I practice yoga to be ok with not being ok.
This statement came back to me recently, and I want to share a story with you that brings it to life, as it’s one of the happenings that led me to evolve as a yogi, a teacher and one of the forces behind Mindwalk Yoga.
Around four years ago, I taught yoga at a local Sunday social in Dalston, in East London, organised by a not-for-profit called Akwaaba. The Sunday social was a four-hour community gathering held in a school to support local people living in challenging circumstances. We ate home-cooked Jamaican food, people came to share skills like haircuts, fixing clothes, and there were loads of activities for children. Akwaaba is a volunteer-run initiative that is about community support. I volunteered my time as a yoga teacher. These Sunday gatherings are cemented in my memory: the smell of spicy food, the space filled with conversation, different accents, nationalities, and many stories. There was always free-flowing tea and biscuits, and the radiators were usually on full-blast in the colder months, so it felt warm and cosy.
The people coming to the social were living through the most complex situations imaginable. I listened to many stories, and I could feel they carried their journeys for those who didn’t share. A lovely man from Sudan who had moved from city to city in the UK since arriving and trying to find a way to stay here in London and work. Long-standing Dalston residents mostly from African and Caribbean heritage who felt isolated and segregated in a fastly gentrified neighbourhood. Many people did not have enough money to turn the heating on or eat enough. Some with mobility conditions making it hard to leave home meant this gathering was an important date each week.
I listened, made friends, and shared a short yoga practice each week. I’m not going to lie, it was hard getting people to come to do yoga with me. The western view of yoga being white and exclusive made some people laugh at me when I asked if they wanted to try. The majority of the people were of African and Caribbean heritage, and they’d never seen a Black yoga teacher before. People were busy and hungry and they had a lot going on. Yoga was perceived as something abstract and not accessible.
For the people I could persuade to join me, this class stands out. Let me set the scene. It’s warm, we are in a classroom allocated for yoga, we have cushions, chairs and bean bags. I’m playing some calming music to try and fade out the background sounds of conversation and children playing. The group is mixed in every way, age, body type and mobility. Two people are wheelchair users, a man experiencing severe anxiety (he was on medication) and a larger-bodied young man. A woman arrives late and is worried about being too big to join. I reassure her she should join and sit on a chair. A mature woman arrives and doesn’t think she has time as she has offered to help with the serving of food but wants to join for a bit. We begin.
I support everyone to find a way to sit that feels comfortable using everything around us to make it accessible. We ground, we breathe, and we move together. As we finished our session, the woman who didn’t have much time has stayed and shares, “Thank you. I feel different. I’m going to use that breathing exercise when I’m at home, and my family are driving me mad. I’m going to hold onto something and breathe.” And then she started to do the breathing exercise again, deep belly breath and sigh. We then knowingly looked at each other and nodded.
I practice yoga to be ok with not being ok. Yoga will not change the reality of what is going on for you right now, but it might offer you a moment of ease and a way of journeying through it. This fleeting moment of ease normally only becomes apparent because you realise something was different, for seconds, sometimes minutes, and sometimes a bit longer. Yoga in its broadest sense means balance. Breathing to find balance, moving to find balance, being still to find balance.
I invite you to be intentional and bring in a moment of ease with this 18-minute seated shoulder releasing practice. We carry so much in our bodies, and our shoulders are a place that tension can build up. This practice comes from a knowing place as my shoulders are always tense! I am on a journey to finding balance with them!
