Kitchen Yoga

Ruth Shaw wants you to practice yoga whenever you can. Think you’re too busy for yoga? Ruth Shaw will find you the time.

Author of Kitchen Yoga: ‘Off-the-mat’ yoga for people who have no time, Shaw specializes in helping “time poor” people find the time to stretch and relax. Shaw’s how-to-book uses the concept of “found time,” those moments between activities that she believes are perfect for a mini yoga session. When the kettle’s boiling, tea’s steeping, or the kids are watching TV, Ruth suggests sneaking in a few poses, starting in mountain pose and breathing deeply.

She makes the whole process as easy as apple pie with her recipe-style yoga book. In addition to simple explanations on glossy, colourful pages, Kitchen Yoga includes a series of detachable travel-cards. Each card is colour-coded by category (shoulders, back, hips and balances) and classified according to a “three level chili” system. One-chili cards display poses for absolute beginners and up, two chili cards are for students with some yoga experience, and three-chilis for intermediate yogi(ni)s.

As bright and quirky as its author, Kitchen Yoga is a light guide to the physical aspects of yoga, and a reminder that yoga is a flexible practice that can be adapted to any circumstance.

I recently met with Ruth Shaw to talk about her book, her life and her tips on practicing yoga throughout the day.

What is Kitchen Yoga?
Kitchen Yoga is a way for busy people to find time each day to take care of their health by turning spare minutes into stretch time. The underlining concept is yoga can be done on and off the mat. I’m a certified yoga instructor and one of my students dreamt that I wrote a book called Kitchen Yoga. So I did. It just made sense since everyone has a kitchen, uses it each day, and at some point has a few waiting minutes for bread to toast or soup to heat up.

What’s your favourite pose in Kitchen Yoga?
I like the one that’s kind of becoming the signature pose, with the rubber gloves [pictured above], which I call the Standing Pigeon, or Stretch and Kvetch. I also like to do the squat pose as well—I do that very regularly. I’ve got very tight ankles, so for me to actually squat down with my feet flat on the floor is challenging, so if I hang on to the sink and then squat down, I can get my feet flat on the ground. It feels great because it releases tension in my lower back as well as opening up and freeing my hips- especially first thing in the morning!

I’ve read that you created the travel cards to “take the seriousness out of yoga”. Can you expand on that?
Well, in the West when we start talking about spirituality we get very serious. We even get serious when we talk about yoga. And, yes it does have that serious side to it, but it doesn’t always have to be serious, because who says spirit or spirituality is serious? Maybe spirit is laughing? I think it is, you know, it’s joy and it’s fun! So I had this vision of a family gathering together in the kitchen and shuffling the cards, and the youngest person in the family gets to pick a card and give it to the oldest person, and they have to do the pose. Then they have to switch around, and I just thought it was a way of bringing the family together and making the practice of yoga interactive and fun. Also the travel cards offer portability so you can practice yoga throughout your day, off the mat, and keep it light and accessible.

You mention that Kitchen Yoga is a way to bring focus to a multi-tasking world. Isn’t sneaking in yoga another way of multi-tasking?
That’s a very good question, and you’re right. In fact I think I would re-phrase that now and say it’s multi-tasking in its purest and highest form. It’s creative multi-tasking. For most of us it’s pretty hard to do just only one thing at a time and keep up with the pace, so I suppose what I saw was a window of opportunity, a moment of “found time” which struck me when I asked my students if they were practicing at home, and nobody put their hand up. So I said, Well you can’t wait to come to class every week, it’s not gonna work. Most of you guys can’t even come every week, because something’s going on, so when the coffee’s perking or the kettle’s boiling, why don’t you fit in a pose? Now, I’m not suggesting that you’re actually baking a cake and doing yoga. I’m sort of suggesting that while something’s on the go, then you slide one in. So, yeah—it kind of is multi-tasking, but it sort of isn’t as well. It’s a space…it’s “found time”. It’s maximizing your time that you probably would do something else like eat a cookie, make a phone call, go on the internet—all things which can wait.

You’ve told me about Kitchen Yoga—can you tell me about yourself?
Well I’m 62 and I’m very happy with my life. I feel like I’m about fitness and health and balance and personal growth. I’m continually refining my life, the way I live, what I eat, who I hang out with, where I go, what I do, and I think my work really supports and defines those choices. My life’s been—like everybody’s, I suppose—a very interesting life and it just gets better and better. And I love to share my journey with younger people because they need to remember that it’s never too late to dream, to re-create yourself, and create a new dream. I’ve done lots and lots of different things in my life—I’ve had different businesses and worked in creative industries. When I was young I was drawn into the world of fashion, and filmmaking, and then flowers and design, and then it started to be about health and wellness. I didn’t really start this dream until my mid-50s because I wasn’t ready. So it’s been a really natural kind of evolution for me and it feels congruent with who I am personally – everyday I feel blessed to be doing what I do.

To experience Kitchen Yoga for yourself, drop by the Kitchen Yoga website, or visit Yoga Plus in Toronto to pick up a copy.