A note of advice: It is best not to attempt to clean a toilet, when your smart phone is in your top pocket!

Plop!

As the bubbles rose to the surface –  the yogic calm escaping in  stream of swear words- my  immediate panic was quickly replaced by a certain resignation. The phone was unlikely to survive.I went through the motions of rescuing the phone and hastily removing and drying the sim and laying the pieces out to dry on the boiler, whilst mentally and emotionally consigning the fragments to history. 

It is fairly common, we all know someone who’s done it. Or you may have done it yourself. I have just read a statistic that 19% of people have dropped their smartphone in a toilet at some point. ( wait a minute – Someone paid for this research? )I was suffering some kind of lurgy and attempting to do some work on the computer as well as summoning enough energy to do short bursts of housework in preparation for visitors. So my mind really wasn’t on the task. I was moving from one thing to the next , forgetting that I had just put my phone in the top pocket of my dungarees. So really, it was another lesson in mindfulness. Perhaps a lesson not to wear dungarees! 🙂

It was also a fantastic lesson in non-attachment. On  loads of levels. Firstly – why the hell did I need my phone in the toilet? It could have been safely left on the desk or table. What was going to happen in the five minutes (less) it took me to sweep a bog brush round the rim that required me to have my phone with me?

Then there was the acceptance of loss of what was on the phone. I managed to rescue the sim but everything else was gone including half my contacts. YES – it was backed up on the PC! But is was synced via a programme which only seems to want to work with the old phone it was synced to, which – to remind you-  is no longer with us!

Also, after  a few days of reverting to an old phone, it began to feel kind of liberating. In order to check my e-mails or Facebook or to Google some fact or other, I had to go upstairs and sit in front of the computer. Because I didn’s feel like spending my entire day in front of the computer ( although I do have those days!) I began to allow myself the space of letting go. Because the phone/toilet event coincided with me being ill, I wasn’t doing much work , or feeling very inclined to sit at the PC and – well – nothing happened! Some e-mails waited a couple of days to get answered, and I didn’t get round to liking very much on Facebook but nobody seemed to mind, if they noticed at all!

Thanks to a generous friend with a new smartphone I have a new/old smartphone and because it is sunny, I am lying on a blanket in the garden scribbling this post long-hand with a pencil before I drag myself upstairs to commit it to the ether. The new smartphone is by my side and occasionally it makes a small noise to alert me to the fact that I have received an e-mail.

I’ll check it… at some point.

http://www.lefthandedtoons.com/223/

1. Through the windows I see the waiting room is crowded.  I step over a bicycle sprawled across the entrance and make my way  inside to shelter from the wind and rain. By now, we realise that the scheduled passenger ferry will be  cancelled due to high winds. A mixture of irritation and resignation. This happens often enough for us to be accustomed. A young man in a high visibility jacket appears to tell us that he has ordered a courtesy bus to take us to the other ferry and leaves.  A man – the owner of the hastily abandoned bike – has missed this message because he has been having a noisy conversation on his mobile phone. He is clearly under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both. He begins staggering about and noisily haranguing the other passengers, who do their best, with bowed heads, to ignore him. He staggers out and disappears for a few minutes ( presumably to try and find out what is happening) and comes back to announce what we already know, that the ferry is cancelled!  He still knows nothing about the bus, so someone fills him in. He goes back outside and  lights a cigarette. And then he comes back inside with it!..

2. The train is packed, just enough room to sit. Bags need to be stored overhead, knees and feet and elbows tucked in. The woman opposite is listening to music on her iPod and reading a magazine. We all know what she is listening to (Adele) because it is so loud it sounds like she is playing it through speakers. I mean it is REALLY loud! Not just the normal iPod loud. There are two other women in the same group of seats, we exchange glances , one of them tuts her disapproval, both bow their heads and read. I hope that she may be getting off at Paisley. Not too long to wait. But she doesn’t!…

3. A rare visit to the cinema to see a much anticipated film. The theatre is busy but not full, so we choose seats as close to middle/middle as we can. A group of teenagers sit behind us. They are talking and laughing and using their smartphones through the adverts. They are talking and laughing and using their smartphones through the trailers. But that’s OK cos the film hasn’t started yet. Oh yes it has and… yup – they are talking and laughing and using their smartphones. And they’re not getting any quieter…

