An Isha meditator, Anastasija, had been volunteering at Upa Yoga sessions in New York. In those sessions she saw the impact Upa Yoga was having on the people and how they were being deeply touched. This inspired her to take Upa Yoga sessions back to her hometown of Riga, Latvia, the next time she was there.
Once she was back in Riga, she approached the school that she attended as a child, to see if they would be open to having a session in their facility. The director, who knew her from when she had gone to school there, agreed. Thus began the preparations for the first-ever Upa Yoga session in beautiful Riga. To promote the session, a Facebook event page was created on her township website. Many people showed interest.
On the day of the event, Anastasija and her friend, who has since taken the Inner Engineering program in London, took care of the setup and were ready to receive the guests. The school provided audio and video. Their technical support person came in to help with that aspect of it. In the small town of Riga, yoga is not very well known and the guests’ apprehension and curiosity could be felt. Although not used to such sessions, the people did very well. Out of the 26 who came, 7 were kids and they, too, were very focused.
The session was in the Russian language. Guests also got a chance to look at Sadhguru’s book, Inner Engineering, A Yogi’s Guide To Joy, in Russian.
The response from the participants was very positive. Some said they did not know something like this existed. Some people stayed back after the session, asking when the next program would be.
A couple days after the session, a few people messaged Anastasija, saying that they are practicing regularly. One lady said that the simple hand movements and Nadi Shuddhi processes are very helpful to her. She now finds herself grocery shopping more energised! This practice has touched her very much.
Anastasija’s own mother, who attended the session, has some stress-related issues that interfere with her sleep. Since the session, she has been doing Upa yoga practices just before going to bed and it has helped improve her sleep quality.
Some people are asking for group practice sessions. Anastasija feels like there is a wave of excitement as not many tools of wellbeing like this are known to the people in Riga. She hopes to facilitate more Upa Yoga sessions whenever she finds herself in her hometown again.
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