Tags
attitude, control, coronovirus, Deepak Chopra, functional yoga, lockdown, mindfulness, mobility vs. flexibility, Scaravelli yoga, Yin Yoga, yoga online
Coming home
Many things happened since I came back to Europe from my journey around South East Asia. I arrived in Krakow, my home city, in June 2019 to spend summer with my family and, quite unexpectedly, I’m still here.
It was a surreal sensation to be back to Europe and Poland looked like a quite pleasant place to be. Much more so than I expected. I would recommend anyone a long journey to a very different part of the world- it makes you appreciate a lot of things you normally take for granted!
The initial positive surprise notwithstanding, the travel bug, once caught, is not easy to cure. Watching the Brexit unfolding and feeling the winter approaching, I thought of moving to Spain. Not just to experience something new, but mostly to finally live somewhere warm and sunny. I got convinced to stay in Krakow till the New Year but the late autumn and wintertime wasn’t that much fun for me anymore.
As soon as I arrived, I came back to Thai Yoga Massage. It was a perfect opportunity to consolidate all that I learned in Thailand and regain the flow. I also started teaching yoga occassionally to friends and friends of friends. I’d have never imagined how difficult switching to teaching in Polish would be for me. Almost a year onwards, teaching in English still feels more natural to me.
When things don’t go according to the plan…
I like to believe I’m in full charge of my life. If something doesn’t go according to my wishes, it’s hard for me to stay equanimous. In January, it looked like I was going to get stuck in Poland for a while. I blamed whoever I could for that for a week or so and did my best to create my own suffering by constantly repeating in my mind how miserable I felt about that realisation.
Then, something clicked. I was just in the middle of one month long meditation course with Deepak Chopra. His teachings aren’t exactly my cup of tea but I did agree to participate since a good friend invited me. One beautiful day I was listening to Chopra explaining how everything happens FOR A REASON, thinking it was a rather simplistic view.
The same day, I got a job offer at a local community hall. ‘If I cannot leave Poland, why not to stay and keep on developing my own path in yoga?’- I thought. Soon, next job offers followed and within a few weeks, I was teaching a few regular yoga classes.
Reinventing myself as a teacher
The fact I started teaching a completely new group of students allowed me to start from a blank page. As nobody knew ‘my style’ here, I could re-invent myself as a teacher. I had plenty of time to study; from books and online. I was totally hooked on functional yoga, the approach gaining more and more momentum in the West but still totally unknown in Poland.
Functional yoga isn’t a new style, it’s a whole new paradigm. A very prudent one at that. Functional yoga doesn’t focus on the form or shapes of the yoga postures, rather, on finding the way of approaching them in a way which would bring a particular sensation within the body. The main premise of functiona yoga is that we are all different and our anatomical diversity should be reflected in the way we practice.
Functional yoga doesn’t obsess about extreme flexibility. Mobility (regaining or maintaining the full range of motion) and the stability in the body – is far more important. It might all sound technical but the beauty of it is that the students don’t need to be bombarded with the endless list of alignment rules – they focus on interpreting their body’s responses and understanding what benefits them. In this sense, functional yoga comes back to essence of yoga- drawing the attention inward, awareness and acceptance.
Functional yoga paradigm can be adapted to almost any yoga style: there can be functional vinyasa flow or functional yin yoga. I chose to let go of any rigidity and drew inspiration from Scaravelli yoga. In Scaravelli, poses aren’t forced or pushed – you’re exploring the new, fluid and natural pathways of movement. The stillness and deep listening on the other hand, comes with yin yoga poses. Teaching both Scravelli-inspired and Yin yoga, I found a perfect balance between yin and yang aspects of yoga.
Everything happens for a reason!
After a few months, I had another opportunity to see very clearly that EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON. In March being ‘stuck’ in Poland rather than moving to Barcelona turned from being a hindrance into a blessing. With the news of Covid-19 sweeping through Spain and seriously affecting aforementioned Barcelona, I couldn’t marvel enough at how things turned out for me. I was close to my family, in a familiar place and in a country much less affected by the virus than most of the Western European ones.
With no particular reason to stress, I turned the coronovirus to my advantage. I started teaching yoga online, reaching out to my past students in the UK as well as those in Krakow. Suddenly, physical distance wouldn’t matter. I was even asked to prepare a series of easy, accessible home yoga practice for a Polish medical online portal. A whole new world of opportunities has opened for me.
This time, I’ve done much better at looking at the positive side of ‘being stuck’. The philosphy behind the mindfulness states that you cannot control any of the external circumstances: your freedom lies in the way you choose to react to them.
I’ve been busy studying, practising and teaching yoga, while in my free time, I’ve continued working on my travel blog: seemore4less. There is no chance I’d start feeling bored or isolated. In fact, like many others, I’ve reconnected with friends I wasn’t in touch with for ages. Unlike many, I’ve been used to spending 24/7 with my husband so there wouldn’t be anything new that would throw me out of balance. The one crucial need I’ve been struggling with have been the walks in nature, severely restricted in Poland. I’ve found my way around that, too, by walking my brother’s dog in secluded areas.
Resilience in the face of pandemic
I consider the last year, including the last few months, the time full of new opportunities, the time of learning and growing. That includes learning something about myself.
I realise that everybody’s circumstances are different but I’m fairly confident that at least to some extent, all of us would be able to understand what is happening now in the world indeed happens for a reason. If only that reason was giving the Earth a much needed break. If only it was highlighting the issues that no longer would be able to persist without being addressed: both on the national and the domestic level. And I do wish you from the bottom of my heart that you find the strength and resilience to respond to the crisis. It is your response that would give you the real freedom from the physical and mental confinement.