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Yoga in the Economic CrisisMaintaining Emotional Health in Hard TimesWhen Lucy's knee gave way during a casual basketball practice, the pain was excruciating. What turned out to be a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was compounded by the news, five weeks later, that she was pregnant. Surgery would have to be put off for months, and her expanding, awkward frame would become riskier on the unstable knee. “I was so scared because my knee would slip out of place totally unexpectedly, and I was petrified for my own safety and the baby's,” she says. Her solution: safe yoga poses and physiotherapy. The side benefit of the yoga was the peace it gave her; it was a physical stretch accompanied by a mental rest. Now the knees have been taken out from under us all, economically, and it will likely be a painful and scary adjustment. The holiday season was probably more down-to-earth than it's been for a while for most, as people everywhere continue to tighten belts. All manner of luxuries have been cut from the weekly or monthly spend. Many households will take extra care over heating and light to keep the energy bills down. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, for there are many whose situation is far more dire. Can yoga help? It would be wrong, ethically and practically, to trumpet yoga as a cure-all or a fix-it. “Yoga” isn't simply an exercise program, or a weight-loss program, or a stress-management program, or any particular program. It is a holistic “system of self-cultivation by which the individual frees himself from the burden of the world and its bondage,” as Shandor Remete, author of Shadow Yoga Chaya Yoga, puts it. Which begs the question, do you want to be freed? And in what sense does it free you? To risk paraphrasing 2,000 year-old texts written by sages commanding the utmost respect, yoga frees you of physical dis-ease so that you learn to be still in body, still in mind, and allow your spirit to evolve. In the course of this process, your attitudes might change. Your priorities might re-align. This is a scary prospect at a time when we wish the world would just hang on a minute – stop changing its climate and imploding its financial systems and let us catch our breath. But that's not going to happen; “change is the only constant.” As Bruce Barton said, “When you're through changing, you're through.” Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Barack Obama and his millions of supporters agree. Clearly humanity is ready for change; now is a good time to embrace it on a personal level. Yoga is a science, and the movements that you will come across in a hatha yoga class will tone and stretch muscles – that's why we all hope to walk away looking like Christy Turlington – but more importantly, it can benefit your respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and lymphatic systems as well as improving your joint mobility. This process of “freeing” ourselves “cannot be achieved through superficial work. One must begin at the root and grow slowly, grow with patience and grow through persistence,” writes Mr. Remete. In America, students seems to be recognising the value of yoga. The Yoga Journal published a series of articles recently on yoga and our relationship with money. One New York based teacher cited a growth, not shrinkage, in class size this past summer. She attributed the growth to “people using a portion of their income to a practice that makes them feel better” during financially stressful times; that they are using yoga to “weather the uncertainty.” Another studio in Utah saw a decline in studio memberships last spring because people are more conscious of how much they're driving, and of the price of petrol. During the summer, Williams' studio corrected the downturn by offering incentives to cycle find “human-powered” ways to get there – the 10 or 15 miles that some had to drive. It seems we are all looking to reduce consumption – and spending. Or, as Angelina Jolie recently announced, acknowledging her luck at not needing to work full out and putting “a lot of responsibilities at home” ahead of work and income, with the intention of letting her movie-making “fade away.” India Knight, author and journalist, just released the “Joy of Thrift,” not aimed at “full eco-warriors” but rather those who wish to live well but stylishly. Yet healthy food, home-made gifts, conscientious shopping and mindful living are the topics. Everyday happiness, she notes, is found in “jaunty-looking teapot that pours without dribbling, the children's bath time, an especially good book”. And in 2004, well before the global “debtonation,” Tracey Smith founded “National Downshifting Week which grew into InterNational Downshifting Week in April 2008. Downshifting “supports living and working more sustainably and strives for a proper work / life balance.” These are positive messages for all those trying to simplify their lives in pursuit of happiness. By nature, yoga is experiential. You must do it to benefit from it. You must try it and see. As Vanda Scaravelli said, it “pulls you up by the hair,” in a most uplifting and rewarding way. What you put in, you get out. And it's yours. It doesn't belong to the bank, the doctor, the solicitor, the state. In the Yoga Sutras, the first documented wisdom of yoga, the sage Patanjali says "Pain and suffering that has not yet manifested can and is to be avoided." The Sutras give guidance in all aspects of living. Asana (postures, the physical practice) is one of eight areas comprising hatha yoga. “Yamas (restraints) and “niyamas” (observances), practiced