Turn Isolation into a Spiritual Playground

March 17, 2020 Eamon Armstrong

Life is a Festival #57: Nino Mendes (Nino Yoga - China)

With self-isolation and shelter in place proliferating the globe, here’s some good medicine from a yogi who spent 5 weeks in lockdown in a small apartment in China.

Nino Mendes is a rockstar yoga teacher who speaks seven languages and has taught massive classes with over a thousand students Beijing, Shanghai, and across China.

At the time of this recording, on March 10th, Nino had just emerged from five weeks in lockdown in a small apartment in Chengdu. Before I understood that the corona virus outbreak would become a full-blown pandemic, toppling markets and leading to a global campaign of social distancing, I was impressed by Nino’s public displays of optimism and spiritual maturity.

“Locked up...no worries ...making the best out of my time in china...🤙🏿...you create your reality!!! Peace and love world.”

Time moves fast in a pandemic! I am publishing this podcast on March 17th and the Bay Area, where I live, just officially ordered a mandatory “shelter in place.” It looks like we’re all going to be spending time slowing down.

On the show we talk about going inward, reading stoic philosophers, and returning to your breath in times of intense challenge. Nino shares how he got more improvisational after yoga studios closed and rediscovered the feeling of aliveness that comes with the hustle. We talk about the specific case of lockdown in China and what that can teach us about our own experiences.

What if the virus is the medicine? A beautiful essay by Jonathan Hadas Edwards & Julia Hartsell suggests that this bitter medicine with all of its pain and unfairness to those living at the margins of society may ultimately lead to healing and transformation of the global body. Medicines like ayahuasca often lead us through purgative, liminal spaces that force us to surrender before revealing that we are lighter without all that we’ve been holding on to. This lesson is echoed in Nino’s humble, playful optimism: let go, go inward, improvise, serve others, build community, and slow down.

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TIMESTAMPS

:09 - Rockstar Nino teachers a class for 1700 people in Beijing.
:12 - If you've got a six, two black dude full of tattoos, looking like fricking Dennis Rodman teaching yoga.. that’s something different
:15 - A lot of people in China get into yoga for the fitness aspect, Nino wants to help them awaken.
:17 - Nino’s experience when the coronavirus first hit China.
:26 - Sudden quarantine and Nino’s experience with social distancing
:32 - Stoic philosophers and self-discipline
:36 - As long as there is breath, there’s hope
:40 - Surrender to the experience, get improvisational, and come alive
:44 - What are things in China like now and how does Nino support himself?
:50 - How do you support your neighbors?
1:00 - If you had to be quarantined again what would you do differently?