Yoga is a great gentle exercise to undo (some) of the damage if you’ve not been exercising and spent more on alcohol and cigarettes over the years, than good food. It was born in India, but is not a religion. And just a few gentle stretches each day, can have you feeling better in days.
Avoid inversions for heart conditions, glaucoma and during menstruation, and consult a qualified teacher before doing poses if pregnant or you have medical conditions.
Yoga is of course huge in the western world, brought over from India in the 1960s. It was originally used as a method to help keep the body in good condition for meditation, but unfortunately in today’s fast-paced world, the original essence of yoga is often lost to ‘fast yoga classes’ led by often dodgy ‘gurus’ (there has been a huge ‘me too’ movement in yoga too, with many of the top ‘gurus’ having been found to be sexually and physically abusing students).
Most shops on the high street don’t really sell the best yoga books. We like Instant Yoga, a wonderful little read with expert guidance in postures, but also includes the philosophy too by an experienced yoga teacher of 30 years. Online, try free classes by Charlie Follows, who offers regular videos by an experienced teacher.
Let’s take yoga back to what it should be: a nice gentle way to keep the body and mind calm and in good health. One good way to do this is to discover Somatic yoga, more a movement therapy that can help to loosen tight muscles, and help to heal a wide range of physical and emotional ailments. It’s not so ‘fashionable and glamorous’ but likely more effective.
Somatic Yoga for Beginners is a lovely book that offers exercises to learn over 21 days, then find everyday routines for mental health, muscle tone and weight loss. With beautiful illustrations and simple instructions, this book offers concise workouts and breathwork techniques to help balance emotions. calm your turbulent mind and tap into an oasis of inner peace.
Author Noah is a seasoned instructor who has always been interested in yoga and India since a boy, where he visited to study under a guru. He has helped hundreds of people and in his spare time, he spends time with his family including dogs walking in nature, and also travels, explores new cultures, visit the gym, volunteers in his community and shares good coffee with friends.
You can find a great guide online with sample exercises at Yoga with Rachel (or follow along with a class online with James Knight). You can also find a few sample preview classes at Ekhart Yoga (a wonderful yoga membership channel from The Netherlands).
A Cushioned Jute and Rubber Yoga Mat
This jute & natural rubber yoga mat is lightweight for travel, made from nontoxic materials, gives good grip in postures, yet is cushioned enough to protect your joints. Many yoga mats are made from PVC that makes you sweat when you do poses, so this small investment will have you practicing your asanas each morning or night! Not for latex allergies.
A best-seller, this foldable travel mat gives unrivalled CompleteGrip technology, so you never slip in Downward Dog again. Also suitable for Pilates and general fitness, it’s foldable enough to pack in your backpack or suitcase, if you’re going on a yoga retreat.
Loved by yoga practitioners and teachers worldwide, it’s also easy to wipe clean and made from sustainably-harvested fibres. Even the packaging is plastic-free. And unlike most yoga mats that smell of chemicals, this has a nice natural rubber fragrance.
If you practice yoga with props (say restorative or Iyengar yoga), the same store offers eco-friendly alternatives made with natural fabrics like jute. The range includes:
- Cork blocks are an alternative to foam blocks (no trees are chopped down to strip cork from the trees). These naturally warm blocks let you reach the ground in certain postures, as do the yoga straps.
- Bolsters are ideal for relaxing into poses, with a removable jute washable cover, in case you spill your herbal tea! Designed by yoga teachers.
- Yoga eye pillows are sold with a washable cover, and add gentle pressure to relax your body and mind, can also be warmed in the microwave to relax stiff palms, neck and chest for restorative or yin yoga.
A Book of Illustrated Chair Yoga Exercises
Chair Yoga is a beautifully illustrated book of chair yoga exercises, to help anyone who is older, unfit or in a wheelchair. No matter what the reasons for your physical restrictions, this book makes it easy to practice yoga in a limited space, just using a comfy chair.
The book includes 4 complete sequences, with routines to warm up your body, move while seated, unwind and relax, and practice more dynamic movement. The routines of 10 or 20 minutes include variations for each post, to tailor your practice to your needs and schedule.
Build up strength and flexibility safely and comfortably, wiht exercises that slowly increase in difficulty.
Staying active is crucial for seniors (especially those with disabilities). Engaging in low-impact workouts can enhance quality of life, and offer a path to gentle mobility, without strain.
