Vagal Superstar Eddie Stern

Dear Yogis

Last weekend I trained with Eddie Stern who was an inspiration and intellectually more stimulating and enlightening in the few hours than I could have imagined anyone to be. His main lecture was on the parasympathetic nervous system, the one we indulge in during our yoga practice. 80% of this system is made up of the Vagus nerve, the oldest branch of the nervous system. This nerve is a wanderer – a vagabond - and stimulates lots of things: the bronchial, larynx, heart, lungs, diaphragm, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, and intestines.

Why is this related to yoga? At a very basic level, when we lengthen the exhalation, we engage the parasympathetic nervous system which is almost totally synonymous with the vagus nerve – 80%. A strong vagus nerve means a strong immune system, digestive system, blood function and heart function. It will protect us from inflammation in the body and therefore from certain diseases. It also means good emotional balance. If you have stress or anxiety, high blood pressure, back pain, diabetes, just as a few examples, these are dysfunctions of some part of the nervous system for which doctors may give pills but you can also work on bringing back balance yourself. Your Vagal Nerve might already be really strong in which case you’re a ‘vagal superstar’

Yes, Eddie’s lecture was detailed – apparently a four-day lecture in a couple of hours. The hallelujah message is that everything we do in yoga tones and strengthens the Vagus nerve: breathing with lengthened exhalation, breathing with sound, posture practice and chanting. Yoga works on treating the underlying factors to bring balance to the body. Hurray! If you want a little more on this, here is a Q&A article by Eddie on the vagus nerve which sums up his lecture. The more I find out about yoga the more I find how rich and clever it is!

Home Studio

There has been a lovely little flood of new yogis coming to the home studio. It’s such a joy to welcome new people here. I have had new music to play in class which includes Krishna Das Baba Hanuman and Anne Malone Aad Guraynamey Chill. Kino MacGregor will make a comeback next week. Last night we discussed doing another introduction to Mysore so let me know if that’s something you’d like to experience. For next week, see what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) You can book here.

Yoga West

This Sunday (15th) at 8.30-9.45 I’ll be teaching an Ashtanga class at Yoga West: 33-34 Westpoint, Warple Way, London W3 0RG. Here’s a map.

Website

Have a root around this website if you want to find out about my retreats, read previous blogs, want to introduce yoga into your workplace, or want to download an Ashtanga chart or Legs-up-the-wall sequence.

Yoga in the news

The London Marathon is next weekend so I thought this might be useful: Five Moves To Help You Recover After Long Runs from Coach Magazine. (Actually, come to a Monday or Tuesday class here instead!). The independent this week tells us that Adidas has launched a yoga clothes collection made from recycled ocean plastic. Actually, it’s ‘infused, with plastic but that might mean it lasts longer in better condition. It might be good for swimming in!

Blossom In Riotous Bloom

Dear Yogis

Friday Yoga Email time again but this time with cherry blossom in the trees, the positivity of Spring in the air and a faint, wintry sun whose rays will be hot and unhidden before too long.  With this sense of blossoming and positivity I want to share this with you the thoughts of Scott Johnson, founder of Stillpoint Yoga in London Bridge and Brixton. Scott is a teacher I know a little but instinctively admire greatly.

He has written a beautiful piece is about listening properly, not just with ears but “listening to the way that our own life is playing out”. He writes that this deeper listening is hard and we might not like what we hear; we might witness the ingrained narratives and hideous stories we tell ourselves. Yoga can point out how we physically experience the mind’s false narratives in the body and feel their tones and sensations (or aches and pains!). We can ultimately, in time, change our approach to those false narratives and let them go. This might be an inappropriate relationship of a false career path. (My CV is an unending list of those!) Letting go happens through creating new stories and creating new positive habits. “This is deep practice. This is yoga”.

It’s such a lovely read. It’s like a yoga practice; you’ll feel better after reading!

Home Studio

I have been asked about the mats I have in the studio. The green one is a Calyana mat. The cost is around £50 but I found it here for £20. The next one, several steps up in price, is the Atmananda mat by New York ‘mat creator’ Jhon Tamayo. Here it is at £75. I bought a little stock of the LOVE MAT by Lāal from the yoga show. I feel that they should have a Barry White voice but they are from Paddington’s motherland, Peru! They’re a cheaper version of the Liforme mat (which is around £100). These are £55 and you just need to pop over if you want one. See picture attachment. Otherwise, forget about mats and just come to class! See what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) Book here.

