How I celebrated International Day of Yoga 2019

Did you do anything special to celebrate International Day of Yoga on 21st June 2019?

Perhaps you took an extra few sun salutations or maybe took a walk during your lunch break to find some quiet time in nature near to green trees, perhaps you enjoyed a silent, mindful practice of just being with your breath. A lovely student of mine spent time taking part in a Global OM Meditation hosted by Deva Premal and Miten.

I wish I had planned such worthy and nourishing endeavours but I confess to being rather busy on the day so I had nothing planned other than dashing about on my regular Friday chores.

And then I got a message from BBC Radio Nottingham inviting me to their city centre studio to discuss yoga with their host, Carson Wishart and to instruct a live demo during their drive-time show.

How exciting!

The scheduling of their programme was to be later than the last of my jobs so I said a big fat ‘yes please!’.

Yoga on the Radio

I’ve never really felt nervous about public speaking or about being filmed. Providing I really know my subject matter. Ask me to discuss the mechanics of a car or internet speed, that’s a whole different matter! So, I wasn’t really that nervous; I found the whole experience to be really exciting and I was so happy to have been invited along.

The presenter, Carson, was so very welcoming and put me at ease as we spoke for a couple of minutes and the producer, Dominic, was very friendly and a really good sport taking off his shoes to be instructed on a yoga mat in the recording studio.

Let me tell you, it’s no mean feat to take Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2) whilst holding a cabled microphone by your face. We took Tadasana and a couple of really conscious deep breaths and I spoke briefly about my understanding of the history of yoga. I mean, I wasn’t around 5000 or so years ago, contrary to what my son might tell you, so who actually does know the history of yoga?

But what I really do believe in is the power of the breath and it’s positive effect on both physical relaxation and it’s calming effect on the mind.

Did you hear me on the radio?

Of course, I rang around my sister, my Mum, my Dad, second cousin twice removed to tell them to tune in. Just kidding, I don’t have a number for my second cousin twice removed.

A student of mine messaged me straight away to tell me her husband had interrupted her flute practice to tell her I was on the radio and said she had practiced along with me through the airwaves. How nice is that?

If you didn’t get to listen in, I’m attempting something technical here in this very short blog post, completely unsupervised, you understand - so we’ll see how this goes. Here is an audio clip of the portion of the radio show where you can hear little old me.

Discussing International Day of Yoga with BBC Radio Nottingham - 21Jun19

When you click play, you may be directed away from this text but can exit the sound file at any time if you want to carry on reading. I hope you enjoy listening (and I hope it works).

If for any reason you can’t hear it, let me know and I will pass the information on to my technical department (aka my clever clogs, technically minded son.)