Fierce yoga, I swear...

Dear Yogis

Last weekend I attended Ana Forrest’s workshops to experience her ‘Fierce Medicine’ to ‘heal the body and ignite the spirit’. Ana’s life was scarred by abuse and neglect and even alcohol dependency at 4-years-old. As a result, yoga postures are not the main message of her teaching. It’s about healing, building strength and integrity. I attach the afterword of her book ‘Fierce Medicine’ because I really like her advice. You don’t have to be from a challenging background to neglect yourself; disregard the fact that you are loved, ignore that you have the capacity to love, and to overlook the power of gratitude. We’re all like that a bit.

The ‘F’ word made appearances in these workshops! Like a fool I asked about this in a yoga teachers’ forum. A hurricane followed. However, of the answers that managed to keep a low pulse rate, one Forrest teacher said when he went to his first yoga class he was ‘firmly in the grasp of PTSD having witnessed the horrors of Afghanistan and other armed conflicts’ and if the teacher hadn’t been ‘authentic’ (including swearing) he would never have gone back to class. Another Forrest teacher said: ‘swearing or curse words are quite often used in the training as a way of bringing those of us who are more tentative in our personalities out of our shells. We are encouraged, ultimately, to step up and be our most powerful and authentic selves’. Another one who teaches in prisons and rehab centres says ‘You meet the student where they are’. Ana Forrest herself says that ‘A lot of people come to Forrest Yoga because they’ve got a storm brewing inside them’.

Interesting, eh! So many styles of yoga for every possible need!

Home Studio

It’s Bank Holiday Monday, Carnival weekend, and I have the usual two Monday classes – 6.00 and 7.30. Book a place and have a go. No swearing, I’m afraid. I’ll also be teaching Jenny Fearnley’s Ashtanga class again at Yoga West tomorrow, Saturday 26th at 8.30am-9.45. (Talking of Yoga West, they are in a fight for survival. They need permission from Ealing Council to continue to operate and ask for our help.)

Training

This weekend, Danny Paradise is at Triyoga Camden. I haven’t signed up for his classes but he is such fun that I recommend his classes highly. I will be attending Mastering The Splits with Nathalie Mukusheva at Indaba on September 2nd. I can’t imagine what tips she might have for me but I thought I would present her with a fun challenge.

I’m also signed up for Stewart Gilchrist’s Asana Chakrisation on September 9th, at Indaba. Come with me! (Here he is doing a Ted Talk on breathing. At the end he talks about the power of breath in his life and how he discovered how to wilfully move his body through breath as a paraplegic having broken his back.)

Yoga Jobs

Triyoga will be opening a yoga centre in Ealing in November of this year. How cool! They have a recruitment day if you fancy being a manager or front-of-house or a number of other roles.

Yoga in the News

It’s all the usual stories this week: Yoga and meditation are good for you, a survey shows; Yoga good for your brain, a survey shows; Goat Yoga is good for you; Beer Yoga is good for you! Here’s a nice story you can check out if you’re in south-west London. From Weightlifting Champion to Yoga Instructor. Peter Cardona has also been a tennis coach and now teaches yoga in Surbiton.

Spin Those Chakras

Dear Yogis.

The more I learn about chakras, the more intriguing it is. It's a subject that begins to make sense to me now that I have taught for a few years and a few hundred people. In Teacher Training I had no interest in it. Now, I can see that some parts of the body refuse to respond to physical posture practice. How can it be that I cue drawing navel to spine day-in-day-out but some yogis’ abs simply say ‘no’? Why do some bodies look delicate, ethereal and without groundedness? Why do some yogis seem to punish their bodies with yoga? Why don’t some yogis care particularly? Why didn’t I for so many years?

Our consciousness, personality, experience and posture are driven by energy. Actors study this in drama school. You know what your energy is like: forceful or not, hedonistic or not, loving or not. Is your dominant energy power-driven (third chakra) or driven to charity work (heart chakra)? Is it pleasure seeking (second chakra) or intuitive and meditative (third eye)? Is it driven by creativity and expression (throat chakra) or driven by materialism and the need for security (root chakra)?  The chakras actually refer to things we already know about. ‘Unblocking chakras’ is really just a way of describing some kind of counselling or therapy that shows you how to recognise and tackle harmful patterns laid down in formative years. It’s not an obscure subject. It’s actually a useful tool for that old chestnut, self discovery. James French, the brilliant teacher I did a chakra workshop with last weekend, is teaching at Triyoga till early September.