4. A visit to  Edinburgh. We’ve been at some yoga thing. We are on one of those streets just off the royal mile. Shops selling tartan tat and cool funky clothes and stuff you didn’t know you wanted. A young couple. Tourists (French?) are walking on the other side of the street looking lost, looking at map the wrong way up. A group of young men  approach them from the other direction.They begin to pick on the them , pushing them, grabbing at their bags, name calling…

5. A quiet lunch break at work. I am on my own in the communal lunch area in our open plan reception area, but out of view behind a screen. Two of my colleagues are in the reception area chatting about something or other, and then I hear my name mentioned. They are talking about something I have left for someone to read which I appear to  have mistakenly left  in the wrong place. One of the colleagues says (about me)  “she’s a bloody weirdo!”…

The point of this is not some kind of “weirdo” therapy 😉 These are all real situations where I have felt I had to challenge what I believed to be anti-social  behaviour. But it’s something that doesn’t sit that easily with me. For all sorts of reasons.

Firstly, there’s the compassionate view. I practice Metta Bhavana. The Buddhist practice of loving kindness. This practice involves extending compassion and loving kindness to myself, to loved ones, to aquaintances, and also to those with whom I have a difficult relationship. My enemies. People I don’t like. Maybe those who I might judge as anti-social?

Then there is the path of the yogi. The non-judgmental accepting yogi.The yogi who practices non-attachment.  The yogi who practices ahimsa (non-harming) The peace loving yogi who commits to finding creative ways of managing conflict.

Then of course there’s the possibility of getting my head kicked in.

Or worse!

There is something to be said for practising quiet acceptance and non-attachment. So what if someone is playing loud music all the way from Glasgow to Gourock? Really? Was my desire to challenge the iPod woman  an attachment to quietness? And the weirdo comment. In the eyes of some, all this yoga stuff is weird. And maybe what other people think about me is none of my business. There are always going to be people who don’t like me, for whatever reason.

Then there is compassion. There are always reasons why people behave they way they do. What we view as anti-social behaviour may be someone coping with a mental health problem.

But when the behaviour has potential to harm…?

What I have (hopefully) managed to do in all these situations is, well, firstly, avoid gettting my head kicked in. I have avoided overt violence, but I must admit to having been on the receiving end of verbal aggression. The iPod lady being the worst offender! The first rule of Ahimsa is look after yourself. But I also believe that social responsibility is part of my role as a yogi and as a human being. To my mind yoga is not about avoiding conflict at all costs, it is about learning to communicate in ways that are compassionate, and which gently defuse any potential aggravation.  

I like to think that there is also an element of yogic practice that is challenging and radical. Just as we challenge our bodies and minds to open to alternative ways of moving, thinking and being, we may begin to feel this exerting its force on our environment. It allows us to explore creative and expansive ways of looking at the world. Through the practice of yoga, people have been able to free themselves from  the challenges of addiction, abuse and destructive behaviour and have been able to move into a more loving relationship with themselves and  with those around them.

When it comes to antisocial behaviour – perhaps the challenge is not “should” we intervene, but how should we intervene to ensure the most compassionate outcome. If we always act from compassion, then  the right action will surely emerge.

Graeme and I were at a yoga workshop at the weekend. Often when we go away for the weekend, we stop off at a coffee shop when we come off the ferry in Gourock and we buy a takeaway breakfast. despite the fact that we always have to argue for decaf. coffee to be included in the breakfast “deal” it has become something of a ritual treat when we go away anywhere.

However, that is not the focus of this post.

Whilst waiting for the breakfast to arrive, I noticed a pile of magazines on the counter. Not for sale, they were dog-eared and clearly meant for the sit-in clientele to borrow. When I say noticed, I mean my eyes were immediately drawn to the glaring headline on the front of the magazine on the top of the pile. I actually don’t want to share the headline because even recalling it makes me feel nauseous, but if I say it was one of those cheap “real-life” magazines printed on flimsy paper with a one word catchy title on a red background- you’ll probably know what I mean.

So, this first headline rammed its way into my brain like a bullet. A story of a woman’s gruesome ordeal. A quick shuffle through the rest of the pile (don’t ask me why I did that!) revealed seven or eight headlines  with equal disgust/shock/revulsion status. All presumably designed to pique our curiosity enough to read more. If it piqued my curiosity, I didn’t allow myself to indulge it.  I just turned the magazines over so that  other people didn’t have them staring them in the face at 8 o’clock in the morning, especially mindful that the magazines were at child-eye height.

