Yin Yoga and The Middle Way- Norman Blair

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi Norman, and welcome to a Yin Yoga Podcast

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normanblair: Hello, Nick!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So of course you are on my radar to interview, because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had. I had ordered your book.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I hadn’t. I hadn’t read it yet. It was in my very large to read pile, which will probably bury me alive at some point in my life.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then you reached out and said, Hey, I listened to a couple of episodes, and we’ve been connecting ever since. And so it’s lovely to finally have this actually happening.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because, of course, between me, actually wanting to read the book fully, and then your schedule, my schedule.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here we are. We did it

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normanblair: It’s great to be here, Nick.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What I would love to start with is kind of where I start all guest interviews, which is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with how you found Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then maybe we’ll move into how did you find yin and or and when you became a teacher? And then, when you found yin, in whatever order that chronologically goes

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normanblair: It’s it’s nice to go chronologically.

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normanblair: So my 1st yoga class.

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normanblair: It sounds such a cliche. I was taken there by a friend of mine who thought would be good for me

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normanblair: That was 1991 in East London, at a studio called Body Wise.

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normanblair: So I did a few classes then, and then I stopped so.

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normanblair: and I’m sure this is true for many other people. This stop, start, stop, start!

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normanblair: And then, a couple of years later, in 1993.

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normanblair: A friend of mine was training to be an Ayenga teacher.

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normanblair: and as part of her training she needed to teach a small group, so she said to a few of us. Would you like to come along? And we can just practice in her living room. And what a fantastic way to practice, Nick! So there was maybe half a dozen of us

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normanblair: practicing in the living room, and about a year later

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normanblair: my friend Oz, she went to Crete, where there was this place called the practice place, a couple of very important influential teachers.

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normanblair: Derek and Radha, and they were Ashtanga teachers, and she got converted to the Ashtanga way. So she came back to London and began teaching Ashtanga. So I was practicing with Oz for the next, like

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normanblair: 5 or 6 years, you know once a week, going along her living room doing these poses and

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normanblair: then it

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normanblair: the 1999. I went to this Yoga center in Crete, and that was the that’s when I actually began self-practicing Ashtanga in the in the kind of the traditional style, let’s say.

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normanblair: And

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normanblair: then then I started going to. So there’s a teacher in London called Hamish Hendry, who’s quite well known within the Ashtanga circles. And so I started self practicing with him.

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normanblair: And then, 2 years later I started teaching.

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normanblair: So I started teaching in October 2,001. And so, you know, it’s a good question.

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normanblair: Why did you start teaching Yoga. And, to be honest.

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normanblair: the reason I started teaching Yoga was out of some deep personal turmoil.

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normanblair: Basically a long term relationship ended at the time. I didn’t have particularly regular work, and

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normanblair: I was in this place where I needed to have some regular work, and

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normanblair: my partner, ex-partner, because she was already teaching Yoga. She started teaching Yoga in some 1998, she said. Why don’t you teach Yoga

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normanblair: so for me, as long term practice I was familiar with like teaching the kind of the kind of pedestrological skills of teaching.

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normanblair: So yeah, I started teaching Yoga in October 2,001, and I gave myself 6 months

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I thought 6 months.

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normanblair: Will I find this financially viable will I enjoy this. And I think this is absolutely crucial in terms of Yoga teaching that

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normanblair: this brings us joy, because this is, we have to. In my view, we have to be teaching from this place of love. And.

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normanblair: funnily enough, just after I started teaching. Yoga was my 1st ever yin class, and this was up at Manchester, at the Manchester Buddhist center. So they were running weekends for people

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normanblair: around the kind of Buddhist circles who are also Yoga practitioners. So I went along

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normanblair: to a weekend, and so that was November 2,001, and

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normanblair: a woman called Rosie. Her name is now Padma Darshini, and she’s still teaching. Actually she taught a yin class, and I was like really quite blown away by this experience. So I’m coming to the Yin class with my background as an Ashtanga practitioner.

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normanblair: as a background of you know, someone who’s, you know, naturally energetic, naturally strong. And then suddenly, it’s like.

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normanblair: Wow, what is this practice? This?

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normanblair: I was talking to someone a few days ago, and they said, and I’ve never heard this before, Nick and I was like, Wow, that’s such a good line. I’m going to use that. And they said I was talking about something, and they said, Wow! Sounds like glacial flow

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh!

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normanblair: Facial flow. Yoga. So that was my experience at the Manchester Buddhist center. And

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normanblair: what I found in that practice was something that I perhaps wasn’t finding in something like Ashtanga Yoga.

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normanblair: There used to be this advert in the Uk. So I’m not sure if you had it in North America for Heineken beer.

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normanblair: and it said something like the beer that reaches parts. Other beers do not reach

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, no, I don’t think so.

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normanblair: I like that. So you know, for me. That was my my experience with with Yin. So

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normanblair: I began. So you know, predominantly, I’m Ashtanga practitioner, you know, going, Mysore.

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normanblair: and began bringing in a little bit of yin, a little bit of yin, and then in july 2,002 Sarah Powers came to London, and she was doing a weekend at a place called Tri Yoga. So I went along.

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normanblair: That was the 1st time I met Sarah. And then

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normanblair: what happened? So that’s 2,000. So my 1st the 1st time I ever taught a Yin class

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normanblair: was February 2,003.

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normanblair: So that was I taught that as a long workshop, and I really see yin as a practice for a long time

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normanblair: I think what what you can find in the Yin practice you go through these different layers, and sometimes those layers can definitely be like

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normanblair: boredom. Sometimes those players can be. For God’s sake, why won’t he shut up

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normanblair: sometimes those layers might be like, Wow, I’m experiencing like focus. I’m experiencing a high level of presence. Sometimes those layers. I remember someone coming up to me at the end of a workshop, and she said she said.

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normanblair: Gosh! That was like watching paint dry.

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normanblair: I’m like, thank you for your feedback.

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normanblair: For myself, my own experience of like doing a kind of a long in practice, like what we did say with Sarah Powers.

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normanblair: It’s like there’s almost like this sense of

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normanblair: the fluidity of time, and fortunately

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normanblair: much more often than someone saying, That’s like watching paint dry

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normanblair: is people coming up to me and saying that wasn’t 3 h

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: As though I have this city the ability to like speed up time. I’m like, yeah, that was, that was 3 h. So that was so with Sarah, and then I started teaching. So I was doing monthly workshops from early 2,003, and then in September 2,003,

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normanblair: I started teaching a weekly Yin Yoga class, which was at the North London Buddhist Center. And this class is still going. So 21 years, 22 years later. This class is still going, which I think is wonderful, and

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normanblair: I think of course, I can’t be sure, but I’m pretty confident that was the 1st weekly timetable yin yoga class in London.

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normanblair: And then, 3, 4 months later, I was in Napa Valley

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normanblair: with Bernie with Paul Grilley with Sarah Powers. So Paul and Sarah were co-teaching a retreat. It was a 10 day retreat training.

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normanblair: I don’t remember Bernie. Bernie doesn’t remember me.

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normanblair: What I do remember was one of the oddities about that training was I don’t know. There was something like maybe 30 people on it.

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normanblair: and 8 of those 30 came from the UK.

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normanblair: And 5 of those 8 were men.

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normanblair: I love it when I’m teaching, which is on rare rare occasions.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Very rare.

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normanblair: Of like. There’s plenty of men in the class, and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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normanblair: I think I could be offering men like a freebie just to come along and experience the in way.

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normanblair: So that’s been. That was my kind of experience. So what’s happened over time is, I’m very much into blurring boundaries. So I started studying like restorative yoga with teachers like Judith Lester

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normanblair: in something like I don’t know 2,007, and what’s happened over time. So

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normanblair: in my early days, like within Ashtanga land, to even think about using a block or like to even discuss a yoga bolster. That is like heretical behavior.

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normanblair: You’re going to be excommunicated from Ashtanga for, like considering the block.

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normanblair: I remember someone telling me about so she was someone who’s like reasonably restricted in her body.

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normanblair: And what was the pose? Triang Moka, Ekaparta, Multinasana?

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normanblair: 4, th 5th pose in the sitting

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normanblair: and reasonably restricted, and she said to the teacher, Oh, can I have a block, please? This is quite a few years ago.

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normanblair: The teacher said to her, blocks, are not yoga, I’m like, Wow, okay, what

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s pause that because I want to come back to this and tease this out more. But I also have a question or 2

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Nyk Danu Yoga: back back back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You said that your friend took you to a yoga class because they thought you needed it, did. They?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thought it’d be good for me. They? Oh, that’d be good for you!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What did they say? Why.

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normanblair: They saw me as someone who’s like, kind of stressed and anxious, which is the kind of normal human condition. And I will say to people. If you’re not stressed and anxious. Really, you’re wasting your

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Paying attention.

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normanblair: You need to be down at the corridors of power, saying how materialism is destroying this world

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I mean, I don’t

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normanblair: We’re all stressed. We’re all anxious. I’m very much in the view that we’re all on spectrums. There’s a multiplicity of spectrums

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Totally.

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normanblair: Question is, what are we going to do about it?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So your friend thought, okay, you’re stressed. Let’s bring you to Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then you said you started teaching, and it sounded like you started teaching in this sort of old school way of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’ve just been studying for a long time, and at some point a teacher says to you, Hey, you should teach this class as opposed to like a formalized like 200 h, which is the model now

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normanblair: So when I actually started teaching, I did not have any qualifications

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normanblair: What I did have

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normanblair: was a grounded established practice. What I did have was a community of people around me who were Yoga practitioners, Yoga teachers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I,

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normanblair: I would argue

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that, having an a committed practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and years of experience, both at in your own practice, but also in community, is more important to me than

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normanblair: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Than this, this sort of system that we have now where? You know, we’re cranking out 200 h teachers constantly, and many of them don’t even practice at home. They only go to a studio

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normanblair: Community is much more important than a 200 h piece of paper, you know. Having said that, I’ve got plenty of 200 h pieces of paper, and they

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then

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normanblair: Since then they and they certainly do have a purpose.

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normanblair: However, for me committed practice. Our own personal practice is crucial

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. And that to me is what I witness as being missing with the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know how old you are, but definitely with the folks that are younger than myself. I’m 52 now, and when I look at teachers kind of coming up, you know, younger than me, it’s the. It’s the home practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that

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normanblair: No, no.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Missing.

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normanblair: Yes, nose nose to the grindstone, you know. Do the work, you know, go through the practice, experience the highs, experience the lows, experience the frustrations, experience the despair, experience, the joy.

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normanblair: you know that is a grounding to be a good teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I always feel like, you know, part of the reason why teachers struggle to find their own words

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when they teach is because they’re not practicing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you have your own practice, then you have this moment where you can sit and be like. Hmm! What was that like for me. What words would I use to describe that as opposed to? Just sort of.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, parroting them from wherever they’ve they’ve heard them when my

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Nyk Danu Yoga: training. We were not we had to turn in a Home practice journal for my 1st 300 h

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normanblair: Right.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Date. I mean, we didn’t have to be overly personal, but just like the date. What poses we did, how we felt, what we would change what we struggled with, you know, in our physical practice, if we included, of course, Pranayama meditation. It was just kind of like some notes, and we had to actually turn that in in order to get our certificate. It was like one of our homework assignments

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normanblair: What a wonderful learning! And to approach our practice as a way of informing ourselves as teachers

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, yeah, it was crucial, you know. And I really.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if if you’re a young teacher out there listening to this, and you’re you’re thinking right now. Oh, shit! I don’t have a home practice. Just start

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normanblair: Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. So you know, I remember there is this person I know. And literally he went to an Ashtanga class, and he immediately started practicing 6 days a week

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normanblair: He’s on one end of a spectrum, really a far end, you know. For me personally this was like a long time. Slowly, slowly, slowly and gradually, gradually, gradually, it made more sense to me.

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normanblair: This I, in my experience, is true, for many more people than my friend I just described, who

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Agreed.

