Legacy of Yoga Teaching

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Kailash Puri, women yoga teachers, yoga history, yoga legacy, yoga teachers, yoga teaching, yoga UK, Yoga With Paul, Yogini Sunita

A friend called to my attention an article in the Independent about two pioneering women yoga teachers in London.

Photo by Racheal Lomas on Unsplash

The article briefly profiled Yogini Sunita who was a popular yoga teacher — and instructor of future yoga teachers — in the 1960s in Birmingham, as well as Kailash Puri, who taught yoga from her home in Merseyside for more than 20 years.

Both these women were instrumental in spreading the knowledge and practice of yoga in the UK and — as the article notes — both have sadly been largely forgotten.

One reason for this is that they focused on the practice of teaching, while many of the best-known yoga teachers are famous because they have written books.

This got me thinking about the legacy of yoga teaching and what’s important.

Though it is tempting to say that people who write books, or create a style of yoga, or star in hit YouTube channels are “more influential” it is important to remember that real influence happens on the personal level.

Teaching yoga changes people’s lives. When a teacher helps a student overcome an injury, illness, or insecurity, that’s a legacy. When students grow more mindful, compassionate and calm, that’s a legacy.

Of course it is a tremendous accomplishment and privilege to become a famous yogi, but it is equally an accomplishment to promote the practice of yoga, even if the only people who ever hear your name are your students, in your class.

What do you think is the essence of a ‘yoga legacy’? Share in the comments!

Yoga for the Zombie Apocalypse

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Halloween yoga, hot yoga, vinyasa yoga, yoga benefits, yoga strength, Yoga With Paul, yoga zombies

Halloween is around the corner, as the endless shop displays of ghosts, ghouls, witches, pumpkins and black cats remind us. In addition to urging us to dress up, and eat a lot of orange-and-black packaged candy, Halloween is a chance to face — in a rather jokey fashion — our primal fears.

Photo by Devers Kerr on Unsplash

The pretend-scary of Halloween is rooted in timeless human fears: darkness, death, the unknown, spirits, sickness. Making a holiday of them is a way of facing fear, but also a way of avoiding it.

Yoga, as a mind-body practice, offers another way to consider our fears. We challenge ourselves in order to feel more confident, stronger, more empowered. Whether we know it or not, we are practicing yoga for the zombie apocalypse.

Think about it: we do yoga to be stronger, more alert, to enhance our balance, reflexes and concentration. We do yoga to control our breath and mind. We do yoga to surmount obstacles and cultivate courage and determination.

In other words, we do yoga to prepare for the day something goes horribly wrong. It might be a zombie invasion, it might be the loss of a loved one, or our own health. Whatever “apocalypses” we eventually have to confront, yoga is a tool, a weapon, to prepare us to navigate the worst of times.

So, as you’re heading out to a Halloween party this weekend, or passing out sweets to trick-or-treaters, smile and remember: yogis don’t need to be afraid of monsters.

Read more: Scary good Halloween yoga looks, How to be fearless

4 Hydrating Autumn Infusions

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autumn recipes, autumn yoga, Ayurveda tea, healing teas, herbal teas, hydration yoga, natural immune boost, yoga immune system, Yoga With Paul

Autumn is on its way! Preparing your body for the change of seasons is critical to maintaining your health, energy and positivity as the days get shorter and colder.

Staying hydrated is key to health year-round, but it can get more challenging as the weather cools and you are less inclined to reach for a cold bottle of water. While regular tea and coffee are appealing, they also have a diuretic effect and excessive intake can jangle your nerves.

Instead, embrace the calming, healing properties of infusions based on herbs and spices, which offer a warming, flavourful way to get your liquids.

If you want to get all fancy you can seek out special herbal blends, or make your own. Personally, I find good-quality boxed teas hit the spot, and are less fussy than attempting to do it yourself. However, here are a couple of easy DIY infusions to try too!

Four Hydrating Autumn Infusions

Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash

Thyme, rosemary and mint

These three herbs are all wonderful for digestion, and quite a tasty blend. To make this infusion, I use store-bought mint tea bags and add a generous pinch of each dried thyme and dried rosemary, then let infuse for several minutes.

Lemon, ginger and cinnamon

This is a classic that will invigorate your body from the inside out. Lemon and ginger offer antioxidants and stimulate digestion, while cinnamon is reported to balance blood sugar. If you’re suffering a cold or ‘flu, add raw honey for extra soothing.

Heartwarming Yogi Tea

This Ayurveda-based Yogi Tea blend is packed with warming ingredients like ginger, chilli, cloves and black pepper. Delicious on its own or with a splash of non-diary milk.

