Eddie stern madonna
by Fitness
November 27, 2019

Want to practice your downward dog with Madonna’s yoga teacher?

Eddie Stern is coming to Mumbai for a four-day workshop

The knee-jerk response to spotting a gora teaching yoga to Indians is “bhaisaab, we invented it.” As with chicken tikka masala, bindis and bhangra, we are understandably wary of angrezi tadka being applied to exoticise our age-old traditions. But despite being a Caucasian man who counts Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow as clients, Eddie Stern is no cultural conquistador.

For one, he’s been teaching yoga for longer than half of India’s population has been alive. His guru was K. Pattabhi Jois, the founder of the Vinyasa movement. He travels to Mysore to hone his practice every year, has studied Sanskrit and published several books on Ashtanga.

Recounting his initiation, he says, “During my first trip to India in 1988, I attended the Sivananda Yoga teacher training course in Neyyar Dam, in Thiruvananthapuram. When the month was over, I travelled from Kanyakumari to Kathmandu by train and bus. I fell in love with India, and the practice of yoga came alive for me in the temples and holy places that I visited.”

Eddie Stern has famous students who’re probably responsible for the ‘yoga body’ fever. But his #goals go deeper: “Are we able to better control our emotions? Are our bodies becoming healthier and stronger? A healthy body is often a product of a healthy mind. Are we able to keep our awareness resting in the present moment?” he asks.

“Outward physical accomplishments are not a good measure of yoga, because people have different types of bodies with a variety of limitations. What if you’re missing a limb, and it’s not possible for you to perform an asana like you may have seen on Instagram, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t doing yoga well. In fact, you may even be doing it better.”

Nothing confirms Stern’s belief in the power of the holistic practice quite like the life and death situations he’s witnessed. As part of his work to reduce gun violence, he’s been instrumental in helping gang members overcome potentially fatal situations.

He recounts the story of a young man who attended a yoga and meditation class where he had learned the STOP practice: Stop, Take a few breaths, Observe yourself, Proceed with wisdom. The mantra prevented him from shooting up a rival gang as revenge for his friend’s murder.

“He was so angry, but as he picked up his gun, he heard the STOP teaching in his head. He realized what he was about to do, and felt the crushing repercussions of the lives that would have been destroyed if he went through with it.”

In another instance, a student remembering to breathe helped him avoid stomping another man’s head in. Stern adds, “He said to me, ‘yoga saved that guy’s life’. It’s absolutely true that a few deep breaths can save the world.”

If you’re dealing with stress that hasn’t reached the level of murderous rampage, Stern suggests resonance breathing.

“All you do is slow your breath down to about 5-7 breaths per minute, which means you inhale for 5-6 seconds, and exhale for 5-6 seconds,” he says, adding. “If you do this 10-15 minutes per day for five weeks, it changes the baseline resiliency of your nervous system. This means you can come back to your equilibrium faster and easier if you get stressed out. If I had to choose one practice to bring with me to a desert island, this is it.”

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