Eva Ruchpaul, a yoga teacher.
My name is Eva Ruchpaul.
I belong to the community of slightly odd people,
somewhat uncommon,
who practice hatha yoga in Europe.
We are going to do the Bow Pose. It's very simple.
Lay flat on your stomach,
and place your chin in front of you.
Then grab your ankles.
Go ahead, calmly.
Very peacefully, as if moving through oil.
Then take a deep breath.
As you fill your lungs,
raise your nose and look up at the ceiling.
Hold your head as high as possible,
still looking at the ceiling.
Yoga means to unite.
It comes from an old Sanskrit word that gave us the French joug,
the yoke joining 2 oxen.
When you've had enough, breathe out,
and let everything go,
putting your head down and relaxing your arms.
Feel your weight pressing down on the mat.
But for us, in a more accessible way,
we could also say that unite means reconcile.
Reconcile with ourselves and what is around us.
It is a way of life.
A way of surviving for the very tired.
It means giving your best
and accomplishing a little more each day,
thinking: "Two or three years ago, I couldn't have done that.
"This is new. I can do it and do it well."
Like someone who is developing, a child who changes every day,
who grows up every day.
How can movements
make you feel happy and, let's say it, more intelligent?
Very often, we see in instructional material,
and very superficial technique books:
Do yoga and your hair will grow back, eternal youth, blah, blah, blah.
If you have arthritic tendencies,
if all your bones crack,
after 50 years of age,
you may see your scalp more and more exposed to bad weather.
But if you practice yoga, you will be less arthritic.
I won't go as far as saying that you'll keep all your hair,
but it may survive.
People always ask me who can practice yoga,
at home, for example.
Why, gosh,
I have students of every age
and of every type.
They tell me about their troubles,
then depending on each situation, we practice a more active yoga
to work their muscles and give their minds a break.
With others, we offer a more relaxing yoga.
The other leg. Up!
Don't move your head. This is better and better.
Students may need to confide in their yoga teacher,
just like they would in a psychiatrist.
That's it.
But the yoga teacher
will react in the opposite direction of the psychiatrist.
The other leg. Yes, that's good.
The psychiatrist tries to go deeper,
to make the patient understand
the origin of their trauma,
to make them dig deeper and deeper
into their subconscious.
As to the yoga teacher,
they try to give their patient
a moment of complete and total oblivion,
better than in sleep.
Rest now, OK?
Relax completely, like a wet mop. Feel yourself sinking into the ground.
We try to establish a form of continuous flow,
calm breathing,
like the sound of waves on the beach under the sun,
ebb and flow, extremely slow, soothing.
Take a deep breath.
Up, up, up, unfold, unfold, unfold.
Stretch well.
Your head as high as possible. Yes!
That's the Cobra Pose.
Your head is stretching you out, opening up the front of your rib cage.
You may wonder whether practicing yoga intensely
is compatible with normal life.
It's doable.
You don't have to become a great mystic or a great ascetic,
or even an eccentric.
You can be very simple and honest and be a good yogi.
When you want to breathe, exhale and go down.
Some people have been practicing yoga for years,
but it doesn't show when they walk down the street.
They look like you and me.
Mrs Ruchpaul, how did you come to yoga?
A health problem brought me to yoga.
I practiced all through my long rehabilitation.
Afterwards, when I was almost normalized,
I kept practicing,
out of interest and because I enjoyed it,
thinking it is the best balance that can be attained by a human being.
And also, I've come to think
that my health problem was a blessing in disguise,
since it's made me discover both a way of coping
and a way of helping others cope.
Subtitles: Chloé Bourgogne