Do What You Love WIth All Your Might

Dear Yogis

I’ve been asked to write about ‘complementary exercises to do in conjunction with yoga’. Well! I’m in favour of all pursuits: running, boxing, climbing, diving... Find something that you love and do it with all your might. Get Addicted. Find devotion. Get injuries. Recover and do it again.

Of all the various yoga types you could try in order to improve postures, Aerial Yoga with my teacher Valentina Candiani will elongate the spine and give pull-up strength for the arms. Thai Yoga Massage has the attractive nickname “Lazy Man’s Yoga”. Steam and sauna! In the 90s I was a Spinning instructor, tightening my hamstrings with every class. I used to hang out in the sauna for ages and ages and ages in my quest to touch my toes.

If, however,  you want the transformation to be of the mind rather than/as well as the postures, you need to find a teacher who can lead you into the traditional texts; Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Some teachers such as Stewart Gilchrist quote from the great texts all the way through class. I feel as though I’ve had a counselling session when I do his classes.

Home Studio

I’m teaching Ashtanga both mornings of this weekend at Yoga West: Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th, both starting at 8.30 and lasting 75 minutes. In my lucky Home Studio classes are pretty much booked but Thursday at 6.00 has a lot of free spaces. Please give me plenty of notice if you need to cancel so that I can contact people on my waiting list.

Training

I’m hugely excited that Triyoga is coming to Ealing on November 27th. They have an offer of 30 days for £40 and they will be holding a weekend of free classes on November 25th and 26th.  You can view the schedule here but bookings only open 8 days in advance. The centre will be in Dickens’s Yard behind the Town Hall. At last there’ll be decent vegan food in Ealing. I’m happy!

On Saturday 25th another student of my teacher/guru is holding a wellness event. AliceLovesYoga  will teach a mindfulness session, ‘Restorative Flow’, a veggie brunch and then a presentation of plant-based products.

Yoga in the News

This is a lovely article and I do agree with the Canadian Globe and Mail: Why pain has no place in a yoga practice. “Stop thinking about improving. You're there”! The article discusses the different between Functional and aesthetic yoga, one is for your health and one is for display and not necessarily for your benefit.

If you’re a foam roller this is a good article from Yoga International about the benefits and drawbacks of punishing the IT band in this way.