POZitively so: New yoga class geared towards HIV + people @ Yoga du Village
More : David Flewelling, HIV, HIV prevention & services, Men's health, Yoga, Yoga du Village
The last time I had spoken to yoga instructor David Flewelling, it was at an underwear party at the loft in the Village. He exuded his usual self-assured and challenging mode of being, with a small tribe of obedient boys downward-dogging at Kai Design‘s space on St-Timothée. As the one-man show behind both Mudraforce – [...]
Related Posts
- Striking a pose with yoga instructor David Flewelling
- HIV/STIs: Some Alarming New Statistics
- Réjean Thomas, Actually: HIV/AIDS, and the problem with campaigns
The last time I had spoken to yoga instructor David Flewelling, it was at an underwear party at the loft in the Village. He exuded his usual self-assured and challenging mode of being, with a small tribe of obedient boys downward-dogging at Kai Design‘s space on St-Timothée. As the one-man show behind both Mudraforce – naked yoga for men – and Yoga du Village, David has diversified his Iyengar-based practice to open up his studio in the Village to very specific clientele: HIV positive men.
The new “POZitively Yoga” class on Thursday evenings at 6pm is part of a course on yoga therapeutics that David has been exploring in recent months. “There are sequences that have an effect on the immune system, and I’ve been doing some research with Hart Lazer and Father Joe, a Catholic priest who has done a lot to develop HIV practice and Iyengar therapy,” David explained in his airy loft on rue Panet. “The work and the response have brought people clinging to the edge of life, back to life and health, according to anecdotal evidence. If there’s a challenge to the immune system, other than cancer, the HIV sequence stimulates the immune system’s capacity to fight off the virus.” Far from proposing any kind of cure or alternative treatment, the sequence of easy-to-learn back bends, shoulder stands, and meditation focus mainly on relieving stress and helping improve circulation to the kidney, which is one of the primary organs that clears the body of toxins.
“One of the things in living with HIV is stress: so the breathing, the meditation, working with the breath helps calm the nervous system.”
“The meditation helps people come to terms with the fact that people are HIV carriers, and that takes away a stressor,” he explained in his kind, but teacherly voice. At the same time, he hopes that the mere fact of offering the class geared towards HIV positive and immune compromised people will help poz men come out to each other, which is something not often done outside of the contexts of illness or dating. He hopes that offering the class will also provide a venue for breaking down the shame and stigma that make depression and anxiety so common amongst poz men.
David has started by offering sliding scale classes, and promoting the weekly session with community organizations who work with poz people, simply because he’s “part of a community that [HIV] effects. May I not keep this learning just in me,” is one of his own teacher’s mottos, he adds. For this thoughtful and tough-minded yogi, he admits it “It depends on what someone is seeking,” so if you feel like getting back into your body, decreasing your stress level, and meeting some fellow poz people at the same time, you may have found what you’re seeking.
0 comment
Comments are closed for this article.