Yoga West

Next Sunday (15th) at 8.30-9.45 I’ll be teaching at Yoga West. It’s an Ashtanga class. The address is: 33-34 Westpoint, Warple Way, London W3 0RG. Here’s a map. It’s a very nice space to practice in with floor-to-ceiling windows and endless energy in the room. Come for the change of scene.

Free Yoga

Triyoga is holding a whole week of free Hot Yoga. This freedom-to-sweat takes place next week. Book online or visit Triyoga Ealing.

Training

I’m looking forward to studying at Stillpoint Brixton this weekend with Eddie Stern from the Brooklyn Yoga Club. I found this thought from him: ‘So, which Ashtanga Yoga is “pure”? The version that Pattabhi Jois taught in 1937 at the Sanskrit College? How he taught in 1948 when he opened his first institute? The version the first Americans learned in 1972? What I learned in 1991 when I started with him? Or today, as Sharath teaches it?’ I wonder why the idea of a pure practice even arises. Come with me!

Yoga in the news

Here is The Times telling us about one woman’s journey from yoga derision to yoga devotion. There is one nice thing she says about her yoga mat: “It bears witness to what you do on it, and what you think on it, day after day. And, somehow, as a result… you actually stop thinking. And even if you don’t stop thinking, when you finish your practice you always feel more clear-headed than you did before you started.” The second half of the article is about Yin Yoga and Simon Low. (Not an easy read if you’re an ex-sub!).

Upside Down Empowerment

Dear Yogis

Every time I teach headstand (Sirsasana) to someone for the first time I am newly delighted by the positivity that it brings. People smile with every tooth. They overcome a fear or hesitancy, set a goal and rise to it - exactly the kind of lesson we need to take off the mat and into life. It gives a profound sense of presence; let the mind wander and you’ll fall. It achieves what we are striving for in class, to still the fluctuations of the mind.

By what exactly explains the happiness that headstand stimulates? We get a good feeling from other difficult postures that we achieve but this is different. Headstand stimulates the pituitary gland (regulates hormones) and pineal gland (including secretion of melatonin, serotonin and dopamine). This means it stimulates a collection of happiness, positivity and relaxation hormones. Conversely, low levels of melatonin are linked to insomnia, fatigue and anxiety.

Finally, headstand will give you the sleep of kings! It’s the King of the Asanas, after all, and it controls the Kingdom! The Pineal gland creates melatonin sleepiness in the evening and dopamine wakefulness in the morning. I get lovely feedback from people who achieve headstand for the first time. There really is a ‘bliss effect’.

Greek Yoga Retreat

The retreat of September 9th – 16th is over half full, all will be coming to Kapsali for the first time. This tiny and exquisite seaside village will inspire your yoga and make you feel fabulous. Yoga in our normal setting takes the edge off life's stresses but yoga in Kapsali is practiced at a whole new level. The body unwinds and the shoulders drop down to their rightful place. I think of Kapsali as a place where my soul can breathe. Come with me.

October Happiness Retreat

Well, we’ll have to practice headstand on the Complete Wellbeing Retreat, October 12th-15th , run by Deborah Smith. You have another month before the Early Bird rate finishes.

Home Studio

I decided not to teach on Easter Monday but I have added a 6.00pm class on Tuesday to try to make up for it. See what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) Book here.

Training

Next weekend, on the mornings of the 7th and 8th of April, I’ll be doing the Ashtanga weekend with Eddie Stern from the Brooklyn Yoga Club. His lectures will be: How Does Yoga Work? and Yoga as Social Justice. Come with me!

Yoga in the news

Prime Minister Modi of India is continuing the rich history of Yoga as a political tool as The Guardian tells us: Yoga with Modi: Indian PM stars in cartoon video of poses. He has released a cartoon video of himself demonstrating different poses. He emphasises that the discipline, rooted in ancient Indian religious traditions, is key to health. (If you’re interested in how this fits in to the recent history of yoga, read Mark Singleton’s book, Yoga Body.)

The Evening Standard tells us that: Arsenal star Laurent Koscielny reveals how yoga is helping to ease his tendon injury. He says: “I can recover better after the matches. At Arsenal a yoga teacher comes once a week to give classes, which is another form of therapy that allows you to work on relaxation, meditation, breathing, stretching, many important areas for a football player.” (Aston Villa has now made yoga compulsory in the academy, says Birmingham Live.)

Breathing; You Just Can’t Lose!