I also noticed that it had an instant and very tangible effect on how I felt. In That moment, in the early morning, before I had eaten breakfast and preparing to go and do a whole weekend of yoga, I really (really!) didn’t want to know the story that headline was telling me. The headline, however, said it all. I didn’t need to open the pages of the publication to have a vivid image in my mind of what the story had to offer. Now, I am not going to argue as to whether these magazines have any value, or whether printing those stories is right or wrong but there is something to be said both about the words we read and how we feel.

Words (and images)  have a tangible effect on mood. The old saying about “sticks and stones…” is sadly, wrong. Words have an incredible power to affect how we think and how we feel. And the people that write headlines know this better than most. Words affect mood which affects thoughts which again affect mood which affects behaviour and in turn these continue to affect our mood, which affects thoughts and so on… Thoughts also influence what is going on in our bodies. So, if we constantly engage with negative, disturbing, worrying or violent  stimuli, we are continually reinforcing the notion that the world is a frightening, disturbing, violent place.  The perfect emotional conditions where stress, anxiety and depression thrive.

This is not about being in denial about what is going on in the world, it is about being aware that there may be a different way of viewing the world which is not focused on fear, negativity and sensational, attention grabbing headlines. It is also about being more sensitive to the stimuli that affect our moods. Whilst we can acknowledge the realities of war, famine and violence, we can also be aware of the balancing influences of positivity, harmony and peace. Not only can this affect how we feel, it can have a positive effect on influencing change.  Have a look at  Positive News. You may have seen it. In their words: “Positive News is the world’s original and leading positive newspaper. Focusing on solutions, it reports on people and initiatives that are creating a sustainable, just and fulfilling world. Positive News aims to inform, inspire and empower its readers, while helping create a more responsible and balanced media.” 

“Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.” The Buddha

” If only I had known. I would have become a locksmith.” – Albert Eistein

I have this inner bizarreometer. Some of you may recognise the trait. Seemingly ordinary, inocuous, mundane, every day things will suddenly seem ridiculous. I had one such moment the other day. I was listening to Radio 4 and a news item announced the receipt of a prize for women scientists by, not surprsingly, a woman scientist.  “Great” was my first thought. A clearly very skilled and clever woman was being rewarded for her efforts. She had done something quite important in the field of diabetes research.

Until my bizarreometer kicked in.

Suddenly, the notion of winning a prize for being a scientist, or for anything else for that matter, seemed very strange indeed. And that led me to thinking about those we reward. It struck me that the winning of prizes is more often than not, for some outward manifestation of a skill. For “achieving” something.  From employee of the month, to Knight of the Realm, people are rewarded for doing stuff.  Now, this may not strike your as strange. Why should it?  We live in a culture which is all about doing. And it is not just about doing things. It is about achieving things. Based on a very specific notion of what merits achievement and success.

On that same day I kept encountering people doing things that I realised  they are never going to win a prize for – like the man who was noisily, aggressively (but very efficiently) emptying bins in Glasgow City Centre.  I think we can safely guarantee he will will no prize, and yet his contribution to society is actually really, really important.

As important as discovering some tiny mechanism in a cell that governs insulin secretion?

Sadly, my bizaremometer does not provide answers, simply presents me with considerable food for thought.

Where this journey of reflection led me was to the notion of success as doing something. Is this really the measure of what it means to be successful as a human being? Even if you consider what it means to be an extraordinary human being – whatever that means – should this be measured by the things that person has managed to do? We are hard wired to think of success in outward terms. We think of entreprenuers, scientists, explorers, athletes, film directors, politicians. Ordinary people enter the frame when they have done extraordinary things. Overcome adversity . Gone out of their way to help. Risen above a challenge. Battled for a cause…

And yet there are millions of us who will never be formally recognised for anything that we do. There are indeed millions of us who will -in the normally accepted sense at least – not achieve anything very much. We celebrate those who battle and overcome but what about those who quietly and gently accept?  I think  of the nuns who prayed quietly for my friend when he was in hospital with leukaemia, the  little boy close to my heart, who has severe celebral palsy and will maybe never walk or talk, but whose joy is palpable and infectious, the beautiful woman I met recently who accepted her diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer and allowed herself a quiet, gentle passing.

