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Great read
Loved your amazing January issue, thank
you so much. Great inspiration (as always!)
and a fantastic way to kick off the year. Keep up the good
work Team OM.
Beth P, by emailDiversity rocks
Thank you for including an article about diversity in your last issue
(Is Yoga Finally
Becoming Inclusive? Issue 80,
January 2018). Your article was
both informative, inspirational
and also challenging. Some
wonderful teachers profiled.
This is a really important subject
and I would love to see more of
this in the future.
Georgie A, by email
Fab Five
I I just came back from another frustrating yoga class when I picked
up the November copy of OM and read your article on ‘15 minute
yoga’, which really resonated. I’ve been practicing yoga for 17 years
(and even as a child, as I grew up, my parents were keen yogis in the 70’s).
So I feel as though traditional yoga is in my soul. Lately however, I’ve started
feeling a little desperate, as I attend class after class of ‘gym yoga’, with
pumping movements and a complete lack of attention to alignment or posture
preparation. I feel that ‘real yoga’ is disappearing with each new qualifying
teacher, and the knowledge of how this ‘real yoga’ should be practiced, being
diluted and forgotten with each new generation of training courses. Where are
the classically trained teachers and classes I attended all those years ago - or
have I myself become a relic of the yoga industry? Maybe you could help by
giving a shout out for all the teachers out there who share my beliefs and want
to start a movement? Or, at the very least, let us all know where they practice!
Lin A, by emailOM Letters, Prime Impact Events & Media,
Park House, The Business Centre, Earls Colne
Business Park, Colchester CO6 2NSWhat you said
about us on
social mediaom beginnings
Finding beauty
in every day objects
has always been
one of my favourite
forms of aesthetic
appreciation. Also,
I have been very
busy these days;
working, teaching, going back
and forth between Manchester and London, so
having a morning to myself feels like a treat
hatha.lena40om body
Zara KhanOM_80.indd 4 0 23/11/2017 15:46:om body41L
ast summer, something mysterious kept happening at any yoga studio I’d frequent. I’d love to say I mastered the handstand or scorpion or that I’d made my 6am start. But I couldn’t shift the sinking feeling that I was
on me: it was because I was often the only PoC (person of colopresent – or in some cases, one of two.somehow out of place. Looking around, it finally dawned ur)
‘yoga is for everyone’. So why then are women who look like me, for one, absent? One study seems to support my suspicions, finding that 85% of practitioners Stateside are white and univeSure, the mainstream yoga community has long claimed that rsity
educated. And that was back in 2002. And yet nothing seems to have changed more than a decade on.Instagram (8,390,862 posts at last count) and CaucasLittle seems to be different off the mat either. Search #yoian women gi on
overwhelmingly fill the screen.movement, optimistically, increasingly seems to be taking this into account. In October 2017, triyoga hosted a panel on culturalBut could the tide be turning? The mainstream wellness
appropriation, exploring whether the practice its ancient Indian roots. Despite the inevitable backlash (orgfeatured Beyoncé as the choice of image for the Facebook event much to the chagrin of attendees), it’s unlikely a panel lin the West pillages ike this anisers
would have taken place a year or two ago. Breaking the mouldA number of yoga teachers, too, are increasingly setting up their
own spaces to bring the practice to their communities, largely in part as they perceive the mainstream as unwilling to acctheir unique needs. Take OYA Retreats, the UK’s first ommodate
yoga retreat for WoC (women of colour). Founded by London-based hatha yoga instructor and life coach in July 2016, Stacie CC Graham, she sought to provide
a “safer space where black women and women of colour feel supported and empowered to practice yoga”. There is, she notes, subtle discriminatory
and exclusionary practices at work in mainstream spaces – Graham says she’s been on the receiving end of comments about her hair and body type – which
motivated her to launch OYA Retreats.and urban retreats in London as she’s She’s since branched out into virtual
conscious that her weekend retreats aren’t entirely financially accessible toSalma Haidrani says namaste to the new wave of women shaking up traditional yogaIs yoga finally becoming^
inclusive?
all WoC: “We offer these to people with limited income so that people new to the practice can learn more about mindfulneyoga within just a few hours.”Since OYA Retreats first opened its doors, more spaces for and ss or
by PoC have since launched, one of wbased vinyasa flow yoga class. The brainchild of Sancit’s frequented by a significant proportion of PoC, complete with a playlist that spans Solange Knowles to Samphahich is Yogahood, a London-. “When I’ve hia Legister,
tried yoga classes before, I was often the only young blacin attendance,” Nathaniel Cole, an attendee, says. “At Yogahood,I’m one of many. I’ve only ever felt comfothankful for it.” rtable there...and I’m so k man
reason. “There’s a lot of barriers to getting involare looking for a sense of a shared experience or understandiShe recalls when she first started frequenting studios, “I did feel aLegister tells me Yogahood was born out of frustration for that ved in yoga. People ng.”
little inferior and a little intimidated. [Most people] seemed to fit the stereotype of the typical yogi – middle class, super slim and super bendy – and I wasn’t any of those.”She’s also co-founded Gyalflex, a two-hour space that combines
yoga, meditation and hip hop to a live DJ set,informal Q&A session called ‘Backchat’, where attendees wellness. While she’s conscious that Yogahood and Gyal Flex “aren’t taking anything away from the yoga scene” followed by an , she’s adamant discuss
that she’s “adding something else to the fabric”.LGBT communityIt’s heartening that instead of once pining for a similar revolution
to hit the UK, under-represented communities are now staking their claim in the movement. “Many [told me] they’ve heard aboutOM_80.indd 4 1 23/11/2017 15:46:[email protected]facebook.com/ommagazinetwitter.com/OMYogaMagazineinstagram.com/omyogamagazinesnapchat.com/add/omyogamagazineperiscope.tv/omyogamagazineYou can also find us on
uk.pinterest.com and
youtube.comWhen you open up
#omyogamagazine and
you’re in it!
@Danceandyoga