Iceland review - 2016, Qupperneq 57

ICELAND REVIEW 55
to be the status quo in Iceland. “People
believe if you work hard, you will suc-
ceed. But if you work hard, you will also
die!” she exclaims.
Sólveig speaks of the need to temper
the tendency that Icelanders have to
overexert themselves: “With our corpo-
rate backgrounds, we know both worlds,
so in my classes I always say, ‘Please don’t
be so serious. It’s only yoga!’ I try to get
people to relax, go with the flow.” Both
instructors acknowledge the success of
Hot Yoga in particular because it is a
type of yoga that combines a heavy-duty
workout such as you would get in a gym
with the tenets of a yoga session, such as
mindfulness and relaxation. “Icelanders
are really open to new experiences, but
it can be hard to go from a commercial
gym to a small yoga studio,” says Sólveig.
“Hot Yoga is a bridge.”
While Hot Yoga may have been a
necessary link back in 2008 when yoga
was first gaining mainstream popular-
ity in Iceland, now it is much easier to
get people on board. Both Eygló and
Sólveig agree that a major shift has
taken place in attitudes about health, as
can be witnessed by the proliferation
of yoga studios all around Iceland. “We
don’t really have to tell people to make a
change,” says Sólveig. “They know yoga
will be good for them.” And for Eygló
the response to her Yoga in Suits pro-
gram is overwhelmingly positive. “The
feedback we get is really heartwarming.
People are saying it’s the highlight of
their week.”
THE CHALLENGE IS IN THE MIND
Still, the journey is ongoing. Sólveig is
pouring everything she’s got into Sólir
for the upcoming year, with the full
support of her husband and three chil-
dren. “I want to have a big influence in
building the yoga community in Iceland,
and not only in Iceland. I want to be part
of people taking care of their health.”
She points to the need for a shift in
policy in the health sector to help bring
yoga into more people’s lives, suggesting
that it should be taught in schools and
workplaces. Eygló’s program is already
making progress in this regard, but it
seems the greatest challenge in getting
the public to accept yoga into their lives
is that it requires people to step outside
their comfort zone.
Sólveig talks about the process of grad-
ually leading people through the proto-
col of a yoga class, when what they are
most familiar with is the atmosphere of
the commercial gym. “I look at myself
as a bridge. My intentions are to tread
lightly and bring people with me.” In
other words, being able to read the
crowd is a skill that must be developed.
For Eygló it comes down to gaining
people’s confidence. “When people have
been coming to your class, they start to
trust you,” she says. “After a while, they
will just walk with you.”
MAKING THE CONNECTION
TO THE EVERYDAY
The best way to convince people of the
efficacy of practicing yoga is to put it in
the terms of their everyday lives. “It’s not
a religious thing,” Eygló stresses. “For
me, it’s more of a challenge to get people
out of their boxes, because they are really
stuck in that Excel spreadsheet all the
time. The easiest way is to present med-
itation and breathing as relaxation and
stress reduction. We don’t get enough
sleep, we take the most pills, we have
the external world pulling at us from all
sides. The most popular pose in every
class I teach is [Shavasana]—just being
able to close your eyes and do nothing.
We never allow ourselves time to do
nothing.”
Shavasana, or the resting pose, was one
of the most difficult to get people to do,
says Sólveig. “When I started teaching
yoga, no one had time for Shavasana.
They would just walk out before the end
of the class. Now, I tell people, for every
half hour of yoga you do, you must do
five minutes of Shavasana. Everyone is
at least appreciating that moment now.”
Getting people to rest and relax is one
of the main benefits of yoga for Icelandic
society. Another one is getting people to
expand their repertoire, on the mat and
in the outside world. Eygló points out
the usefulness of being able to tap into
the ability to do something outside your
comfort zone because this can apply to
other arenas of your life. “You’re build-
ing up confidence to just be awkward, to
do something you don’t like to do,”—like
sit still, or chant a mantra. She asserts
that people are learning “to be comfort-
able being uncomfortable. So if it’s really
uncomfortable to go up to your boss and
say something he doesn’t like, you have
to do it anyway, because that’s what you
believe in and that’s the essence of [yoga].
That should be the endpoint, because if
we can only do it on the mat, how much
is it worth out there?”
This aspect of yoga practice that
transplants to life beyond just the obvi-
ous effects of physical fitness and feel-
ing good is something both Eygló and
Sólveig have been able to call upon
and may very well be the secret to their
success. “That’s the benefit you don’t
know you’re going to get when you start
practicing yoga,” says Sólveig. “When
you start out you think, I just want to get
a lean body, but after a few weeks, other
things start happening and that’s when
you get addicted.” *