Offering Your Practice

Dear Yogis

Have you ever heard a teacher say at the beginning of class ‘offer up your practice‘? Stewart Gilchrist says at the beginning of his classes something like this: ‘Offer up your practice to God. If that doesn’t suit you, devote your practice to the universe. If that doesn’t chime with you, offer your practice to someone you know”. With this ‘offering’ we try to take any selfishness out of our practice. It’s another way to free the mind.

In the Buddhist tradition it’s common to find ceremonies taking place to offer merit to departed ones or to people in need of support but if you’re not brought up with devotional ideas then it might be hard to get your head around. I found this on the notice board of the London Buddhist Vihara on how to make an offering: ‘As you make an offering, allow joy to arise in your heart; make your mind calm and contented; focus and fill your mind with the act of offering; and you will develop a heart of boundless loving kindness’. Nice, eh! Try that when you’re invited to offer up your practice.

One Of Us

I love it when someone we practice with has a big event or a great achievement. Professional boxer Hamid Sediqi has a fight on March 3rd in Bethnal Green. He’s a total inspiration. See attachment.

Greek Yoga Retreat

There are plenty of places in the retreat for all levels, Sunday September 9th to 16th. All details are on my website including suggested flights. Get in touch if you have any questions.

Home Studio

There are plenty of places to book for next week, especially on Monday and Thursday. It’s a cashless studio now – bookings and payments are online to ease the problem of no-shows. I still have a WhatsApp group, however, if last-minute places come up. Let me know if you want to be added.

Training

Tomorrow I’ll be doing Chakrabatics with Stewart Gilchrist at Indaba. Come with me. If you want to stay in the warmth of your home, here’s a You Tube of the led primary series with Manju Pattabhi Jois. The whole thing is completed in an hour. The film cuts out before the final two postures, Padmasana (lotus for 10 breaths) and Utplutih (lifted lotus for 10 breaths). By that time you might have been in Savasana for half an hour so don’t worry too much about it!

Yoga in the News

The Telegraph tells us that: New on the menu: Waitrose makes space for evening yoga classes. Lucky you if you’re in Newbury, Basingstoke or Banbury. Classes are £7. Apparently shoppers are spending money on events rather than things and so Waitrose is experimenting with yoga and in-store consultations with nutritionists.

Refinery 29 tells us: I Went To Meghan Markle's Favourite Yoga Class & Here's What Happened. It’s at Y7 Yoga, a hip-hop yoga studio with a cult following in LA and New York. It sounds like fun and I wouldn’t mind going!