Elderberry & Echinacea Pukka Tea

This is a great autumnal blend that combines the tartness of elderberry with the immune defending powers of echninacea. Great to see you through the inevitable onslaughts of cold-weather germs!

What’s your favourite autumn infusion? Share in the comments!

4 Steps to More Respectful Relationships

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daily yoga practice, positive habits, positive yoga, respect, respectful relationships, Yoga With Paul

I read an article recently about food allergy sufferers who struggle to get chefs, or even their own families, to acknowledge their allergies. As a result, some have gotten ill from deliberately being fed ingredients they couldn’t eat, while those with severe allergies literally risk their lives if someone ignores their dietary needs.

This struck me as not just a food issue but a respect issue. When someone denies or refuses to acknowledge someone else’s need, it is saying, “you don’t matter.” Unfortunately, as the story demonstrated, people often have difficulties respecting each other’s needs and boundaries. Whether out of carelessness or ignorance, we damage relationships by failing to treat the other person with the care they deserve.

Photo by Tiago Felipe Ferreira on Unsplash

We all need to cultivate respect and these four steps are a great way to start…

Listen

The basis of all healthy relationships is communication, and that means listening. We need to practice really paying attention to what other people are trying to tell us — not just verbally, but physically and emotionally. The yoga studio is a good place to begin: focus on listening with real attention to the instructor, not just letting the words slide past you. When you’re talking to a friend, loved one or colleague, stay present.

Accept

Other people will experience, feel, say, and do things you can’t get your head round. They will staunchly believe things that seem totally inexplicable to you. No matter how strange, it isn’t your place to decide whether or not their feeling, ideas or experience are valid; you must accept their version of their life. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with someone whose beliefs you find objectionable, for example, but it means you have to accept they hold them, and have a reason — whether or not it seems right to you.

Support

To be a respectful person, you have to support others as they move through life, especially if their experience is different from yours. It isn’t enough to be an ally to the people who are like you. Practicing compassion and openness means being willing and able to care for those around you, whatever your similarities or differences.

Affirm

The big leap in respect is to not just accept but affirm other people, even when they are coming from a place — or going through an experience — that is foreign to you. Again, affirmation does not mean supporting beliefs that are contrary to yours, but it does mean respecting the inherent human value of everyone you meet, and affirming that everyone deserves to be treated with care and dignity.

Read more: Four practices to speak with kindness, Three practices to cultivate patience

Yoga for Recovering from Illness

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stress, yoga anxiety, yoga cancer, yoga chemo, yoga healing, yoga immunity, yoga wellness, Yoga With Paul

Yoga is a practice that strengthens our bodies and minds when they need it most. Acute illness, like cancer, is a physical and emotional trauma that calls for attentive self-care — and science is finding that yoga can be an important tool.

Photo by Natalie Grainger on Unsplash

A recent study investigated whether yoga could help with eight common side effects of chemotherapy: pain, tiredness, drowsiness, nausea, lack of appetite, shortness of breath, depression, and anxiety.

The researchers assessed the participants over an eight-week structured yoga course and found improvements in many of the symptoms. What’s most important is that, “participants’ self-report of overall well-being demonstrated a positive improvement.”

In other words, people who do yoga feel better, even when they have a severe illness.

If you are recovering from a serious health issue and want to practice yoga, the focus should be on having a gentle, restorative and meditative practice. Try these posts to get started:

1. Restorative yoga
2. Balasana – child’s pose
3. 3 grounding yoga poses

Has yoga helped you overcome illness? Share in the comments!

4 Yoga Poses to Unlock your Shoulders

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bow pose, child's pose, dhanurasana, healing yoga, Revolved side angle pose, uttanasana, yoga flexibility, yoga forward bend, yoga postures, yoga shoulders, yoga stress, Yoga With Paul

Our shoulders carry a lot of weight, physically and emotionally. When we are tense or stressed, we tighten our shoulders. This can lead to short-term discomfort and long-term pain, stiffness and imbalance.

Regular yoga is an antidote to stress and its physical expression in our bodies. Before doing these poses, warm up with Pranayama breathing. The deep breaths open your lungs and rib cage, and the rhythmic arm movements gently warm and open your shoulders. When you’re ready, here are four great poses to unlock your shoulders.

Standing forward bend (Uttanasana)

We usually think of the forward bend as a hamstring stretch, but it is also a wonderful, gravity-fuelled stretch for the shoulders. The key is to let your whole upper body hang loose and heavy. This will relax the muscles and give you a light warm-up for the more active poses.

Bow pose (Dhanurasana)

This is a challenging pose that strengthens your back and creates a strong shoulder stretch. It is important to maintain good form: keep your knees and feet six inches apart, and perform the pose slowly, being mindful of the pressure you are putting into your shoulders. Work gently to the point you can maintain the posture and hold it.

