Hanu came about originally from a typo. Even though I spend ten hours a day at my keyboard, I (to my shame) still cannot type without looking at the keys. When I tried, in an email to a friend, I spelled Gaby (my name) as Hanu. It kind of stuck.
I think of Hanu as the calmer me that’s emerging – the spiritual alter ego to my sometimes stressed-out personality. I’ve always had a bit of a temper, and I lose patience easily. But since I’ve been practicing yoga and being more mindful of how I react to people, I have definitely improved that. When I am feeling zen, I am Hanu. Yes, it’s stupid, but I think that anything that helps you to improve your temper – both for your own health and just to make life a little bit nicer for everyone – then it’s got to be a good thing. Some people might call it schizophrenia, I call it anger management.
So anyway, it turns out Hanu is also short for Hanuman, a Hindu god, and I find stories about Hindi gods extremely exciting. It’s one of the things I Google obsessively at work and buy books about, so Hanu has nice spiritual connotations as well. Here is what Wikipedia says about Hanuman:
Hanuman is one of the most popular concepts of devotees of God in Hinduism and one of the most important personalities in the Indian epic Ramayana. He is considered by some to be the 11th incarnation of Lord Shiva, and is considered the most powerful and intelligent amongst divine beings. His most famous feat, as described in the Ramayana, was leading an army of monkeys to fight the demon King Ravana.
Wow! The resemblence is uncanny. I will tell you about the time I led an army of monkeys some other day.
Anyway, I started to think that if I had a yoga studio of my own one day, I would call it Hanu Yoga, but somebody in Spain has already taken that name. How very disappointing.
I hope that explains Hanu without making me seem too odd.
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