1. School children participate in a mass yoga session during the third day of 21st International Kite Festival at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, 11 January 2011.
2. Thousands of people take part in a mass yoga class conducted at an Art of Living Centre in India. 12 December 2006.
3. A demonstration in Beijing's Tai Temple Square marked the resumption of mandatory exercises for Chinese workers. 11 August 2010
4. &5 Thousands of people took a group Yoga class in New York City's Central Park. 22 June 2010

"Movement frames much of our experience on Earth. We are constantly resisting the pull of gravity and making our way around the world to accomplish our tasks, whether that be taking a shower in the morning, training for a marathon or picking up a tired child to tuck them into bed. Our yoga practice challenges us to untangle the complicated strands of unconscious movement and then re-create a new normal, one that is informed by a fresh understanding of how we perceive our own bodies in space."

- Kate Krumsiek for Yoga Dork

friday cartoon

Shiva Ray Moon Salutation via Yoga Journal

Photos by @MyNameIsJessamyn/Instagram
found here.

totally functional....

(found via goldlionaz)

 "The culture that gave us yoga did not intend to provide trendy flexibility exercises, but for many Westerners, that is what yoga represents. We fail to see that yoga does not serve as a workout, but as a daily moving meditation where breathing and movement become one, creating mobility, stability, endurance, strength, patience and focus that can increase that day's quality.
...We often spotlight the physical side effects of calorie burning, and neglect the primary purpose, the chance to gain competency and efficiency in a movement."

 Gray Cook on yoga

Be Careful

"BE CAREFUL, VERY CAREFUL about organisations. Yoga cannot be organised, must not be organised. Organisations kill work. Love is everywhere, in everything, is everything. But if you confine it, enclose it in a box or in a definite place, it disappears.’

--Vanda Scaravelli

Young and Old.

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

This is beautiful. Maia Helles, a Russian ballet dancer, turns 95 but still remains resolutely independent, healthy and as fit as a fiddle.


solo from julia warr on Vimeo.

Age 10 and fearless.

(Image: Vinyasa Flow 2, 2012. By Nothando Sabela, a participant of the Mtubatuba Workshop.)

"Zwelethu Mthethwa is an artist based in Cape Town, best known for his large-format colour photographs.

While in residence for The Welcome Collection, Zwelethu explored the role that communities play in contributing to the research of the Africa Centre in the small town of Mtubatuba, in KwaZulu-Natal province. He was interested in putting a human face to the collection of data and in giving people the opportunity to document their own perceptions of health."

Currently part of the Foreign Bodies Common Ground exhibition at The Welcome Collection.

"Yoga is flooded with books on the anatomy of yoga. Having taught the anatomy of yoga for many years, I now feel it can be a red herring leading us down un-useful ways of thinking. There is a place for anatomy, but largely to help explain why some movements are unhelpful, or why some people can do certain poses and others not. What anatomy cannot do is inform about how to move. To understand movement we have to study movement and see how anatomy supports it, not the other way round."

-- Peter Blackaby

Yoga guide.

Know your shit!
Read, watch, try, re-evaluate, PRACTICE. 
Have the confidence to take the space and time you need, to question and experiment with what you are told and to hold back if you feel something is not quiet right for you.

Une Femme est une femme

Hidden YOGA in a film alert!! Yes, i watch for this shit...luckily others do too so I have stills evidence. Thank you Staywiththebreath.

Godard’s Une Femme est une femme is brilliant. I love love love the shapes Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo pull throughout and the book scene where they wipe their feet before getting into bed. I especially love that bit.

why yoga?

I yoga because...
It helps me feel at home in my body as it is and as I am.

That is ALWAYS enough to keep me coming back. Simple. 

"Meaningful things do not need to be complicated, forceful, or difficult. There is much beauty to be found in softness, subtleness, simplicity and clarity"
 - Rebecca Ketchum

Yoga is...

'Ah! It's health, it's understanding, it's creation, it's love especially. When you are open, love comes. It is only when you are defensive or afraid that you close the doors.'

-- Vanda Scaravelli

Establishing a solid foundation.

I'm running a workshop at The Sunflower Centre in Brockley, London...something for you? 

Feet love walks, rubs, movement and attention and If you want your yoga to build strong, stable, balanced legs, and a healthy spine it's important to work the feet properly—even when you're not standing on them.

In this workshop we will look at the foot patterns that lead to stiffness and tightness in the legs and spine. We will look at how to build an arch, and how to heal and prevent common structural problems of the feet. We will go through the basic 'Foot Health' routines of yoga, and then carry on up the legs, creating space in the knees and restoring greater range of motion in the hips.

Spaces are limited to 8 students so if this is something for you and you are in South East London email Rachel at hello@rachel-and-yoga.com to book. 

 

image from here