Yoga with Norman

31/07/2025

The people who hid Anne Frank during the Second World War were breaking the law. The people who found her, imprisoned her and murdered her at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were following the law.

When there is a massive fire, neither ignoring the flames nor leaping into the conflagration are appropriate responses. Rather, working out where the water is, who needs help and what is to be done are. Gaza is not starving – it is being starved (as well as being bombed to smithereens). The empty gesture of food air drops is purely performative. Those who commit these crimes are real people with names and addresses. The more people turn away, the worse these situations can become.

Sometimes breaking laws is a necessity. A good friend of mine was arrested two weeks ago for holding up a sign stating “I oppose genocide – I support Palestine Action.” Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for being a so-called 'terrorist'. Four years after being released from prison, he was President of South Africa.

On Saturday 9 August, there are protests around the country about the government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a “terrorist group”, demanding that the UK stops arming Israel and in support of an immediate ceasefire. Details here:
https://defendourjuries.org/lift-the-ban/

29/07/2025

A Yin yoga and meditation retreat with Norman and Maitripushpa
Devon, Thursday 7 August - Tuesday 12 August
Shared rooms and camping places available, £925 and £650 per person
For more information and to book, click here:

Come for five days of yoga, meditation and just being in the beautiful countryside of Devon with Norman and Maitripushpa. With daily yin yoga classes and mediation this retreat in the UK will restore, inspire and engage.

24/07/2025

Yin Yoga Workshop with Norman Blair
The Shala South London
Saturday 26 July, 2.00 - 5.00pm, £40

Still the body to still the mind with a deliciously relaxing and meditative afternoon of Yin Yoga. Long-holds of floor-based postures encourage the deeper muscles and connective tissue to release. As we slow down space is created for quiet self-reflection.

To book, click here: https://www.theshalalondon.com/workshops/yin-yoga-workshop-july25/

11/07/2025

I have just published 'a book of yin wisdom'. It is short book with about 140 aphorisms (succinct sayings). Such as: “See the sky before switching on a screen”; “Awareness assists our abilities to positively transform”; “Cultivating small moments of joy adds up”; “Resistance is fertile.”

This is a free gift to practitioners and the world (partly because I prefer the gift economy to the market economy). If you would like a copy, either get one from me when I am teaching or email yogawithnorman@gmail.com. And feel free to have a few for spreading the word.

07/07/2025

Slow Down Friday - Yin yoga with Norman
Online, Friday 11 July
6.30pm - 8.30pm, £20/£10

To book, click here: https://www.yogawithnorman.co.uk/bookings #/

06/07/2025

The Labour government has proscribed Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ group. Their most recent act was putting red paint on war planes being used in the genocide in Gaza. In the meantime, the UK continues to actively support and fund the Israeli state’s obliterating of Gaza and the Palestinian people. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz yesterday published an article entitled ‘Now I understand Why Israel Is Denying Journalists Access to the Appalling Scene in Gaza’.

Yes: peace activists are terrorists; protest is terrorism; facts are called blood libel; those committing war crimes are protected by the law; politicians call for musicians leading chants against genocide to be arrested and prosecuted for “anti-Israel hate speech.”

Humanity’s soul is being shredded by this livestreamed slow-mo genocide. Israel is clearly an apartheid state whose power is maintained by violence and brutality. Staying silent is complicity. Words and actions are much needed.

03/07/2025

Practice Yin Yoga with Norman

Yin Yoga workshop, Wednesday July 9
Shiva Shatki Studios, north London
3.00pm - 5.00pm, £30

To book, click here: https://shivashaktistudios.com/workshops/

15/06/2025

This is an excellent article from 972 – a leftist Israeli magazine.
“The Israeli military has become a mindless weapon of mass destruction. It maintains its exalted status among a sedated public through flashy stunts…under the command of a genocidal government, it digs itself deeper into wars it has no clue how to exit…We Israelis must understand – we are not immune. A people whose entire existence depends solely on military might is destined to end up in the darkest corners of destruction, and ultimately, in defeat.”

A people whose entire existence depends solely on military might is destined to end up in the darkest corners of destruction, and ultimately, in defeat.

11/06/2025

So we who are these specks of stardust that tumble through space, living these lives of pleasure and pain, belonging and aloneness, sufficiency and fear: how can we be and what can we do? Perhaps: sit down; stand up; take stock.

Know life as a silken slip that inevitably slides off. We who tell tales, sail ships, worship gods, long for love – we who are undoubtedly destined to die. Here are some aspirations: to be both engaged and reflective – while lessening being too reactive.

Next national march for Palestine is in London midday Saturday 21 June: end the genocide; stop arming Israel; stop starving Gaza. Midday Russell Square – marching to Whitehall.

08/06/2025

We live in a world of systems of circles: growing and decomposing, rainfall and evaporation, sunrise and sunset, solid and liquid, earth and sky. Wobbles, variations and fluctuations are the intrinsic nature of all things. This earth existing as bulbs burst from ground, as leaves fall from trees, as tides tug sand from bare feet. Humans exhale what plants inhale. All that is present changes.

We humans are not apart from these systems; we are very much part of the constantly cycling circles. If we continually seek to extract and constantly strive to dominate, this adversely impacts circulations. Relentless cutting into the earth’s flesh deeply wounds. Great costs are paid for humanity’s imperial glories. The grabbing and the getting, the urges for more, the driven plundering that is never fulfilled. Things are thrown out of balance. Glaciers retreat, temperatures increase, more anxiety depression isolation. Disharmony and disruption, less ease and more disconnection.

A careful listening to nature can teach us humility. Cultivating conditions that create harmony and health, respect and reverence is imperative. In the multiplicities of fragments, we are one.

03/06/2025

Extended Yin yoga workshop, this Saturday afternoon, at the West London Buddhist Centre

2.00pm - 5.00pm, £40/£20

The long Yin workshop is a precious chance to slow down and soften. This practice of mindfully bending and gently moving can be remarkably rejuvenating for our body-mind-heart. Yin yoga gives us the space to slow down and stay with our experiences rather than always rushing and striving to achieve.

To book, click here: https://www.yogawithnorman.co.uk/bookings #/

02/06/2025

Slow down Friday - two hour online Yin yoga workshop with West London Buddhist Centre

Friday 6 June, 6.30pm-8.30pm
£20/£10

To book, click here: https://www.yogawithnorman.co.uk/bookings #/