A note before I begin:  I nearly always write my posts the night before they go up.  Today I am especially grateful for doing so as I woke with a nauseous migraine, something I’ve suffered with since I was about 13 years old.  So herewith today’s post.  I will be in a darkened room with an ice pack.  To cheer me though I did get an email this morning letting me know I was on a new list “100 Incredible Yoga Teachers Who Blog”.  I’m there under therapeutic yoga, which is rather a compliment as I never particularly see this blog as specialising.  Anyway, back to bed with me….

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So Lent officially finished on Sunday.  Did those of you with Lenten resolutions see them through?

You may remember I decided to spend the 40 days of Lent working on Ahimsa and now is the time to look back on what that meant to me.

Ahimsa, the first of the Yamas or Moral Restraints in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is often translated as non-violence.

Being firmly grounded in non-violence creates
an atmosphere in which others can let go of their hostility.
Yoga Sutra 2:35

Rather than looking at is as a lack of violence, I prefer to see Ahimsa as a cultivation of loving kindness towards all beings.  Once we start to focus on loving kindness we often realise how many of our thoughts are unloving and unkind.  I am often seen to get increasingly impatient in the supermarket queue behind that old lady who just will not stop talking to the cashier and get on with packing her bags, and I am afraid to say there has been more than one incident of flipping the bird at a passing motorist who cuts me up when I’m on my bike.  By being mindful of these things, however, and noticing when they are happening I can take a breath, open my heart…..and react in a different way.  Let it go.  Loving kindness.

(Don’t for a minute think this is easy for me.  It just isn’t.  But like so much in life, it’s all about baby steps.)

As Darren Main says in his book Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic:-

By simultaneously refraining from violent acts and looking at the unconscious thought patterns that inspire them, we become more peaceful, and our natural reaction to adversity will be peace rather than attack. (page 81).

Ultimately though, to make this search for Ahimsa more personal to me, I wanted to work especially on loving kindness towards myself.  Too often we get so caught up in our work, our families, the chores, the needs and wants of others, we forget about ourselves, our own wellbeing.  For the last 40 days then I have taken some time out each week for me, to do things I want to do — write, read, watch rubbish TV, take a nap, go to a yoga class.

I truly believe that if we don’t take care of ourselves, our ability to take care of others diminishes. By looking after myself I am surprised by how much more compassion I have towards those around me.

Today’s question, dear readers, how to you look after yourselves?

I have declared myself before as a yogini of very little brain (clearly, there was a reason he was called Yogi Bear ). One of the hardest struggles I had during my teacher training was grasping Yogic philosophy and the hundreds and hundreds of Hindu gods and goddesses. I loved Anatomy and Physiology, I couldn’t get enough of Sequencing and I never got cold feet or a butterfly tummy when I had teaching practice in front of my peers. But when it came to the philosophy and the ancient texts my mind boggled.

When I was at university I did a course on Greek Philosophy. My module on Ancient Warfare suddenly seemed like a walk in the park. The concepts of philosophy were just out of my reach. Every time I thought I could grab them they disappeared into thin air. During my teacher training this same thing began happening again.

I came to the conclusion that I needed some context to really grasp what I felt to be rather esoteric ideas. At school I never understood Pythgoras Theorum until Pa Yogini explained to me how a surveyor would use it. I needed some way in which to adapt Yogic philosophy into my practice.

Luckily for me, Darren Main came to my rescue allowing me to take the concepts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva onto my yoga mat*.

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Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the “Holy Trinity” of Hindu mythology; top gods if you will.

Brahma is the Creator, who brought the whole universe into being; the impetus for all life.

Vishnu is the Sustainer, the provider of all we need to grow and evolve in the physical universe.  Without him life could not exist.

Shiva is the transformer or destroyer, responsible for the changes of everything, breaking down the old to allow it to be reborn.  The concept of Shiva is sometimes feared because he is associated with death, but without the transformation, new life could not occur.

These three aspects of life can be brought into yoga practice – and into our life off the mat – by remembering that we, and everything around us, is born, will live and will die.

When I first come into a yoga pose, I am creating it, finding my alignment and my breath, by breathing into the pose rather than resisting it I can open myself to the pose and the aspect of Brahma.

Then I must sustain the pose, quieting the mind and surrendering into it.  By experiencing Vishnu sustaining the posture, I can move more deeply into it.

