Description
Book SynopsisElizabeth Gowing is not a likely yogini. She is too fond of cake and To-do lists, and sometimes falls over on her mat. But yoga has taken her on journeys both inside and out and now she follows yoga around Britain - from the village hall where a quivering triangle pose was interrupted by the council recycling collection to a sound gong bath in the country's noisiest city, from Cornwall to Scotland. She discovers prisoners finding solace in child's pose; children finding expression in dancer pose, and dancers sitting bendily in cobbler's pose. Her feet start to hurt and she realizes that yoga is a current of shared experience that runs quietly through British society, through Middle England to the nation's extremes from Newcastle to Nottingham, East Anglia to West Kilbride, she untangles the Ashtanga from the Kundalini, the Sanskrit from the whimsical new-age, and finds the ways that yoga is rebuilding communities and lives - and her own wobbling body. Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, Gowing evokes the characters and communities she meets along a fascinating journey in a celebration of ancient wisdom solving modern-day problems and the exultation of finally mastering the Crow.
Trade Review"Beautifully written. great observations" - Jo Good (Radio London) 'This funny and touching read describes how Elizabeth struggles to master new positions and philosophies, while discovering how yoga has the power to help solve modern-day problems.' Spirit & Destiny
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Where YouTube can't take you Chapter 2: The village hall, Port Isaac Chapter 3: Spirit level - Stand-upPaddleboard yoga in Nottingham Chapter 4: Balance on Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire Chapter 5: Lululemon, Edinburgh Chapter 6: Wiped - hot yoga and belonging in Brighton Chapter 7: Doing time - yoga in prison, Surrey Chapter 8: Smart cafés with mismatched chairs - yoga with asylum seekers in London Chapter 9: Yoga for people living with Parkinson's, West Kilbride Chapter 10: Upwardly mobile -aerial yoga in Godalming Chapter 11: Downward-facing Doga - yoga with your dog in Shoreditch Chapter 12: PraiseMoves, a 'Christian alternative to yoga' in Peterborough Chapter 13: Kundalini - awakening the coiled serpent of the Cotswolds Chapter 14: Britain's noisiest city - a sound bath in Newcastle Chapter 15: Iyengar yoga, Maida Vale, London Chapter 16: Yoga nidra, Stroud Chapter 17: Children's yoga,Slough Chapter 18: Brahma Kumaris on the Isle of Man Chapter 19: Pranayama, Liverpool Chapter 20: Laughter yoga, Blackpool Chapter 21: The Mandala Yoga Ashram, Carmarthenshire Chapter 22: In my end is my beginning - Yin yoga in Newquay Glossary Directory