There  is also  incredible power in not doing. In simply being. In my teaching I notice that people often have great difficulty in simply being. Their reaction to the stress  and busy-ness of their lives is to want to do something about it, or to keep busy in order to distract themselves from how they are feeling. In the stillness of a yoga class, I can see  this manifest as frustration. “When is she going to start doing something?..” And when we practice asana, the frustration of not being good at something, not getting it right, with nervous glances around the class to see how other people are getting on.  With time, this abates, if people give themselves the time. And when we touch that stillness, we move into the state of  Yoga. Which is a state of being, not doing.

What emerges is perhaps a greater measure of success…

So here it is… Jude’s Guide to Asking for What You’re Worth (for what it’s worth!)

For all my sisters on International Women’s Day!

Firstly, do an (objective) analysis of your skills, qualifications, training and experience. If you find this difficult to do for yourself, ask a friend to do it with you. Someone else will always notice the things that you tend to play down or think are worth less than they actually are.

Find out and acknowledge the top level “going rate” for what you do. Find out what others in your field are charging for their services. You may find that there are people with less experience than you who are charging a lot more simply because they are more confident. I have to say that there is a notable gender divide here! Women are often less confident about their own skills and certainly less comfortable in asking for more money. Self belief has a lot to do with it – but once again, that’s for another post!

Then, add up the pounds and pence. How much does it COST you to do your work? Taking everything into account – include rent, memberships, insurance, training, time for preparation, travel time, transport costs etc. If you had to pay for training to do what you do, include the cost of that.

Assume that you want to earn at least the minimum wage! Taking into account your costs, add the figures up. What is the absolute minimum you can earn in order to cover your costs and pay yourself the minimum wage?

Here is an example. Because I teach yoga, it’s for a 90 minute yoga class

Actual hours worked. You are not just working for the time it takes you to teach the class.

90 mins. teaching

+ 40 mins. travelling to and from the venue

+ 40 mins lesson planning

+ 15 mins prep time

+ 15 mins clear up time

+ 15 mins admin (minimum)

= 2 hours & 35 mins

And this doesn’t include the amount of time you spend promoting your classes, answering e-mail and phone enquiries, updating your website, posting on Facebook etc. I’m guessing nobody is paying you to do all that?

 Let’s say the absolute minimum you want to earn per hour = £7 (really?)

That means you want to earn at least £18 per class after all your costs are taken into account.

So, let’s look at costs

Studio hire = £20

Travel costs = £5 If you drive, take into account petrol, car maintenance, tax and insurance etc.

Parking = £2:50 (if you don’t hang about)

Proportion of other costs (training, memberships insurance etc.) = £6

Let’s assume you will make your own lunch but your subsistence costs should really also come into the equation.

(Conservative) TOTAL = £36

 Costs £36 + minimum earnings £18 = £54

 If you charge £8 per class then you need seven people in the class, to earn around about the minimum wage.

 Uh –huh!

Right, let’s think about private yoga lessons – and this also applies to consultancy work– then going by the same calculations you should be charging about £50 for 90 minutes. Pro-rata, that’s about £35 for an hour.

 I can hear you all gulping but that is how much your time is worth. Pure arithmetic and we haven’t started on the self esteem stuff.

If, like me, you believe that your skills and experience and worth a little more than the minimum wage, then perhaps you will begin to feel a little easier about maybe asking for more, especially if you are now at a level in your career where you have more experience under your belt, and therefore, one assumes, more to offer.

If it helps, think about how much you would be prepared and happy to pay for 90 minutes of another professional’s time. Perhaps bring to mind your dentist, vet or lawyer! The last time I took my dog to the vet (out of hours) they wanted to charge me £100 just to allow her paws to cross the threshold of the surgery. That was before any examination or treatment, just dog into the same room as vet. 100 quid.

Most professions charge more for the time of more senior professionals. Bear this in mind and place yourself honestly somewhere along the Rookie to Guru continuum.

Be bold. Compassionate, loving and sensitive, yes, but bold too! Ask for what you need. Say no to what you don’t need. Be firm with those who want you to work for less that you’re worth (particularly if that = nothing)

Have a price and stick to it. It helps to publish your price list so that there are no surprises. This does not guarantee no awkward conversations, but be prepared for those and practice what you might say… following the following simple rules

 1. Be OK with using the word NO. Everyone knows what it means and there is no room for misunderstanding.

2. Make no apologies or excuses. Why should you? You’re sorry you need to eat and therefore require to be paid for your work?

