What's Yin yoga?
Yin means heaven or a force of expansion. A type of yoga based on the old Chinese Tao yoga. Through this yoga you work with your flexibility and endurance. You hold the asanas and for a few minutes as you focus on the breath, moving more and more into the position as you breathe out. The yin yoga puts emphasis on activating hips, pelvis and lower part of your spine. It's soft and meditative. You really listen to your body as you stretch.
The class I went to was short (ca 45 minutes) small and cozy. It doesn't feel like a workout, more like meditation in which the body sometimes gets involved. Nurturing and caring. The good thing about breakfast yoga was that us participants could stay in the mindset and discuss together after the class rather then rushing off into the rest of the day. I even stayed longer to reflect alone over a cup of tea, waiting out the summer rain.
What's Global yoga?
East meets West in a pretty new type of yoga by Swedish founder Johanna Andersson. What signifies this style is that it's a faster playful and energetic mix of different types of yoga from many of the corners of our globe, but it's made for the fast paced urban humans of our time in a society where the body doesn't move around as much as the brain does. So it's a lot of physical exercise intertwined with stillness of the mind. Every class has an "intention" - a message to reflect upon. You can also have a free intention which is you pay extra attention to something, like focussing on healing or bringing energy to a certain part of your body or soul. Here's global yoga's manifesto:
Yesterday's intention was
"Have faith that everything you need will come to you."
I've been to global yoga before at Ananda yoga studio. This time it was different. Since I still have some kind of infection I was sweating furiously and experiencing a major "setback". It was a 75 minute session, noone was a beginner and we were about 8 participants. Since it was the first time I was with a friend at yoga class I think my showoff side woke up and even though I heard my body saying no I didn't always listen. So today my knees are barely good for walking and I'm feverish and cold. At first it made me angry having to "surrender" to my physical limitations but I realized this was the third lesson of the day. One which I will never forget. An important lesson that I had to learn. The suffering is mostly of my own making for I wasn't humble enough to accept it yesterday. If it's a lesson you're ignoring the test will come to you over and over until you pass.
Thank you dear body for your patience with me when I'm a stubborn child. I'm sorry I didn't listen. I'm sorry I hurt you. Thank you for teaching me to be humble. It was much needed.
In our family it seems we're really good at getting passionate about things, always up to something, getting involved to the point where the rest of the world is seemingly forgotten. This is sometimes said to be characteristics of an artist which of course I was proud to have. We do need to get better at simply being without analyzing or thinking "what can I make out of this?" without wanting. Without judging. Without doing. Only breathing and accepting
this is me now
this is now
this is
it is
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