Dear Yogis

I had the privilege of teaching chair yoga to Deaf Women Ealing. It was such a joyous and funny class. The ujjayi breathing was superb, (I bought little mirrors for everyone to practice the ‘haaaah’ by fogging up the mirror) and we discovered a few hundred different facial expressions to convey various levels of ‘ouch!’. Hamstrings are hamstrings, in any class!

We explored the value of full yogic breathing. I’m sure many people get a shock the first time they expand the ribcage to its full circumference; unused respiration muscles actually do strain. ‘Incorrect and shallow breathing leads to stiffening of the ribcage and wasting of the muscles of respiration so that insufficient oxygen is available for healthy metabolism’, says my book Chair Yoga. It goes on: ‘When inhalation is deep and full, blood is drawn from the periphery of the body towards the lungs, the heart fills with blood and its activity is sustained and strengthened’.

Remember that even when you think a class isn’t going your way, (postures are wobbly, muscles are uncooperative and bed is calling), the full yogic breathing is strengthening your heart and boosting your metabolism, and you just can’t lose!

October Happiness Retreat

If you’re interested in coming on the Complete Wellbeing Retreat, October 12th-15th , run by Deborah Smith, here on her webpage are meditation recordings of 5, 10 and 20 minutes. Have a go. I will be teaching the yoga component the weekend.

Greek Yoga Retreat

The retreat of September 9th – 16th is over half full. Everyone so far on this retreat will be visiting my favourite corner of the world for the first time and I can’t wait to take them… and, perhaps, you. Here’s an article the Guardian wrote just before my first retreat asking ‘Is Kythira the perfect Greek island?’. Come and practice yoga watching the sunrise coming up on Kapsali’s double bay, birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love! Leave this gentle, soul-nourishing place renewed and planning your return.

Home Studio

There are plenty of places in next week’s classes – two classes are still empty, so you might want to book a group of friends. Let me know if you want to organise this. See what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) Book here.

Training

In anticipation of tomorrow’s training (Saturday 24th March) in Thai Yoga Massage with Sensei Tassie, I took a Thai Massage treatment at Triyoga with Eve Khambatta and I can’t recommend her massage highly enough. She said: ‘Ooooh, you’re tight’ about 57 times which I thought wasn’t too bad! She worked some magic on what she called my ‘tightness’ (and I call ‘normal’) and I’m eager to learn those techniques. If you want to train with me there are still four places left. The workshop costs £25 and starts at 4.00

Today, this evening at 7.30, Sarai Harvey Smith is doing a jump-through workshop at Triyoga Ealing for £25. ‘Jumping through is also known as a floaty practice, when you can lift yourself up from sitting and jump back without scraping the mat. It’s the holy grail of Ashtanga!

Yoga in the news

The Mirror has the breaking news: ‘Why your back pain treatment is probably wrong - and how to do it right’. Guess what! Any yogi knows that: “To stay pain-free and flexible the spine needs to regularly and carefully go through its whole range of movements – bending from side-to-side, rotating and moving forwards and backwards,” … “This stops it becoming stiff and prone to injury.” 

The Metro has an advertorial explaining what Yin Yoga is – it’s not a bad read. They want you to buy M&S yoga pants!

Five Breath Fix

Dear Yogis

Have you ever wondered why we take five breaths in each posture in the Ashtanga system? Does it seem enough to fix tight muscles? Apparently, the Yogis who discovered Pattabhi Jois in the 1970s had no such restriction but when hordes of eager yoga seekers lined up outside the yoga shala in Mysore the five-breath tradition was born to get the queue moving along.

Pattabhi Jois, recommended various amounts of time for staying in a posture. Sometimes he said five to eight breaths. In an interview he said 10, 15, 100 breaths or, if you have the strength, hold a posture for three hours! Yikes!. Manju Jois, his son, recommends taking more breaths in difficult postures.

In class, you may be breathing your loveliest, longest and most lyrical ujjayi breath and still the teacher hasn’t called ‘five’. What then? Think of the very reason we practice yoga – the definition. Still the fluctuations of the mind. If they are not stilling then watch them; notice what arises; notice if it is frustration, the urge to giving up, the tendency to self-criticism. Watch all the other various voices that climb into that five-breath fraction of life. Trust your breath, watch the breath, listen to the breath, find inner strength and stay there. Unattach yourself to the number 5.

Think of this: the feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Saint Hildegard

October Happiness Retreat

Make sure you get the early bird discount if you want to come on the Complete Wellbeing Retreat; Happiness workshops, Yoga and Mindfulness sessions. Sign up soon to save a bit of money. It’s on the weekend of October 12th-15th.  The retreat is run by Deborah Smith (here’s her Grow Your Own Happiness Twitter page).  I will be teaching the yoga component. Here’s a review from one of the participants last year.

