The Yoga Manifesto: How Yoga Helped Me and Why it Needs to Save Itself

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Gregor Maehle on Yoga As A Mystical Experience Scott and Gregor talk openly about Gregor’s life as a yoga practitioner and mystic. Gregor shares: I really wanted to speak to Waylon about Elephant and how he grew a small local magazine to a worldwide publication that we all recognise. His story of growing up in a spiritual school and being a Buddhist is fascinating. And his sharing of the power of the big social media companies is food for us all. This is a fascinating insight into someone who has shaped part of our modern yoga and wellness culture"

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In this deeply inspiring and wide ranging conversation Scott talks to Waylon Lewis on his life as a buddhist and the growth of the world renowned yoga and wellness magazine, Elephant Journal. In 1973 David discovered Ashtanga after he met David Williams and Nancy Gilgoff in Encinitas, CA. In 1975 David and Nancy brought K. Pattabhi Jois to the U.S. for the first time and Swenson was fortunate enough to be there. He then initiated studies directly with the master. He made his first trip to Mysore in 1977. David is one of only a handful of Westerners to have learned the full Ashtanga system including all of the asana sequences and pranayama as originally taught by K. Pattabhi Jois. Nadia Gilani has been practising yoga for 25 years. She has also worked as a yoga teacher. Yoga has saved her life and seen her through many highs and lows; it has been a faith, a discipline, and a friend, and she believes wholeheartedly in its radical potential. However, over her years in the wellness industry, Nadia has noticed not only yoga's rising popularity, but also how its modern incarnation no longer serves people of colour, working class people, or many other groups who originally pioneered its creation. Lorna Fisher, yoga teacher @dynamicflowyoga “An honest retrospective on the highs and lows of yoga. Nadia expresses complete truthfulness and openness about her growth alongside the practice. Anyone who is interested in their relationship to yoga and themselves should read this book. I cannot recommend it enough.”Today David is recognised as one of the world's foremost practitioners and instructors of Ashtanga Yoga. He tirelessly travels year round to teach and offer workshops. His courses are presented in a supportive and compassionate fashion making it accessible to all levels of practitioner to participate. As we moved through the class, I started thinking here was a room of teenagers who are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of who the yoga and so-called wellness industry is interested in targeting with its airy studios in affluent postcodes. In a way, capitalist wellness as it stands seems to serve those who are already reasonably ‘well’, or at least well off enough to access wellness tools and pay for the privilege. And yet this practice may have actually been designed all along for young people like the teenagers I was meeting this evening. Indian guru Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, widely dubbed ‘the father of modern yoga’, devised Ashtanga Vinyasa – a vigorous method of postural yoga to build strength and stamina among his students who were, according to some historians, mostly young boys. Several years into my own relationship with yoga and when I was hooked on Ashtanga, I was distraught to read an article by the controversial cult leader Osho who went as far as to say women shouldn’t practise Ashtanga because it would shrink their breasts and damage their wombs. I was so disturbed by what I read that I asked my Ashtanga teacher at the time what to do. Would I have to stop? I asked him. I didn’t want to stop. Thankfully he suggested I ignore Osho and carry on as I was. Ashtanga was further popularized in the West in the 1940s by Pattabhi Jois – one of Krishnamacharya’s students. Decades later it was the approach to yoga everyone seemed to be practising – including the likes of Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow (and me). If you enjoyed this podcast then you might also enjoy Scott’s conversations with Danny Paradise, John Scott and Prem & Radha Carlisi. I am really grateful for Nadia’s courage to step up and share her truth about Yoga and the wellness industry in general: how flawed, racist and exclusive it is when we are practicing just for the sake of it. Incredibly inspiring to reflect on our own privileges and on ways to transform how we practice yoga on the 21st century.