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normanblair: One Ashang class and then straight away. 6 days a week, and he’s still practicing Ashtanga like 2020 years later.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I agree. Mine was. Mine was slow as well. It’s like, take a 6 week beginner class, and then, you know, take another one, and then take some time off, thinking you can practice at home, but only remembering so much, so doing some of it at home, and then going back to classes, and you know it. This happened for years

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normanblair: I can remember, you know, learning to do postures like headstand, and I remember, like, you know, falling out of headstand and hurting myself. I remember practicing headstand at the

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normanblair: studio and being helped into it by the teacher there and then, 10 years later, I did headstand for like 15 min, just to see what it was like, and my feeling, after doing headstand for 15 min is I wouldn’t advise anyone else to do that

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normanblair: clearly, that I didn’t do that straight away. It took me a long, long time to build up, and then when I built that up, and then I was that was too much, and I’ve never repeated that again, and these days I will still do something like headstand. But for like 30 seconds, just a few times a week

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you discovered yin at the Buddhist center.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then you found out about this 10 day was, was this 10 day training. Was this like a teacher training, or was it a retreat, or both?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Teach style, teacher training?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

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normanblair: Yeah. So I found. So I went. I met Sarah in yeah. July 2,002. I repeated that the following summer, and what? And maybe it was then that I found out, or before I found out, about the training that she was teaching

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normanblair: with Paul. In January 2,004, funnily enough. I still we had to write essays, and I’ve still got my essay that I wrote.

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normanblair: What was it? I think it was on Paul’s book.

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normanblair: But you know. So that was that was a kind of another step so

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normanblair: subsequently. So I’m very much Nick. I’m into like. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s how we

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normanblair: So I did. Another 2 day. 10 day trainings with Sarah.

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normanblair: I’ve been to Vancouver, which

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normanblair: lovely city, by the way, very expensive. However, I’ve been to Vancouver, and 3 times, I’m sure maybe. Well, we can ask Bernie. But I wonder if the 3rd time I turned up Bernie’s like tearing out his hair. Oh, he hasn’t got much hair left to tear out

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Wait a minute. Aren’t you in London?

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normanblair: Yes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you think Vancouver’s expensive compared to London

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normanblair: Vancouver is expensive.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It. We have heard this in in Canada, and we’re not far behind where I live. It’s it’s not cheap, for sure. Yeah.

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normanblair: You know I was going to say, because I’m because you’re is Victoria on Vancouver Island.

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normanblair: So I remember once when I went to Bernie, and I spent about a week on Vancouver Island, Tofino.

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normanblair: Before Bernie’s course.

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normanblair: and I remember going to this Yoga class in some studio that was kind of out in the kind of almost like, you know, the kind of the forest. And

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normanblair: they were playing music

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normanblair: And I really want to encourage what you might describe as critical thinking

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normanblair: I’m like, why are you playing music? I want to hear

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Forest.

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normanblair: Well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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normanblair: I hear the sound of the forest. I want to hear the songs of my body.

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normanblair: So within Yoga, teaching some things get really like, set in stone, and

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normanblair: It’s almost like people lose their

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normanblair: critical faculties. They come into a Yoga class, and they think, Oh, there’ll be music, or they come into. They’re teaching Yoga and think, oh, this is what I should do!

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normanblair: Why should you do this like.

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normanblair: have you? I don’t know if you’ve come across?

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normanblair: Was Paulo Ferreri. Have you come across Paulo Ferreri, Brazilian educationalist and Marxist? And he described different educational models, and I’m simplifying here. But he he talked about circles of certainty.

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normanblair: which is basically the Guru model. So there’s the Guru, the Guru says Jump, and you say how high

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normanblair: in contrast to circles of certainty, he talked about critical consciousness

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normanblair: Where we come together. So you know, when I’m teaching courses. So my partner and I were very fortunate. We’ve got a studio at home. So we have these courses. 10 people come along.

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normanblair: It’s very much about facilitating

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normanblair: Like sitting down together and learning from each other, because

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normanblair: loads of people who come along on the courses know far more about many things than I do, so we can sit together and learn from each other. So that’s like critical consciousness. Run like I am right. Listen to me, Zip.

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normanblair: So I do. I really believe in trying to encourage a more critical thinking approach within Yoga teaching. And just as a simple example. So I’m not saying, Oh, don’t play music

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normanblair: in your Yoga classes.

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normanblair: One thing I would say, though, is, I met a teacher.

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normanblair: and she said, this is a direct story. She said to me, she said, Yeah, I was playing music in my Yoga classes, and I had the free version of Spotify. And suddenly, in the middle of the class, the adverts came on. I’m like, okay, then. So I’ve never played music in a yoga class

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normanblair: on occasion. In my own practice. I’ll listen to some like hippie ambient stuff

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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normanblair: But it’s like the origins in my understanding of music and Yoga classes is from New York

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Where they wanted a barrier between this very noisy city and the Yoga class. That’s exactly

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Nyk Danu Yoga: why. So I do both

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normanblair: Yep.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Silence or music, and it is exactly dependent upon the situation and the location

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normanblair: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah.

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normanblair: If you’re out there in the forest, why not listen to the forest

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or right. Now I teach a community class in a church, and despite its urban location, it is so soundproof

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that it’s like what like. It’s not needed, you know.

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normanblair: I remember Sarah Power saying this really funny story. So you know I’m I’ve learned so much from Sarah and I. Still, I’m in contact with her, which

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normanblair: I think is a kind of teaching about relationship

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normanblair: So, you know. Certainly in my time, studying and practicing with Sarah. There’s definitely been like ups and downs. I remember Sarah talking about how you think. Oh, you’re gonna play like whale song in your class, and everyone loves whales. I’m a huge fan of Wales.

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normanblair: Everyone loves whales, and there you are playing whale song, and someone in your class their sister got eaten by whales 5 years ago, and they’re like weeping in the corner, and you have no idea what happened

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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normanblair: It can be really powerful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That can happen with words. Though, too, I remember one time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a class in a teacher training actually, that I was teaching, comparing our untrained minds to a toddler.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, a toddler walking down the street in a summer day, just being like, oh, flower! This that this, that, and I was trying to encourage

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the same gentleness you would have with that toddler, you know you wouldn’t yank the toddler by the hand and say, what’s wrong with you. Come on, let’s go, you know. Instead, you would just be like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that is a cool rock. Okay, come on. Let’s go this way, you know. And and I had someone crying because they missed their toddler. I mean, there is literally no way. You cannot make someone cry in your class.

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normanblair: Exactly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s like.

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normanblair: No, I don’t like words like Trigger, you know. Maybe it’s a generational thing, so I’m quite a bit older than you, Nick. I don’t like those kind of words, but

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normanblair: we all come with stuff. We all. I love that. I think Bernie got this, and he’s very clear he got it from someone else of like, we all have issues in our tissues

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normanblair: And sometimes when we’re teaching a class, it’s like we’re opening Pandora’s box

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yep.

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normanblair: And stuff stuff comes out. We we hold all our stuff. I remember being on a meditation retreat

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Which, by the way, I think many Yoga teachers can really benefit from going on meditation retreats, or just even

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Nyk Danu Yoga: meditating at

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normanblair: Or just even meditating exactly

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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normanblair: Going on this meditation retreat.

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normanblair: and it was a place I was very familiar with down in Devon, in the Uk called Guy House, which is a fantastic place. I’d highly recommend it, and

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normanblair: I’m in the groove. I’m very familiar with the structure, the pattern of what’s happening.

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normanblair: And on about the 3rd or 4th night I had a deeply disturbing experience.

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normanblair: and it was like Whoa! Where on earth did that come from? And it came from within me. And it was something, you know. So this is very early childhood, and it was something I’ve really kind of pushed down. So when people say to me. Oh, I’m gonna I’m thinking of going on a meditation retreat I’m like, well, could be good could be like really Rocky, who knows? And I think it’s the same with like when we’re teaching yen

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s the same in a yin practice

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normanblair: Yeah, sometimes it’s good to ease away from like the strong intensity. I know you don’t use the word edge, but it’s like it’s good to, you know. Let’s be gentle with our practice, and the same is true for meditation. Retreat. I remember being at a meditation retreat and thinking I’m sitting at the edge of an abyss

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: And it felt too much, and I pulled away from that edge. I’m like, that’s fine

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, on the word triggered. I’m kind of with you on that. Actually, because I think.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: unfortunately, right now, people use the word triggered to mean it’s both. It sparked an emotion in me. I disagree with you. I’m annoyed by you. I don’t like what you said, whereas actually the word triggered is a mental health descriptor for a Ptsd flashback. And so I would like people to use the word triggered

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Nyk Danu Yoga: accurately, as opposed to just like all willy nilly to be like you annoy me. You’re so triggering, you know. It’s like that’s not actually how that word was intended to be used

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normanblair: I went on a course a Yin course recently as a participant, because I think it’s so important for us to being to be fed

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normanblair: Went along. Really lovely teacher in South Wales, woman, called Olivia Clark.

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normanblair: So I go along on the course, and I I walk so I’d met Olivia like years ago on a retreat with Sarah Powers. I didn’t remember her.

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normanblair: and I go into the room, and Olivia

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normanblair: looked physically quite like someone. I had a really tricky time with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: And it was suddenly like, I was like, Okay, okay, this is Olivia, not that person. This is so.

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normanblair: as you, said Nick. All the time we’re meeting all these events that say remind us of our past.

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normanblair: Sometimes it’s below our conscious awareness

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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normanblair: And it’s just like, just get on with this stuff. Just get on with this stuff

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think it takes a certain level of maturity, or maybe even self acceptance, to know like you said like, when is too much like. When do we back off and go? Not yet, but also to know that, like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yoga, especially in Ian, in my experience, isn’t always comfortable.

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normanblair: Exactly, and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Being uncomfortable is part of the practice

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normanblair: Life isn’t comfortable.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right, yeah.

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normanblair: Life isn’t comfortable. We all suffer. Yeah. You know, life can be really, really difficult

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

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normanblair: And

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normanblair: if we’re trying to like Molly Coddle our way through life, it ain’t gonna work. And so you know, part of for me, part of practice is like looking at life in

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normanblair: all that. It is ron trying to kind of pretend it’s all fine. I remember seeing my 1st psychotherapist. So again, I think, as well as meditation retreats. All Yoga teachers can benefit from psychotherapy

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 100%

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normanblair: I was.

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normanblair: I kind of bounce into her room, and she said to me, Oh, how are you, Norman? So I’m sure you have equivalent things in North America. But I said, Oh, I’m fine. This is a very English thing to say, I said.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s very well it is in Canada, too. I’m fine. Yeah.

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normanblair: I said, I’m fine, and she said, fine! That stands for fucked up, insecure, neurotic, and empty

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I love, that I love, that

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normanblair: I’m like great, thank you. And then she said, That’ll be 50 pounds, please. I’m like, Thank you.

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normanblair: So yeah, you know, we all

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That that’s hilarious

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normanblair: Yeah, we all. We all have these kind of facades. I’m fine. I’m fine. But below the finest

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normanblair: we’re churning, we’re alienated. We’re feeling anxious. We’re like trying to fit in. We’re feeling excluded

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All the things

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normanblair: All, all the very human things, the things that make us feel uncomfortable. So I do think

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normanblair: at the same time, like I sometimes when I’m teaching meditation.

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normanblair: The 1st thing I start with is posture

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normanblair: So

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normanblair: you know, great. Okay, you can sit in Padmasa fine. Feel free to sit in Padmasana. However, I don’t think it’s going to change your life

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Nyk Danu Yoga: No.

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normanblair: I don’t think Steve

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You a nice person.

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normanblair: I do know some people who can really comfortably sit in Padmas who are not nice people. So you know, I remember someone in like the Ashanga days, and it was like this person. As their body got more and more flexible, their mind got more and more tight

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normanblair: So I know what I would prefer. I want like some flexibility and some softness, some gentleness up in my head and my heart, than having

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normanblair: longer and longer hamstrings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, I often will say that that if you’re

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, if you came to Yoga to be flexible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: great! But hopefully that flexibility isn’t stopping with your physical body

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normanblair: You know, one of the teachers that I really appreciate and I’ve learned a lot from is a man called Dogan. Are you familiar with the work of dogan. Yes.

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normanblair: yeah, the token, 13th century Japanese teacher. And

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normanblair: he went to China. So at that time China, the more kind of advanced teachers were practitioners. So he goes to China. He’s in. So going from Japan to China in the 13th century, you know, is a fairly arduous and difficult journey goes to China. 3 years

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normanblair: comes back to Japan. So when he comes back to Japan, his students say to him, so I think this is a great question. So you know, when I went on Olivia Clark’s training, you know, when you go on things and you come back, and I would love it. Students say, like

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normanblair: Nick or Norman, what are you bringing back

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: And Dogan said, a soft and flexible mind.