Greek Yoga Retreat

If you’re interested in the retreat of September 9th – 16th, there are still places – it’s half full. There’ll be plenty of happiness… Ashtanga in the morning and Yin in the evening and holiday in between. Get in touch if you need more information. Flight suggestions are on my retreat page.

Home Studio

My lucky home studio had a guest teacher on Tuesday - my guru Valentina Candiani. People came for a stretchy, easy class and found themselves in a Hot Yoga routine which includes some pretty demanding peak poses. I turned the central heating up and sweat was spotted! I’m sorry that can’t happen every week. Back to normal next week. See what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) Book here.

Training

Triyoga asks you to bring along a male friend for free! The offer runs until 18th March. On the 24th March, Valentina is hosting a Thai Yoga Massage Workshop and you can find details on the Facebook page here. 

Yoga in the news

The Evening Standard explains ’Why men are taking up yoga... Boys to Zen’! The article says: “Not even his tight white trousers could stop the Duke of Cambridge from putting chakras before chukkas when he limbered up with yoga poses before a recent polo match”.

The New York Times features beautiful yoga photography from photographer Andy Richter, ‘a Minnesota native and former ski patrolman, has been devoted to his yoga practice since 2004.’ 

Savasana Like Snoopy

Dear Yogis

I’ve been thinking about Savasana recently and, in particular, the yogis who can’t do it...yet! Some keep shoulders up, taught arms and stiff little fingers. One or two drum their fingers on their belly, check the clock and stare at the ceiling. For some, it’s five minutes of imprisonment. Sometimes, rarely, someone walks out.

One phenomenal yogi, he won’t mind me saying, would erupt with laughter and then quickly leave. Savasana was impossible but as his yoga confidence grew and grew, his mind really did still and he became a Savasana champion. One yogi squeezes every last minute out of the class and, while others are in Savasana, keeps going with more postures. That always reminds me of when I was a Spinning© instructor (indoor cycling) and of the cyclists who wouldn’t take part in the last five-minute ‘cool-down’. They hammered on the pedals to the last minute and got off the bike stressed, breathless and blood pooling and with the possibility of fainting.

After the body has been wrung out in postures, savasana is a post-practice discipline of letting the body rest, renew and repair. It operates on a different brainwave type which decreases stress, anxiety and depression. It’s important and, like other postures, it needs practice and it has benefits to give. If the thought of doing nothing is like death for you, it’s called ‘Corpse Pose’! This lovely blog says “It is about the old you (the one that walked into the yoga room) ‘dying’ and the new you (the one that’s just done a delicious yoga class) coming back to life.”

Greek Yoga Retreat

I’ve had a really lucky time with my previous two retreats in Kythera. I have seen so many people fall in love with the island and return again and again. We have no idea what next year will bring, if we will be in the EU Open Skies Agreement and how easy it will be to fly. This is your year to discover a yoga retreat in an idyllic corner of Europe! I really can’t wait to introduce new people to this lovely place. If you’re interested in the retreat of September 9th – 16th, there are still places.

October Retreat

On the weekend of October 12th-15th I will be teaching on the Complete Wellbeing Retreat; Happiness workshops, Yoga and Mindfulness sessions. The Devon retreat, in an 18th Century Palladian Villa, is run by Deborah Smith, International Positive Psychologist and Mindfulness Expert. I really can’t wait. It may well turn out to be where our Greek Retreat is held next year!

Home Studio

The upside-down stool made an appearance again this week. Headstands can be daunting for newcomers. (Handstands are easier!) With such a small studio we can always unpack fears and explore the posture needed for Headstand and Tripod Stand. We can find out which one is best for you. There are class places available next week on Monday and Thursday. See what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) Book here.

Training

Diaries out! On Saturday May 12th another Shakti Power Yoga student (like me) is holding a Mindful Movement Yoga & Energy Healing Reiki event. AliceLovesYoga  will teach her signature yoga practice and, back to the theme of Savasana, ‘there will be a small team of Reiki healers administering group Reiki (beaming) healing energy during Savasana’. Tickets here.

Yoga in the News

The Telegraph says: ‘Meet Michael James Wong, the yogi encouraging men to take to the mat’. It tells of Michael James Wong’s new book and of how he wants to combat antiquated definitions of being a man. The journalist doesn’t seem convinced! ‘It’s downward-facing dog... that still gives me nightmares.’ ’The next morning my chest and arms are in considerable pain.’