Revolved side angle pose. Photo: Urban Decay Visuals

Revolved side angle pose (Parivrtta Parsvakonasana)

This posture is an incredible stretch that opens your upper body, creating space and clarity. Your shoulders lead the way as you turn the upper body in one direction and the lower body in the other, giving a strong, detoxifying massage to your organs and connective tissues. To deepen the rotation and increase the stretch across the back of your shoulder, press elbow against the knee.

Child’s pose (Balasana)

Round out your shoulder session with a long, meditative rest in child’s pose. It is an incredible stretch for your spine and shoulders, opening your upper body and inciting natural relaxation. You can vary it by alternating between arms-forward and arms back. Mentally, it is also a soothing pose, helping relieve the stress and distractions that cause your shoulders to lock up in the first place.

Questions? Comments? Tweet me @YogaWithPaul or write in the comments!

Mindfulness for the Greater Good

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8 limbs yoga, compassion, ethical yoga, mindfulness, Mindfulness Conspiracy, Ronald Purser, volunteering, Yoga With Paul

Mindfulness is key to yoga, which in turn helps us cultivate mindfulness. This virtuous circle can help us combat stress and anxiety, feel positive, and live fully in the moment.

Those of us who are committed to developing a life-altering practice, however, shouldn’t stop there — as an article by Ronald Purser in the Guardian argues

Photo by Indian Yogi (Yogi Madhav) on Unsplash

When mindfulness isn’t the answer

His longread, called “The mindfulness conspiracy” makes an important point: unless mindfulness is grounded in ethics, it runs the risk of becoming a selfish exercise.

How does this work? Purser points out that divorced from any ethical basis mindfulness becomes just another way to make ourselves feel good.

Feeling good is not bad, but it shouldn’t be pursued at the expense of being an engaged, aware human being. As he notes, there are a lot of real problems in the world: poverty, injustice, inequality, violence. If people use “mindfulness” to help them ignore these issues then nothing will change.

In other words, there are some things we shouldn’t be comfortable with and accept. Mindfulness that helps us be aware of our own mental and emotional processes can be a powerful force for personal and social change. “Mindfulness” whose only aim is to insulate us from discomfort stops us from making positive changes.

Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash

Active mindfulness

The good news is that the practice of yoga cultivates what I like to think of as “active mindfulness.” When we are in the studio, using our bodies, we are learning to shape our physical and mental reality. As we experience the temporary discomfort of a tough posture we learn to accommodate and move through difficulties.

Yoga, above all, gives us an ethical foundation. The first of the eight limbs of yoga is Yama: respect for others. This basic principle requires us to be mindful of how our actions affect the well-being of other people. That can be on the daily level, by simple acts of courtesy, or direct efforts such as volunteering.

Mindfulness, at its best, helps us achieve greater insight, compassion and wisdom for the benefit of ourselves and others.

 

Read more: The 8-word guide to yoga, Yoga = CommUnity

Yoga & Disability – An Interview

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Bikram yoga, Bikram Yoga Leicester, disability yoga, hot yoga, inclusive yoga, Jignesh Vaidya, Libby Nockles, wheelchair basketball, yoga, yoga adapt, yoga disabled, Yoga With Paul

One of the students I am privileged to teach in Leicester is Jignesh Vaidya, aka Jig. When we are in the hot room and it starts to become challenging, and we want someone or something to blame, we take a few breaths and are inspired by Jig.

Jig in the studio

He shows up for every single posture with desire to do his best, and patience to listen to his body. This means something a bit different for Jig, though, as he uses a wheelchair.

Born in Mumbai, he got polio as a child, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. But Jig has shaped his life around what he can do, not what he can’t. He kindly agreed to share in his own words what yoga means to him, how it’s changed him, and his thoughts on how to make the yoga community more inclusive.

How did you discover hot yoga?

I met Libby [Nockles] of Bikram Yoga Leicester about eight or nine years when she was doing an interview for local radio. I was interested in trying yoga, but I didn’t know if I could, with my disability. She said, “everything is possible.” The only thing is, the studio is on the first floor. I leave my wheelchair at the door and scuttle myself up.

What was your initial reaction?

I felt good inside, really energetic. I thought, this is awesome I can do this like everyone else. We started looking into ways to modify the postures. Libby and the other teachers make sure I stay involved. They adapt it for me, so I don’t get left out.

What’s an example of a posture you’ve adapted?

Tree Pose. Obviously I can’t use my legs but I lift myself up on my arms to get the same upper-body alignment as the other students.

What changes have you observed from doing hot yoga?

