It’s easy to feel alone during this time but with every negative situation you can find a positive. Yoga teacher Vicky Fox explores the ways in which physical social distancing can lead to more social connection.
If you live in London, you can often have close physical connections to people but not necessarily have close social connections. Working at triyoga in Camden, Ealing and Chelsea means I spend a bit of my week on the London Underground. Travelling at rush hour I am often squashed into incredibly close physical contact but despite the close proximity of everyone on the tube there is very little social connection between people. Mostly people are disconnected and in their own world blocking out the reality of the commute with earphones and iphones.
Having taught classes online now, since the lockdown began, I have realised though, that we are able to have greater social connection through our phones/computers. If you take an online class and find the “gallery view” at the top of the screen you will see the faces and names of those in your community taking the class with you. If you have felt alone, you have a moment when you realise there are other beings just like you, taking the class and you have a feeling of being connected. You can wave and smile at these fellow students which you might not have done in a regular class in a studio.
The first online class I took, as a student, at triyoga I was amazed how moved I was to see one of my teachers. To hear their voice, their wise words and to breath and move in their class. I had a huge sense of gratitude to her for being present and for teaching the class, which is how I often feel at the end of a class. This overwhelming sense of gratitude gave me a huge sense of connection, which I realised I had been missing.
At times like this when we are forced to slow down, take baby steps and be fully present, it can make you appreciate the little things in life. When you can only go out for essential things or shop for essentials it makes you think about what are those essentials? What matters in your life and what doesn’t? We also can have a great sense of loss and feel sadness because we miss family members, work, income and the all things we can’t do because we are in lockdown. We grieve for the life we thought we would be having right now.
When we practise yoga, we have an opportunity to observe all those feelings that come up, the good, the bad and the ugly. Often in yoga it feels like we are having more thoughts but it’s just that when we quieten everything down, as we do in a yoga class, we become more aware of our thoughts. Can we be ok with what is? Whatever that is? Can we observe the thoughts bubbling up on our inhale and have a sense of letting them go on our exhale?
Practising yoga allows me to connect with others. The sensation of being alive and connecting to this sensation brings up a lot of gratitude in me. Feeling grateful and having kind thoughts makes us happier. Feeling happy helps to reduce the feelings of stress and reducing stress helps our immune system function better and enhances our well-being. So, it is a win-win situation.
Since qualifying in 2008, Vicky has studied with many world renowned teachers such as Aadil Palkhivala, Rod Stryker, Doug Keller and Julie Gudmestad. Vicky’s teaching style is based around her own varied experience of yoga and through that has created a physically challenging class developing strength and suppleness while emphasising alignment and precision. All the time believing that yoga should be an individual and safe practice.
