis in a terrorist-infested building while eating then rush out again! You’re totally in the sympathetic nervous system which is not your rest and digest system. In that mode, the body isn’t interested in absorbing the goodness and nutrition and digesting healthily.)

Anyway, at the end of the mindful meal, the greedy me popped up and wanted an unnecessary second helping. It’s hilarious, but without the cover of conversation it’s impossible to go back to the buffet and take seconds! That would be the walk of shame. I told my saliva to go back to sleep and take my taste buds too. I thought of the food working its way down into my digestive system without anything else following. I drew up the drawbridge till the next meal and finished with some gentle long breaths.

Perhaps a few goes of this in the run-up to Christmas will make your Christmas meal more enjoyable, less balooning!

Home Studio

I have promised various people the track list of music I have been playing in my Home Studio this week. Here it is: The Heart of Meditation by Om in the Womb; Om Meditation from the same album, Baba Hanuman by Shantala; Lalitha Ashtotram by Craig Pruess & Ananda.

Come to class to hear more! You can see what’s available on my website.

Training

I’m really excited to be seeing my teacher David Swenson again next weekend. Come with me (Triyoga) to experience his magic! Yesterday I went to an Iyengar class with Alaric Newcombe (Triyoga Camden, Thursdays 3.30-5.30) and I came away so inspired and happy that I want to return as often as I can. I ended up in lotus headstand! We did what turned out to be a lotus workshop and I brought a couple of the drills back to torture the Home Studio yogis with.

Yoga in the news

Here’s something a bit different. You may have heard of the shootings in a yoga studio in America. The Washington Post gives us Why a far-right extremist targeted a yoga studio for violence and takes us through the logical steps from the perceived threat of yoga to Christianity, how yoga was part of a counter culture, it aided female liberation, and how yoga offends the alt-right. Such a pity.