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normanblair: I’m like.

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normanblair: blow my mind, man, yeah, that’s that’s that’s what it is. Because in the inevitability of discomfort in our lives, in the inevitability of all the kind of the ups and downs, the peaks, the troughs, the disasters, the joys.

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normanblair: having a soft and flexible mind, is infinitely more valuable than having long hamstrings

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, definitely definitely when you. I’m curious when you started.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, practicing and teaching in regularly. How long of a journey was that before you did that, and then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: decided to write this which those of you on Youtube can see, and those of you that are just listening. Norman’s book brightening our inner skies, Yin and Yoga

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normanblair: So.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What made, what was what sparked that

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normanblair: You know I’ve always loved writing neck.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Bye.

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normanblair: Ever since. You know, I’ve always written and I’ve written a lot of political stuff.

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normanblair: you know. I was writing articles and pamphlets and books from like, You know, the Mid 19 eighties, one of which was recently republished by some anarchists in Montreal, which, like really touched me. I’m like. Thank you for republishing something that myself and a friend wrote in 1989 about the Irish Republican movement. So

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normanblair: I started teaching kind of regular yin classes like 2,003, and then in 2,007. So 4 years later, I ran a day on like Yin Yoga

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normanblair: And for that day I wrote a manual.

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normanblair: you know, when I’m running courses. And so the advanced course I teach people have to submit essays, and also for some of the other courses. I teach. People write essays, and you know, sometimes I’ve had people say, Well, I’m running an essay for 30 years, and I’m like, no worries. It’s absolutely fine, really fine.

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normanblair: This is not a test of grammar. Just kind of write what you can write.

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normanblair: So for myself, I’m I’m familiar with writing. This is how like, if you said to me, visualize

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normanblair: I’m like, how do you visualize

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: You know this isn’t so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When teaching, you know, being conscious of the words we use. Yeah, so everybody can visualize exactly so

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normanblair: You know, I remember someone telling me about they were on a Yoga teacher training right at the start. The teacher was talking about mirroring. So just to be clear when I’m teaching, say, teaching half butterfly, I picked up my left leg, and I’m saying, Nick, pick up your right leg

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They told people they were married.

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normanblair: They said, use the word mirroring at the start of this teacher training, and this person did not know what they meant.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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normanblair: So suddenly. They’re in this kind of mental.

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normanblair: Everyone knows what they’re doing apart from me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: I’m the dunce at the back

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normanblair: So I would never use the word visualize in teaching.

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normanblair: I would perhaps use the word. Imagine

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s what I use. Yeah. And it was because I I knew I met somebody

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Nyk Danu Yoga: who couldn’t visualize, and then I and there’s a name for it. And it’s a large percentage of the population. Actually, that

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normanblair: Does it?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Picture things in their mind, and so I use the word imagine. But I also anytime I use a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a descriptor. I also use like a kinesthetic sensation option. I also use just like a word for those that are wordsmiths I always try to touch on. I bring it in in multiple ways, because not not everybody can visualize, not everybody connects to words. Some people are super kinesthetic. And so understanding different learning styles is key

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normanblair: And an absolute fundamental for teaching Yoga. So personally, I’m very opposed to fundamentalism. I’m much, much more in support of mysticism, but an absolute, fundamental. For teaching Yoga is options

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

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normanblair: And if you’re in a yoga class.

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normanblair: you know, I’d say this to everyone. If you’re in a yoga class, and you say to the teacher. Is there a way I can modify or amend? Is there an option for this pose? And the teacher says, No, there is which is, leave leave sooner rather than later.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would argue just to add some icing to that cake.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that if the teacher hasn’t already presented you with several options, leave before you ask

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normanblair: So how? How? You know, because there can also be the danger of giving too many options.

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normanblair: Yes, I saw my bad

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 3, and then I I stop at 3, and then I watch and see how everyone’s doing. Yeah.

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normanblair: Always give the most accessible 1 first, st so

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normanblair: Funny when I don’t know. This is probably happened with you, Nick, of like teaching dragon. So I remember the 1st time I was doing, dragon. I loathed it. Oh, I still do. Oh, no! I love dragon 1st Shoelace. So this is like over 20 years ago. 1st time I did Shoelace. I loved it, I still loathe Shoelace

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, interesting!

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normanblair: I still are. Yeah Shoe. I’ve got really quite mobile hips. But for whatever reason, I find Shoela’s a real challenge where it’s like square. I’m reasonably comfortable. So in Dragon something that causes me frustration. So we do like maybe 3 min in what I might describe as the Standard Class dragon, and then looking at options like, say, laughing Dragon, a new one is Sun Dragon, where you’re raising the hands above the head

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normanblair: And there’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Laughing dragon inquired, want to know?

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normanblair: A laughing dragon is like you’re having a laugh. So laughing Dragon, you’re in dragon, and say you’ve got your right leg in front. You bring your left heel to your left hip, and then reach around and catch

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Bernie calls screaming Dragon!

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normanblair: Yeah, I like the word laughing.

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normanblair: And do you know, this is one of the great things

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Definitely have to be enlightened to laugh in that

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normanblair: Well, no, no, it’s like you’re having a laugh. But one of the lovely things I find about yin is this sense of

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normanblair: permission? Yeah, it’s a sense of like openness and something I’ve been recently using in teaching. And this might get some people’s hackles up is.

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normanblair: I’ve said agency is more important than alignment.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, 100%

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normanblair: It’s the 1st I’m a big fan of alliteration, Nick, so agency and alignment. So it’s this sense of like openness within the practice. So some people will call dragonfly straddle. I’m like, that’s fine. I call

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Tomato tomato exactly

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normanblair: But it’s that sense of like openness within the practice. And I find now sometimes we’ll talk about. You know, this is like freedom, Yoga.

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normanblair: and this is, and I I can still remember, like, you know, when Paul was doing all the stuff around skeletal variations. And I can remember him talking about going to that

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normanblair: history, natural History Museum. I want to say it was in Ohio, but I can’t remember, and all he had to do. He looked at something like 30 femurs. And it was like, Here is the evidence, yeah, and the pushback that he got from

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Years, for years.

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normanblair: He got from people

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normanblair: and what I find fascinating. So I remember talking to a very advanced Ashtanga practitioner about this and for me, when I 1st came across this it was like

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normanblair: liberation

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. It was a hallelujah moment for me

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normanblair: Yeah, I just do

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This explains everything.

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normanblair: Yeah, I just do what I do in my body. And obviously we both know. And people listening to this know, you know, we can get

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normanblair: substantial, more movement in our bodies through our practice. However, at some point, you know, some people are born in Padmasana.

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normanblair: Some people will never do Padmasana. So Padmasana, being lotus, is like, it’s not a prize. Something I’ll talk about a lot is, you know, letting go of poses as prizes and seeing them as parts

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

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normanblair: But these are paths into our bodies

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And as we come into our bodies.

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normanblair: There’s that understanding of like all the time is changing

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, every day, every minute.

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normanblair: Yeah, some days I’m like, Oh, I’m like feeling mobile, feeling strong, feeling happy other days. I’m like, really grumpy. I know women never get grumpy. I’m feeling really.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, this one sure does.

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normanblair: Restricted all this kind of stuff. And it’s like it’s such a teaching, because when we get that real grasp of change that allows us to surf the waves

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, so what did spark this lovely book?

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normanblair: Going back to that. Thank you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m circling back because I have to watch my own tendency to go down. You know

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normanblair: I’m impressed by your organization. Yes, sometimes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hands to remind me

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normanblair: Sometimes when I’m teaching. And I’m like, where did we start from? Where? Okay? So I wrote for so for this day kind of day and immersion into oh, just going back to the advanced Ashanga practitioner

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normanblair: when I told her about skeletal variations, her response was depression.

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normanblair: Because essentially, I’m saying, well, maybe maybe there are some things you might not be able to do. She got depressed. I felt liberated so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had a similar experience. When I took my 1st workshop with Paul. There was 2 senior, I Young Guard teachers in there.

394
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you could see

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the shock and horror and like life crisis that they were having literally, I mean, I am a young guard, trained right so. But there was so many things in my body that they could never explain. So when Paul was up there and he was talking about internal rotation in your hips, I was like, Oh, my God, that’s me! This explains everything, you know. So I felt an immense amount of freedom and understanding

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and knowledge for the 1st time, because I would always ask what’s going on here, and I would never get a good answer. But these 2 gals were

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Nyk Danu Yoga: visibly shooken, and I remember Susie, saying to the group, I’m pretty sure it was directed at these 2, but just to the whole group, like, you know, if some of you feel like the Yoga mat has just been pulled out from underneath. You just know you don’t have to go back to your classes and start changing everything that you’re teaching tomorrow. Let the information

398
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Nyk Danu Yoga: percolate

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normanblair: Slowly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let it settle in, you know. I mean, I remember, after my 1st 100 h with Paul sitting in class and being madly in love with all of it. But thinking, Fuck.

401
00:44:07.550 –> 00:44:09.779
Nyk Danu Yoga: I have to go home and teach Tadasan.

402
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know how to do that anymore.

403
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, where are we? Where are we putting our feet?

404
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Where? Which you know it was just like. But I had to go home and be like, Okay, what is the essence of Tadasan. And so, instead of, like my, put your feet together, script that I used to have, I just said, come to the top of your mat. Bring your feet a comfortable distance apart, where you feel solid and strong like a mountain, and I was like, that’s it. That’s Tadasan. We’re done

405
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normanblair: And and also, I think if someone’s going to like a class a week, it doesn’t really matter that much. Yeah.

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normanblair: So you know, I’m a big fan of Ayenga, and I’ve done I did about maybe 8, 10 years with an Ayenga teacher. It’s not the kind of thing I necessarily do for fun, which I was actually doing Ashtanga for fun.

407
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normanblair: But we can. I learn a great deal from that teacher. However, there can be like particular boxes

408
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Fits everybody, directions.

409
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normanblair: Yeah, which kind of like denies our individuality.

410
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I will say, having my 1st training be all senior Ayungar teachers.

411
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Nyk Danu Yoga: The biggest gift from that is, I can prop like a motherfucker. Now, like I I know

412
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Nyk Danu Yoga: variation for everything, and if I don’t I can look at bodies and go.

413
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Nyk Danu Yoga: How could I support them, or what might make them more comfortable? Or how could we use this? Or oh, what other thing could I give them? Because I was exposed to the blocks, the blankets, the chairs, the you know all the things it it gave me a I already had an eye for seeing when

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when people are not quite comfortable, but that that comes from my family of origin. Stuff! That’s a trauma response which is now turned into a teaching gift. Yay but being able to see people

415
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and their bodies, and know. Oh, I could talk a blanket here, potentially, and that might make all the difference in the shape without having that Iyangar background. I don’t think I would have those skills

416
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normanblair: You made an important point just then. About trauma becoming a gift

417
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

418
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normanblair: And I can feel that for myself, in terms of

419
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normanblair: looking at groups and being conscious of like including people within a group

420
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normanblair: And that has at least partially come from my own feelings of being excluded

421
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

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normanblair: So I do think it’s like what’s that the Greek healer Cheron Charon, the wounded healer

423
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normanblair: So the wounded healer they heal from their wounds

424
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

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normanblair: And you know, I do think sometimes people get fixated on their wounds

426
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normanblair: without realizing that their wounds can actually be a gift, and I know it’s fast, and some people are like, you know, deeply, deeply traumatized. And you know there’s there can be huge difficulties in people’s lives

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

428
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normanblair: And there can also be like potential potential within that

429
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, like had I not been raised.

430
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you know, Tmi. Here, everybody get ready for it. With a mother who had complex trauma, horrific abuse in her childhood.

431
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Nyk Danu Yoga: addiction issues, etc, etc. So had I not been reared in that household

432
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wouldn’t have the ability to scan a room and read people and see.

433
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I learned the skill of how do we make everyone comfortable?

434
00:47:55.670 –> 00:48:03.429
Nyk Danu Yoga: What mood are people in? How do we negotiate the space so that we don’t have, like a, you know, a bomb go off

435
00:48:03.560 –> 00:48:18.919
Nyk Danu Yoga: essentially or I learned my nurturing skills because I was the eldest child, and had to then, therefore, take care of my little sister, and both of those 2 things have served me so well in my teaching.