Home Studio

There are still places left in classes next week. Book a place and have a go. Spin your chakras. I’ll also be teaching at Yoga West for the next two Saturdays: 19th and 26th at 8.30am-9.45. It’s early... but gather a group of buddies for a yoga/breakfast outing and it won’t be so bad!  These are Ashtanga classes usually expertly taught by Jenny Fearnley. If you need an introduction to the only dedicated yoga studio in our corner of London, come along.

Training

I’ve signed up for two workshops that you might be interested in trying with me. The first is tonight; Ana Forrest’s Celebrate Your Practice. It starts a weekend of interesting but massively expensive workshops held at Lord’s Cricket Ground to hold the massive numbers of Ana Forrest’s Yogis! The second is Stewart Gilchrist’s Asana Chakrisation on September 9th, again at Indaba.

Yoga in the News

Sweet, local stories this week. The Louth Leader celebrated the birthday of a 90-year-old who says that yoga saved her life. Half her life ago doctors told her she wouldn’t live long due to an incurable chest complaint. They seem to have been wrong. She’s still teaching yoga. For Cambridge yogis, the launch of an illustrated guide to children’s yoga makes the news. It looks like a good one.

This is an entertaining article if you agree that “all this constantly changing information on what to eat or which exercise class to take” means that we form distorted mindsets towards the idea of a healthy lifestyle.  Vogue UK asks; ‘Are You Suffering From Wellness Fatigue?’ I think it’s only about people with too much money and not enough sense... but see what you think.

I Did It My Way

Dear Yogis.

Following on from last week’s Letter From Finland and my little history lesson about yoga in 1975 California, hippies, drugs and carrot juice, here is Manju Pattabhi Jois’ account of yoga according to his father. It’s rather different to the accounts of the first western yogis who trained with him in the 70s and became today’s senior teachers. Manju said: 'My father never tried to control anyone’. There were no rules and regulations. We just enjoyed yoga. Westerners asked him questions but he laughed and nodded. Those people took that laugh and nod to be affirmation but ‘my father didn't understand English'.

Yoga was simple and easy and to be enjoyed back in those days. “Our job is to keep it that way”. (I relate to that entirely). If you miss a day it doesn't matter. Do it the next day. (I relate to that more than is good for me!). “If you can’t do certain postures you can skip them and go to the next one. That’s how you open up your body. The body has to open one way or the other. That’s why we have so many postures. When you start practicing like that then you really enjoy it and you get all the therapeutic benefit”.

How could this man not be my guru?!

Home Studio

I’ve been heady with my Finnish experience of Mysore yoga under the guidance of such a liberating teacher. On Thursday in my Home Studio all the classes were Mysore. This means self-practice in a class with a teacher to help, not to teach a class. Most people liked it! Some thought they might get to like it! It’s clear, even when not knowing quite what to do next or what direction to go in, everybody still gets a lot further into the Ashtanga practice than would otherwise be the case. I might add it to the timetable if there’s demand. We also had an extra 4.00pm class yesterday (Thursday). Let me know if that would suit you or if a lunchtime class would work for you. And there are still places left in the usual classes next week. Book a place and have a go.

Training

For something completely different, I’ve booked a day-long workshop called ‘7 steps to transformation: a chakra daylong workshop with James French. It’s this Sunday. This is a subject I gave no thought at all to before teaching. Now, it’s just obvious. The description tells us to dive into the hidden knowledge of this beautiful system. Come with me!

Yoga in the News

Here’s a lovely article from Business Insider on how to be happy. Matthieu Ricard, 69, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, is scientifically the world’s happiest man. The article is from World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where Ricard has been scattering his happiness to business leaders.

The New Scientist tells us that: Hot yoga classes reduce emotional eating and negative thoughts. They report on a small selection of women with high stress, unhealthy eating patterns and depression who were sent to Bikram yoga. Well done those women! If you’ve never been to a Bikram class, reading this account is compulsory!

Yoga is Dope

Dear Yogis.

I write this from Finland in the beautiful haze of its late evening sunset. I’m learning the traditional technique of teaching ‘Yoga Chikitsa’, yoga therapy and healing, with Manju Jois. This was the original use of yoga in Mysore in the 1930s when Manju’s father, Sri K Pattabhi Jois started teaching. Doctors would send hopeless cases to do yoga and be cured.