Finally, I release the pose.  Rather than just stop doing it, I must come out of it mindfully using the breath.  By remembering Shiva when exiting the pose I can transform the pose ready for the next one.

Away from the mat, these three aspects can then be applied to life, by everyone.  By finding these three aspects within ourselves we can live a more balanced life.  It’s not easy because each aspect brings with it fear.  We have to learn not to fear the new territories and experiences that Brahma’s creation brings, we must learn to trust in Vishnu’s sustenance, letting go of worries about safety, security, finances and love and trusting that there is enough of everything to go around, and we must move away from our fear of death, not just of ourselves or our loved ones, but the little deaths of various stages in our lives.

You don’t even have to think about it in terms of mythology of any kind.  It’s a simple paradigm shift, a change in behaviour patterns.  In 12 months time every cell in your body will be new.  A lot can happen in 12 months!

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*Darren Main’s book probably saved my ass several times over during teacher training. If you want to delve deeper into yoga but in a way that actually applies to modern life, I cannot recommend it enough (and I know I’m always recommending it, but honestly, I don’t get a cut of sales, I promise!).

Many of you will have seen the recent Yoga Journal blog post about yoga in Canadian schools.  Well it’s happening in the UK as well.  Catherine shared this news article with me about yoga being taught in schools in Glasgow, Scotland (do click on that last link and watch the video because I can’t embed it here and it will warm the cockles of your heart!).

I trained to teach yoga to children and teenagers a few years ago at The Special Yoga Centre. Despite not having children of my own, I agree with the teachers in the article.  Children are the future and health is everybody’s business.

Children’s lives are becoming increasingly pressured and hectic. From an early age they are expected to perform well in school tests, to make friends, to be good at sports and this pressure is sometimes exacerbated by their parents’ expectations of them, whether knowingly or not. Children need a space in which to be themselves, in which to relax and interact with other children where there is no pressure of competition, to do better than anyone else. A place that is theirs, a place where there is no good or bad or expectations of performance.

Yoga is an ideal solution to this problem. Through yoga a child can learn about their own body, how it works and how it moves and hopefully come to love the body they have been given, something I feel especially important as puberty begins. It allows them time for creative play, by making animal shapes, by helping to choreograph yoga sequences to music, by listening to stories or colouring mandalas and they can learn about the philosophy of yoga in an environment which will help them to remember and hold that philosophy in their subconscious throughout their lives.

Many children suffer from stress and bad diets. Yoga postures and movement may help counteract the effects of these. Many children have problems at home that they feel unable to talk about. In a yoga class they can come to express some of these emotions, be it physically or mentally, thus helping them more able to deal with what life throws at them. They also have the time to learn how to relax, something which many people have never truly learned how to do. The ability to relax, if only for a few moments, is very healing.

Through family yoga classes children can form a bond with their parents where there are no outside distractions, something that is very important in these days of two income families, mobile phones and constant communication. By learning to breathe with their parents, both parent and child can relax and enjoy each others’ company.

As many of you dear readers know yoga has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a child I learned basic asanas with my parents and felt an awareness of my body that no school PE lesson had allowed me to feel. As a teenager I began to practice yoga quite regularly. I had always been the sort of child who was no good at sports and through yoga I learned that my body did not stop at my neck! That study and reading was not all that I was capable of. I began to be amazed at what my body could do and I developed a body confidence that I think can be quite unusual in teenage girls. Most importantly I learned to breathe and relax which came in helpful whilst studying for GCSEs, A levels and university finals.

In the years since my initial children’s yoga teacher training I have taught children before they are born in prenatal yoga, mums and babies, groups of toddlers, kids with special needs and teenage girls on a one to one basis.  I hope I have been able able to give those very things that yoga gave to me as a child. I hope I have been able to help them develop their body and minds in a fun and relaxed environment.

As I embark on a new phase in my career teaching yoga to teenagers I would like to acknowledge how much i have learned from the kids themselves. 

Did you practice yoga as a child?  Do your children have a movement practice?

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How are you all doing on week 4 of your Spring into Yoga Challenge? I’m still struggling with dhanurasana, but I think I may finally be admitting to myself that it is OK if my thighs never come off the floor, that my sway back, crooked pelvis and thoracic scoliosis might mean my body does something a little differnt to the next body. It’s all about acceptance people, and that is the hardest thing!

Do let me know how you are getting on!