Virtual Coffees for Confined Yogis
As the pandemic started, I created a program “Virtual Coffees for Confined Yogis”. The main theme of these virtual coffees is to look at the other aspects of yoga to help us navigate this time of confinement. How can our sadhana (practice in its many forms) be of help in these difficult times, and uncertain times. In each coffee I am interviewing long term students of BKS Iyengar, and Senior Iyengar Yoga teachers from different parts of the world. These Zoom events are sponsored by the New England Iyengar Association and Artemis Yoga in Watertown.
The mission of our conversations is to create a global community of yogis looking to each others for refining our yoga tools in this difficult time of global pandemic.
The first on April 19, 2020 featured Eyal Shifroni from Israel, author of The Psycho-physical Lab: Yoga practice and the Mind-Body Problem. Yogis from 6 continents logged in to listen to Eyal speak about how yoga practice can change our emotions.
On May 3, we hosted Karin Stephan, a writer who has been teaching yoga for 49 years and was one of co-directors of the first Iyengar Center on the East coast. Karin in her talk and writings, intertwined yoga practice and philosophy with other philosophies of life .
On May 17 hosted Patricia Walden, Senior Advanced Iyengar Teacher, one of the most dedicated student of Mr. Iyengar. She delighted us with stories of her years of relationship with Mr. Iyengar, her uplifting talk focused on the power of yoga asana to transform our beings.
On May 17 hosted Patricia Walden, Senior Advanced Iyengar Teacher, one of the most dedicated student of Mr. Iyengar. She delighted us with stories of her years of relationship with Mr. Iyengar, her uplifting talk focused on the power of yoga asana to transform our beings.
On May 31 we hosted Birjoo Mehta, one of the senior Iyengar yoga teachers in the world. Birjoo Mehta spoke passionately about what it is to be a yoga teacher. Communication is key, but what is it that we communicate? A master teacher is able to communicate profoundly his own experiences of the sadhana, practice. That is how Mr Mehta explained the power of BKS Iyengar as a master teacher. Mr Iyengar was able to express exactly the feelings of his experience of the eight limbs of yoga in his teaching. For example, Mr Iyengar, as a teacher, knew what action was needed to create a specific feeling in the body/mind. “Think about lifting the chest said Birjoo Mehta, and observe the results on your well being, your mind and the lightness that comes”. Our speaker addressed as well our current feelings of anger by pointing us to ask the question of ourselves: what is our dharma? Our calling? What are you called to do in your profession, in your life? Our only choice to face our anger is first to quiet ourselves enough to hear what is our calling and to step up to our calling with courage, he told us. We were very lucky to have such a talk in these difficult times.
Last Sunday June 28, The Virtual Coffee for Confined Yogis was honored to host Gitte Bechsgaard, author of the Gift of Consciousness: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Gitte answered questions related to the power of the practice in helping us navigate our current predicament of a global pandemic. She was extremely kind and knowledgeable. She spoke with immense clarity about complex yogic concepts. Gitte made them very accessible to all. She explained how in this crisis, for us to be able to act from a place of clarity, it is essential to develop and nurture a contemplative practice. She explained that there is a tolerance in Patanjali’s sutras to what that practice might look like. Gitte encouraged us to find “the quieting of the mind” so that we can act from a place of insight. Thank you Gitte Bechsgaard for your words of wisdom and your humanity.