On our first day in class, Manju spontaneously recalled the simple and easy time of 1975 when he and his father took Ashtanga yoga to the hippies in California. “Everyone wanted to get high one way or another and when they started yoga they were already high. They all had the same kind of smile. My father did not understand why they were smiling. Then everyone was saying :’Oh man, there’s a new drug in town called yoga’. So that’s how it started. Everyone was looking for some kind of escape or some kind of answer.”

Manju said in those days it was very, very simple everybody just enjoyed yoga. It was never serious. “Yoga is a beautiful subject if you do it right. You’ll be happy all the time. But if you do it wrong it’s the satanic version. You get angrier and angrier. When people take it too seriously they ruin everything and become like militant sergeants”.

“The 70s was great. Nobody was serious. They practiced yoga, smoked dope, and drank carrot juice. Instead of rules and regulations it was free yoga”. (Interesting to learn that Guruji never preached giving up drugs. He just taught the yoga and let people move away from drugs themselves.)

Home Studio

After a week off, there are plenty of spaces available next week. I’ve missed you and, if you’re interested, I’ll demonstrate some of the yoga massage that I’ve studied this week. So far we have been concentrating on the back (scoliosis) and a small amount of knee therapy. All classes but the Tuesday class have spaces. On Thursday we can have a go at Mysore style yoga. Book a place online here.

Yoga in the News

Here’s an article that tells you who the best yoga teachers in London are. It’s a surprise list. I know a few and the others look interesting. Some of the more obvious names are not there, though, so I’m guessing this is the personal favourite list of the writer.

The New Scientist weighs in on the subject of yoga and depression and reports on a study which looks at the ‘link between meditation, which is at the core of many yoga styles, and boosted insulin production and slower cellular ageing. Yoga may also dampen down inflammation genes. (If you’re interested in the links between stress, sleep, hormones and weight loss, FMTV carries an entertaining interview with Jon Gabriel who lost 230lbs by rediscovering sleep!)

Didn't See That Coming

Dear Yogis.

My Ashtanga teacher, David Swenson, says that when you are new to yoga, you collect yoga postures as though you are building up a huge bank balance. He follows this sentence by saying that; ‘At my age, you start giving them away to charity’. It’s a funny line. But isn’t it the case that while we think yoga is all about acquiring postures, having phenomenal physical abilities, getting better and better, that fact is that we are really in the opposite business of discarding: ridding ourselves of a unnecessary thoughts, unwanted energies, useless attitudes, unhelpful approaches. That’s the yoga trick and you don’t see it coming!

We are training, in the length of a class, to make the mind a more skilful instrument for our daily use. The goal isn’t touching the toes but removing the barriers to a life less complicated. By practicing breath-focus and a handful of postures the mind de-clutters. With a quieter mind you take a quieter attitude to life and perhaps the noise of unsupportive relationships, unsuitable jobs, and unhealthy patterns become obvious. In the hush, our internal compass can direct the soul towards its rightful course. Yoga postures are interesting but not nearly as interesting as the choices we make in life having discovered yoga. It describes my life and I didn’t see it coming!

Home Studio

My little home studio is not operating next week. (I’ll be training with Manju Jois in Finland and hopefully finding some interesting material for next week’s email!) Classes here start again on Monday 7th August. There are plenty of places to book. (If you are not altogether sure if you’ll be free, please book late rather than cancel late. It’s proving impossible to operate a waiting list.)

While I’m away I’d love you to discover other teachers. The brilliant Jenny Fearnley is taking over the Eden Fitness gym classes and you can also take her classes at Yoga West. (Come with me tomorrow, Saturday, to her 8.30am class if you like). If you fancy wandering further afield, discover classes with Andy Gill near Tower Bridge on a Saturday morning. (I mentioned his yoga retreat last week.) What about some fun this evening at Lumi Power Yoga in Hammersmith with Friday Night Funk & Flow? Let me know if you fancy it!

Yoga in the News

The Guardian sports the headline: ‘Yoga in the office? Firms should help us stay well, says public health chief’. The chief executive of Public Health England wants workplaces to help improve employee wellbeing and public health by combating stress and preventing/managing poor musculoskeletal health. Actually, the article barely mentions yoga but cycling comes up trumps! HR Magazine recently found that employers and bosses believe that cyclists are more productive and had more energy than non-cycling colleagues.

