I have been asked to explain this for a short presentation at a surf house that I work at.
Morocco is fairly untouched by the many trends and some hopefully will not quite make it like beer yoga or naked yoga.
Some people ask me what kind of yoga I teach and if they never did anything that they would just like to do some stretching, some are afraid that they are not flexible and therefore can not do yoga. They are familiar with Vinyasa, Yin and hardly ever heard the word Somatic.
Thanks to some really great surfers like Gery Lopez, Kelly Slater, who pushed yoga forward in the very male oriented waters, yoga became part of the Surf Industry.
I even met a man who has published a book called Yoga for Surfers here in Imsouane and had a chance to look at the copy Yoga for Surfers by Ken Librman, in which he describes: “A clean-flowing nervous system is the core of a surfer’s ability.”
I have yet to see some of the local surf instructors attend and maybe as most classes are taught by women, there may be some hesitation but there are more Moroccan guests interested and often practice in their cities so coming to holidays, they take the advantage of fresh air and amazing views.
Yoga for me is more than stretching bodies or moving tension from bodies or dealing with emotions. Rather than using yoga as a coping mechanism to apply as a remedy, which I perhaps did in the past, I use it more as an everyday lifestyle of self awareness and using a little softer approach to myself to be more curious and open. This also means following the classical yoga that is neither yang or yin but balance between the two following the tradition of The Yoga Sutras, studying the Patanjali Sutras and coming closer to what yoga is described as Yogáscitta-vritti-nirodha.
TKV Desikachar describes this as:
In this process [of speaking to you] my mind has only one interest. It is almost as if my mind is completely enveloped by it. Nothing else bothers me and all my understandings with regard to this concept of nirodha come before me and I am full of it. It follows, therefore, at this moment that nothing other than this subject is before me. This is what the word nirodha means. Rudh represents the envelopment of a particular interest, ni represents the intensity of that envelopment. This is a moment the mind functions with no division of activity. The whole mind functions in one area and nothing else can interfere. The word nirodha also means “restraint.” It is not by restraining the mind that it will move and become involved in a particular direction of choice. It is the other way round; that is, so strongly and intensely the mind has moved toward one area and has become absorbed in one area that there is no “infiltration.” Therefore, nirodha, meaning “restraint,” is just an effect of nirodha meaning “complete absorption.” “Citta vritti nirodha” is how yoga is defined in the Yoga Sutra. It means that the mind has one and only one activity in all its totality and that the other activities which would distract the mind are absent.
With this background I also explore practices of pandiculation, breathwork that helps to regulate the nervous system, moves lymph and refreshes fascia – your inner wetsuit!
There is also much to say about restorative gestures for bodies and minds that have been overworked and other practices that lead me to meditations, journaling, yoga nidra. One of the comment from a surfer was that he didn’t understood this lying down and sleeping like -but since he was on a retreat he joined the restorative focus class and soon after was coming back to every class – finding this apparent non-activity – provided deep nourishment and rest that helped him to feel better in and out of the water. There may be much resistance to not moving and these practices take time to feel safe and let the layers of in-build tension fade away from body minds.
There can be whole new articles about Breath and impacts of different techniques for you every day and I used this in my practice and in the classes that I offer and as an active surfer I found benefits in bigger wipe outs or when I found a distressed surfer on a beach.
Yoga for me is a Joy and tool to self enquiry to say Yes to Life and be fearless no matter what. What I want to share is this playfulness, this joy, this imperfection of being human and feeling great in one’s body and mind. The goal is Harmony and the path is Love.
What I value most is feedback from people who perhaps found it difficult to understand English or are new to classes and saying goodbye – I will continue in my home.
