Just stand still for a moment...

Dressing the shrine with petals

Of course, we’re all fit and healthy and lively and active, and I never thought that I wasn't until I started the yoga sessions. At home I move around the house and work in the garden, and although my hip plays up and I have a bit of a limp, I never considered myself handicapped until....

Yoga isn’t all about tying yourself in knots. Yes, we have people here who can go from a squatting position to balancing on their head in one smooth move, but I’ve now learned that basic yoga is very, very simple... until you try to do it. I mean, what could possibly be physically challenging about breathing?

So, stand still, raise the arms straight above the head with palms together and breathe deeply. The first couple of breaths are easy, but by the time I got to six I found my mind saying “Well, this is a waste of time, isn’t it?” or “This won’t bring my blood pressure down, will it?” My shoulders ached, my arms started to sag and my legs ached from standing still. I came to the realisation that Simple isn’t always Easy.

Then the yoga master told the class to lie down, and I faced the terrifying revelation that it’s been a long time since I went from up here to down there. The master glides smoothly from vertical to horizontal while I’m standing there wondering where to start. Thank heavens for Ali, whose solid Omani Arab frame encourages me with the evidence that I am not alone – though he is 20 years younger than me and relatively agile. The yoga master waits patiently while I catch up with the rest of the class and lie down. Then a simple instruction: Put your legs together and raise them slowly to 45 degrees, hold it, and lower. It wasn’t long before I realised that I was seriously out of shape and that it would take time to awaken some of those sleeping muscles. Then, in one of my regular, daily consultations, the doctor told me that because of my hip and back, I shouldn’t be doing the morning class, but ought to have a private session with the yoga master to work out some basic exercises I could do in my room. Then I could still join the evening class which was more meditative, and avoid anything that might strain my hip or back.

We probably all remember PE teachers who bullied the class into all achieving a common standard. I remember it well from my schooldays, the shame of doing fewer pull-ups or executing a clumsy vault in class, and always feeling not good enough, - and this was not uncommon as a teaching style for both academic and physical lessons in the 50s and 60s. There was an attempt to shame under-performers into achieving the standard. In stark contrast, the yoga master is a lovely man who knows that every student is seeking to improve, and is yearning to achieve a degree of competence. I sat quietly with him in the yoga hall and he worked out half-a-dozen exercises that were all basically focused on conscious breathing.

So each morning I work through my session of breathing exercises in my room. I breathe deeply standing, sitting, twisting to the left, turning to the right, breathing and stretching, breathing and contracting, arms outstretched, arms to the ground and... definitely the most challenging... standing balanced on one leg.

Hold your breath long enough and you go blue in the face

The close connection between Ayurveda and yoga comes from the common theme of balance. Ayurveda is all about creating a balance in life, and so much of yoga – especially as it becomes more advanced – is about a physical balance in posture and movement in conjunction with steady, controlled conscious breathing. The body learns fast and rapidly becomes more supple and coordinated. Positions that were impossible yesterday are surprisingly comfortable today. It’s encouraging and each day brings a little more effort and a little more achievement.

I can even stand on one leg now.