 DJ Goldie is at it again in the Belfast Telegraph talking about how yoga saved his life. (Actually, I’ve heard him talk about it and it’s... a good thing!)

The Daily Mail had a yoga campaign this week with daily articles from a teacher called Barbara Currie who is in her 70s. Here’s yesterday’s article – the final one. It’s an inspiring read.

Have a lovely weekend. Good luck if you’re taking part in the London-Surrey 100.

Diet and Yoga

Dear Yogis.

Sometimes I get asked about diet – in particular a vegan diet. Before going any further I have to say that different diets suit different people (Ayurvedic principles) but, probably, everyone needs to look into supplements. Here’s a lovely podcast by my favourite podcaster Lucas Rockwood about exactly that. He had a blood test done and, in this edition, discusses the results with a doctor. They are a bit longwinded but it isn’t often you hear people talking about digestive enzymes and detoxification pathways and the effects of plastics and pesticides and heavy metals. It’s never a waste of time to hear talk of B12 deficiency, or if the sun gives enough Vitamin D (discussed at 27.35)? Artificially lowering cholesterol is a fashion... what are the consequences?

Does this have anything to do with yoga? Is there a philosophical case for a yogic diet? Jivamukti Yoga believes so. I have taught many people who instinctively tweak and improve their diet without any prompting.

Home Studio

There are plenty of spaces in my Home Studio next week. More and more new yogis are coming along; some ordered to attend by partners, all leaving with a sweat and a smile. Every day I reflect on how lucky I am. Many people book a few weeks ahead and so I need to say that there will be no classes in the first week of August. I’ll be training with Manju Jois. (Lovely interview with him here.) When you find that no classes show up in the booking system for the full week, that’s why.

Retreat

I’m not taking a retreat this year but there seems to be more and more interest in yoga retreats. In order to take the plunge and commit to a teacher for a non-stop week, you need to have confidence in their teaching, their kindness and their knowledge of yoga and its intelligent variations for different bodies and needs. You’ll have heard me mention Andy Gill in class and I’ve mentioned his workshops in previous Friday Emails.  If you’re looking for a recommendation, you couldn’t be safer than in his classes. He has a retreat coming up later this month at EcoYoga in the Scottish Highlands. Have a look.

Yoga Festivals

Having been to my first yoga festival, I’m hooked! Here are a few if you fancy some Outdoor Omming. CAMYOGA’S ‘Waterfront Yoga Festival’ is a free, packed event for just one manageable day, Saturday August 5th. Then, the Soul Circus Festival is outside Gloucester in Elmore, August 18th – 20th.  There you’ll find Maxi Jazz from Faithless DJ-ing a yoga class, giving a Buddhism talk and DJ-ing the ‘After Party’. You’ll find brilliant teachers I’ve mentioned before like Marcus Veda, Dan Peppiat and Ambra Vallo. Finally, Wanderlust 108 bills itself as a mindfulness triathlon. You have a 5k run, a 90-minute yoga session and a 30-minute guided meditation for £21.80 – £30. It’s in September on the 23rd and starts at 7.30 in Victoria Park, London. Celest Pereira from triyoga will be teaching – I have taken a January 1st class with her and she is very inspiring. Here are a few more options.

Yoga in the News

The Kilted Yogis are back. The Scotsman reports that they have a book called Kilted Yoga: Yoga Laid Bare.

Heart Chakra of the World

Dear Yogis.

I found out some lovely things about Glastonbury at last weekend’s Yoga Connects Festival: that Glastonbury is the Heart Chakra of the globe (who knew?); that howling at the full moon after Omming at the universe is normal; that hugging is preferred to shaking hands. Hanging out in a field with yoga nomads, sunscreen and vegan food is an excellent way to spend a weekend. You meet teachers who get invited from country to country, perpetually travelling to antique lands and foreign fields to teach. I made a resolution to go to more yoga festivals.

I have two new recommendations and if you get a chance to study with the following, please have a go.  Jim Tarran taught a beautiful, fun class entitled ‘Experiential translation of yoga philosophy’, quoting yoga sutras and ancient texts. Stewart Gilchrist, for the fast-paced and energetic, similarly quoted constantly but like a man possessed. He said that we may find practice physically hard but that is because we are stuck in Anamaya Kosha, the gross body. We aim to practice with the Pranamaya Kosha which is the breath and the energy body which we feel pervading and surrounding our physical body. True that! As usual, it was a privilege to practice with Ambra Vallo and Eugene Vegan Butcher (see attachment below).

