Alone in a Crowd

Dear Yogis

If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while at your gym, it might be time to try Mysore-style yoga. If you can commit to memory the Sun Salutations and Standing postures, you’ll be fine. You turn up, lay down your mat and start. Other yogis may have arrived before you, some after you. You move with your own breath at your own pace.

There's tremendous freedom in knowing the sequence and flowing with the breath in this way and that. This is where you find self-enquiry, meditation and insights. One GTY yoga student said: “Mysore is in some ways the same feeling as leaving your parents house for the first time, so many unknowns but... can result in empowerment which is just beyond words”.

In Finland we had daily Mysore. On the first day I was delighted with my cooperating body. Poses rattled by, like being on a train and passing beautiful villages. The second morning, some of the villages looked a little tatty but the journey was nice.  The third morning was a tatty train, tatty villages and an uncooperative body.  Thursday was better and Friday, not only better but utterly surprising and a glimpse of those inner ruminations that yoga promises. I thought: 'I'm finally getting this yoga lark'!

Home Studio

Let me know if Mysore-style classes are something you’re interested in. I can add it to the GTY timetable here. Yoga West has Wednesday morning ‘Self-Practice you could try in Acton. Gyms don’t generally offer it. There are plenty of spaces left next week in my little home studio. (I’m away from the 20th of September through to October 2nd. Places are already being taken up for the next three weeks.)

Training

Come with me! Tomorrow I’ll be at Indaba for Mastering The Splits with Nathalie Mukusheva This should be hilarious! Next Saturday I’ll be at Indaba again for Stewart Gilchrist’s Asana Chakrisation and I’m so pleased to say that a couple of you have booked to come with me. 

Yoga in the News

The Telegraph writes about Disco Yoga which takes place in Shoreditch. Hammersmith Today breaking news is free yoga every Saturday at 10.00 on Brook Green and Tudor Rose Community Centre. I just love this article from Pop Sugar about improving your sport with a yoga mind. The writer says that "over the years influenced every other physical activity I participated in, especially running".