Who is Vanda Scaravelli?
And why she is the inspiration behind my Yoga practice.
My journey to Vanda Scaravelli.
I fell upon the teachings of Vanda Scaravelli by accident. I had been interested in Yoga for a while, and had been attending classes at an Iyengar studio, local to where I lived. When I moved I happened across a local class not knowing the teacher was a pupil of Diane Long’s, one of Vanda Scaravelli’s longest students. The practice I was introduced to was inspired by the teachings of Vanda Scaravelli.
I believe the choice of Yoga teacher and practice to be a very personal one. This practice was such a breath of fresh air to me, and one I kept returning to. Growing up I loved to dance and went to ballet classes. But the discipline was strict, there was a demand for perfection, and if you weren’t the perfect size, shape, appearance, or if you couldn’t dance the steps perfectly, you were often left feeling inadequate. Unfortunately in the past I have attended Yoga Classes where I have experienced the same thing. Often the key principle of our Yoga practice has been lost turning Yoga classes into more of an exercise class or endurance test.
A practice that honours the individual.
A good Yoga teacher and class should honour the individual in us all. The teacher should provide us with the knowledge and tools to develop our own personal practice, a practice that meets the individual’s needs. We each have different needs, on different days, weeks, months, years. Our practice should meet those needs. A ‘method’ that suits one person, may not be suitable for another. It should meet us where we are, on any given day.
A little history.
Vanda Scaravelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1908. She wasn’t introduced to Yoga until in her mid-life by the Indian philosopher Krishnamurti, following the tragic death of her husband. Luigi Scaravelli, a Professor of Philosophy, shortly after World War II. But has become well known for her contribution to Yoga in the West.
BKS Iyengar and Desikachar were students of Tirmumalai Krishnamacharys’s, often referred to as ‘the father of modern yoga’. They visited Vanda Scaravelli regularly. BKS Iyengar taught her the Asanas and T. K. V. Desikachar taught about the importance of the breath (pranayama).
When left to practice alone and with the permission of BKS Iyengar, she adapted what she had learned, adjusting the postures so they became more helpful to her and made more sense in her body. Rather than trying to organise her teachings into a particular method, Vanda Scaravelli encouraged her students to follow their inner teacher, through the practice of deep listening to the body. Vanda Scaravelli gifted us freedom in our Yoga practice. She liberated the practice, removing any set rules, believing that when we listen deeply, with a deep awareness, we become our own best teachers.
Discovering your inner teacher through the practice of deep listening to the body.
Rather than trying to organise her teachings into a particular method, Vanda Scaravelli encouraged her students to follow their inner teacher,
The Practice
Vanda’s approach offered something different. The something I was seeking in my practice. Where movement becomes meditation. An embodied movement practice, using conscious movement with breath to sharpen the mind-body connection.
Vanda Scaravelli's key teaching principles and approach to Yoga, are the careful attention to the subtle qualities which support healthy movement; breath, our relationship with gravity, and the spine (or deep core). Her teaching and approach has been beautifully collated in her only book ‘Awakening the Spine’. A beautiful, inspirational book that I can highly recommend.
The breath, when we choose to pay attention to it, is the language of the body. I’ll save a big discussion about the importance of breathing well for another day. But most of us now know that breathing well keeps us well. Efficient breathing, eliminates waste from the body, slows our heart rate, stabilizes blood pressure, oxygenates our lungs, blood and other organs, helping them function effectively, supports healthy muscle function and lowers stress. By paying close attention to our breath as we practice, we support healthy breathing and healthy movement.
The teaching also brings our attention to our vital core, the spine. And our relationship with gravity. Using beautiful references from nature she teaches us how when the body is organised correctly, there is a natural resistance to gravity, which stimulates our vital core, the spine. This isn’t discovered from pushing, forcing or overworking particular areas of the body, but by bringing balance to the body, and restoring our normal natural movement patterns. Rather than fighting gravity, we learn to release into its force, and the spine awakens in response to gravity and the breath. This creates a beautiful wave-like motion as the spine expands, lengthens, and becomes free. Simultaneously this encourages other parts of the body that often hold tension to become free including the shoulders, hips and pelvis.
By working with breath and gravity we discover an amazing balance of strength and lightness, space and ease in our body.
By working with breath and gravity we discover an amazing balance of strength and lightness, space and ease in our body. The practice has transformed my relationship with myself and my body, as I have connected with myself on a deeper level, and am learning to let go of judgement, competitiveness and self doubt, replacing it with the language of acceptance, loving kindness and empathy towards myself, and my body. It has transformed the way I stand, walk, run, move through everyday life, breathe and relate to myself. I have found the practice both inspirational and transformational, and am passionate about sharing the many benefits to be found from this practice with others.