Home Studio

There are loads of spaces left next week and lots of cancellations these days so last-minute bookings might also be possible. Come along. It’s less hot and we can put in more energy. This week we explored the Intermediate Series for a change. (Just a caution; when booking online click the 'Complete Booking' button and whitelist emails that come from the @simplybook.me.)

Summer Training

Yoga West has started it’s Yoga in the Park sessions held on Chiswick Back Common, Turnham Green Terrace. Triyoga has teamed up with lululemon to offer a series of free Sunday morning yoga classes at their Chelsea and Regent Street stores.

Yoga in the News

I teach yoga in a few companies so I found this from The Entrepreneur interesting: “How Can You Reverse Your Company's Work-Life Imbalance? Through Yoga.” It says employees’ expectations of the work environment have changed and bosses have to keep up. It’s not parking spaces or free food or old-fashioned perks that are needed but “a change from within” via self-improvement, happiness, sanity and implementing yoga values.

I once worked at The Telegraph as a sub-editor. We called the paper The Hurleygraph. Here’s an article that shows why.

Enjoy your weekend.

Magic Wand Yoga

Dear Yogis

Ahhhh, the absolute magic of yoga! Last week I was feeling nauseous, shaky, hot and dizzy before having to teach two evening classes. I had walked a while in the sweltering day and felt as though I had walked across whole continents! Legs Up The Wall posture was a god send and absolutely instinctive. Without any deliberation, my body seemed to know that bed rest or sofa slouching was not going to cut it. The posture is a magic wand! So much so it’s on my website now. Absolutely everybody can do this and I also used to start my Yoga for Sports classes like this. After half an hour I was completely restored.

Gratitude

In Greece recently I taught this sequence to friends including the just awarded MBE, Chris Shurety, for services to music. He founded the orchestra I was a member of for a decade, he introduced me to Kythera where he held orchestra ‘retreats’ and he is the reason I started yoga retreats there. Endless gratitude!

Training

After writing this I’ll be packing for a weekend at the Yoga Connects Festival. I can’t wait to practice with Ambra Vallo and acro-man Eugene Vegan Butcher, and people I’m hesitant about but I’ll have a go such as Stewart Gilchrist (who has the kind of Om that invokes the devil!), and other teachers I can’t wait to practice with like Jim Tarran and Keef Miles. There’s even ‘Dance and Yoga’; the description is accompanied by a picture of a couple in a Tango pose. Why don’t you come! Thea Gordon-Rawlings has a spare ticket you can have for £85 (RRP £250). Contact theajgr@gmail.com.

Eden Fitness Ealing

I’m very humbled to say that the brilliant Jenny Fearnley is teaching the two Eden classes this morning(7th July). She’s a wonderful teacher and I often tell you of her workshops at Yoga West. I’m so pleased to introduce her to the lovely Eden Yogis.

Home Studio

There are a few spaces left next week. Come along. Lots of newcomers have discovered my little Bikram studio so book early. While it’s so hot, the Ashtanga-based classes will concentrate on the seated postures with the option of vinyasas. It’s a nice opportunity because classes usually concentrate on the standing postures to the point that you will probably know the standing sequence but have no idea of the order of seated poses. (Let me know if you have any questions about your booking. Sometimes the confirmation email doesn’t generate. You must click the 'Complete Booking' button to secure the space when booking online.)

Yoga in the News

For Wimbledon fans, the Yorkshire Post tells us that: ‘British No 1 Johanna Konta is hoping a combination of yoga and mindfulness can help her handle the pressure at Wimbledon. She looks to yoga for mindfulness, breathing techniques and practicing something that isn’t tennis!

I thought this was an interesting and entertaining way of describing the benefits of yoga in a particularly Red Top way! The Mirror urges us to ‘Beat your body niggles by busting a move and ease your aches and pains’.  Wind, constipation, snoring and cravings... I suppose the things they thing will be relevant for their readers! Nice article!

Children's Yoga

Dear Yogis

I’ve been promising to look into YouTube offerings for children's yoga. The first thing I looked at was Fun Yoga For Kids for ages 4-10. After 4 minutes of waffle in the beginning (a bit annoying!) the 50 minute class goes at a good pace. It includes children doing the class with a teacher punctuated by cartoon characters announcing the next posture. It’s pretty Ashtanga, really!

