Airplane Yoga

By Bess Abrahams

While teaching at the Jivamukti Yoga Center in New York City, a woman called me at home, having gotten my number from a mutual friend and yoga enthusiast. She had recently returned home from a flight that was delayed hours on the runway. She told me how her travel companion encouraged her to do some yoga stretches to calm down and how instantly she felt relieved. Convinced she could help others but not knowledgeable about yoga, she sought me out. Would I be interested in helping write a book for modern air travelers? The result is Airplane Yoga, a guide to relieving stresses from air travel.

We wrote Airplane Yoga to give readers tools to deal with the growing stresses of air travel and help them arrive at their destination in better spirits and in better health. With over 45 yoga-inspired exercises to choose from, there is something in this book for everyone (even children). Our readers agree, that doing the exercises helps them arrive at their destination feeling relaxed yet alert.

Although the book is organized to mimic the phases of air travel: check-in, pre-boarding, in-flight and arrival, any of the exercises can be done at anytime. In fact, any of the exercises in the book can be added into your daily routine at home. The seated postures can easily be done at home or in the office. The meditation techniques such as the ‘turbulence tamer counting meditation’ can be applied to any stressful situation, not just those thousands of feet above ground!” In today’s fast paced jet-setting world, don’t forget to breathe!

I began practicing yoga through a friend’s encouragement, and from my first class I knew I had found a home. Inspired by the community of yoga students and the amazing physical and mental benefits, I was also very drawn to the unmistakably spiritual aspects of yoga. Although I had never heard of Patanjali, read the Bhagavad Gita or practiced Bhakti yoga, it was obvious to me that much more was going on in class. Although I myself was practicing a physically rigorous form of hatha yoga, I understood from the beginning that the real benefits were to the inner form. Thus, it was an obvious to me that individuals with limited mobility (whether because of an airline seat, a wheel chair or some cognitive difficulty) would benefit from the practice.

Although I do teach “active” yoga classes in the Vinyasa format, I also teach individuals and groups with special needs. The yoga-inspired exercises in Airplane Yoga were all honed by my special needs students such as those from Fountain House. Fountain House is a facility in New York City that helps people with mental illness achieve their potential. These generous and open-minded students spent time with me doing chair yoga exercises, giving me feedback.

To be mindful when we are thousands of feet above air is a great task, but one that will only leave us more attuned to others when we reach the ground, and connecting to others which is what yoga is all about.

Bess Abrahams teaches “active” yoga classes in the Vinyasa format, as well as yoga to individuals and groups with special needs. She resides in New York.

Photos and instructions reprinted by arrangement with Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. from AIRPLANE YOGA by Bess Abrahams and Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, Copyright © 2003 by Bess Abrahams and Rachel Lehmann-Haupt.