As a paraplegic/double amputee and wheelchair user, I only recently began exploring a different world of yoga. This book is a terrific guide to learning the basics and understanding yoga from a wheelchair. Richard P (professional writer)
If you or someone you know is healing from an injury, has issues with mobility, take long flights or sits in a hcair for long hours, this book can help build strength and flexibility, calm your mind and move into healing and mobility. Jill Nicely
Christina D’Arrigo is a 500-hour trained yoga teacher and former dancer/choreographer from New York City (she used to attend the ‘Fame‘ school from the TV series). She has taught yoga to thousands of people.
Yoga is Not Demonic – Stop Scaring People!
Recently, one Irish journalist wrote of a former New Age guru who now scares people that practicing yoga is ‘demonic’.
She writes that fortunately she does not believe such nonsense, but is angry that some people would be scared that her grandmother (the kindest Catholic person she ever new) could be at risk, as she visited a local community centre for a yoga class to help her aching joints.
This is serious stuff. We now have a world where very new converts are going online to scare people witless if they take a dog to a Reiki healer or listen to a lovely Sanskrit mantra.
The defence of yoga has not been made easier by scandals that have rocked the world in recent years, with tales of sexual abuse where (not unlike the catholic church) the top schools have chosen to hide the truth, to keep power and money. But real yoga has nothing to do with million-dollar DVDs and toxic PVC yoga mats.
In his wonderfully funny book Happy Yoga, Steve Ross (a former rock guitarist who spent years living with ‘real gurus’ in India’) teaches of how most people have got ‘manifesting’ the wrong way around. Rather than an endless stream of desires, the goal is to find inner peace, then you just flow through life and what comes to you – comes to you naturally.
He says you literally have to be Jesus (who could walk on water and turn water into wine) to be able to have that kind of focus to manifest without distraction, unlike the rest of us mortals who ultimately will fail, then yell at the universe that ‘we didn’t get what we ordered from the cosmos!’
Sen of Calm Down Mind writes something similar. If you try to ‘manifest’ a simple peaceful happy life but subconciously are stressed, you’re never going to make it. You must practice manifesting for inner peace, or else you’ll simply stay creating the same stressful situations again and again.
One reader asks him ‘If I go after a peaceful state of being, I don’t need to define what I want anymore? Is that correct, or am I just being lazy?’ Sen replies, ‘Actually, that’s how it works’. Yoga teacher Erich Schiffman says he ‘lives like a King’ without asking for anything, due to finding inner peace (his yoga teacher wife is the daughter of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall).
We all die. We all suffer. We all have karma and predestined circumstances that can’t be changed. Vedic astrologers say most of our lives are mapped out (to the letter) before we are born, and there is nothing much we can do to change things.
One even says it’s so mapped out that if a boat goes past your viewline at 4.02pm tomorrow afternoon, that was always going to happen. As well as all the other big stuff. So rather than take on the burden of trying to change it all, sometimes life is much simpler to ‘let go and let God’ and just go with the flow of whatever is going to happen anyway.
What’s true or not, who knows? But Love and Peace (not control by organised religions) is the answer. And you can find that peace yourself or in organised religions that practice it. It’s your choice.
Read Jesus in the Lotus, a wonderful book by Russil Paul (a Christian monk and yogi) who studied with Bede Griffiths – a Catholic priest who also studied and lived at Indian ashrams. Interesting stories from this book:
From the author Russil Paul:
As you continue reading, you will see I have a deep love for Jesus and that I understand the significance of his life, death, and message. However, there can be no doubt that the West is in need of balance. Some of the best parts of Eastern spirituality (especially Yoga) can contribute to restoring this balance. The East is not perfect either and can benefit from values emphasized by Christianity.
Unlike indigenous cultures, Western peoples have tended not to replenish what they have taken from the earth and have not practiced taking in moderation. This has brought on global warming and other ecological imbalances. Is it not evident that our relationship with our planet is directly associated with the way in which we understand God?
In the US especially there tends to be many ex New-Agers (which is not the same as real Eastern wisdom) who now are hard-right Christians who are scaring the daylights out of anyone who wishes say to practice yoga or visit a Buddhist temple. But it’s interesting that many are former famous new agers who made a lot of money, before conversion.
And instead of going away to pray in peace, these very ‘new Christians’ have taken it upon themselves to be ‘lead players’ in converting everyone else. When there are obviously far more experienced Christian writers who could do this.
And there is also a bit of narcissism here: all these people seem to be from the US – which only has around 1 in 50 of the world’s population. Surely if God had ‘appeared as a vision’ to tell the world’, they would tell someone to go spread the word in China?