436
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so much so that I I didn’t even actually know until years later in therapy, that those that that actually was like some because of my childhood, because I’ve had many, many teachers that I’ve mentored. Ask me, I don’t understand, like I just looked at the same room that you did. How did you know that person was uncomfortable, and my thought was.

437
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Nyk Danu Yoga: How did you not know?

438
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Nyk Danu Yoga: It took me years and years to go? Oh, this is a trauma response. I’ve gotten really skilled at scanning a space and kind of making very quick. You know, not decisions, but just getting quick hits of of what I can do

439
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normanblair: This is your gift. This is your one of your superpowers.

440
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yep, yes, and like you, said your superpower of who here might not feel included

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normanblair: Yeah.

442
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

443
00:49:09.140 –> 00:49:15.680
normanblair: Because I you know this is true for many of us. I you know I do genuinely think we’re all traumatized

444
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh! Totally!

445
00:49:17.010 –> 00:49:17.580
normanblair: We’re all

446
00:49:17.580 –> 00:49:19.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: Get to adulthood without it. I don’t know

447
00:49:19.360 –> 00:49:22.610
normanblair: Exactly, you know, different degrees of trauma.

448
00:49:22.860 –> 00:49:30.640
normanblair: but that sense of, you know, having experienced the kind of the sadness, the despair of exclusion.

449
00:49:30.870 –> 00:49:37.899
normanblair: And then some people going through what I went through might become a hermit in a cave

450
00:49:38.560 –> 00:49:43.889
normanblair: We don’t know which way we’re gonna go. There are. So there are so many factors in this mix.

451
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normanblair: So just going back to my book. Sorry

452
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s go back to your book, and then we can come back down this little path that we’ve carved

453
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normanblair: For this. One day training

454
00:49:54.660 –> 00:49:57.890
normanblair: when the 2,007, I wrote a manual.

455
00:49:58.160 –> 00:50:05.020
normanblair: And then when did I? I started teaching the course. So I teach a 5 day and a 9 day course

456
00:50:05.300 –> 00:50:07.610
normanblair: in 2,013.

457
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normanblair: So I think this is something. You know, I came across a teacher a while back, and they were saying they could teach Yoga teachers how to teach in Yoga in a day. I’m like.

458
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normanblair: Wow.

459
00:50:23.590 –> 00:50:25.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: Are they telepathic

460
00:50:25.090 –> 00:50:29.919
normanblair: How are they doing that? Maybe they’ve got loads of cities? I don’t know.

461
00:50:30.440 –> 00:50:36.090
normanblair: I don’t guarantee, even even after a 5 day. You know there, there are so many skills involved in this practice

462
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, yeah.

463
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normanblair: I do think that sometimes some people

464
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normanblair: start too soon, and then it becomes unsustainable.

465
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normanblair: And it’s like, you know, when we’re building, it’s like the foundations.

466
00:50:52.140 –> 00:50:58.360
normanblair: You know, the foundations need to be strong. The foundations need to be deep to support the building

467
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, so.

468
00:50:59.950 –> 00:51:21.059
normanblair: This manual I evolved over these years from like running these kind of day long courses starting 2,007, then the 5 day course, in 2013. I’m also writing other articles, you know, as we talked about, you know, I’m politically engaged. So bringing together these articles, and then

469
00:51:21.800 –> 00:51:28.889
normanblair: a friend of mine. Actually, she’s American April. She’s on the front cover of the book.

470
00:51:29.260 –> 00:51:31.709
normanblair: That’s April in banana. Narasana

471
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Nyk Danu Yoga: For those you on Youtube.

472
00:51:34.440 –> 00:51:35.350
normanblair: Hello!

473
00:51:35.770 –> 00:51:41.090
normanblair: And she said, You know, you could really write a book

474
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

475
00:51:42.080 –> 00:51:43.949
normanblair: You could really write a book.

476
00:51:44.090 –> 00:51:48.869
normanblair: and why don’t you do it? So it was April that pushed me over the edge

477
00:51:49.030 –> 00:51:49.930
Nyk Danu Yoga: Thanks. April.

478
00:51:50.320 –> 00:51:56.180
normanblair: Thank you. April, and but then there was this thing Nick, of like.

479
00:51:56.630 –> 00:52:16.240
normanblair: There’s a little bit me thinks if I’d known how much work it was, I might not have done it but once I’d kind of started. Once the ball was rolling. I was kind of bringing it all together, rewriting it, trying to put it into kind of reasonably similar styles. Because these pieces I’ve written over a number of years.

480
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normanblair: It was a lot of work

481
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

482
00:52:19.920 –> 00:52:23.730
normanblair: And I’m really grateful I did that work because

483
00:52:25.610 –> 00:52:29.520
normanblair: I think it’s important to kind of get these ideas out there and

484
00:52:30.260 –> 00:52:34.049
normanblair: I’m very much into connecting

485
00:52:34.440 –> 00:52:42.469
normanblair: inner practices to what’s going on around us, and I do find that, you know, doing practices such as, say

486
00:52:42.660 –> 00:52:48.419
normanblair: a Yoga meditation practice can give me resilience

487
00:52:49.030 –> 00:52:55.540
normanblair: Can give me the energy to deal with the inevitable challenges that we all experience

488
00:52:56.130 –> 00:52:56.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: Agreed.

489
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I’m actually slowly trying to wrap my head around how I’m going to write my book.

490
00:53:05.996 –> 00:53:12.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m always very curious about people when they when they do it. And and it’s exactly that I have

491
00:53:13.150 –> 00:53:17.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: all of these writings and transcripts and audios and things

492
00:53:18.150 –> 00:53:24.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: that I, in a manual, obviously, that I I want to to gather together. It’s it’s the

493
00:53:25.310 –> 00:53:37.510
Nyk Danu Yoga: the getting started and figuring out how to. Yeah. It’s that’s where I’m at right now. I’m at that like. Well, how do I assimilate these things together into some sort of a logical cover to cover

494
00:53:37.650 –> 00:53:38.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: pattern

495
00:53:39.550 –> 00:53:41.589
normanblair: You do not have to start at the beginning

496
00:53:41.880 –> 00:53:42.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

497
00:53:42.580 –> 00:53:45.130
normanblair: And start wherever you want to start.

498
00:53:45.270 –> 00:53:49.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: What personally, I found really helpful was like getting up early.

499
00:53:49.480 –> 00:53:50.050
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm!

500
00:53:50.050 –> 00:53:51.370
normanblair: Hang up early, you know.

501
00:53:51.370 –> 00:53:54.300
Nyk Danu Yoga: It would be the opposite. It would be writing at night. Yeah.

502
00:53:54.300 –> 00:54:02.580
normanblair: But what a wonderful example of individuality, yeah. And something else, I think, is so important, and

503
00:54:02.930 –> 00:54:12.620
normanblair: is neglected within Yoga teaching, and is also neglected to some extent. Within writing is collaboration

504
00:54:13.550 –> 00:54:17.509
normanblair: So my book at the end of my book, you know, there’s a list of like, maybe

505
00:54:17.700 –> 00:54:28.689
normanblair: 1015, 20 names. They are all people who read my book gave me a lot of feedback. So it’s not my book. It’s our book, right. And

506
00:54:29.520 –> 00:54:41.379
normanblair: I remember someone talking about the Beatles. They’d gone to like. They were interviewing the Beatles, and the Beatles are sitting there playing their instruments, jamming together, riffing along, gradually putting a song together

507
00:54:42.420 –> 00:54:47.780
normanblair: like not just one person going off and writing the song. They’re doing it together, and I think

508
00:54:48.990 –> 00:55:00.739
normanblair: for writing. I found that so helpful to have feedback from other people to have. You know my partner. She edits everything I write, and

509
00:55:00.880 –> 00:55:03.410
normanblair: she makes it so much better

510
00:55:04.270 –> 00:55:16.959
normanblair: At the time. I’m a bit like crossing my arms like this, and then afterwards I’m so grateful to what she said. I’m so grateful to the feedback the support I’ve had from other people.

511
00:55:17.350 –> 00:55:22.199
normanblair: So going talk specifically about Yoga teaching, I say, with the courses I run.

512
00:55:22.940 –> 00:55:26.580
normanblair: I remember someone describing it to me as the multi-teacher model

513
00:55:27.180 –> 00:55:27.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

514
00:55:27.850 –> 00:55:33.029
normanblair: So there are other people that come in and teach specific sessions say on anatomy.

515
00:55:34.470 –> 00:55:36.670
normanblair: My partner teaches on meditation.

516
00:55:36.940 –> 00:55:46.079
normanblair: you know. Another Yin Yoga teacher comes in. So I want to be very clear. I do not want someone to come on a course and think, oh.

517
00:55:46.640 –> 00:55:48.659
normanblair: it’s Norman’s way, or the highway

518
00:55:49.720 –> 00:55:54.099
normanblair: Because I’m really so. The other young teacher that comes in a woman called Amanda Wright.

519
00:55:54.280 –> 00:55:58.020
normanblair: I am delighted if someone says to me at the end of the course.

520
00:55:58.330 –> 00:56:00.669
normanblair: I much prefer Amanda to you.

521
00:56:00.920 –> 00:56:01.590
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

522
00:56:01.590 –> 00:56:13.550
normanblair: Like this is great. So giving people a variety of voices giving people. I’ve had people say I’m never going to go to Norman’s class because he’s too political

523
00:56:14.770 –> 00:56:23.879
normanblair: People have said that that’s great. Fortunately enough, people do come to my classes, but it’s giving people a sense of different ways of doing things

524
00:56:24.590 –> 00:56:25.139
normanblair: so like

525
00:56:25.140 –> 00:56:30.369
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think I’m actually the reason that one of my first, st my very 1st teacher training was so successful.

526
00:56:30.960 –> 00:56:48.349
Nyk Danu Yoga: Was because we had a faculty of teachers. So we were getting different. They mean yes, they most of them had drank the Iyengar Kool-aid, but there was a couple outliers in there. You know, the prenatal and the woman who taught about Chakras were not not Iyengar teachers, but

527
00:56:49.380 –> 00:57:08.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: But you know we had an actual professor from university that taught us the philosophy, and we had, you know, Senior Iyengar teacher, and a, you know, intermediate, and we had an Iyenga teacher who specializes in Yoga therapy and back pain. And so we had like such a diverse group of

528
00:57:08.790 –> 00:57:17.364
Nyk Danu Yoga: people that if you didn’t love one of the teachers or you didn’t jive with them. It didn’t really matter, because it’s like you had all these other voices.

529
00:57:18.500 –> 00:57:18.979
Nyk Danu Yoga: a reminder

530
00:57:18.980 –> 00:57:27.769
Nyk Danu Yoga: really appreciated that. And unfortunately, the year after I graduated that program changed so that it was 90% the director

531
00:57:28.090 –> 00:57:36.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: teaching it. And I think he brought in someone for philosophy and anatomy. But that was it? And I was just like, Oh, I feel so grateful that I got it when I did.

532
00:57:37.010 –> 00:57:38.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: Because

533
00:57:38.500 –> 00:57:52.419
Nyk Danu Yoga: hearing yes, hearing the the wide range. And this is why I will often tell. You know it’s so funny, because people will, and I don’t know if you ever get this to, people will reach out to me and say, I’m really interested in taking your yin training.

534
00:57:52.590 –> 00:58:00.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: but I’ve already taken the the the trainings Indian. Do you think I’ll get something from it, and I’m like.

535
00:58:01.040 –> 00:58:10.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: well, I can’t say for sure. But like, look at the look at the web page. This is what we’re covering. Did you cover those things in your last training?

536
00:58:10.970 –> 00:58:24.629
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you did, maybe you won’t get much, maybe you will. But I would say from my experience, from what those same teachers say when they graduate is that each teacher has their zone of genius.

537
00:58:24.850 –> 00:58:27.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: that they are just really, really good at.

538
00:58:27.810 –> 00:58:37.609
Nyk Danu Yoga: And that’s what you’re gonna get from that training. And so why, if you love a style of yoga like in, why wouldn’t you take multiple trainings like

539
00:58:38.290 –> 00:58:39.099
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know

540
00:58:39.520 –> 00:58:51.149
normanblair: So I remember I did. I’ve done quite a lot of practice with Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor, and I remember the 1st time there, Richard saying.

541
00:58:51.380 –> 00:58:56.740
normanblair: the the curse of flexibility, and the blessing of stiffness. I was like you. What

542
00:58:56.950 –> 00:58:58.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: My teacher used to tell us that

543
00:58:58.670 –> 00:58:59.069
normanblair: Then she

544
00:58:59.400 –> 00:59:04.679
normanblair: later. I was like, maybe they got it from Richard, or maybe Richard got it from them. Who knows?

