On Wednesday the 16th September we had the pleasure in welcoming Elizabeth Gowing speaking to us direct from Kosovo.
Elizabeth is a trained teacher and a travel writer. She has written 5 travel books, 4 about Kosovo and in 2016 The President of Kosovo awarded her the Mother Teresa Medal for her humanitarian work. In 2017 she was named by British Prime Minister Theresa May a ‘point of light’ for volunteering around the world. In 2018 the new Kosovan President gave her Kosovan citizenship by decree.
Elizabeth explained that she was not a likely yogini; too fond of chocolate and To-do lists, and sometimes falls over on her mat. So, this was not a ‘how to’ talk – it’s was given by an explorer rather than an expert.
Elizabeth explained that at 13 she was introduced to yoga by her mother’s yoga book written by Richard Hittleman. She decided to take the legs off her bed and lay for 8 hours with her feet in the air to ‘give it a go’ but it wasn’t successful other than a red face and a double chin. It was only on her 30’s that she decided to have another go.
She explained how Yehudi Menuhin met BKS Lyenga during a trip to India and asked him to come back to England to be his teacher. Menuhin presented Lyenga with a watch with the inscription ‘To my best violin teacher’ as their partnership was felt to have transformed Menuhin’s playing. It was Hephzibah, Menuhins sister who suggested that yoga should become part of the Adult Education Services in London and the rest is history as they say.
Elizabeth explained how she had travelled around Britain sampling various types of yoga. Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, but it evoked the characters and communities met along a fascinating journey. She practiced doga (yes, yoga with your dog) with Crikey the Cockerpoo in London, spent a dripping day of ‘hot yoga’ in Brighton, hung upside down in aerial yoga in Godalming, to yoga in prisons with The Phoenix Prison Trust – one prisoner said yoga had saved his life and even yoga on a Chiltern Train during their Mindfulness May for their commuters.
She spoke of inspirational Angela McHardy from West Kilbride who in one year was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, her father died of Parkinson’s and her husband left her but she decided to became a yoga teacher. She practices the art of yoga twice a day and for those hours she ‘doesn’t have Parkinson’s’. She now runs classes for others with the disease.
Sone of the type of yoga that she hasn’t tried included goat yoga, gin yoga and nude yoga!
What she did learn on the way was
  • ‘If you are feeling sick go down into the engine room’
  • ‘Right here where you are is okay’
  • And ‘Listen to your body like you would an old friend’.
She quoted ‘Meditate for 28 minutes everyday unless you’re really busy – in which case you should meditate for longer.
Q&A was held before Trustee Sybil Graham gave a wonderful Vote of Thanks and Jean Harding, Federation Chairman, thanked everyone for attending. Another superb evening.