- your mat
Some of the more positive notes on the Pandemic...
We used to be able to have many students into one studio, remember when people used to sweat onto you? I started yoga with one of the hot Bikram yoga studio's in London. We were packed in like a tin of sardines...
I have been known to fall over in my previous yoga classes when I was still getting to grips with my body control... In one of the classes I tried to go from Prasarita Padottanasana (a wide leg forward fold) into a tripod headstand. Instead of going upside down,
I toppled over and took a row of yogis and yoginis out with me.
It would have been hilarious to watch. I think most of them were alright and I luckily didn't cause any injuries, at least not that I know of....
That of course couldn't happen these days in our yoga classes because we aren't allowed to cram in so many students like we used to, thankfully and frankly I wouldn't want to go back to those days. It's less intimate. Plus the added bonus of not having to enjoy someone else's beads of sweat landing on your mat.... Haha those were the days.
Now you know I have been known to fall over in class, up for trying new things and not worried about making a fool of myself, I gave that up some time ago. But it doesn't mean I am without feelings or emotions. But it does mean having more freedom to express yourself through your physical body. I think it's an important part of our evolution, if you look at tribal and indigenous cultures there would have been dancing and singing, both hugely valuable forms of expressing and releasing stored toxic build up, such as negative thinking and judging oneself and others. I am a student on an authentic leadership course right now and the topic this week is emotions. One of the things we discussed was that emotions flow, they work fast, often coming round before you realise you are upset, these feelings can smack you in the face. One minute you might be fine and the next minute you are in a state. This is natural. This is part of how we have programmed ourselves, or we could even say how we have been programmed due to how we were raised, the stuff we've experienced and our coping mechanism to survive this mine field called life. Unless we know how to navigate, we can figuratively speaking it can feel like the world is against us. A rational mind hopefully knows that this is not true, but consider someone with mental health problems, will they be able to think rationally when shit hits the fan?
Emotions
by wiki; are psychological states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure.
Yoga is a great way to get more awareness of what's happening within you. Especially if you are the slighlty more intellectual type, who spends much time in front of the computer and not much time outside moving your body. Yoga can be taught very linearly which is really helpful as a beginner, this is so that you can work out where you are in space and time, not everyone has made time to keep their inner dancer alive after all. But what you can learn on your mat is to breathe into your container (your body), stacking your joints so you avoid injury and make sense of what you feel during our class, creating an inner awareness, which helps to keep you stay healthy and well not only during class but also when you step off your mat and into the world. More movement also equals better immune system and it helps to release endorphins which equals feeling better about yourself.
“And falling's just another way to fly.”
― Emilie Autumn
In life there may be ups and there will be downs, but know that when things are tough, it is an opportunity to work through some of the shit,
so you can be a better human at the end of it.
So much of what I do and what I hope to teach is about trying to bring a sense of vitality and awareness to you. I hope to not be preachy, but rather really let you have a sensory experience of what is happening within, where it feels good and where it doesn't. Is it a blockage, should we carefully guide it open or does it need to be left in peace? To learn to take responsibility for your self and your precious container without demanding you to do things that might hurt you in the long run, you after all, will get to know what's best for you.
If this sounds of interest, we can work together on a 1:1 basis or you can join my group class or event's/ retreats.
I know travels are restricted in places so it might not be appropriate right now. Please do click through to the events section of my website and see if you can make it or if you might know someone that would benefit. It would be amazing if you could spread word around, share my newsletters or insta posts with any of your European friends that may be able to travel here.
It's a challenging time for everyone and with this in mind I would much appreciate the recommends, follows and shares to help me get this ball rolling, it is rather heavenly here right now....
Namasté you beauties.
Part of being a dancer is being able to transform your body into a role, a bit like an actor does for his film, we do this for our performances too. You may be asked to move ugly and distorted, to express yourself through your body, no matter what it looks like and I love that, that is where I thrive, to throw in my emotions. I teach this to the little ones that come to my dance classes. We work on creative movement, expressing ourselves like the elements or exploring our emotions, angry, excited, sad, happy, jealous, afraid etc. It's so much fun to watch what they come up with. I'm not interested if they can follow the steps, i'm interested in firing up their creativity and of course teaching them to recognise emotions, in each other and in themselves.