What a week it’s been! The Derek Chauvin trial, the breath-taking verdict, then Stephen Lawrence Day, floods of memories of 1993 and that Thursday when the young Stephen was killed. I’ve been wanting to write a Friday Email about racism in the yoga world for a while, and try to figure out how to approach the subject.

I wrote last week about the knee injury I have and the posture that caused it. I remember David Swenson saying that yoga injuries come along because Ashtanga is an athletic endeavour undertaken by Alpha-types who like to push themselves as though they are athletes. Teacher Tim Miller proved the point by describing a posture whereby you put the soles of your feet flat on your abdomen (see picture). He wanted to make it better, more extreme, higher up and further out, and more than was asked of him.

Here is a story for you; the story of the Pose Dedicated to Sage Galava or Flying Pigeon Pose. It’s about Sage Galava who had made his life bewilderingly complicated by his own ego and insistence. Because of his initial misjudgement, his life changed out of all recognition.

Gosh! Remember Easter a year ago? I was cancelling classes and moving bookings forward by a month. By a month!!! People were already talking about the gains of lockdown: the quieter, bluer skies, the louder dawn chorus, a break from commuting… We were already looking forward to shedding the skin of the tired and shabby parts of our routines.

It strikes me that I should say something about prāṇa. David Williams, subject of the last three Friday Emails, said that the whole game of yoga is increasing prāṇa.

To start with, here’s a yoga belt for £1! Secondly, I’m giving David Williams one more week in the Friday Yoga Email because he said some really basic things about yoga which may have been lost as the practice became more gymnastic and off-putting for many. In his talk about his memoir, My Search For Yoga, he took us right back to basics: what are we doing with the body and why? He gave us the goals of yoga. Here they are:

I’m returning to the subject covered last week, the thoughts of David Williams who gave a talk promoting his memoir My Search For Yoga. This week I want to offer you his thoughts on Shoulder Stand and Headstand. He referred to an old article in Yoga International: Headstand and Shoulder Stand: King and Queen No More. David said he had concluded a while ago that they were not noble postures and that they cause damage.

David Williams learnt ‘classical’ Ashtanga Yoga from Sri Pattabhi Jois in Mysore in 1973. Since then, he practiced yoga every day (apart from the allowed days off). He has never had a job; he only wanted to focus on ‘trying to be a yogi’ and being in a state of chitta vritti nirodhah (still mind). He was serious, he was vigilant, he travelled to conducive environments, and he studied every thought in his body in order to ‘be present’.

The definition of yoga is often given to be ‘yoke’ or ‘union’. It isn't a definition I can relate to! Yoga philosophy says that there is a universal and absolute consciousness that we have departed from and need to regain access to! Uh oh! This loses me. I wasn’t brought up with the idea of a God or supreme being and, for me, that ‘union’ idea isn’t working. On the other hand, there is a spiritual side of life that I want to access and be better at.

Isn’t it great to see flexibility progressing and postures getting a little easier! And yet, it isn’t the gymnastics and contortionism that keeps us coming back. The flexibility yoga offers is in the mind… yoga really doesn’t have an opinion about your hamstrings or backache! This is crucial in Coronavirus times.