I’m more focused and disciplined. Before yoga I would go to the gym when I could. Now, at 6:30 every morning I go. That is the discipline of yoga. And every Saturday I’m doing my Bikram yoga

How has it changed your outlook on life? 

I decided after doing yoga that everything is possible, if you can adapt.

Yoga everywhere, for every body

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was yoga your first foray into sport?

I’ve played wheelchair basketball for more than 20 years. I started when I was in college and was naturally pretty good. It gave me a confidence to focus on the things I could do, not the things I couldn’t. Since yoga I’ve seen my inner strength, my stamina on the court increase. When I was 40, I thought I couldn’t keep up anymore. Now, at 48, I can last more than half an hour without being breathless.

How can the yoga community become more inclusive?

That’s a good question. I travel all over the country and meet people with different disabilities. A lot of them say, “I’d like to try yoga but would I be welcome? Could I do it?” Teachers and studios need to reach out and let people know that yoga is available to everyone. They need to focus on what people can do. Every single class, Paul brings something new to me, something to build my practice.

What advice would you give to a first-timer?

Don’t be scared. Talk to the teacher beforehand if you can. Let them know what you need. Ninety-nine percent of the time they will help you. I’m glad that people like Libby and Paul have the attitude that everyone can do yoga, regardless of disability or health.

Jig is a tremendous soul. When he’s not giving his all in the studio, he is working, coaching basketball, or fund-raising for charity. He also recently raised £1,000 for Guide Dogs UK.

He’d also love to hear from you if you have questions about yoga and disability. Connect on Facebook: Jignesh Vaidya, Instgram: Jiggy Vaidya, or Twitter: Jigggy69

Speaking with teachers about how they can support disabled students

 

5 Great Last Minute Yoga Gifts

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BKS Iyengar, Dopper, eco yoga mat, Gossipyum, recycled fashion, Sloppy Tunas, TKV Desikachar, yoga books, yoga Christmas, yoga gift ideas, Yoga With Paul

The clock’s ticking! With just a few days left till Christmas you might still want to pick up a few gifts for the yogis in your life. Here are five prime pressies that your loved one can enjoy long into the new year!

Eco Yoga Mat 

Where do yogis spend most of their time? On the mat. Help them get grounded in an ethical, eco-friendly way with an all-natural jute, U.K.-made yoga mat. There are stockists across Britain and Europe, and a limited range available online.

Dopper Reusable Water Bottle

Cutting out disposable plastic bottles is good for you, and essential for the planet. There are lots of options but Dopper is great because the bottle itself is made from recycled plastic, and part of the proceeds of each sale go towards supporting safe water projects.

Sloppy Tunas Swimwear

I’m proud to be an ambassador for these shorts made from 100% recycled ocean plastic. They are great for the beach — and great for the hot yoga studio in the meantime!

Moving in my Tunas!

Gossipyum organic yoga clothing

This British brand offers a wide range of super comfortable tailored yoga gear for men and women. It uses fabrics like organic cotton or beechwood fibre to create stylish, durable, sustainable clothes you can wear in and out of the studio.

Yoga books

Give the gift of wisdom and inspiration with a great yoga book like Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar or The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar.

Click here for more recommendations.

Share your holiday gift tips in the comments!

Body Image Boost

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daily yoga, yoga bodies, Yoga Body Image, yoga healing, yoga mindfulness, yoga positive, Yoga With Paul

A recent study found that practicing yoga had a positive impact on young people’s body image. Over 80% of them said yoga helped them feel better about their bodies.

Love your body!

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Regular practice improves our strength, flexibility and balance. In addition to the physical benefits, we become more mindful and patient, we learn to be grateful for what our bodies can accomplish.

The body image benefits of yoga are not automatic though. In the same study nearly 30% of the participants said that practicing could also have a negative impact (even though for some it was still positive overall).

What made the difference?

The harmful effects came from comparison to other students and negative self-talk.

In other words, the exact same class that helped some people feel more confident made other students feel worse — because they focused on their perceived shortcomings.

As a teacher, I try to emphasise this message in every class: yoga is not a competition sport. It does not matter how fantastic (or average) the person beside you is. Your practice is about you. The benefits you gain cannot be measured by comparing yourself to someone else.

The other critical thing to remember is to have a positive attitude towards yourself. Negative self-talk and self-criticism are damaging and pointless. You should practice with self-compassion and mindfulness. Yoga is a process, and you have to be patient with yourself and encourage yourself to embrace the process.

When you step into the studio with mindfulness and a desire to benefit yourself through the practice, you will benefit.

If you come with a competitive attitude or judgmental attitude (toward yourself or anyone else) you are not going to receive those same benefits.

How do you cultivate a positive practice? Share in the comments.