545
00:59:05.730 –> 00:59:15.749
normanblair: Because I also remember rereading. So I’ve still got all my notes from. Say that training I did with Paul and Sarah in 2,004, rereading

546
00:59:16.170 –> 00:59:22.080
normanblair: those notes and paying talked about hypermobility

547
00:59:22.950 –> 00:59:28.440
normanblair: And I didn’t understand it. So I’m just writing notes. I’m not understanding it.

548
00:59:28.580 –> 00:59:34.580
normanblair: And now I do come well, not completely. But I do have an understanding of hypermobility.

549
00:59:34.980 –> 00:59:40.469
normanblair: So sometimes the kind of the pebbles can drop, and they don’t make that much sense to us.

550
00:59:41.390 –> 00:59:47.730
normanblair: Or maybe they’re said in a way that doesn’t resonate. And I remember I’ve seen Sarah Powers do this.

551
00:59:47.930 –> 00:59:55.850
normanblair: She’s talking, and someone asks her a question, and she replies to the question, basically saying just what she was saying in a different way.

552
00:59:55.850 –> 00:59:56.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah.

553
00:59:56.950 –> 01:00:16.169
normanblair: And you know that was so, you know, last year I went on a course with a woman up in Edinburgh called Nadine Wotton. Lovely course. It’s like Nadine’s a really good teacher. We can all learn from studying together from like, and it’s great for me to be like a participant

554
01:00:16.450 –> 01:00:23.529
Nyk Danu Yoga: And the whole reason that I well, I mean, I thought I was going to finish the program, but I didn’t. But one of the reasons that I really got

555
01:00:24.411 –> 01:00:30.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: interested in Chinese medicine, and did spend 3 years in acupuncture college studying. It was good luck

556
01:00:30.640 –> 01:00:33.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: that reason. It’s like I got a little

557
01:00:33.720 –> 01:00:53.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: snippet of what is Yin and yang? What are meridians, you know, from Paul’s training, like, of course, only a snippet, because he’s not a Tcm. Tcmd, so of course he’s going to only give you what he can give you. And it just left me wanting so much more and so that’s why I went and did that, and

558
01:00:53.940 –> 01:00:56.520
normanblair: It’s a vast ocean out there. Oh, there’s

559
01:00:56.520 –> 01:01:06.779
Nyk Danu Yoga: So much. This is one thing that I reason that I love teaching Yoga, is that you will never run out of things to learn never, ever, ever like. There’s always more

560
01:01:06.780 –> 01:01:12.010
normanblair: I get bored on occasion. I’m like I’m like, feel

561
01:01:12.010 –> 01:01:15.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: I have a voracious appetite for information and knowledge

562
01:01:15.930 –> 01:01:17.190
normanblair: But this is human.

563
01:01:17.190 –> 01:01:17.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

564
01:01:17.830 –> 01:01:28.309
normanblair: And I think you know this is about allowing ourselves to be human, you know, if if I’m working with a teacher and they say, well, I’m bored most of the time. I’m like, well, actually, you need to find something else to do

565
01:01:28.550 –> 01:01:31.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, no. Definitely lost your spark for it. Then

566
01:01:31.480 –> 01:01:36.400
normanblair: Yeah, exactly. And then the question is, Well, how do we regain that sparkle

567
01:01:36.690 –> 01:01:38.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s where me, I take a break

568
01:01:39.056 –> 01:01:39.790
normanblair: Take care!

569
01:01:39.790 –> 01:01:41.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: I study, I take a break.

570
01:01:41.160 –> 01:01:42.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: Go, stay bye, bye.

571
01:01:43.480 –> 01:01:49.849
normanblair: But I think it’s like, you know, we can do all this study, and maybe in 50 years time we’re like, I got it all wrong

572
01:01:50.160 –> 01:01:56.116
Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s fine, totally. I mean, there’s so many things I said as a new teacher that now I’m like

573
01:01:57.240 –> 01:01:59.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe that’s not so accurate, you know.

574
01:02:00.750 –> 01:02:08.900
normanblair: I said something not that long ago, Nick, about probably about a few months ago, teaching online. And I said something like.

575
01:02:09.120 –> 01:02:17.129
normanblair: Oh, the main function of the nose is to breathe. And then I’m thinking, I’m not sure if that’s true. Actually, because what about

576
01:02:17.410 –> 01:02:18.482
Nyk Danu Yoga: What about smell?

577
01:02:18.840 –> 01:02:31.420
normanblair: Exactly. Yeah. God, what have I just said? But it’s I. I think this to be open to making mistakes, you know, hopefully. So I’ve injured people

578
01:02:31.840 –> 01:02:37.700
normanblair: making adjustments on people in Ashtanga. I’ve injured people. I have been injured.

579
01:02:38.425 –> 01:02:43.080
normanblair: In adjustments. I remember once injuring myself when adjusting someone

580
01:02:44.900 –> 01:03:02.859
normanblair: It’s about. What do we learn from these situations? It’s not like they won’t happen. What do we learn? And how can we then bring that into our teaching. And I think this is something that I think is really important and needs to be talked about within Yoga teaching, which is our sustainability

581
01:03:03.860 –> 01:03:13.919
normanblair: And I remember I was listening to your chat with Bernie, and you know you’re talking about yoga studios closing, and the kind of precarious nature of running studios.

582
01:03:13.920 –> 01:03:14.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: Is, that

583
01:03:14.380 –> 01:03:17.639
normanblair: Challenges financial challenges of teaching Yoga.

584
01:03:18.510 –> 01:03:24.280
normanblair: The point is that we can get better and better and better.

585
01:03:24.490 –> 01:03:29.480
normanblair: So if I want to make this Canadian specific. We’re not ice hockey players. So

586
01:03:29.610 –> 01:03:38.430
normanblair: people listening in this country, we’re not footballers, you know. Footballers retire when they’re like early thirties, because maybe their knees are wrecked, or they can no longer

587
01:03:38.580 –> 01:03:50.930
normanblair: ice hockey players probably retire even earlier. We’re not that we can gain so much from the experience of teaching like you know what you were talking about like reading a room

588
01:03:51.060 –> 01:03:51.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

589
01:03:52.100 –> 01:04:03.599
normanblair: Well, you know, you see, someone come up and you have this like. Maybe this might be something that could be going on with that person, you know, when I was 1st teaching, I remember the 1st class ever taught.

590
01:04:03.990 –> 01:04:07.230
normanblair: I’d used up my plan in like 20 min. Oh, shit

591
01:04:07.230 –> 01:04:14.539
Nyk Danu Yoga: Me, too. That was my my like graduating class and teacher training. I was like, well, shit. We have 40 min left, and I got nothing

592
01:04:14.870 –> 01:04:18.679
normanblair: What am I? Gonna do, you know? And it’s like, Thank God, no one’s dead

593
01:04:19.040 –> 01:04:26.109
Nyk Danu Yoga: I was like legs up the wall. We’re gonna finish with a little restorative and a guided meditation. Let’s do that.

594
01:04:26.530 –> 01:04:33.329
normanblair: But this, the experience that we get from teaching is like so so precious

595
01:04:33.570 –> 01:04:34.100
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

596
01:04:34.100 –> 01:04:41.440
normanblair: Yet if we’re being challenged in like teaching by, say, financial realities.

597
01:04:42.000 –> 01:04:45.379
normanblair: you know. Maybe we’re thinking, oh, I’m going to go and be a barista

598
01:04:46.820 –> 01:04:48.300
Nyk Danu Yoga: I was considering it at one

599
01:04:48.300 –> 01:04:48.730
normanblair: Yes.

600
01:04:48.730 –> 01:04:53.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: So long ago. I was like, Hmm, good thing. I have some serving skills under my belt.

601
01:04:53.270 –> 01:05:04.529
normanblair: You know, I really want to encourage transparency around Yoga teaching. And you know, some of the stuff I’ve written and published on my website is talking about how much I am.

602
01:05:04.730 –> 01:05:32.689
normanblair: It’s talking how much you know. So the people who come along and teach like the 3 h sessions on these courses, you know. I pay them 300 pounds for 3 h. You know the person who does all my admin. I’m on my hands and knees thanking God that Joe’s in my life doing all my course admin spreadsheets. I know you don’t love spreadsheets. I pay 25 pounds now. It’s like value people. It’s like value, the webs that make what we’re doing possible.

603
01:05:34.410 –> 01:05:46.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: One of the things that really stood out to me, and maybe it stood out to me because I I have a bit of a similar kind of journey ebb and flow through through yoga, as what you described in your book

604
01:05:47.410 –> 01:05:53.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: was this sort of transition from kind of being.

605
01:05:54.430 –> 01:05:56.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, we’ll just say hardcore.

606
01:05:56.430 –> 01:06:17.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think it’s an accurate word, right? And not that you’re not still hardcore, especially when it comes to some political things and your activism, but that it felt to me like there was this sort of transition through into kind of what I call the the middle way, you know, which is, of course, a Buddhist word, which is like, not extreme this way, not extreme this way, but like

607
01:06:17.890 –> 01:06:22.002
Nyk Danu Yoga: what is the sustainable kind of middle path here?

608
01:06:22.810 –> 01:06:31.579
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m wondering if you could just maybe touch on a little bit about how you think that your yoga and your meditation practice, or yin yoga, if it’s more specific

609
01:06:32.640 –> 01:06:34.970
Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of brought that that in

610
01:06:35.640 –> 01:06:38.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: well, and probably therapy, too, I would guess

611
01:06:38.610 –> 01:06:43.620
normanblair: Yeah, I think many things. Really, Nick.

612
01:06:47.570 –> 01:06:51.520
normanblair: giving me more insight into myself

613
01:06:53.040 –> 01:06:54.540
normanblair: Helping me

614
01:06:55.420 –> 01:07:08.820
normanblair: to have more kindness towards myself, which is definitely an ongoing process, you know. Absolutely. I’m not sitting here saying I’ve got it sorted out. I definitely haven’t got it sorted out. And this is a process that’s going to carry on until I die.

615
01:07:10.400 –> 01:07:21.270
normanblair: But about being kinder to myself about recognizing that things take time.

616
01:07:21.740 –> 01:07:23.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: About

617
01:07:23.370 –> 01:07:33.020
normanblair: Realizing that maybe some of the motivation behind my activism, which, as you said, continues. But maybe some of that was

618
01:07:33.330 –> 01:07:37.140
normanblair: the the police, were more in my head than out on the streets

619
01:07:38.430 –> 01:07:39.100
normanblair: And really

620
01:07:39.100 –> 01:07:40.210
Nyk Danu Yoga: Relatable. Yes.

621
01:07:40.610 –> 01:07:48.880
normanblair: It’s like realizing that we need to do both inner work and outer work. So

622
01:07:49.030 –> 01:07:54.880
normanblair: some of the people that I was particularly involved in when I was younger. There’s a lot of like

623
01:07:55.130 –> 01:07:58.750
normanblair: outward, not much in a reflection.

624
01:07:59.250 –> 01:08:06.730
normanblair: And then I definitely see this within like kind of the Buddhist and Yoga circles that there is a lot of narcissism.

625
01:08:07.100 –> 01:08:16.509
normanblair: I’ve seen people sitting there saying I’m a meditator. I’ve got everything sorted out when actually what they really need to do is go and see a psychotherapist.

626
01:08:16.620 –> 01:08:18.430
normanblair: Having said that there’s some

627
01:08:18.430 –> 01:08:18.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: Material.

628
01:08:18.770 –> 01:08:19.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s no escape.

629
01:08:19.649 –> 01:08:20.159
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

630
01:08:20.309 –> 01:08:23.219
normanblair: Yeah, there’s some really awful psychotherapists

631
01:08:23.220 –> 01:08:24.220
Nyk Danu Yoga: Of course.

632
01:08:24.649 –> 01:08:30.639
normanblair: It’s like, I’m really want to have this approach of both inner work and outer work.

633
01:08:31.269 –> 01:08:34.179
normanblair: I want to have this sense of like

634
01:08:34.409 –> 01:08:47.779
normanblair: helping myself to be more grounded in who I am, accepting myself more rather than in denial about who I am, and then also the realization of like the world that is around us.