3. Offer an alternative – there is always something that you CAN offer.

 For example…

“Do you offer concessions for …”

“No, the price is … for everyone, I do offer a block booking discount though”

I can hear your toes curling at the very thought… but as the guru said “practice and all is coming…”

Regarding concessions – if you want to help people who are on a low income then have a price for that too. Have a written policy and stick to it. If you choose not to offer concessions, really, that’s OK. 

If you do want to genuinely volunteer your services, make sure that it is just that, voluntary and that you haven’t been emotionally persuaded into it.

Karma Yoga is a wonderful thing. Doing things as selfless service is a wonderful choice. But, earning a living is a necessity, not something that you need to be ashamed of.

Finally, if the thought of all of this is making you cringe with discomfort, then what about this…

An “Asking for what you’re worth” workshop for women?

 As a little experiment – I shall be offering this workshop on a donation basis. You can either pay what you think the teaching is worth, or pay what you can afford, no questions asked. But as a guideline, for a four hour workshop – I reckon the going rate would be about £30 – £40 per person. If you can’t afford this, pay what you can and maybe offer some karma yoga on the day.

 If you are interested – let me know and we’ll sort out some dates.

We have had a busy time recently preparing our house for an important family gathering. Our house is Victorian and in need of a lot of TLC, so there has been a fair bit of decorating, as well as cleaning to be done. This past week has seen me holding layers of wallpaper on the end of a broom as my other half expertly papered an imperfect ceiling and hauling weighty sofas out of storage and in through the window, (massive bruise on right knee as a lasting reminder). Then,  steam cleaning said sofas, as well as various carpets and soft furnishings, dusting, polishing, hoovering, and then  making up spare beds.

 So Sunday is a duvet day, but not in the sense I might have preferred. A frothy coffee and a croissant in bed listening to Steve Wright’s Sunday Love songs might have hit the mark a little more closely but the impending arrival of thirteen of our nearest and dearest sets the agenda. 

 Wrestling with two super-king sized duvets, I am tying myself in the usual knots of finding and losing corners, trying to straighten out lumps and bumps and getting the bulk of the winter thickness duvet evenly spread inside the cover. It is never a task I look forward to and I find it time consuming and frustrating. And before you attack the comments field with the advice of turning the cover inside out etc. etc. Yup, been doing that for years. Arms not wide enough!

 As I am encased in the marshmallow folds of  one particularly recalcitrant quilt,  I remember my lessons in mindfulness. My mind, naturally is focusing on finishing the task as quickly as possible in order to move onto something I will find more engaging (like cleaning toilets! 😉 )  All that arises out of that mindset however, is frustration, boredom and negativity. Mindfulness gives us the opportunity to be in a state of present awareness by focusing fully on the task in hand. It is also about practising non-attachment, that is not judging whether the task is good, or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, boring or exciting. It is about approaching every task just as that, a job to be done in a state of mindful, present awareness.

 This way, every job gives us an opportunity for meditation. Here’s how…

 Breathe – focus on the breath – allow it to flow

Focus completely on the task in hand. Observe yourself doing it.

Breathe.

When the mind wanders, don’t judge it, just notice and bring your attention back to the breath and to the task in hand.

When frustration arises, again don’t judge it, just notice and bring your attention back to the breath and to the task in hand.

When you find yourself wishing the job was over so that you can do something more “interesting,” remind yourself that there is nothing more interesting that what is happening right now. All that is ever happening is what is happening right now.

When you find yourself thinking that you could be busy doing more “important,” things, remind yourself that there is nothing more important than what is happening right now.

When your mind tells you that nobody enjoys filling duvets/cleaning toilets/washing dishes/doing the laundry/picking up dog poo/whatever, and why should you be any different? Remind yourself that this is what the mind does, and come back to following the breath and to the task in hand.

When your mind tries to convince you that this mindfulness stuff is all bullshit anyway, remind yourself that this is what the mind does, and come back to following the breath and to the task in hand.

 Whatever the mind throws at you – Smile. Breathe. Focus. Repeat.

 This way, it isn’t necessary to find time and a clean floor to practice meditation (although it can help to create that space) Every action brings potential for meditation and focus, for bringing one’s awareness into the present moment.

 And you might end up with that clean floor anyway!

 Let me know how you get on!

 Feet (and shoes) have been in focus this week.

With the opening of our new studio “in The Moment” we are faced with how to ask people to remove their shoes before they come into the studio. We have found signage to be ineffective. It seems that nowadays we are so bombarded with messages, that we become oblivious to things that are often staring us in the face.