The next is a bedtime story. It’s only 6 minutes and is an extract from a book called Good Night Yoga by Mariam Gates. It has a postures section and a visualisation ending (see screengrabs below). It's very sweet. If you like that, there’s a Good Morning one! My next choice is a proper class, not a game. Yoga for Kids - Vol 1 (All Standing Postures). With posture instruction and names in Sanskrit, this is what earnest yoga teachers will have their kids doing from toddlerhood onwards! Actually...I could learn a lot from it. It finishes with Sun Salutations. Here are the seated postures.

Home Studio

Thankfully it cooled a little last week and yogis were slightly less cooked (medium rare) during class! Some classes are already full next week, some are not. Come along. (You must click the 'Complete Booking' button to secure the space when booking online.)

I sometimes hear senior teachers complain that people only come to class to dress up in Lululemons (oops) and show off!  I can’t tell you how this baffles me. Show off what?! I only ever see people giving it their best shot and practicing with concentration... and enjoying the results so much that they want friends and family to come along. It’s truly lovely. It really is a practice for every ability.

Cyclists

The blessed day of the Tour de France Depart arrives tomorrow. Cycling can be a posture killer: tightening hamstrings, straining the lower back and bringing the shoulders forward. Why wouldn’t a cyclist do yoga! Here’s a lovely demonstration of 5 key postures for cyclists.  

Training

This weekend I’m training with Philippa Asher at Triyoga Camden. Phillippa is apparently the only British woman to be certified to teach the traditional Sri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga yoga method. I’m so used to American accents talking about ‘Guruji’ this might be a culture shock! Come with me. There are places left.

Grenfell

Yogahaven has its fundraiser this Sunday and here’s another yoga fundraiser for Grenfell victims if you’re in the Wandsworth/Clapham/Battersea area on July 7th. It’s run by Union Station Yoga. Hopefully these events will continue.

Yoga in the News

The hilarious news that Heathrow's opening a fitness studio so you can work out while you wait for a flight appeared in City A.M this week. I wonder if this is an admission that delayed flights are on the increase or if they think you might want to add to the stress of flying by turning up early and taking a yoga class! Anyway, Heathrow is “opening a studio in Terminal 2 this autumn, offering passengers instructor-led yoga and cardio classes”

Honour the Blessing of Each Moment

Dear Yogis

The yoga community has been embarrassingly quiet about Grenfell Tower but two yoga studios have a charity offering to raise money. Triyoga Camden has a fundraising evening this Saturday (24th) attempting to ‘Create Sanctuary in Turbulent Times. Next Sunday (2nd), all classes at Yoga Haven (63 Wingate Square, Clapham Old Town, SW4 0AF) will raise money for the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.

I think, as the politics settles into organisation, the yoga community will step up properly. I do hope so. There are plenty of yoga teachers who are all about activism; David Sye, for example, who teaches in conflict areas of the world. I spoke to him at the weekend and hope to organise an event in the near future.  Here he is telling yoga teachers to ‘wake up’!

Home Studio

I’m afraid I’ve made another change to the timetable. Pregnancy yoga really wasn’t popular. The one person who came regularly came from miles and miles away and it really is better to find pre-natal yoga in your own area where you can mix with and learn from other pregnant women. So I have a free space for a new class on Tuesday at 6.00 and I’ll wait to hear from you to see what you want – more Ashtanga? More stretchy yoga? More Yin? What suits you? The Thursday early evening Ashtanga class at 6.00 is now a permanent fixture to the evening line-up.

It’s hot in my little studio although nobody so far has turned up in Speedos. You can shower here and freshen up if you’re coming from work and I have all kinds of products for you to sweeten the feet and gladden the air. Don’t forget to click the 'Book' button to complete the booking process when booking online. Please cancel with fair notice...

Training

Tomorrow (24th) the wonderful Jenny Fearnley at Yoga West is teaching the whole of the Primary Series. We rarely get the time or opportunity to go right the way through the 90 minute practice so I highly recommend that you give it a go with such a caring teacher.

Yoga in the News

Ndtv.com reports that 54,522 people turned up for their 6:45 am session of yoga in Ahmedabadto celebrate International Yoga Day and break the Guinness world record. The BBC website asks: ‘Yoga: How did it conquer the world and what's changed?’. It’s a nice article with beautiful photography from International Yoga Day. The Metro gives us 15 reasons to take up yoga immediately which includes looking good on Instagram, new party tricks and, of course, wearing yoga pants!