Local Yogi encourages embracing yoga this Christmas
Published:Wednesday | December 6, 2023 | 12:10 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
As the Yuletide season approaches local, Yogi, Donovan Manning, suggests practising yoga is one of the best ways to stay grounded amid the holiday rush.
Yoga, originating from ancient India, encompasses a set of mental, spiritual, and physical practices. While the practice has been revered in the Eastern world for aeons, the West became a part of the yoga boom in the 1890s when Yogis started to migrate westward.
Manning, who goes by the moniker Dutty Foot Yogi, has been practising for over 20 years.
Looking back at how his journey began he said, “It’s actually an interesting story. I came into yoga by a bet. I had my best friend and he said ‘bet yuh you couldn’t last the whole hour in the class’. After the whole hour in the class, fun and joke aside, I actually exhaled and breathed. It was the first time in my life I actually felt my mind clear, I felt in control and I felt at peace.”
Since then he has been learning and leading classes in yoga and pilates, both online and through targeted private workshops.
Referring to his less-than-conventional name, he says it is to simultaneously invoke his ‘Jamaicanness’ and his belief in grounding.
“I’m one of the teachers who like to be barefooted,” he began, “I like to walk up and down outside. So the concept of grounding is very much a part of it. I also like the idea of polarising things. Most times when you hear people’s yoga name it’s some fancy fancy something and you just thinking no. I wanted to make it Jamaican and I wanted something that made sense.”
He continued, “So Dutty Foot Yogi is that Yogi who is grounding, who is going through the chaos and the calm at the same time.”
As the December days continue to fly off the calendar, Manning says people should look to the Eastern practice to help remain centred.
“As we move into Christmas, applying the practice is going to be extremely important. We do this every year where we get ourselves all in a kerfuffle and a whole barrage of busy busy busy. Yoga is now the perfect opportunity for you to slow down, check in with yourself, see what you’re going to do and then move on to it.”
While the practice has built a reputation of needing extreme flexibility to participate, Manning says this is not the case.
“The simple answer for yoga, and most people will say it’s more about stretching and doing downward dog and lighting incense and sitting in lotus, but no, it’s a little bit more than that. Yoga, according to Patanjali, the father of yoga, is the quelling of the sensations of the mind. In other words, it’s how you find that way of regulating, controlling yourself and your emotions, your thoughts and everything as you navigate through life, being present constantly.”
He continued, “Life itself is strenuous. To be quite honest, human beings were not built to be steady. Yes, we’re naturally and instinctively lazy but I wouldn’t say it’s strenuous because there are different styles, different modes and different ways that you can access yoga.”
He says since taking on the lessons in his life he has been able to quiet his inner storm.
“I’ve become more calm. I’ve become more cognisant and I want to say more in control because it is a continuous journey. Every day you get up it changes.”