Christmas and Families... and Yoga!
/Dear Yogis
Families are funny things, eh! Christmas shines the brightest light on all the characters, the flaws, the histories, genes… the soup that is the get-together of Christmas.
Example: my dad and two uncles didn’t talk to their dad. They boycotted their older brother who moved to South Africa post 1945. (Older brother boycotted Dad for marrying Mum!) They took a dislike to their older sister and didn’t talk to her. When I became a difficult adolescent, my dad didn’t talk to me for three years. Now my brother doesn’t talk to me but I find it helpful to know that the wheels were set in motion long before I was born.
You don’t have to go far to find families with the no-talking gene. I caught a replay of an interview on Radio 4 with Dr Robert Sapolsky talking about his book 'Determined'. He says that we don't have free will, that we are the sum of biology, interactions, and… all the stuff we have no control over. “We are just emergent biological organisms that are the end product of all the hiccups that went before”.
Y’know that the definition of yoga is often said to be ‘Stilling the fluctuations of the mind’. Different perspectives and new explanations might help quiet some chatter!
Classes
Classes resume next week.
OK, I have more questions! I would still like to know about Friday Ashtanga: 1) if you would prefer a Friday lunchtime class? 2) Is 8.30am too early or too late? In addition, 3) is an hour’s Friday class ok or would you prefer 90 minutes?
In March just gone, I introduced Strength & Conditioning but seemingly at the wrong time. Would a 45-minute class at 6.00pm suit you?
For a while I have wanted to introduce and Chair Yoga class. This could be another 45 minute 6.00pm class or a lunchtime class.
Please send feedback!
Monday and Tuesday = Stretchy class at 7.00pm – this is the popular one
Wednesday = Sun Salutations, Strengthen & Stretch at 7.00pm – this is the new one
Friday morning = Ashtanga at 8.30-9.30am – this is the one that pushes you
Saturday morning = Ashtanga at 8.30 – 10.00am – this is the longer one
Yoga in The News
The Stylist has: A GP and a clinical yoga therapist bust the weirdest health myths that yoga teachers make. “But some other of the more ‘out there’ claims about yoga are well-evidenced: “The neuro-endocrine system is positively affected by exercise and breathwork. Blood flow through organs is generally a good thing, but that’s something yoga has in common with all exercise. Breathwork can damp down the sympathetic nervous system, and emerging research on stretch receptors and SARS receptors at the bottom of the lungs suggests it can have a positive effect on stress hormones.””
The London Evening Standard has: How yoga can help with digestion when you've eaten too much. “Jamie Hepburn, founder of the south London yoga studio Basic Space… suggests “slow, gentle movements, keeping yourself mainly upright (rather than upside down) with some gentle seated twists, maybe some cat cows, where you gently move between an arched back position and a rounded back position, and some baby cobras, where you lie on your front and do a very gentle back bend by placing your hands next to your chest and pressing into your palms into the ground.”
