Ladies First
Vive les femmes! In Paris, yoga centers and workshops specifically designed for women
There’s a percolating post explaining the reasons for going from a free website to a subscription-based Substack but it’s not quite ready (and rather long TBH) so instead this week you get a round-up of women-specific yoga!
Things have evolved a bit since Pattabhi Jois, BKS Iyengar and other yoga “classicists” mapped women’s cycles to the Vayus, but there still remains a ways to go. If you’ve taken a yoga class in the last 28 days, you’ve no doubt heard a teacher say something like, “Yoginis, if you have your period, do Viparita Karani instead of sirsasana” and here’s why:
Yoga regulates the current of Prana, your vital life force. This life force moves about and yogis believe it’s important to follow and work with its flow. The Vayus are the directional flows of your Prana.
Understanding the different flows along which Prana travels—in, out, up, down—as well as which zones of the body are governed by them, can help you refine your various practices (asana, meditation, pranayama) and tailor them to how you feel.
An example: the Vayus and your period
Menstrual blood, originating in the pelvis, has a down and out movement so it’s often mapped to Apana Vayu whose principle aim is elimination. As your body is trying to get rid of blood, traditional yoga teaching discourages menstruating women from doing inverted yoga poses because it’s thought that going upside down hinders your blood’s exit strategy.
By the way science (Science!) doesn’t actually support this idea—humans aren’t built like hourglasses whereby our relationship to gravity affects the direction of blood circulation—so be a student of your own experience. If inverting feels good, do it; if it doesn’t, do Viparita Karani or another supported pose that feels restorative. You know best.
Beyond menstruation and yoga prescriptions for what poses to do or not do, there is a world of yoga out there designed to ease you through hormonal fluctuations: before, during and after pregnancy; during ovulation; and all along the various phases of post-menstrual life.
What follows are yoga workshops that support women of all ages, taught by a fantastic group of women in Paris and online (first session launches today.)
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