'It's the new bingo': Meet the man behind Glasgow's yoga festival

Mick Gallagher, who has set up Easterhouse YogaFest on October 7 and 8, says the popular therapy can help people reduce stress and anxiety, and free classes would reduce the burden on the NHS.

He explains: “When someone goes to their GP for stress, we want them to be handed a leaflet and told 'there’s a free chair yoga class in your community, funded by the Scottish Government, that can help'.

“Everyone knows exercise is good for you, that mindfulness helps, that slowing and calming your breathing is a good way to reduce anxiety. Put those together and that is yoga. The evidence is there - yoga helps.”

Mick, who is a painter and decorator, discovered the benefits of yoga in his 20s when he developed sciatica, a painful back condition.

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“I really loved it, and wanted to teach it and help other people discover how amazing it is,” he explains.

He started classes for men in Penilee Community Centre, and demand was so high, he set up YoGlasgow, which now runs chair yoga and mat-based yoga classes around the city.

One of the aims behind the festival - which will include yoga sessions specifically tailored for kids, for women going through the menopause and for people suffering from long-Covid and other health conditions - is to help people recover from the last three years of the pandemic and lockdowns.

“Chair yoga is the new bingo,” he says, with a smile.

“Post-lockdown, people who were feeling anxious or isolated, or who had underlying health conditions, are finding things have got worse.

“Many community buildings, the places they’d go for support and help, haven’t opened back up and some services and facilities run by the health service are still being, in my opinion, ridiculously over-cautious.”

He adds: “We want people to be able to go to a place that’s free, that’s accessible for everyone - whether you are walking, or use a stick or a wheelchair - and that is in your community, on your doorstep.

“It’s drop-in, because we don’t do ’10-week programmes’ or put a time limit on it. We want to undermine stress, not exacerbate it by telling people the thing that’s helping them is coming to an end in three weeks’ time.”

Chair yoga starts with simple breathing work and movements such as rolling the feet and ankles, and seated twists.

Mick says: “It’s also about socialising, about getting people mixing again after what has been a really difficult time. I’m really passionate about it.

“Yoga was - and actually, still is - seen as something that’s just for middle-class women, but it’s not. Anyone, anywhere can benefit from it.

“We run as many free classes as we can, but we are always chasing funding. I’d like to see the Scottish Government fund it from something like Police Scotland’s CashBack Community Fund.”

He pauses. “Money being taken off convicted criminals such as drug dealers, should be put back into the working-class communities where people like that are doing the most damage,” he says.

The Easterhouse festival, which takes place at the Phoenix Centre, “could be a game-changer”, explains Mick, who has invited local GPs, MSPs and councillors along.

“Easterhouse is just the start, we want to expand the festival and do it in the other big Glasgow schemes - Castlemilk, Drumchapel and Pollok, for example,” he says.

“We want to take therapeutic yoga right into the heart of Glasgow’s working-class community and show people it belongs there.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government recognises that yoga is a great low-impact activity with a focus on improving balance and core strength which provides great health benefits.

"CashBack for Communities, which reinvests funds from the Proceeds of Crime Act into initiatives for young people and communities most affected by crime, has already supported projects working in Easterhouse, including Basketball Scotland and Youth Link. 

"Applications for Phase 6 – which will run from 2023 to 2026 – closed on Friday 12 August 2022 and are currently be assessed. Event Scotland are not accepting applications at the moment but could consider bids during future funding rounds.”