Housework To The Rhythms Of Nature

Press, Volume C, Issue 29415, 18 January 1961, Page 2

Housework To The Rhythms Of Nature

Women can apply the natural rhythms of life to their housework. This is the view of Lady Dukes, whose husband, Sir Paul Dukes, is the leading Western exponent of the ancient Hindu art of yoga.

“Most women are besieged by nagging little worries—attending to the children or getting meals on time for their husbands. All these things use up their nervous energy,” said Lady Dukes in Christchurch yesterday. She suggested the simplest and most basic yoga exercises, to help women to relax. ‘Correct breathing is the first step,” said Lady Dukes. “Most women rarely fill and empty their lungs—their breaths are jerky and shallow. As a result, they don’t get rid of the poisons that accumulate in their lungs.” Basic Exercise Here is her basic exercise:— Lie flat on a bed—or even on the floor, and breathe in and out very slowly and very deeply. “Many women have let themselves get so flabby

that they could not do this standing up,” said Lady Dukes. “They should take it very slowly, and a little at a time. Gradually, they will be able to stop for a few seconds in the middle of their housework, and take a couple of deep breaths. It will fortify them for the tasks in front of them.”

Eventually deep breathing will become a regular habit. Housewives will then be ready for the next exercise, which is also a good one for keeping the body in trim. Stand up, with arms relaxed at your sides. As you breathe in—slowly and deeply—raise your hands above your head. With breath held, link your hands and turn round so that the palms are facing upwards. Stretch up as far as you can. This pulls in the lower abdomen and the base of the spine. Next, lower your arms slowly to your sides as you breathe out. With arms relaxed at your sides, take another deep breath in and out. Lady Dukes herself did not take up practical yoga exercises until the age of 40. Himalayan Sanctuary “I was interested in philosophy from childhood,” she said. Fifteen years in India

and travel throughout the Far East gave her an interest in Eastern religions. While acting as hostess for relatives who were governors of parts of India, she used to escape to a sanctuary in the Himalayan mountains, to study and meditate, sometimes for months on end, seeing no-one but a bearer who came each month with tinned food. "It was a little hut, two days’ journey from the end of the road, through range after range of mountains," she said. On her return to London after World War II she met Sir Paul Dukes, who taught her the yoga exercises. "I had not been Interested in the exercises before, although I knew about the breathing,” she said. She found that her Indian background gave her a better grasp of the significance of the movements. “We think and feel through our bodies. If our body is out of sorts; our thoughts and emotions are not what they should be. So the body must be kept healthy for the sake of the mind and the emotions,” she said. Healthier Than Ever

She found that the yoga exercises made her stronger and healthier than she had ever been. Within three months she was demonstrating on Sir Paul Dukes’s television programme, and has since made several television appearances, as well as writing magazine articles, under the name of Diana Fitzgerald. In her middle fifties, Lady Dukes is at what most women feel to be “the age of misgiving.” "It doesn’t need to be—this time of life should be the most valuable, full of ripeness and repose,” she said. For men and women of all ages, in this era of speed and frayed nerves, Lady Dukes feels there is hope in yoga for inner peace of mind.