OM Yoga UK - May 2017

om body

whole juicy bunch of delights which you
need to practice in order to get yourself a
Handstand. (Or at least a bit closer to one.)
It hadn’t occurred to her that it wasn’t
just about flinging yourself into the perfect
upside down version of yourself, hanging
out there for a while, and effortlessly getting
yourself the right way up again. It was a
bit of a surprise to her that, like baking a
cake, not only do you need all the right
ingredients to make something tasty, you
don’t bother putting the icing on until the
rest of the cake is baked just right. Even
if you sprinkle sparkly stuff on it, you’ve
not got a cake – you’ve got potential food
poisoning which looks pretty.
This isn’t just about Handstand, though,
or any of the ‘whoop look at me I can do
this so it must mean I’m super good at yoga’
poses. To really get to be good at anything,
we need to break it down into small steps.
Hell, some days you might not even feel like
you’re stepping – it may be more of a crawl

• but forward momentum, however small, is
  still forward.

Ahimsa begins at home
Yes we’d all like to change the world and make
it a better place. But the reality is we can’t.
We’re just one person. So start by changing
your own little corner of the world. Smile at a
stranger. Let someone else have the last seat
on the bus. Put a positive note in the pocket
of some jeans on sale at the clothes shop.
Buy the person in the queue behind you at
the café a chocolate treat. Start cultivating
the yogic notion of ‘Ahimsa’ (translated by
some as ‘non-violence’), by putting a little bit
of compassion out there into the world. Maybe
you’ll get it back, maybe you won’t. That’s not
the point. Just do it.

Every breath you take
Pranayama is an incredibly powerful set
of breathing practices which we, as yoga
practitioners, should all incorporate into our
daily routines. Yeah – I know. Chance would
be a fine thing. Apart from the fact that
they should be explained by an experienced
Pranayama practitioner (and they don’t
come along that often) it’s yet another thing
we need to squeeze into our already packed
days. So start small. When you’re on your
mat, see it as a breathing practice and make
your breath the focal point. See if you can
begin to find how it feels to let the breath be
the one thing that the mind is focused on.
Ok, it’s not Pranayama, but it’s a skill you’re
going to need when you get there.

Intensives

Established Comprehensive

Vinyasa Flow Training

with Thousands of Successful

Graduates

Jun 24 – Jul 15, 2017

Oct 07 – Oct 28, 2017

Jan 06 – Jan 27, 2018

For Advanced Modules and additional

2017 dates, check our website

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in Spain

200 Hour Yoga

Build your bridges. Slowly Teacher Training

Like it or not we’ve all got that one pose

which we hold in our minds as the one we

really need/want/yearn to nail. For me, it’s

Bridge Pose. I know that I’ve got a whole

heap of mental and physical ‘stuff’ going

on around anything that asks me to open

my heart, so pushing myself into a beautiful

bow is just never going to happen without

a whole heap of careful negotiating with

my body and breath, over a long period of

time. Whatever your equivalent pose is, get

curious about it. Read about how it works

anatomically, see which poses can help

prepare the body for it, and take your time

to have a little play with it.

Become a master of

multi-tasking

To get a better understanding of all the

wonderful ways that a yoga practice can

benefit your life, you really need to start

delving a bit deeper into the words rather

than just the shapes. Of course, reading

wonderful things like this magazine are a

great place to start, but finding the time to

immerse yourself into anything weightier

can seem impossible. So get a podcast to

listen to on your way into work (I highly

recommend the Yogaland Podcast by Andrea

Ferretti, available on iTunes). Or find a good

yoga audiobook you can soak up whilst

walking back from taking the kids to school.

Work out how you can break down the

challenge of getting some yoga theory into

your life to complement your practice.

Do a little. Do it often

I know – one day you’ll have the kind of

smooth, flowing, inspirational 90 minute

yoga practice that will send most of the

Lycra-clad contortionists on Instagram

reaching for the cookie dough ice cream in

despair. I hate to be the one to break it to

you, but if you’re not doing a little something

every day you’re never going to get there. So

whilst I heartily encourage you to keep that

dream as your destination, start the journey

sooner rather than later. And start it small.

Get on your mat as often as you can, even

if it’s just for 10 minutes. Better to do 10

minutes of super soothing Sun Salutations,

than snarling at supple, slinky people on

Youtube.

Meg Jackson is founder of Real Life Yoga – a

movement to help people bring a little (or

a lot) of yoga into their real lives. Find out

more at: reallifeyoga.net