Huffington Post tells us that ‘IKEA has launched a new sustainable wellness and yoga collection’. OK, but I’m still not going there!

Superman Yoga

Dear Yogis

My flight to Madrid this weekend has been cancelled. I was hoping to rendezvous with a New York friend who is also, by chance and by walking life’s askew road, a yoga teacher. But the cancellation and the snow fixed my resolve to book my tickets for a weekend yoga retreat in June with Kristina Karitinou-Ireland, the wife ofthe late Derek Ireland who was probably yoga’s most colourful, characterful yoga. His obituary in the Independent says he did: ‘demonstrations in designer knickers and his own yoga practise... wearing only a thong. On his daily run he generally wore nothing but trainers, the thong and a personal stereo’. He had the body of Adonis and knew it. His phenomenal strength drew a lot of people to yoga. He clearly practiced with joy. He must have been scintillating to know.

David Swenson spoke affectionately about him recently and how he would do his yoga practice wearing weights. As the obit says, he got rid of the weighted jacket after he did a handstand and nearly killed himself: “it slipped down and hit me on the back of the head”. He was the teacher of many great teachers including John Scott who I have written about before, a few times, Petri Räisänen the phenomenal Finnish teacher, Hamish Hendry of Ashtanga Yoga London, and Kiros Tzannes who I practice with in Kythera. Kristina Karitinou-Ireland says: ‘Derek's students were actually the ones who made Ashtanga so popular in Europe’. She will be in Kythera on June 1st- 3rd. Let me know if you fancy joining me.

Greek Yoga Retreat

Here are some reasons you should book a yoga retreat...possibly with me in Kythera in September! Go to a place of beauty; a place where the soul can breathe. Surround yourself with good company and a great vibe. Get to know the local community. Do lots of yoga. Swim, trek, run and take other lovely pastimes in the sun. Discover different tavernas and bars. Be a tourist and learn something about another little location on this planet. Wake up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction. If you don’t feel like you are the ‘type’ that would do a yoga retreat, then try this one...

My retreats are on Kythera, Aphrodite’s own Island. Yes, she was born there! Kiros Tzannes told our first retreat yogis that Kapsali Bay is shaped like an ‘Om’ and has healing properties.  It’s the perfect place for relaxing and recharging, reclaiming the person that you could be. If you’re interested in the retreat of September 9th – 16th, get in touch.

Home Studio

Week after week new yogis come to my lucky Home Studio. If you don’t want to practice with colleagues at work, if you don’t want big classes, if gyms don’t turn you on,  if you can’t decipher yoga studio class descriptions, if a small group is what you’re after, if you want to get to know others in class and not be a stranger, come and have a go. See what’s available here. Book here.

Yoga in the News

The Telegraph tells us: ‘Ringing the changes: why gong baths are the new yoga’. The writer helpfully tells us that participants “move into different states of consciousness as different sound waves affect their bodies. During a session, they can move from a normal waking state (beta) to a relaxed consciousness (alpha), to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, deep meditation (theta), and deep sleep (delta) where internal healing naturally occurs”. Here’s some feedback: “In most cases a gong experience feels like a psychedelic journey, without taking any psychedelics”. Cool, eh!

Here’s a sweet thing. It’s Yoga in the News if you include blogs! I received an email this week telling me: ‘I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Good Times Yoga has been selected by our panellists as one of the Top 100 UK Yoga Blogs on the web’. It’s only number 25. Onwards and upwards!

Guru ABBA

Dear Yogis

I don’t know if you have heard but there’s a scandal in the Ashtanga world. It rides on the back of the #MeToo movement and it turns out that Pattabhi Jois, ‘Guruji,’ ‘father of Ashtanga’, touched women inappropriately. He died in 2009 but there is a call for the grandson, Sharath, inheritor of Pattabhi Jois’ institute, to make a statement of apology. He hasn’t said anything about that but he has deleted many senior teachers, some taught by his grandfather, from the list of authorised teachers. Being on the list is a big deal - I read recently that training and the institute is to an Ashtangi what MIT is to an aspiring engineer! Ashtangi feelings are aflame.

Shouldn’t we, anyone who is hurt, look to text for guidance? Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras tell us to ‘still the fluctuations of the mind’. Minds are very unstilled, so that didn’t help! The lesson of the Bhagavad Gita is a call to action and devotion... it doesn’t help! There’s too much activity on social media and devotion has been severely tested.