with integrity, are also part of the process of self-cultivation. Some of these precepts can be applied to financial freedom, including asteya (non-stealing), ahimsa (non-harming), aparigraha (non-grasping, often phrased non-greedy, though I like the image that “grasping” evokes), santosha (contentment). Sometimes turmoil can sharply focus us. Even the loss of a job, bringing a desperate personal financial crisis, and right before Christmas, is not the worst thing in the world. Are your children healthy? Will you die of starvation? Millions of people have to give unfortunate answers to these questions. Asteya, or “non-stealing”, is meant to be taken not only passively, but actively. Think of exploitation as indirect stealing by us, the end consumers. So a simple example of asteya is just knowing where your food and clothing come from, and doing your best to ensure exploitation is not part of the process. This links back to aparigraha, non-grasping, if you were to ask yourself whether you need the item at all. Bringing this right down to a yoga class, or any scheduled event, if you agree that “time is money,” be aware of whether you are “stealing” people's time by arriving late and disrupting. This is not to say it's easy to drop your workload and be on time all the time; but some self-awareness will help you to guage whether you're cramming that last little task in when really you should be on your way. Santosha, or contentment, does not mean lack of ambition, or lack of standards, or giving up. It refers to the recognising and eliminating the discontent caused by “keeping up with the Jones'.” Constantly desiring more leaves us out of balance, constantly chasing, with no time to observe, absorb, enjoy. Sitting or lying still and observing tension in the body, and how you're breathing, a part of both asana and meditation, is extremely difficult at first. A student new to yoga came to me at the end of her 8th class and said, “I actually got into that relaxation for the first time. Usually my mind is all over the place. That [savasana, or corpse pose] is the hardest thing to do.” Some hugely successful people, like Donna Karan, practice yoga as part of their creative life (guide choices, compassion, creativity). Karan describes her lifelong evolution from not even wanting to be in fashion to becoming a renowned designer to setting up Urban Zen Foundation brings the sense that it is done not out of discontent but out of recognition of a need and a passion to do something to meet that need. This is a striking example of high standards, constant evolution, and huge success underpinned by contentment. Ahimsa (non-violence). There's the obvious not whacking somebody over the head. Emotional hurt falls here too, whether by subtle manipulation, ill intent, or outright blackmail. Or the harm many bring upon themselves and those close to them by priorities that are in conflict. For example, your family might reasonably be expected to take a high priority (why bother having one otherwise?) yet work or other personal relationships cause the supposed priorty to suffer and wither. Dharmanidhi Sarasvati, yoga teacher at Tantric College of America in Berkeley, California, says “As soon as I think that I'm indepenent and that what I do is not going to affect others, I've performed a violent act.” Self-harm is yet another method: one version that is coming to light more and more nowadays is angst-ridden teens “cutting,” but self-harm extends further. Alcohol is an easy example. If someone hurt us enough to cause the same headache that we inflict upon ourselves with too many martinis, we'd sue them for assault. Drugs, from easy-going marijuana to hard-core heroin, have no place in the yogic ethos. While many yoga practitioners don't abstain completely, self-awareness – common sense, in fact – can help manage these habits or tendencies. (NB: I do not hereby suggest that yoga is a replacement for specific support groups like AA, or medication that may be assisting with serious drug habits). Pushing yourself too hard in yoga class can cause harm. I recently read a blog by a student looking for tips on the “jump through” - jumping your feet right between your hands to come to a sitting position. She had broken a toe trying. 'A' for effort or a call for some judgement? Less obvious is trying to perform a pose we're just not ready for. For example, knee joints are smaller and will take the punishment if hip joints are not ready to perform padmasana – the classic seated pose with feet crossed right up onto your thighs. The hip joint – along with all those tight, short muscles and ligaments developed from years of sitting in chairs rather than on the floor – must turn well in order for the knee to rest to the floor and the foot to easily come to the thigh. The problems with the knees may not show up for years, yet surely we can feel the not-so-sensible pressure each time we try. Yoga does not ask for injury, just effort.
Yoga is a descretionary expense, one of the first things to go in a recession. So will you dig into your pocket to pay for another yoga term? Is it worth it? It certain can provide value for money, given the combination of physical, mental and spiritual evolution it supports. Additionally, there are many pragmatic features of practising yoga.
So have a bit of fun as you make an investment in your emotional health, and find out what returns your yoga gives you. Find out about Astraea's courses
and training, including yoga, here.
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mens sana in corpore sano
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