A usual, it’s good to keep cool about warnings. At the same time it’s important to remember how to renounce “performing” in your practice.  Be aware…

Ten days ago I was offered a job at David Lloyd Leisure in Oxford. One hour and a half every Friday morning. A good size class of 10- 15 students. The Welcome pack was promising: “You have been selected for your excellence and knowledge in your chosen field”.

I nearly forgot that Yoga was about humility and not glory. I was teaching in a chilly windowless room next to the boom-boxing aerobics studio.

Anyway I took the job, ran two classes. In the afternoon of the second class, I received an email from the Group Exercise Coordinator,  Becky, who had suddenly decided to remove the Friday morning Yoga class from the timetable. I would run my last class on April the 9th.

Her reasons were suspicious. She was worried about not finding cover for the class when I was away. I had already found someone from a list provided with the Welcome pack for the 9th of April.

More surpisingly, the day she wrote her email had seen a major mix up at D.L.  Arriving in the studio that morning, I had found another Yoga teacher getting ready to operate. Elena had been promised the same job as me, wasn’t able to run the previous class and hadn’t signed a contract. When she heard I had been given the job instead of her, she left the room determined to have a word with the management. I guess this mix up is connected to the termination message I received a few hours later.

David Lloyd claims to be the leading Health and Fitness Operator in the UK with 78 centres inland and 10 abroad. Founded in 1980  by  former UK tennis player David Lloyd, it was  bought by Whitbread in 1995 for £200 million. It was acquired for £925M in 2007 by London and Regional properties + Bank of Scotland . A juicy bid I guess, but in the health business David Lloyd Leisure has an unhealthy disregard for the basic decencies of staff management.

BUT, if you have your period, PLEASE let the teacher know. Some postures are better for you, some are not advisable (inverted postures, strong twists).

If you have a bad back, bad foot, a stiff neck,

never mind. Do come and ask the teacher to find for you a nice relaxing pose. A lot of discomforts can be relieved through relaxation.

Please, do speak to the teacher, either before or after the class. It’s very pleasant to know how you feel and if the class has been beneficial.

If you really need special attention, then please ask for a one to one session.

Some teachers pretend Yoga presents no risk. In fact things can go wrong, according to White who first welcomed big names like Patthabi Joïs and B.K.S. Iyengar to Los Angeles in the 1970′s.

Ganga explains how he started practicing Yoga without paying much “attention to sequencing, structural dynamics, alignment and physiological principles of kinesiology”. He was more or less told to achieve the postures.

“Soon I started developing back pain.” He finally had to stay in bed for a month. But when he started to feel better, he also started practicing again, finding new ways of practicing. Finding awareness. ” Initially, the pain limited  me to only the simplest of poses and I could not bend much at all.”

Ganga realised that pain was “a language”, the “voices of body intelligence”. “Pain is necessary and defines the limits and the edges of strain and injury.”

Ganga White and Peter Sellers

He kept exploring new ways of practicing, learnt the “inner process” of Yoga. The inner voice of Yoga.

“Sharp pain can mean “Stop!” Dull pain can mean to go slowly and breathe as we move energy into new areas.” … He “began to see how these inner messages literally guided [him] to adjust [his] movements’s subtlety and showed [him] the way to heal [himself].”

“There is no magical technique or practice that will keep us free from harm, injury or physical problems… It is staying constantly alert and vigilant that will guide us in the right direction.”

Anyway, just for the fun, I chose here a video  on Youtube, where Elvis sings with joy about Yoga.

watch?v=x-Tw2THK8jk

Elvis Presley – Yoga Is as Yoga Does

(Words & music by Nelson – Burch)
Well I can see that you and yoga will never do

Yoga is as yoga does there’s no in-between
Your either with it on the ball or you’ve blown the scene
I can see lookin’ at you, you just can’t get settled
How can I even move, twistin’ like a pretzel

(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)

Come on come on, untwist my legs
Pull my arms a lot
How did I get so tied up
In this yoga knot
You tell me just how I can take this yoga serious
When all it ever gives to me is a pain in my posteriors

(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)

Stand upside down on your head, feet against the wall
A simple yoga exercise done by one and all
Now cross your eyes and hold your breath, look just like a clown
Yoga’s sure to catch you if you come falling down

(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)

(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)