Ethos at Yoga for Blokes® is founded on: mutual respect, love and surrender to a higher consciousness. It is not a religious organisation – our ethos encourages men to do yoga without having to wear lycra or feel ashamed if they fart. Our classes involve humour, group-work, chanting, asanas, pranayama and meditation. We welcome aspirants of all ages, with teenage and octogenarian members.
Regular practice and a willingness to learn are important, as are curry evenings at Yatton Tandoori, Monsoon and Moguls in Clevedon. We occasionally visit Bristol Hindu Temple and attend the ancient stones at Stanton Drew for Solstice Surya Namaskar.
Yoga is a life-long commitment and won’t bestow it’s benefits on casual practitioners. Behind the apparently nimby style is a requirement for self-discipline, fitness and dedication. Ethos at Yoga for Blokes incorporates sessions inspired by and planned through reading of the scriptures: The Baghavad Gita, The Upanishads and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
Yoga for Blokes® meet at Stanton Drew stone circle before sunrise on Midsummer’s Day, the 21st of June (at the Summer Solstice) they attend a Druid ceremony within the great circle where people gather, hold hands and chant – which is exactly what we do at our physical yoga sessions! Then we perform Surya Namaskar (Sun salutations) to the rising sun (amongst the cow-turds). Surya Namaskar – a sequence or vinyasa, was developed to channel the emerging energies of pubescent males in India – however, we think it an apt way to note the Solstice, but it does require a willingness to get up early.
Set in the Somerset countryside, our ethos at Yoga for Blokes® celebrates a fusion of East and West, where people untangle the knots of psychosomatic tension within themselves. As part of a shared experience we use our bodies and voices to link to the Earth dispelling the clutter of nonsense ‘modernity’ encumbers us with.
