Forever young - the real reason for yoga

 

Yoga can help you stay forever young like Ryan Giggs

Sports yoga keeps Ryan Giggs and other Premier League stars fit and flexible. Sarah Ramsden, a yoga instructor for Manchester United and Manchester City, tells Mark Bailey how it can help you too

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/10615428/Yoga-can-help-you-stay-forever-young-like-Ryan-Giggs.html

Nairobi

Nairobi, Kenya - Yoga has grown increasingly popular among the poorest neighbourhoods in the capital thanks to Paige Elenson and her partner Baron Baptiste, two American yoga teachers who established the not-for-profit organisation Africa Yoga Project in 2007.
Their goal was to create job opportunities and empower youth in impoverished areas of Nairobi. The two teachers raised $10,000 to found the organisation and train 40 Kenyan yoga instructors. Today, 72 instructors are working in poor areas of Kenya, including at schools and prisons.
Margaret Njeri is one of the teachers. She was an acrobat before starting the yoga-training programme. The young mother says earning a living as an acrobat was not easy. She sometimes even had to turn to petty crime to survive. She is now paid $100 a month to teach five classes a week in prisons, schools and other parts of the city. The rest of the time, Njeri teaches private classes to round up her salary. Thanks to yoga, she is now able to support herself and her one-year-old daughter.
Instructor Samson Muhalia, 53, says yoga has a positive impact on people. "What I really like in yoga is that it brings people together and teaches them how live together. It makes people share and discuss."

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/04/pictures-yoga-bends-trends-kenya-20144494348396640.html

Enlighten up!

 

 

Featuring: B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Norman Allen, Sharon Gannon, David Life, Gurmukh, Dharma Mittra, Cyndi Lee, Alan Finger, Rodney Yee, Beryl Bender Birch, Shyamdas, Diamond Dallas Page and many more!

A filmmaker is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Her plan: select a subject, immerse him in yoga and follow him until he finds a practice that transforms him. Her subject: Nick Rosen a skeptical, 29 year-old journalist living in New York City. Before he can say OM, Nick finds himself twisted up like a pretzel surrounded by celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and entrepreneurs. The more he investigates yoga the more contradictions he discovers, straying further from Kate's plan. They circle the globe talking to mystics, gurus, mad men and saints searching for the true meaning of yoga, encountering things they never could have imagined. They don't find the answers to their questions, they find much more. www.enlightenupthefilm.com

A Sleepy class

Where: Life Centre
When: wednesdays 8:15 pm


This class was a recent find and I thought I would share it. Tired from a long  day at work, I decided to leave later than usual from work as this particular teacher I had bookmarked for a long time. Her name is Lucy and upon lying down in a rather busy studio, I immediately felt her grounded, warm approach and knew I had come to the right spot.  I don't quite know how she did it but she found enough minutes prior to class starting to go around and ask everyone about their injuries and for the first time in my life, I told her that yes, I do have an injury but it is not as physical as other ailments. Mine is insomnia and i have relentlessly suffered for many weeks now, trying all sorts of old wives' solutions to stave off sleeplessness but to no avail. So, when I rather reluctantly told Lucy about this, her response was of genuine concern and one which I had not been expecting. To my surprise, she had actually been planning a class to teach postures for sleep and throughout class made several educated references to asana and sleep, including a mention of the doshas and how to ground before bed. This all made perfect sense and I was relieved to be taken under her wing and annoyed that I had not come sooner.
There are certain teachers who don't profess guru status and yet still hold their own in a class, inspiring confidence and a down to earth approach which is actually so needed in such an unlevelling city,. Her soft but earthy voice stilled my mind and the well-selected postures felt good in my weary body, deprived of so many weeks of sleep.
I went to bed happy that night and hopeful that there are some old wives' tales that may actually contain some all important truth.

the best thing ever written about yoga

i think this might be the best thing ever written about yoga


http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/01/the-tyranny-of-the-yoga-industry-ruth-fowler/

sexual harrassment claims plague bikram

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/bikram-yoga-sexual-harassment-claims

Kundalini time

Anna Maria Reforgiato Recupero

Write up: Seeking Kundalini Kundalini When: Sun 9 Feb, h 12.15 - 13.30 Where: Evolve, SW7 How much: 16 £ Kundalini has been on my yoga-to-do list for a while. I have heard & read about it, but - probably due to some stupid prejudice - I have always carefully

09/02/2014

 

 

Kundalini

When: Sun 9 Feb, h 12.15 - 13.30

Where: Evolve, SW7

How much: 16 £

Kundalini has been on my yoga-to-do list for a while. I have heard & read about it, but - probably due to some stupid prejudice - I have always carefully avoided any kundalini class in the yoga studios I normally go to. But why? Why choose (or not, in this case) something without taking a closer look? Ignorance, indolence, judgement…what a yogi am I if I let these rule? One of my teachers advised me: ‘try it, but you are not going to like it’. Mmmm. A yogi friend who wanted to practise with me today: ‘sorry Anna, I cannot do kundalini’. Double mmmm. And there all these freaky stories about kundalini awakening...To be honest, given the premises, I was not exactly looking forward to this class.

To minimise the shock, I decide to go to my regular studios, Evolve in South Kensington, for my first kundalini experience. The teacher at Evolve is Sivaroshan Sahathevan, one of the most popular in London. ‘Hi Anna. Are you here for Kundalini??’ the receptionist seemed quite surprised. I do not know much about Yogi Bhajan, who bough it to the West in the late 1960s, but I have read they use many ‘Kriyas’ to strengthen mind, body and spirit - which seems very interesting. I am told they use many mantras, and they chant too, and they even meditate! Anyway, I get to the studio 10 minutes before class and the teacher is already there. But despite the all white attire (turban included), she does not look at all like Sivaroshan…’I am Maren, welcome’, as she greets me with a soft German accent. I tell her this i my first time - I am the only one apparently in a class of seven - and she warns me that the practice is very deep and powerful, tailored to help me connect me with my true self. And she also tells me that it may feel weird…The whole practice is with eyes closed and apparently there is quite a bit of chanting (thumbs up). Today she has chosen a Kriya aimed at maintaining perfect health. which mainly involve work around the hips and the navel. The next 75 minutes are a few repetitive and pretty intense exercises (each repeated for 3 to 5m, either sitting or laying on our back) targeting the arms to start and finish but for the majority of the class the svadhistana and manipura chakras - all chanting mantras to help us maintaining the rhythm of the practice. As a result of each exercise the body felt different indeed. And yes, I could feel the energy moving, in quite an uncontrolled fashion though: I had this sense of vibrating and shaking, but not quite the deep ecstatic sensation Maren keeps talking about. Is that my kundalini? The final meditation is not as balancing as I would have hoped (5 minutes with the right arm extended, with left fingers touching Ajna chakra felt a bit strange) but I have been quite intrigued by the very strong flow of energy I have experienced. I understand now why some can find this practice destabilising. Well, guess my kapha these days keeps my kundalini sleeping tight...