635
01:08:48.539 –> 01:08:52.479
normanblair: The world that is around us has an enormous impact upon us.

636
01:08:53.340 –> 01:09:05.520
normanblair: We cannot deny what’s going on around us. And for some people, you know, if someone’s living in a war zone, it’s unlikely they’re going to be doing the Ashtanga primary series. They’re going to be surviving

637
01:09:05.529 –> 01:09:06.169
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

638
01:09:06.330 –> 01:09:11.839
normanblair: So it’s like we’re all in these different circumstances. And I think

639
01:09:12.370 –> 01:09:15.909
normanblair: the inner work needs to have a

640
01:09:16.200 –> 01:09:22.950
normanblair: outward expression, and the outward expression needs to be grounded in our inner work.

641
01:09:23.550 –> 01:09:24.370
Nyk Danu Yoga: Agreed.

642
01:09:25.050 –> 01:09:48.620
normanblair: Yeah, it’s funny when you say the middle way. I remember being with a teacher. And he said this because you know too often people see this as like a seesaw. It’s like, it’s a bit linear. And I love this idea like the multiplicity of spectrums. And I remember being with this teacher, and they said, moderation in all things

643
01:09:49.580 –> 01:09:50.960
normanblair: Including moderation.

644
01:09:51.500 –> 01:09:57.090
Nyk Danu Yoga: That I would, I cannot agree with that more. I would say that that has been my biggest

645
01:09:58.288 –> 01:10:03.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: I say that all the time in my yin classes when I’m talking about sensation in the body.

646
01:10:03.960 –> 01:10:07.789
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m always saying what we’re looking for. Here is moderation.

647
01:10:08.010 –> 01:10:27.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: right? We’re not looking for. I’m gonna have a nap that’s restorative, which is lovely but different. We’re not looking for so strong that, like we’re scrunching up our face and our veins are bulging, and we’re white knuckling it. We’re looking for like moderation, which is kind of to me is the middle way, and I always joke. I’m like, and I realize that that doesn’t sound sexy

648
01:10:27.560 –> 01:10:37.719
Nyk Danu Yoga: like I realize you’re not going to see how to have a moderate practice on the cover of Yoga Journal. But the older I get the more I realize that’s where the magic is

649
01:10:38.680 –> 01:10:46.800
normanblair: And also moderation include moderation in all things, including moderation. Yeah, yeah, sometimes push it

650
01:10:46.800 –> 01:10:47.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

651
01:10:47.800 –> 01:10:51.840
normanblair: Sometimes it’s like, sometimes maybe stay up all night.

652
01:10:53.190 –> 01:11:04.689
normanblair: sometimes explore those kind of strong sensations as much as sometimes you turn up to class. So you know, very often when I start a class, it’s like check in

653
01:11:05.301 –> 01:11:06.659
Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s what I do, too.

654
01:11:06.660 –> 01:11:08.259
normanblair: Who have you bought?

655
01:11:08.840 –> 01:11:17.289
normanblair: What’s happening within you? You know what’s the feeling of you within you, because that can then give some guidance into how you’re going to practice.

656
01:11:17.500 –> 01:11:33.950
normanblair: because you’ve turned up, and you’re feeling like full of joy. You’ve got a lot of like strength. And then maybe that’s the time you think. Oh, I’m going to be like more active in the yin. I’m going to be yang in my yin, and maybe sometimes you’re like, Oh, my God!

657
01:11:33.950 –> 01:11:35.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: I just need an app

658
01:11:35.550 –> 01:11:52.279
normanblair: I just need a nap, you know, but it’s such. I’m sure you’ve come across this many times, Nick, of life. I call it my 1st yin experience, and I remember someone saying to me, so someone had done a lot of other yoga, and she said to me, she said, on my 1st ever yin class, she said. What’s it?

659
01:11:52.440 –> 01:12:01.479
normanblair: My muscles were screaming, my brain was whining, and I wept afterwards. That sounds a really good yoga class.

660
01:12:01.480 –> 01:12:05.649
Nyk Danu Yoga: That sounds like a pretty big introduction. Mine was not like that, but

661
01:12:05.970 –> 01:12:09.399
normanblair: But that’s the Yang in the yin. Yeah. So people.

662
01:12:09.500 –> 01:12:14.869
normanblair: you know, I’m really happy to teach people, yeah, and who have never done any yoga before. I think

663
01:12:14.870 –> 01:12:15.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: That actually

664
01:12:15.770 –> 01:12:28.500
normanblair: Yin can be an accessible practice for people who do not have yoga experience. And I think sometimes people have got a lot of Yoga experience coming into a yin class can be somewhat thrown by the experience

665
01:12:28.500 –> 01:12:30.820
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s actually, often harder for them

666
01:12:30.940 –> 01:12:40.650
normanblair: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I love this. And I 1st got this from Amanda right? And she said, avoid being Yang in the year

667
01:12:41.157 –> 01:12:42.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know that.

668
01:12:43.100 –> 01:13:05.357
Nyk Danu Yoga: So, for example, I will often witness the, and I think most Yoga teachers will know the stereotype I’m speaking of. But the you know, the Vinyasa bunnies that come, that are just like all about the flows, and like the creative flows and the different flow than we did last time flow other than, of course, the ever predictable sun salutation which has to be in there. So you know, different, but not different.

669
01:13:06.140 –> 01:13:12.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I will see them often come into a yin practice, and the boredom is palpable.

670
01:13:14.030 –> 01:13:15.339
normanblair: Isn’t that great?

671
01:13:15.500 –> 01:13:18.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: And as a teacher that gives me an opportunity to speak to that.

672
01:13:19.240 –> 01:13:23.719
Nyk Danu Yoga: to say, you know, sometimes the hardest thing about this practice is

673
01:13:24.180 –> 01:13:27.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: boredom. It’s like, are we still in this shape?

674
01:13:27.910 –> 01:13:31.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: Isn’t this the same pose we did last week like

675
01:13:32.080 –> 01:13:32.539
normanblair: You know.

676
01:13:32.540 –> 01:13:33.210
Nyk Danu Yoga: Including

677
01:13:33.430 –> 01:13:35.199
normanblair: You know some of the roots of boredom

678
01:13:35.380 –> 01:13:35.970
Nyk Danu Yoga: No.

679
01:13:36.840 –> 01:13:45.870
normanblair: So you know my understanding, of course I could be wrong. Is that boredom was 1st used as a word in something like the

680
01:13:47.480 –> 01:13:49.119
normanblair: 18 hundreds.

681
01:13:49.280 –> 01:13:58.729
normanblair: and it was used by wealthy people to differentiate themselves from poor people. It’s like, Oh, darling, I’m so bored

682
01:13:58.730 –> 01:14:00.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, of course, because you’re not working

683
01:14:00.020 –> 01:14:02.410
normanblair: It’s like what is what is border

684
01:14:02.410 –> 01:14:02.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

685
01:14:02.750 –> 01:14:13.929
normanblair: What does that mean? Is it hot boredom? Is it cold boredom? Is it sad? Boredom? What is boredom? And I’m like great? Let’s look at boredom

686
01:14:14.020 –> 01:14:33.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I mean, you can witness the the sort of boredom, the fidgetiness, the the feeling of like, you know, I want to quickly get to the next pose. I don’t want to linger in between, and the fact that Nick is asking me to pause in between sides is like, really sit seriously. We’re still slowing down like.

687
01:14:33.750 –> 01:14:43.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: but but I think for me as a teacher, though when I witness that that gives me an opportunity to speak to some of these aspects of yin like this is not just about your hamstrings.

688
01:14:43.906 –> 01:14:51.373
Nyk Danu Yoga: What’s happening with your mind? And are you okay with what’s happening in your mind. And do you believe all the crap that’s happening in your mind? Because a lot of it’s crap

689
01:14:51.600 –> 01:15:02.199
normanblair: Someone told me she was teaching a Yin class, and she said someone was doing vinyasis between the poses. I was like that would not have happened in my class.

690
01:15:02.200 –> 01:15:12.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: No me, neither. I once had, I once said, and in between this shape and the next feel free to come into any shape that your body just asked you to do

691
01:15:14.080 –> 01:15:24.389
Nyk Danu Yoga: as a rebound. Right? It’s like, let’s let’s settle. Let’s notice this pose, and I just I don’t like to. I’m not one of those teachers who tells everyone to lay on their flat on their back in between, because

692
01:15:24.390 –> 01:15:25.990
normanblair: No, I don’t. I don’t do that.

693
01:15:25.990 –> 01:15:37.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t like that in my own practice. So I’m just say I usually say your body probably just asks you to do something, and then I might mention a couple options. You could try this. You could try this. Well, somebody decided to do a handstand

694
01:15:37.620 –> 01:15:38.399
normanblair: And I was like

695
01:15:39.830 –> 01:15:53.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to be a little more specific in my directions. And so now that’s become part of my teaching as a joke, you know whatever your body just asked you to do other than handstand, you know. Let’s keep it within the in spectrum, and then people laugh, and we move on. You know

696
01:15:53.490 –> 01:15:58.120
normanblair: I think this is one of the skills of teaching, of like creating a container.

697
01:15:58.570 –> 01:16:03.560
normanblair: There is movement within the container, however, there are boundaries to that

698
01:16:03.560 –> 01:16:04.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: It has to be

699
01:16:04.700 –> 01:16:11.980
normanblair: Yeah, someone’s doing a handstand or someone’s doing a Vinyasa. I’m like I’d go up to them and say, there are so many other places. You can do this

700
01:16:12.580 –> 01:16:16.580
normanblair: What you just described. I love that like it’s not on the in spectrum

701
01:16:16.580 –> 01:16:25.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah, anything within the Yin spectrum is allowed. And then I’d say as a joke, so maybe no handstands, simply because that actually did happen, you know.

702
01:16:25.350 –> 01:16:26.904
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, boy, hey!

703
01:16:29.760 –> 01:16:30.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

704
01:16:31.140 –> 01:16:40.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the things that I felt when I read your book. I think I may have said this to you in the email is it felt to me like it was

705
01:16:41.420 –> 01:16:45.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of like little elements of different things.

706
01:16:45.736 –> 01:16:56.560
Nyk Danu Yoga: You know your journey. Obviously the actual practice, and also a bit of a manifesto as well, and then some poetry and some art sprinkled in.

707
01:16:56.780 –> 01:16:59.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: So if if listeners haven’t got it.

708
01:16:59.780 –> 01:17:03.510
Nyk Danu Yoga: I highly recommend. Mine has teeth marks

709
01:17:04.070 –> 01:17:13.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: from my beloved kittens, who were very new when I was reading it, and you know I stupidly put it on the bed for a minute to go get more tea, and came back, and they were like

710
01:17:13.510 –> 01:17:15.770
normanblair: I’m honored. They wanted to eat my book

711
01:17:15.770 –> 01:17:20.242
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s right there, little little marks.

712
01:17:22.220 –> 01:17:37.269
Nyk Danu Yoga: So yeah, I would definitely recommend it. And I think we’ll slowly start to kind of wrap things up. Because really, probably you and I could do an 8 h podcast, and we would still not run out of things to talk about. But I did you. Did. You did drop a little inkling that there’s another book coming.

713
01:17:38.030 –> 01:17:40.079
Nyk Danu Yoga: You want to tell us a little bit about that

714
01:17:42.590 –> 01:17:48.520
normanblair: So it’s with my partner for editing, which will take a while. So

715
01:17:48.520 –> 01:17:50.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: Longer than we think they do, don’t they?

716
01:17:50.810 –> 01:18:00.659
normanblair: Yeah, and I’m quite into self publishing, which kind of makes it even longer. However, it gives more control. So this is like

717
01:18:01.270 –> 01:18:08.970
normanblair: some pieces. I’ve written some poetry. That’s 1 of the things I love with the kind of yin practice it feels very creative to me

718
01:18:10.060 –> 01:18:12.389
normanblair: Just that kind of space and that kind of

719
01:18:12.390 –> 01:18:14.129
Nyk Danu Yoga: Gives you the space for it. Yeah.

720
01:18:14.130 –> 01:18:16.610
normanblair: Exactly. Space is fertile.

721
01:18:17.860 –> 01:18:22.690
normanblair: And it’s like, I kind of think, what’s that? I’m I’m a big fan of Star Trek, and what’s that?

