Vanda Scaravelli’s words, taken from my book, The Egyptian Sun Salutation and Yoga, explain her approach to Yoga: “This is a new way to do Yoga in which you have to learn how to listen to your body, going with it and not against it, avoiding all effort or strain. The body in itself is healthy, but it has been ruined by all sorts of things, including negative and destructive feelings. If one can avoid following this unproductive direction, a positive attitude is going to instinctively take over, and the body will then be able to start its recuperating function, its natural way of existing. There is nothing to be done. It is not a state of passivity but, on the contrary, of alert watchfulness. It is perhaps the most “active” of attitudes, going “with” and not “against” our body and feelings. We have three friends to help us find this pleasant, satisfying way of moving: gravity, breath and wave (a sort of circular supple extension along the spine). In all the positions, these three companions (fused in one) should be constantly with us.”
VANDA CARAVELLI’S WISDOM
Vanda was not a woman of many words, but she was capable of saying something in only a few sentences that was so important that people have remembered them for the rest of their lives. For example:
Breathing puts you in that innocent state of silence in which even a miracle can happen.
There is no teaching in the Yoga training. One can only point out to listen to your own body, and the body itself is going to give you the answer.