Portrait of a Yogini: Stéphane Haskell author of the book "Respire"
Photographer @Amaury Cibot
Stéphane Haskell, photographer and documentalist, author of a very beautiful book "Respire" published by Michel Lafon and of a documentary "Breathe, Yoga, a breath of freedom"
I met Stéphane at the signing of his book at Tigre Yoga. Right away, I liked his personality, his kindness, his listening skills and his smile. He exudes strength, generosity, depth, serenity but also a certain fragility. Stéphane is a man who stands tall, an inspiring man, a caring man who has a wonderful gift: "transmission".
In all friendship, he immediately agreed to take part in the portrait exercise for tayronalife.com.
Stéphane owes a lot to yoga. Around the age of 40, Stéphane Haskell had back surgery and was paralyzed. Doctors said they could do nothing for him. He suffered terribly and his life became hell. After many operations, he returned to live with his mother, dragging himself from his bed to the kitchen with his only companion being his dog Elektra and his window and tree as his horizon. Then began the fight against pain to recover his body and a little freedom. Months of rehabilitation, years of suffering. Then an encounter that changed the course of his destiny: Thérèse, a yoga teacher. She introduced Stéphane to the practice of Iyengar and pushed him beyond his limits.
Stéphane finds himself and above all feels his body again. It was a long work of the body and the mind together. Every movement was torture, he will learn over the years to make his body move again, in accordance with his mind. It is this journey that he recounts in all sincerity in his very beautiful book "Respire" that I devoured in less than a week and that I highly recommend.
And to help himself and give back to yoga what this practice has brought him, he decided to make a film about his own experience; "Breathe, a breath of life" . A kind of testimony about Yoga around the World. Stéphane Haskell films and shows us the benefits of yoga whether in the United States, or in China, or in Africa, or in India. Yoga has its own virtues that allow you to work on self-esteem.
Today, Stéphane continues his journey and his path and is preparing a new documentary on Yoga and sound.
And it was quite natural that I asked him a few personal questions about his yoga practice that I am sharing with you today.
How did you get into taking care of yourself?
By force of circumstances. By hitting rock bottom and realizing that only I could make the decision to move forward in my healing with the tools that my first yoga teacher offered me.
What practice for your well-being?
Yoga came with the master at the right time when I was ready. A lot of resistance and fear, mixed with acceptance and enormous expectation. It has become an ethic of life that brings me well-being.
What is the ritual of your practice?
At my place every morning 5 to 10 minutes every morning and two group lessons per week.
What do you get out of it?
Stability and anchoring.
What do you carry in your yoga bag?
A yoga mat, purchased from www.tayronalife.com!
What is your favorite object/accessory?
A mala given by a friend in Bali
What would be your advice for Tayrona Yoginis?
Practicing even 10 minutes a day is better than a 2 hour class once in a while.
Where/how do you practice?
I follow several Iyengar method teachers who teach at Be Yoga , Tigre Yoga and Rasa Yoga rive gauche.
What is your mantra/favourite phrase?
