Lumi Loves Craig Norris

Craig joined the Lumi family last year and is now teaching every Tuesday, Friday and the occasional class in between. Be sure to check out his next class and in the meantime, find out more about what brought him to the mat, his most awkward yoga moment and greatest influences to date.

What first brought you to the mat?

I first of all came to meditation as a spiritual practice. I had hit a brick wall in life and my understanding of the world wasn’t working. Through meditation practice and self development groups, I began to live a life in which I created rather than life just happening to me. Through that I began to do things that I would enjoy and one of those things was to start attending yoga classes in which I was hooked from the first class. I think something that subconsciously brought me to yoga was that is had a profound effect of the depression I was in at the time. I practiced regularly early on and began to laugh and have been laughing ever since.

Most embarrassing/awkward/funniest moment in a class?

Practicing hot yoga its gonna get sweaty and as a guy I often take the opportunity to take my top off. I remember once trying out a new mat and once we got to rock and roll in the class the sound of the sweat and my back against the mat made a rather loud socially inappropriate sound. I tried to explain that it was the mat to the people around me but i don’t think they were having any of it.

Who or what has been your greatest influence and why?

I have been blessed to have so many people in my life that have been inspirational and influential. Teachers from school/college, My first meditation teacher, the many yoga teachers that I have been fortunate to have. As well as Swami Satyananda who is an amazing inspiration for the teachings of yoga that he brought to the modern world as well as his work as a Karma yogi, and also Amma for her humanitarian work.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

I do enjoy eating healthy but from time to time I really do love to indulge in crap like crisps, chips and dirty chocolate bars like a mars.

What’s your favourite pose at the moment and which one challenges you most?

Handstand, Adho mukha Vrksasana. My fave and the one that challenges me. So simple to look at but so complex to perform. There are always good days and not so good days with this one.

What’s the one piece of advice you would want the world to know?

You have nothing to lose so be yourself.