WARNING: This is a yoga film that is not about self-promotion. You’ll
note the yogi looks like a normal person, has a weird accent and isn’t very
flexible. We hope that inspires all of you to try out this film.
One of my
dearest friends Nicola, who just happens to be a talented film-maker, and I
just made our first yoga film especially for humanitarians. I realize this
sounds impossibly cheesy given the plethora of yoga films out there on the
market. It might sound even cheesier when I say this one really came from the
heart – but really it did and we
had some incredible fun doing it. This film is a quick yoga fix made especially
for our humanitarian friends and colleagues working in crazy war torn,
earthquake-ridden places just ‘cause we want them to feel amazing.
The idea started
about five years ago when I was working in Israel and the occupied Palestinian
Territories, (note my politically correct humanitarian terminology there). Three
things happened during that time; 1) Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons
asked for yoga DVDs and we couldn’t find any in Arabic, 2) Israel implemented
Operation Cast Lead in Gaza after Hamas fired one rocket too many into Israel, and
3) I meditated my way into sanity and out of the pit of despair that was that
horrific war.
From this
place I knew that I wanted to find a way in which I could share the incredible
way yoga makes me feel with other people, especially people who have to live
and work in the most difficult circumstances and places on this planet, whilst
giving up a good part of their lives to serve others.
It’s been both
a short and a long road from that moment five years ago to the launch of our
first film this week. I had to decide to put on hold the idea of teaching yoga
to victims of conflict, acknowledging that for now this is not my niche. I feel like it took years of talking about
making this film and in the end it only took us a few days work in our spare
time. Along the way I did my 200 YTT so that I would actually know how to teach
yoga and somehow today I find myself teaching yoga at the hippest studio in
Geneva and working my day job in the humanitarian sector. It’s a cool
combination. There were moments when I thought I could never make this film
happen but most days I can’t believe how quickly I made this dream a reality. My
PR pal Carolyn who kicked me up the ass about a month ago and my friend Katrin
who was the one who led me down the yoga path during our time in Palestine,
both deserve a huge thanks for sticking with me on this one.
And of
course big up to Nicola who made this film with me after spending most of her
days watching raw footage of children with pieces of their bodies blown off by mines,
trying to find a way to tell their story with dignity and get our unique humanitarian
message out there. I think for her filming yoga was a walk in the park and she has
been an incredible creative light in this project. She first let me practice
teaching yoga on her over the summer as I trained to become a teacher. She then
introduced me to the joys of Yoga Glo and practicing covert yoga in the edit
suite at work at lunch times. And then she got my ass into her back garden,
onto a yoga mat and in front of her camera so she could film it. One of the
best moments was watching her do the yoga sequence with me as she was filming.
We both
agree that whilst we love being humanitarians in our day jobs, it has been a
seriously fun and inspiring experience to make this film together, to focus on
our colleagues and friends out there in the crappiest places on the planet and
know that we can give something to them that might just make their lives a
little easier. We know we want to do more. For now we’ll focus on supporting our
humanitarian buddies and one day I hope that we can bring yoga to all the
people who’s day to day lives are one big war.