So people are breezing past the signs and into the studio. What to do? My sister came up with a light hearted “Keep Calm and Remove Your shoes” notice in the vein of those popular WW2 posters. But it seems that it is not just the signage that is the issue. It is our relationship to our shoes (and feet). There are a few things going on as far as I can see. Firstly, people are reluctant to remove their shoes and socks because it is a faff. It’s January in Glasgow, so even I was sighing at my choice of lace up snow boots this morning! When you’re wearing flip-flops in the Indian subtropics it’s easy! Secondly, I think maybe some people are not convinced that we really mean it. Thirdly, lots of people HATE feet. Hate touching them, hate looking at them. Hate other people’s feet, hate their own feet. But the fourth and final reason is perhaps the most significant. Maybe people don’t understand why we want them to take their shoes off. And perhaps that is my fault for not explaining. So here it is.

 WHY WE TAKE OUR SHOES OFF IN THE YOGA STUDIO

Of course we are a little but precious about our new floor which could be easily damaged by the wrong footwear but there are other reasons for asking people to remove their shoes.

YUCK

The most obvious one, perhaps, is hygiene and (dare I say it) health and safety. Really, who wants to roll around on a floor that has been in contact with shoes that have been walking the streets of Glasgow? Have you seen those pavements?

Because we practice in bare feet and walk about on the floor in bare feet we want that floor to be clean and free of dirt. The following is a list of just some of the substances that, as a teacher, I have encountered on floors and you have to guess that some of it has come off of shoes. Glass fragments (cut foot), dog poo (at least I hope it was dog) cigarette ends, drawing pin (straight through my yoga mat and into my backside!), chewing gum, mud, snow, sand, toilet roll, grit, small stones, leaves, a dead slug, biscuit crumbs (lots of those), hair, glitter, small insects, blood and toenails…and those are just the things we can see!

FOUNDATION

Perhaps more significant is the yogic view. We remove our shoes to practice yoga and practice in bare feet. Although I often have a heck of a job getting people to part with their socks, which takes us back to the feet-hating issue. If you hate your feet, then I am here to help you learn to love them, to love the whole of you in fact. The feet are our foundation. We connect to the Earth through the feet. Shoes reduce this awareness. Balance and coordination comes through true connection to the body’s own, unfettered anatomy. Many studies have been done to show that the human skeleton responds best to running, jumping and standing on feet as nature intended. Whilst I don’t expect you to walk on the pavements in bare feet (see above) I do want you to feel the freedom of toes that you can wiggle. Simply put, we do stuff with the feet in yoga. The feet are a much neglected set of extremities. Changing our relationship with our feet, our foundation, can change a lot about how we see ourselves, and the world around us. So I invite you to take off your shoes and socks and feel the freedom of going barefoot – without worrying about what you might stand on!

SACRED

Many yogis also believe that shoes are “impure”. In any temple, yoga shala and even shop inIndia(and many other countries) shoes are removed before entering the building. For Yogis, a Yoga studio is not just a convenient floor space to exercise in. Genuine yoga teachers will seek to create a sacred space. A safe space in which people can explore Yoga as a spiritual discipline. The ultimate insult in many cultures is to raise one’s shoe or show the sole of one’s shoe to someone. In India, one NEVER points the soles of ones feet at, or places ones feet on a deity, priest, guru or teacher or altar, or even the symbolOM(which, strangely, I have seen printed on many westerners’ yoga mats!) Because we wish to create a sacred space at In The Moment, we ask people to respect this by removing their shoes.

So there you have it – you see – we’re not just paranoid about our new floor.

Over to the other side of town… where they want you to put shoes on!

I said it was a week for feet. My sister, a well known contemporary dancer, choreographer and teacher, has been banned from wearing her socks in a particular dance studio. This is believed to make the floor slippery for the ballet dancers (bless them). Contemporary dancers, like yogis, like to work in bare feet but the rough lino floor in that particular studio cuts into bare feet (no such discomfort on the beautiful floor at In The Moment) so socks are their solution. Shoes are a no-no. Anybody familiar with contemporary dance will understand that the proposed solution of wearing soft ballet shoes would have the blessed Martha Graham spinning in her grave!

On a slight tangent – I wondered if a recent advert I saw for “Fitness Yoga” (what?) where attendees were invited to wear their training shoes, might have a few of our respected Gurus doing likewise!

“Think of the magic of the foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It’s a miracle…” Martha Graham