Get On Your Mat for Mental Health Outdoor Event Features Yoga Icon
Yoga enthusiasts are in for a special treat June 19 when the Mental Health Association of Westchester presents its mega outdoor yoga event in White Plains.
Over 500 people are expected and those registering first will receive a free yoga mat provided by White Plains Hospital and a gift bag.
A one-hour yoga class will begin at 7 p.m. with Sadie Nardini, and before that at 6 p.m. attendees will experience meditation under the open sky with White Plains resident Tao Porchon-Lynch.
Tao, who was born in India and lived there until she moved to France at age 19, found yoga when she was just a child while playing on a beach. “I saw children doing these interesting things and I wanted to join them,” she said in an interview on Monday.
Living in the southern part of India where Sri Aurobindo practiced a spiritual form of yoga, Tao learned that by focusing on breath one can learn to get in touch with the universe that resides within. She developed a deep love for Nature and experienced the oneness of all things. She was one of the first women to study yoga, which had traditionally been a practice reserved for men. “Women should have the same freedom as men,” Tao emphasizes. “Women put the vision into practice.”
In seeking justice, she marched with Gandhi in 1930. Later, when WWII broke out, she became part of the Freedom Fighters movement in France and eventually escaped to England. She later worked as a model and was involved with theater.
Today at age 94, Tao is the oldest living yoga instructor in the world. She began giving formal yoga instruction in 1965 in the United States, where she became certified. She currently teaches the many forms of yoga at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Hartsdale.
Her philosophy is simple. Breath is the life force, she says. “When you feel the energy moving in you the more in-touch you become with what is within.”
Tao teaches breathing in combination with physical alignment. “If you are not using breath properly, it is hard to do the postures,” she advises. Tao also uses seven energy vortexes in the body called chakras to bring up what she refers to as the “serpent power.” She teaches that it is important to feel the energy in each of these chakras because they open up everything in the body. “If you sit with your shoulders hunched you are imprisoning your heart,” she says.
During the June 19 meditation Tao will most likely focus on breathing to calm everyone down and get rid of the “wandering.” Her deepest belief is that the power of the universe is inside everyone and that if we listen we can hear the creator of life. “We go back to the Earth. Creation is everything. Nothing is impossible,” Tao teaches. “Don’t think bad thoughts. You can make the good thoughts materialize. Become aware of body, mind and spirit. Have courage in the freedom of life,” she adds, with the wisdom and assurance of one who has lived a great life.
Get on Your Mat for Mental Health will be held on Court Street, between Main Street and Martine Avenue, White Plains. There will be vendors in a Yoga Marketplace and live music. The rain date for the event is June 20. Visit www.mhawestchester.org to register.
