Nomashday

Hello Yogi’s and Yogini’s, for those of you have not met me, my name is Marlowe May, I am a three year old cockapoo, dog about town, previously a trail blazing business office dog, a blogger, champion Frisbee catcher, cheese connoisseur and all round happy, healthy, wholly cheerful and loving being.

Some of my earliest memories are gently being lulled to sleep with the beautiful tones of Snatam Kaur and Jai Jagdeesh, chanting mantra’s and for my whole life I have been surrounded by yoga, the music, Nidra (when I stay awake) the Kundalini practice, very odd breath practice (later topic) and of course the yoga lingo. I am proud to be half poodle, which is the second most intelligent dog everyone, sorry to the lab lovers, so qualifies me so that I can explain some of these yogic terms to those of you not in the know, to help de-mystify the mystical. Guide you through the myriad of mayhem that circulates something very simple and pure, Yoga.

My first choice of terminology is a greeting, which often occurs with the Y’s (Yogini, Yogi’s), Nomashday. Now research is everything (poodle part kicking in so I have listened very carefully,) and what I will tell you before I launch into my explanations is this is very very old word. Yes it comes from days of old in India, before people had smart phones, TV’s, Google or in fact anything good and was used to say hi or bye to one another, but was of course a strict reminder to not eat mash that day, an invitation to fast if you will. No mash day would have been similar to the Saints fasting days in days of olde in England.

Yes, nomashday is apparently very important for the Y’s to maintain their Y body, something that some people think is very important and is perpetuated by the press as I have seen it in all of the magazines and shops, all Y’s must look a certain way. The way of no mash. Now here is where it gets a bit confusing hence my need to explain as from what I have experienced, having one of these Nomashday type bodies doesn’t seem to have anything to do with actual Yoga and most people don’t have one or need one to do yoga. We need to be healthy of course and eat good nutritious food with the odd bit of cheese thrown in of course and maybe a touch of ice cream and a wotsit or two, sorry getting carried away. Yoga is all-inclusive, it’s for everyone all shapes all sizes all abilities, and if you can breathe you can do yoga. Everything we do say, everything we are is yoga. It means union and connecting to All around you

So why then is this very old word, from days of old in India, used in the Y circles, well I can tell you. This greeting is done with a Anjali Mudra (hands pressed together in prayer pose slightly bowing) and means, wait for it, ‘I bow to the divine in you’. Does that mean mash is not divine, no as let me tell you I once had mash and it is divine. Super yummy. Its also said with reverence, so we need to look a bit closer and look at when its said, why is it often said at the beginning and end of class. Uh light bulb moment, anyone? When we do physical Yoga, our bodies are energetically concentrating on moving through the chakra’s, moving emotional and physical blocks and shifting our consciousness, so of course the last thing we want to be doing is eating. As then our bodies would just be concentrating on digesting food. I always wondered why there is a no food rule and this greeting is the reminder. This is not saying we have to deny ourselves delicious food; we do not have to buy in this ridiculousness that our only goal in yoga is the perfect body; nope it just means we have to deny ourselves delicious food for the class, so we can really be the yoga and at one with the energy around us.

So NOmashday everyone until dinner time then enjoy.

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