Week One - Ahimsa, Cultivating a Non-Violent Practice

Hello everyone,

We are back this week for a new yoga term in Thrive Greystones on Sunday the 24th! 

We will have a brand new Yin yoga class at 6:30pm on Sundays, and the Hatha yoga class moving to 5pm on Sundays :) I am really excited. I don't know about you, but I feel like this break has been longer than the others? Maybe it's the crazy end of summer buzz, the final fling to go to that event or festival (anyone sitting outside the Oasis gig on lawn chairs last week? No?!) - or maybe it's the simple August whisper to slow it down now, settle in, clear it out and put on some good, slow music. Despite the thirty degree weather (!), I can't help but feel that the world is beginning to sigh and yawn again. 

Which is perfect. Only right. Because I have yoga blankets now. Yeeeep!

At the moment there are only three spaces available for the Yin class this Sunday, and a handful of spaces left for Hatha, so please do get in touch if you would like to sign up :) If you've never tried a supine butterfly pose with a big bolster beneath you...well...you just have to. It's heaven!

As always, all classes will be beginner-friendly and open to all levels. The Hatha at 5pm will be a more active, strengthening, and rejuvenating style of yoga - a time to breathe, move, build alignment with awareness, and de-stress. The Yin at 6:30pm will be a more introspective, slow, and stretchy class - with lots of time spent in each pose to allow the mind to soften, the breath to deepen, and the facial tissues of the body to melt and release for a total mind and body reset. It's going to be great :)

Now, to introduce our philosophy theme. This aspect of the term is always optional, of course. Keep reading if you're interested in delving deeper into yoga and yoga philosophy. For the next five weeks, we will be exploring the concept of the five yamas. Really and truly, the yamas could be considered as the foundation of a yoga practice. They are moral guidelines. Seeds to plant before you set your feet on the mat. A direction to move with, food for thought, and - most of all - a coherent and logical way to set yourself up for greatness in body and mind. 

The first yama and the theme we will play with this week is ahimsa - non-violence. 

When sage patanjali devised the yoga sutras, where so many of our modern day yoga lineages stem from, he placed the five yamas as the first of eight limbs of yoga, in this sort of tree for understanding and practicing yoga as a path to inner peace.

In the west, the limb of asana - meaning pose - is given huge importance. In fact, most of yoga today is nothing more than asana with some breathwork (pranayama) thrown in. In Patanjali's yoga, however, physical practice was considered the third limb only (out of eight!) and was often just a simple seat - meticulously aligned and scrupulously maintained to allow the practitioner optimum ease in his or her meditation. A place to get set up for the eighth limb of yoga, which was samadhi - complete absorption in the present moment, alignment with your true self, and total bliss. 

Obviously, yoga is a bit different now than it was thousands of years ago! Going into a class today, you wouldn't be considered odd to have goals slightly more relaxed than the pursuit of enlightenment. But there is so much wisdom to be gleaned in this philosophy, so let's eat the elephant one bite at a time. Thankfully, ahimsa, the first of these five yamas, is quite simple to understand. 

Non-violence. It sounds easy, right?!

Many will say that ahimsa means you have to be a vegan, that you can never get angry, never hurt a fly, you should be a pacifist, a pushover, you should 'just let it go' all the time etc. While it's true that the general gist of ahimsa is to not cause harm to anyone or anything, it's important to understand - and always so humbling for me to remember - that a person who harms themselves will inevitably harm another at some stage. The outer world reflects the inner world, always.

So that's the real root of ahimsa - do not cause harm to yourself. For the sake of others. This 'harm' is not exclusive to physical behaviour. It could be from practicing anxious thoughts, negative beliefs, lifestyle choices...anything at all. Most of us cause harm to ourselves and how we feel in some small way everyday. And this is where a modern day yoga practice can really come to the rescue. We can rewrite the script. We can ask ourselves...

What is the kindest, most understanding way that I can treat myself and my body during this practice? What could I forgive myself for today? What movement could serve me most? What sort of breath will serve me? Where might I be resisting love?

For me, ahimsa is a process of self-care for the sake of others; an acknowledgement of your personal responsibility to change how you feel for the better - knowing that it will have a positive effect on those around you. 

How often has a stranger been genuinely kind to you and it's made your day?    

For anyone new to the style of Yin yoga and wondering what it involves, ahimsa is a great thing to understand. In a Yin class, you're guided to find a comfortable and supported stretch where you feel an appropriate amount of sensation. Once found, you rest in that sensation and allow time to do the work for you in terms of physical release. The catch is, if you push or shove your way into a pose, maybe because you want to look like someone next to you or get the 'benefit' of the stretch - it simply doesn't work. Muscles engage, fascia tightens, and the body doesn't relax - the stretch never deepens. We wait for it to end. And it feels like it never does...because five minutes can be an eternity when we hold ourselves apart from what feels good.

Yin is the anatomical honouring of the fascial matrix - a system of connective tissue that wraps around almost everything in our bodies. While muscle tissue loves to be engaged and stretched actively, our fascial tissue will only release when it is given ease, tenderness, time, and deep breaths. This is why Yin Yoga is called 'Yin' - a Chinese Taoist word for the dark and mysterious feminine. But more on that in emails to come ;)

I really cannot wait for this Sunday! Thank you to everyone who has signed up already. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, concerns, or conversations. I am off now to spend a few days with the wolves in Donegal - but I will be online to answer emails and take sign ups for the term :)

The narrow clearing down to the river

I walk alone, out of breath

my body catching on each branch.

Small children maneuver around me.

Often, I want to return to my old body

a body I also hated, but hate less

given knowledge.

Sometimes my friends - my friends

who are always beautiful and heartbroken

look at me like they know

I will die before them.

I think the life I want

Is the life I have, but how can I be sure?

There are days when I give up on my body

but not the world. I am alive.

I know this. Alive now.

To see the world, to see the river

rapture everything with its light.

Heavy by Hieu Minh Nguyen

Le grá,

Macha