722
01:18:22.690 –> 01:18:23.420
normanblair: No

723
01:18:23.420 –> 01:18:34.079
normanblair: org, you know, resistance is futile. I’m right. Resistance is fertile. Exactly. Live long and prosper. One of my favorite films is 1st contact. I love that film

724
01:18:34.560 –> 01:18:43.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: I love almost all of it. I mean, there’s there’s some Star Trek I like more than others. But I’m I’m definitely Og series is number one. Next Gen. Is number 2. We could digress

725
01:18:43.530 –> 01:18:47.480
normanblair: But anyways, I’m next. I’m next Gen. So

726
01:18:48.150 –> 01:18:49.900
normanblair: I’m losing my thread a little bit.

727
01:18:50.630 –> 01:19:05.380
normanblair: It’s like, Oh, yes, that’s it. Poetry. So my next book, when it comes together, will be prose. Some, like personal stories, will be less of a manual. So you know that we are in disguise. That is a manual. So.

728
01:19:05.500 –> 01:19:23.519
normanblair: and there are loads of other books around. There are manuals such as you know, the books that Bernie’s done Paul’s book, Sarah’s books. So this will be more, you know, perhaps, looking at, what are we doing with practice? How can we engage in this world? How can we make a difference in this world?

729
01:19:23.680 –> 01:19:26.070
normanblair: Who are we? What are we doing?

730
01:19:27.410 –> 01:19:28.320
normanblair: Stuff like that?

731
01:19:28.320 –> 01:19:35.260
Nyk Danu Yoga: That I noticed, too, at the end of your book. Is you actually do a few restorative poses?

732
01:19:36.240 –> 01:19:38.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. You know, I that in here

733
01:19:39.220 –> 01:19:41.000
normanblair: You know, when I’m teaching yen

734
01:19:41.330 –> 01:19:44.410
normanblair: I’m feeling my inner Ashtanga practitioner

735
01:19:44.830 –> 01:19:45.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

736
01:19:46.020 –> 01:20:09.029
normanblair: You know, as I said, I did a lot of restorative, and I’m very much into kind of blurring these boundaries. I’m not into the silo of Ashanga, or the silo of anger, or the silo of yin, or the silo of restorative, it’s like, just move. And obviously, you know, someone says to me, all I do is yin, yoga, I’m like you’ve got to go and do some weights. I have weights

737
01:20:09.030 –> 01:20:11.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: Something. Yeah, you have to do something. Young. Yeah.

738
01:20:11.040 –> 01:20:19.039
normanblair: I, you know I you know I’ll sit there with a sandbag over my head and fantasize about bulging biceps. It’s like it’s like

739
01:20:19.760 –> 01:20:28.720
normanblair: the more variety we can bring in, the more I’m trying to use the word harmony rather than balance

740
01:20:28.720 –> 01:20:31.100
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, preach!

741
01:20:31.740 –> 01:20:34.269
Nyk Danu Yoga: This is a pet peeve of mine.

742
01:20:34.470 –> 01:20:41.349
Nyk Danu Yoga: the word balance, because I just think harmony is so much more accurate to what most people mean when they say, balance, Yeah.

743
01:20:41.350 –> 01:20:44.800
normanblair: So when people talk, yeah, it’s again going back to this kind of seesaw

744
01:20:44.800 –> 01:20:45.260
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

745
01:20:45.260 –> 01:20:50.840
normanblair: It’s like, Oh, parasympathetic, nervous system, good sympathetic nervous system, bad. I’m like dude

746
01:20:50.840 –> 01:20:51.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: You need both

747
01:20:52.080 –> 01:20:57.850
normanblair: You need both. And it’s more than that as well. And it’s not like either, or it’s like completely all messed

748
01:20:57.850 –> 01:20:58.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

749
01:20:58.860 –> 01:21:06.239
normanblair: It’s like I was when I listened to your chat with Bernie. It’s like we are all within this skin.

750
01:21:06.380 –> 01:21:20.090
normanblair: you know. When people talk about fascia, I’m like, well, but what about bones, or is bones, fascia? Or maybe not? Or who knows? It’s all within our skin? And for me this is what practices

751
01:21:20.320 –> 01:21:31.369
normanblair: partially about of like getting us to get into this within our skin, and anything that can help us to appreciate this precious gift is like mind blowing

752
01:21:31.520 –> 01:21:33.329
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s the journey inside

753
01:21:33.740 –> 01:21:35.159
normanblair: The journey inside. Yeah.

754
01:21:35.160 –> 01:21:35.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: Any, in

755
01:21:35.620 –> 01:21:39.290
normanblair: That’s a harmony can perhaps get away from the seesaw

756
01:21:39.290 –> 01:21:46.260
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, agreed, agreed the linearness of this or that, this or that, this or that

757
01:21:46.260 –> 01:21:59.490
normanblair: My own practice, you know. I’ll do a little bit of like I call it like sort of semi qigong movements, and I love the circling. I love the swaying, and a lot of yoga is pretty like up and down, up and down.

758
01:21:59.490 –> 01:22:12.159
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s actually one of the things that teachers comment on most when I do my training, because I’ll do 2 yin Yang classes with them as examples of ways. You could do this. And then I have a video that I do for the 3.rd And they’re all

759
01:22:12.350 –> 01:22:38.311
Nyk Danu Yoga: so taken by the fact that my mat 1st of all is horizontal, and then I’m moving from one side to the mat to the other in a more fluid way, that there’s not a Vinyasa or a Chaturanga in there anywhere. And yet I’m still doing classical. Hatha poses, but just the creativity of being able to like. How else could I get from here to here? And I I would say that definitely martial arts and Qigong

760
01:22:38.860 –> 01:22:44.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, has kind of informed that sort of more circular nature, of the practice

761
01:22:44.530 –> 01:22:45.160
normanblair: I’m good feedback

762
01:22:45.160 –> 01:22:45.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: So linear.

763
01:22:45.690 –> 01:22:47.650
normanblair: Yeah, we’re fluid

764
01:22:47.650 –> 01:22:48.260
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

765
01:22:48.540 –> 01:22:58.890
normanblair: That’s what we are. We’re fluid beings. And so a practice that reflects that fluidity is crucial. You know something I do in my own practice is, I do barefoot walking each morning

766
01:22:59.520 –> 01:23:05.289
normanblair: The bare feet over the unease. So you know, my partner and I, you know we’re privileged. We have garden

767
01:23:05.580 –> 01:23:06.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, just yeah.

768
01:23:06.180 –> 01:23:11.250
normanblair: That is a gift I know going. It makes a difference going over that uneven ground.

769
01:23:11.900 –> 01:23:18.669
normanblair: moving our bodies in as many different ways as possible. That’s the answer, or I know I shouldn’t say the answer. An answer

770
01:23:18.670 –> 01:23:20.139
Nyk Danu Yoga: An answer. Yes.

771
01:23:20.986 –> 01:23:30.769
Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s do some of our closing icebreaker questions which I’d always say icebreaker questions, and I realize actually then they would have been before. But whatever they’re like questions.

772
01:23:30.940 –> 01:23:32.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe there’s no ice

773
01:23:32.867 –> 01:23:38.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: now I know that you’re a brit. So this one might. You might be stereotypical or not.

774
01:23:38.610 –> 01:23:40.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: Coffee or tea

775
01:23:40.630 –> 01:23:47.019
normanblair: Oh, well, both! Actually, I love my aero press. Do you have an aero press, Nick?

776
01:23:47.020 –> 01:23:47.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: Too

777
01:23:48.100 –> 01:23:55.149
normanblair: Love my airpress and my partner. She bought me an aeropress, I was like, Oh, God! Something new I’ve got to learn, and now I love it.

778
01:23:55.150 –> 01:23:55.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: Me too

779
01:23:56.400 –> 01:24:00.129
normanblair: Take when I go on meditation retreats. I take my aeropress with me.

780
01:24:00.130 –> 01:24:00.630
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would

781
01:24:00.630 –> 01:24:06.460
normanblair: I have all these people like looking at me as I like, have some nice coffee and a fancy aeropress

782
01:24:06.570 –> 01:24:16.760
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I don’t have. I mean, I would love to have like a like an actual little espresso situation machine. But I don’t know the counter space for it. So arrow press for the win

783
01:24:16.760 –> 01:24:18.570
normanblair: Think aeropress is better, actually

784
01:24:18.730 –> 01:24:25.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t quite I still, I still kind of sometimes will go out and get some espresso to dump into my

785
01:24:25.560 –> 01:24:27.119
Nyk Danu Yoga: smoothie, or whatever. But

786
01:24:27.120 –> 01:24:30.260
normanblair: Not a connoisseur, but anyway, I like both coffee and tea

787
01:24:30.260 –> 01:24:33.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: Me, too, depends. It depends on the situation.

788
01:24:34.381 –> 01:24:36.789
Nyk Danu Yoga: Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor?

789
01:24:37.320 –> 01:24:39.669
normanblair: Oh, gosh! I love ice cream!

790
01:24:39.900 –> 01:24:42.009
normanblair: Ice cream is my Achilles heel

791
01:24:42.010 –> 01:24:42.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

792
01:24:42.790 –> 01:25:05.440
normanblair: So much movement. I don’t know what I’d be like. So, in fact, I had it last night. We’re having an ice cream revolution in this country, and you know, back in the past ice cream was a bit more limited, and there is this ice cream company called Hackney Gelato, and last night I had their

793
01:25:05.670 –> 01:25:08.409
normanblair: clotted cream and strawberry. Yum, yum, yum!

794
01:25:08.410 –> 01:25:08.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

795
01:25:08.980 –> 01:25:21.040
normanblair: I’m also a big fan of what’s it? Salted caramel? I much prefer haagen-dazs to Ben and Jerry’s, even though Ben and Jerry’s might be a little bit more politically engaged than haagen-dazs.

796
01:25:21.040 –> 01:25:21.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm!

797
01:25:22.380 –> 01:25:25.999
Nyk Danu Yoga: I am a non dairy gal myself so. But

798
01:25:26.490 –> 01:25:29.369
Nyk Danu Yoga: but I definitely have favorite favorites.

799
01:25:30.140 –> 01:25:33.369
Nyk Danu Yoga: One thing people often get wrong about me

800
01:25:42.165 –> 01:25:47.059
normanblair: there’s edge within the softness

801
01:25:47.340 –> 01:25:48.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

802
01:25:48.590 –> 01:26:05.439
normanblair: So I can be quite edgy. I can be, you know, the angry person shouting on the street, and sometimes people don’t see that in the kind of the yin softness. So it’s there, it’s there. I nearly had a fight.

803
01:26:05.630 –> 01:26:26.059
normanblair: A few months ago I was walking down the road, and this person was walking towards me, and this is something I really loathe when they this this man had his phone in his face, and he’s walking down the road, and we’re on a collision course. And this I’m like getting like. And I went

804
01:26:27.500 –> 01:26:28.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

805
01:26:28.080 –> 01:26:32.899
normanblair: He put his phone down and he looked at me, and I was like, Oh, shit! I’m about to have a fight. I’m no good at fighting

806
01:26:32.900 –> 01:26:37.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: For those of you listening. Because I I bet you the noise cancellation just canceled that out.

807
01:26:38.120 –> 01:26:39.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: He snapped his fingers

808
01:26:39.990 –> 01:26:41.389
normanblair: I see at my fingers

809
01:26:41.390 –> 01:26:42.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes. Yeah.

810
01:26:42.250 –> 01:26:45.444
normanblair: And he turned on me, and I was like.

811
01:26:46.090 –> 01:26:54.459
normanblair: what have I just done before? She then walked on. I was like, Oh, God! That’s a good lesson. Do not snap my fingers in someone else’s face.

812
01:26:54.640 –> 01:26:56.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ve said to people pay attention

813
01:26:57.330 –> 01:26:58.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: when they’ve all just walked right into me.

814
01:26:58.800 –> 01:27:00.730
normanblair: Snapping your fingers in someone else’s

815
01:27:00.730 –> 01:27:03.249
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, it’s like pay attention.

816
01:27:03.604 –> 01:27:09.969
Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, and don’t get me wrong. I do pull my cell phone out while I’m walking. But I usually just step off the sidewalk

817
01:27:10.220 –> 01:27:19.830
Nyk Danu Yoga: onto the grass or something, if it’s like, you know, my partner saying, did you remember to grab blah blah for groceries. It’s like, Oh, hang on! Let me get out of traffic while I answer this

818
01:27:20.040 –> 01:27:20.710
normanblair: Yeah.