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Yoga’s appropriation by the white wellness industry is a 21st century form of colonialism. Its whitewashing is why I felt so lonely and out of place when I first started teaching. But having taught yoga to refugees and vulnerable teenagers, those in addiction recovery and people with mental health and mobility issues, I’m less interested in yoga being “decolonised” or reclaimed. To move the conversation forward, it’s imperative we understand why yoga has become out of reach for some of those who need it most – and find ways to make it available to more people. Nadia Gilani asks people to think about their relationship with yoga while also giving the reader full-on candour about her relationship with yoga. I love that she didn't preach holier-than-thou pretending she has a perfect relationship with yoga, and instead gave us the down-n-dirty truth of her complicated relationship to yoga. In doing so, I think she manages to allow people to be drawn in by her honesty and be able to relate to her struggles both with yoga and with life (and herself). I mean, I cried in the car as I read the passages about her grandmother dying! i enjoyed reading this- very readable and combines yoga history, current yoga and the authors personal story well. Author Nadia Gilani will be the special guest at the Highland Yoga Collective Yoga Studio, where she will be leading a yoga session before presenting her book, The Yoga Manifesto at The Highland Weigh on the High Street. Nadia holds up a mirror to the culture of yoga in the west, which is often far from compassionate or healing, and tells us her story beautifully, mirrored through the rhythmic and disciplined lens of Ashtanga yoga, of practise and transformation.”what compelled David to start yoga. how his years of Bhakti yoga practice changed him. his views on how we move on from the sexual abuse of K Pattabhi Jois. how we can develop as practitioners by asking more questions. --- When appropriate, end with meditation. Guiding students to meditate is in line with the original aims of yoga practice. Learn to guide meditation for yoga asana classes. You can guide students in 5 to 10 minutes of dharana practice before or after savasana. Take time in meditation to let the benefits of the practice settle and integrate. 12. Closing Class and Further Considerations A thorough and honest dissection of the ups and downs of modern yoga through the lens of one young woman's experience of yoga. Journeying through discovering yoga when at such a low point in adolescence, through abusive relationships, addiction, grief and in to teaching yoga, this book is both a tribute to the wonderful connection yoga brings and a stark warning of its flaws and what needs to change. When inviting students to set an intention for class, you can refer them to yoga philosophy. For example, you can mention they are exploring their own satya , or truth, and engaging in vichara and svadhyaya as they self-reflect. 8. If You Teach Asana Class

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Yoga has become the latest wellness practice to fall victim to cultural appropriation – but that will come as no surprise to the many industry insiders who have been speaking out on this issue for years, with growing urgency. What is abundantly clear to me as a yoga teacher is the practice has been led astray by western economic forces. Cultural appropriation remains a contentious and triggering topic for some. “What’s the difference between appropriation and appreciation?” I’m often asked. People argue that it’s a fine line, but I fail to see it. It’s just one of the problems plaguing the industry. The solution to bringing about real change must include everyone. If we’re in the business of yoga and get paid for selling it in some form, it’s our duty to ensure we’re doing it with respect and integrity. Those changes alone could revolutionise the way yoga exists in the western world. Above all, we all have a responsibility to make sure that yoga is available to anyone who wants to practise it.Set the container for yourself. Meditate, pray, set your intention. In your way, ground yourself in the widened awareness of the present moment and a sense of unity and connection that yoga offers us. 2. Prepare the Space

The Yoga Manifesto: How Yoga Helped Me and Why It Needs to

The Yoga Manifesto is about equality, creativity and revolutionary hope - and you definitely don’t need to practice yoga to know these things matter.”How did an ancient spiritual practice become the preserve of the privileged? When Nadia felt lost, yoga helped bring her home. Sima Kumar, co-founder and CEO of The Other Box and founder of Sima Says Raw. Vulnerable. Open. Truthful. Exposing the darker side of the industry provides us all with the pathway to reach the lightness that yoga brings. This is a book that will open up the floor for even more honest conversations about the side of yoga we don't often see. About David Swenson David Swenson began his journey of Yoga in 1969 when he and his brother Doug practiced in a small park at the end of their street in Houston, Texas. There were few sources for yoga at that time so they practiced from whatever books they could find.