This fairly ancient text might help! I had to laugh when I heard this on radio by Guru ABBA!:

‘Like a roller in the ocean, life is motion, move on.
Like the wind that’s always blowing, life is flowing, move on.
Like the sunrise in the morning, life is dawning, move on...’

When the student is ready, the guru appears!

Greek Yoga Retreat

If you are signed up for the first retreat, please look into securing your flights soon. The second retreatees found that BA cancelled the early morning flight on Sunday 16th September and the next morning flight doesn’t give the Minimum Connection Time at Athens Airport. Everybody is stopping in Athens for a night or two. Get in touch if you have any questions.

Home Studio

More new yogis at my lucky Home Studio. I wonder if the opening of Triyoga swept in new yoga excitement in Ealing. Who knew Ealing, Queen of the Suburbs, would have royal standing in the World of yoga! Every week more new yogis are seeking out a class: people are new to yoga, returning after years or just looking for a new place to practice. It’s lovely!  There are plenty of places next week. See what’s available here. Book here.

Training

Tomorrow, Saturday 24th, I am signed up for The koshas: 5 Spiralling Layers of Being with Zephyr Wildman in Triyoga Ealing. It’s at 14:00 - 16:30 so there’s no clash with Mark Colleano’s Ashtanga class at 18.30. Come with me!

Yoga in the News

The New York Times, no less, has an article called ‘So, You Say You Want to Do the Splits?‘. Never give up on the dream says the yoga teacher-author of ‘Even the Stiffest People Can Do the Splits: A Four-Week Stretching Plan to Achieve Amazing Health’. It’s a very readable review. The bulk of the book is “a short story; ‘How Are You Going to Achieve Anything If You Can’t Even Do the Splits?’ about two shame-ridden employees of a corporation in Japan who discover the joys and benisons of shake yoga”.

Cold is coming! Stay warm!

Yoga! Not Philosophy!

Dear Yogis

I have a little four-hour, once-a-week job at Triyoga Ealing on Sunday afternoons. I potter around cleaning up, refilling water bottles, replacing incense sticks, preparing studios and helping yogis and teachers. It’s a lovely job in a peaceful place so, quite by contrast, I heard a frustrated yogi coming out of a class announcing: ‘Don’t give me philosophy! Just give me yoga’. Hmmmm. Well, I’m not so sure I was very different back in the day.

It's possible to be a yoga practitioner without ever touching yoga postures. The inverse is also true - you can practice yoga without an interest in the ‘mind stuff’... but why not get a personal trainer and work the body that way? The physical results are quicker and there’s absolutely no philosophy.

But you’re drawn to yoga! You don’t need to acknowledge it but you’re meditating for the length of the class. However dynamic the class is, breath-focus means that calm is encouraged in the mind. The definition of yoga from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is to still the fluctuations of the mind. If you know nothing more about yoga philosophy than that, it’s enough! The waves are not separate from the sea. The shapes we make are not separate from yoga tradition.

Home Studio

My lucky Home Studio has welcomed a lot of new yogis recently. It’s such an honour to introduce new yogis or rekindle the enthusiasm of lapsed yogis.  There are plenty of places to book for next week,  

Greek Yoga Retreat

I bought my tickets for London - Athens - Kythera and I have a couple of observations. The first is to watch the baggage restrictions between BA and Aegean and Sky Express. I got the first flight out of Heathrow which leaves an enormous amount of time at Athens airport so the second observation is that there’s time for a leisurely meal in the hotel opposite the airport. The same on the way back with the late flight from Athens to London. All details are on my website including suggested flights. If you want help with booking, call or email Eleanor Docarragal, at the Flight Centre: eleanor.docarragal@flightcentre.co.uk and her number is 0208 840 9179.

Training

Tomorrow I’m off to Winchester for the Day Christensen workshops. If you’re in the area, I hope to see you there.

Yoga in the News

On the Simon Mayo Radio 2 show yesterday Simon discussed the diaphragm with a clip from actor Martin Shaw and then with guest Christen Linklater, a voice coach. (Wind forward to approx 17 minutes into the programme). She explains that it’s the primary breathing muscle and closely related to the emotional nerve centre - your solar plexus. She mentions that when people ‘hold the stomach’ it makes the breath go into the upper lungs and is ‘restricted’. (In Ashtanga, the instruction is to hold the ’Uddiyana Bandha’ or squeeze the lower abdominal muscles in for exactly this reason – David Keil anatomy here if you’re interested.) She ends with the importance of sighing! It’s a nice listen.

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!