819
01:27:21.835 –> 01:27:29.549
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can relate to that actually, the edge and softness together thing. That is one thing that people often get wrong about me as well except in reverse

820
01:27:30.124 –> 01:27:33.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: people. I think the physical presentation people assume

821
01:27:34.240 –> 01:27:41.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: a certain amount of edge which you know there is some and then, when they get to know me. They’re like, Oh, my God! You’re just like Gushy inside

822
01:27:42.360 –> 01:27:44.949
normanblair: Too, as well. But there’s many different elements inside

823
01:27:44.950 –> 01:27:46.369
Nyk Danu Yoga: Many layers to the Cookie

824
01:27:46.370 –> 01:27:47.190
normanblair: He likes

825
01:27:47.190 –> 01:27:47.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes.

826
01:27:48.500 –> 01:27:49.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, we discussed

827
01:27:49.490 –> 01:27:56.879
normanblair: Layers could be. Layers could be also described as linear when, in fact, it’s just a big cosmic soup

828
01:27:57.310 –> 01:27:59.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, I love that

829
01:28:00.970 –> 01:28:06.809
Nyk Danu Yoga: you described one, but you can add another if you’d like a Pop culture vice. We’ve already outed you as a trekkie

830
01:28:07.460 –> 01:28:12.660
normanblair: Oh, I loved Emily in Paris.

831
01:28:13.250 –> 01:28:14.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ve never seen it.

832
01:28:14.740 –> 01:28:28.339
normanblair: It’s on Netflix. Yeah, Netflix. And I was really like, I really rolled my eyes when it 1st came out. And actually, I really enjoyed it. I’m a huge fan of Romcoms. So back in my youth, you know, be much more like

833
01:28:28.340 –> 01:28:29.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: That is surprising.

834
01:28:29.900 –> 01:28:34.779
normanblair: Terminator. I love ROM-coms, because partly because there’s so much like

835
01:28:35.040 –> 01:28:53.430
normanblair: bad shit going down in this world that is like, you know, I’m looking at that. Enough. And so, yeah, I love ROM-coms and I loved Emily in Paris. I loved Ted Lasso, which isn’t really a ROM-com, although there is some romance in it? Yeah, yeah.

836
01:28:53.430 –> 01:28:58.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: Nice. I use kitten and puppy rescue videos for that

837
01:28:58.160 –> 01:28:59.279
normanblair: Okay, that’s it.

838
01:28:59.490 –> 01:29:05.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, that when I’m the world is going to hell, that and stand up comedy. Those are my 2

839
01:29:06.850 –> 01:29:08.300
normanblair: Not Bill Hicks.

840
01:29:09.242 –> 01:29:10.969
Nyk Danu Yoga: No, I don’t know

841
01:29:11.320 –> 01:29:18.679
normanblair: Well, he’s he’s 1 of these people. Why do the good die young? Check him out? He died in probably like late eighties, early nineties

842
01:29:18.680 –> 01:29:20.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Say the name is like, but I’m not

843
01:29:20.870 –> 01:29:24.880
normanblair: Very very cutting edge. Stand up, comedian.

844
01:29:26.370 –> 01:29:28.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: What else do we have here

845
01:29:29.180 –> 01:29:32.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: when I’m not practicing? Yoga? I am

846
01:29:38.450 –> 01:29:45.950
normanblair: I’m doing many different things like, I’m reading a book. I’m talking with my partner. I’m

847
01:29:46.650 –> 01:29:47.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: Walking, barefoot.

848
01:29:48.170 –> 01:29:51.709
normanblair: Walking barefoot. I’m seeing friends

849
01:29:51.960 –> 01:29:53.080
Nyk Danu Yoga: Star, trek.

850
01:29:53.080 –> 01:30:02.120
normanblair: Watching Star Trek. Loving ROM-coms! I’m drinking beer. Sometimes I’m smoking dope. It’s like

851
01:30:02.800 –> 01:30:03.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Lots of things.

852
01:30:04.040 –> 01:30:05.389
normanblair: Many different things.

853
01:30:07.150 –> 01:30:09.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: One weird fact about you

854
01:30:10.440 –> 01:30:12.109
normanblair: One weird fact about me.

855
01:30:13.540 –> 01:30:28.139
normanblair: I was gonna say, I love. So we have this clothing manufacturer in the Uk called bam, where all the stuff is made out of bamboo, and they’re a reasonably ethical company, and I love my bam. Well.

856
01:30:28.630 –> 01:30:34.179
normanblair: North America, what would you call pants like underpants. I love my bam underpants.

857
01:30:35.310 –> 01:30:37.539
normanblair: And I have a big dragon tattoo

858
01:30:38.450 –> 01:30:44.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Cool bam underpants, do you? When you put them on? Do you go, bam like a comic book

859
01:30:44.870 –> 01:30:45.225
normanblair: But

860
01:30:46.340 –> 01:30:47.879
Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s what I would be doing

861
01:30:47.880 –> 01:30:49.749
normanblair: I love my

862
01:30:49.750 –> 01:30:50.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: Damn!

863
01:30:50.570 –> 01:30:56.000
normanblair: I highly recommend. I highly recommend so men bam underpants

864
01:30:56.000 –> 01:30:58.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: There you go if you can get them.

865
01:31:01.430 –> 01:31:03.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: What the world needs now is

866
01:31:05.360 –> 01:31:07.110
normanblair: Peace, love and understanding.

867
01:31:07.970 –> 01:31:08.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

868
01:31:08.790 –> 01:31:09.920
normanblair: Needs peace.

869
01:31:10.090 –> 01:31:13.710
normanblair: You know life is short, life is

870
01:31:13.710 –> 01:31:14.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: Sure.

871
01:31:14.490 –> 01:31:28.849
normanblair: Life is precious, and far too many people are in far too many difficulties. When in America 3 individuals have the same wealth as 50% of the population

872
01:31:29.120 –> 01:31:29.760
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

873
01:31:31.200 –> 01:31:37.019
normanblair: Acknowledging Ahimsa. Maybe we need to bring back the guillotine. Did I really say that

874
01:31:37.020 –> 01:31:37.889
Nyk Danu Yoga: So. Hello!

875
01:31:40.040 –> 01:31:45.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: One thing I wish people knew about yin yoga, and yes, pick your top one. I know it’s hard to choose one

876
01:31:50.070 –> 01:31:56.099
normanblair: Do you know it’s like you know what 1st came to me was then, yin yoga can be joyful

877
01:31:56.390 –> 01:31:57.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

878
01:31:57.560 –> 01:32:00.919
normanblair: In Yoga, creating this space

879
01:32:01.840 –> 01:32:11.779
normanblair: We can really like slow down when we can feel a way within. And when we’re feeling our way within, there’s a wow. This is a trip

880
01:32:11.990 –> 01:32:16.549
Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is something I’ll often talk about when teaching Nick of like this is a trip

881
01:32:16.900 –> 01:32:19.070
normanblair: And it’s like.

882
01:32:19.600 –> 01:32:32.179
normanblair: obviously, you know, sometimes we have a trip and we have some psilocybin. However, just the trip of this body. Yeah, it’s amazing. I think the technical word is zygote.

883
01:32:32.430 –> 01:32:37.229
normanblair: So zygote is when an egg met a sperm

884
01:32:37.230 –> 01:32:38.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hmm.

885
01:32:38.240 –> 01:32:48.049
normanblair: Egg Metasperm. I remember when my mum was in the last stages of her life, and I was like looking at her tummy, thinking, wow! I was inside you. What a trip!

886
01:32:48.370 –> 01:32:49.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

887
01:32:49.060 –> 01:32:51.949
normanblair: So here’s as I got. If I’ve got this correct

888
01:32:52.430 –> 01:33:09.609
normanblair: egg and sperm meeting, and then we’re in our mum’s tummy, for, like you know around about 9 months, and then we’re born. And it’s like, Wow, like. And I look at babies and like, I’m like, you’re all tripping. You’re on the trip.

889
01:33:09.670 –> 01:33:22.979
normanblair: And then, unfortunately, as adults, we lose that connection. This is so precious, Nick, when I’m teaching, I sometimes think you know I teach like let’s say 4 things which is

890
01:33:23.290 –> 01:33:26.400
normanblair: life is precarious. Life is precious.

891
01:33:27.130 –> 01:33:31.899
normanblair: the importance of props, and maybe a little bit about the parasympathetic nervous system

892
01:33:32.390 –> 01:33:33.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: Lovely.

893
01:33:33.560 –> 01:33:35.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s a well-rounded list.

894
01:33:37.085 –> 01:33:42.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: Is there anything else that I forgot to ask you about that? You would like to add

895
01:33:44.940 –> 01:33:45.470
normanblair: Don’t think.

896
01:33:45.470 –> 01:33:48.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, I know we could have a whole other 10 h conversation, but

897
01:33:48.870 –> 01:33:49.240
normanblair: No

898
01:33:49.610 –> 01:33:51.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: Pressing, coming up.

899
01:33:51.880 –> 01:33:55.829
normanblair: You know. Keep practicing, you know. Look in the mirror.

900
01:33:57.430 –> 01:34:00.610
normanblair: you know, when we, you know, walk, walk. Our talk.

901
01:34:01.490 –> 01:34:07.150
normanblair: you know, be be socially engaged in this world. This world needs conscious warriors

902
01:34:07.340 –> 01:34:09.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. And I would add to that.

903
01:34:09.920 –> 01:34:12.330
Nyk Danu Yoga: in whatever way suits your temperament.

904
01:34:12.760 –> 01:34:13.310
normanblair: Yes.

905
01:34:13.310 –> 01:34:22.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: Some of us are gonna be out there at the picket line, and some of us are going to be in the soup kitchen, and some of us are gonna be buying the homeless guy a coffee and

906
01:34:22.150 –> 01:34:22.700
normanblair: Sure.

907
01:34:22.700 –> 01:34:23.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: On and on and on

908
01:34:23.800 –> 01:34:30.180
normanblair: So this is actually so. Something I’ll talk about a lot when teaching is all the options are equal

909
01:34:31.250 –> 01:34:49.350
normanblair: Absolutely crucial that all the options are equal. So you know, we talked earlier about Pab Masana. Also your legs crossed also. Eye of the needle, they’re all equal. So someone working in the soup kitchen, someone buying the homeless person. A cup of coffee is equal to being on the picket line

910
01:34:49.530 –> 01:34:50.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

911
01:34:50.500 –> 01:34:55.249
normanblair: It’s just that sense of awareness waking up engagement

912
01:34:55.480 –> 01:34:57.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, yeah.

913
01:34:57.400 –> 01:35:06.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: even something as simple as like you said, like, your your bam is reasonably ethical. But even something as simple as taking a look at the things that you purchase

914
01:35:06.900 –> 01:35:15.489
normanblair: Absolutely. I really to avoid Amazon, so Amazon to me, like the epitome of evil in some way

915
01:35:15.490 –> 01:35:28.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: For me. I only do it when it’s absolutely I can’t get anywhere else. But actually I use it more as a search engine, so I’ll search things out, and then I’ll go on that company’s website and buy it directly from them.

916
01:35:28.500 –> 01:35:38.019
normanblair: Yeah, in the Uk, there’s a big book sellers called Hive. So yeah, I’ll look for it on Amazon. Go to hive, and then if I can’t get it anywhere else, I’ll go back

917
01:35:38.020 –> 01:35:41.560
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, me, too. It’s like, it’s usually my last resort. Yeah.

918
01:35:41.560 –> 01:35:42.840
normanblair: Be conscious.

919
01:35:43.410 –> 01:35:44.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah.

920
01:35:44.010 –> 01:35:49.170
normanblair: And that’s what practice is about. Practice is about waking up, being conscious

921
01:35:49.640 –> 01:35:54.570
Nyk Danu Yoga: Even secondhand 1st is usually my. I’ll 1st look second hand, and then, if I can’t find it.

922
01:35:55.060 –> 01:35:57.049
Nyk Danu Yoga: then I’ll go down the list of things

923
01:35:57.490 –> 01:35:58.300
normanblair: Yeah.

924
01:35:58.620 –> 01:36:14.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, Norman, this was wonderful. I know that we could probably do again another 12 h. But it’s also a nighttime there for you. So I want to give you back some of your evening and we’ll see our proper goodbyes in a moment when I hit stop record. But for those of you listening and watching. Bye, for now

925
01:36:15.730 –> 01:36:16.779
normanblair: Thank you.