The Fitness Goddess and the Yoga Guru

Dear Yogis

My weekend of yoga in Kythera with Kristina Karitinou Ireland was, as I hoped, drinking from the cup of a ‘senior teacher’. She talked a lot about her late husband, Derek Ireland, who, with Radha Warrell were the first teachers to bring Ashtanga yoga out of India and into Europe. She filled in some unexpected history of Ashtanga once it left India.

She said that Derek Ireland changed the way Europeans viewed yoga – the only thing they could compare yogis to in the 1970s were the Hare Krishnas. Yoga had to be translated from the Indian Mysore method which, she says, was only for senior students who already knew what they were doing. In a class, teacher Pattabhi Jois would only say: ‘Ekum (one) inhale. Dwe (two) exhale…’ That’s it! The student had to know exactly what to do. Derek’s contribution was to add more instruction, adjustment and variation.

One day Derek was watching fitness goddess Jane Fonda and her TV workout because he was curious to see how she taught. He saw how much instruction she gave about the postures and introduced that teaching method into Ashtanga classes. So, when we enter a posture and during our five breaths in a posture we receive a lot of information, unlike the Mysore method. In Downward Facing Dog, for example, we might hear:  ‘Encourage the heels down, lift kneecaps and quads, pull the navel in….’ This is because Jane Fonda (now 80!), with her big hair and 80s tights and leotard and ankle warmers, inspired Derek Ireland with the effectiveness of her instruction.

Kapsali Yoga Retreat

It’s all coming together after my weekend visit to Kythera. I’m attaching a couple of photos taken at Porto Delfino where we will be staying to inspire you to join us. The first is a view taken while I was doing my morning practice, watching  the fishing boats returning one by one surrounded by a dance of hopeful and happy seagulls.  The second is a view from the restaurant at breakfast. Ahhhhhh! Click here for details.

Devon Retreat

If you’d prefer a staycation (!) then I’m teaching on the October 12th-15th Happiness Retreat run by Deborah Smith, International Positive Psychologist and Mindfulness Expert. The Complete Wellbeing Retreat; Happiness workshops, Yoga and Mindfulness sessions will be held in a villa on the River Dart in South Devon.

Home Studio

Our yoga room is repainted and refreshed and waiting to welcome you. You can see what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.)  You can book here.

Training

Valentina Candiani’s newly graduated Yoga Teachers will be teaching their first community class as part of their practical exam this weekend. It’s FREE to attend! Tomorrow, Saturday, there are 2 spaces left in the 10.00-11.00 class. On Sunday there are 3 spaces left in the 10.00-11.00 class. See you there. If you practice at Eden Fitness you’ll recognise one of our number. Also if you’re coming from New Energy Yoga, Winchester, you will see one of your yogis. To reserve a space write to valcandiani@hotmail.com.

Yoga in the news

Talking of Jane Fonda, The Telegraph tells us: ‘Channel 5 revived TV keep-fit with a live yoga class – so I tried it at home’. Tom Ough is the writer and victim. He says: ‘I struggled to get a sense of where each of my ungainly limbs should be’. ‘I tottered through the eagle pose…  and collapsed out of an attempted headstand’. ‘I strove through to the end, only occasionally thinking that TV exercise classes feature more than once in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984’.

Woman’s Health this week will tell you:; ‘The Best Yoga Pose For You, Based On Your Zodiac Sign’. Mine turns out to be Boat Pose. Oh joy!

This is interesting. The Times tells of KPMG’s strategy for supporting their workforce: ‘Salvation for a stressed-out auditor: compulsory yoga’. ‘In the UK its auditors are facing an investigation by the Financial Reporting Council into their work for Carillion in the years before the outsourcing company’s collapse…’ and therefore need yoga? I love yoga but it isn’t a plaster and the wound isn’t a graze!

Menuhin, Musicians and Yoga

Dear Yogis

Greetings from Kapsali, Kythera. I find myself on the international yoga teaching circuit! I arrived in lovely Kythera yesterday and taught Yin yoga to some players of Chris Shurety’s Allcomer’s Orchestra who are performing tomorrow. They sound superb. Musicians are interesting to teach. Their bodies adopt a certain position, probably asymmetrical, around their instrument and, inevitably, aches, pains and strains result. I remember David Williams (yoga royalty!) talking about teaching Pavaroti’s orchestra and deciding not to teacher Shoulder Stand to the flute player, who had held his shoulders and arms in a fixed position for decades, for fear or finishing his career.

Yoga and musicians are perfect for each other; appreciation of the rhythm of the breath is crucial to both. But backs are rounding, shoulders are fixed, the upper body is working and the lower body isn’t. Sound familiar?  It’s very similar to workplace keyboard warriors.

Yehudi Menuhin and BKS Iyengar (more royalty) had a friendship of many years. Menuhin said of his Iyengar yoga practice that he got: ‘less tension, more effective application of energy, the breaking down of resistance in every joint, the coordination of all motions into one motion, and…the profound truth that strength comes not from strength but from subtle comprehension of process, of proportion and balance.’ (Couldn’t this describe yoga for any profession?) He also said: ‘behind all violin technique exercises and hours of practice, the main goal is improved awareness, and that is the very goal of Yoga practice’. Amen!

Kapsali Yoga Retreat

I wish I could show you Kapsali. Those who have been here know this; you feel immediately lighter here. You breathe. The shoulders come down. The heart opens. All thoughts of rushing or stressing are vanquished. You tread your path in life easily... it’s a simple path; a sea-kissed, bay-side road, trodden languidly to the tick-tock of flip flops. On our retreats we frame the idyllic day with yoga. Ahhhhhh! Click here for details.

Devon Retreat

If a day of flights to Greece doesn’t float your boat then don’t forget the October 12th-15th Happiness Retreat. I’ll be teaching Ashtanga in the morning and Yin in the afternoon on the Complete Wellbeing Retreat; Happiness workshops, Yoga and Mindfulness sessions. It will be held in an 18th Century Palladian Villa and is run by Deborah Smith, International Positive Psychologist and Mindfulness Expert. 

Home Studio

There are no classes this Monday. Back on track on Tuesday. To come to my Home Studio you can see what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.)  You can book here. Please don’t forget to let me know if you are observing Ramadan and need a calmer practice.

Training

I meant to mention last week… while I’m away try other teachers in the area. Cath Barnes-Holt is an Iyengar teacher at Triyoga Ealing and also teaches in West Ealing and Northfields. Ladan Soltani has classes in Ealing Town Hall and West Ealing. And what about Free Yoga? Lululemon in Westfield, Shepherds Bush, has free yoga every Sunday at 10.00. You can see their events on here.

Props

Tiger in Ealing Broadway have yoga belts for £4. They are excellent belts with non-slip buckles. These are the ones I use in my Home Studio.

Yoga in the news

Exciting news according to Biz Asia: ‘Swami Ramdev set for International Yoga Day in UK’. He’ll be in London, Coventry and Glasgow.

The Times last weekend gave us ‘Why real men should do yoga’. The grammar of the first article is petrifying. Scroll down to the third article on the same page: “It’s as good as weight training.” Peta Bee on how yoga transforms the male body. She quotes: yoga ‘helps you regenerate muscle cell quickly by releasing muscle tension, an essential step in the muscle-growing process. This decreases muscle recovery time and helps you get back to your workouts sooner’.  Also, muscles that are more mobile and flexible reduce ‘tension caused by pulling the attached ligaments and tendons. Not only does this bring immediate relief from daily aches and strains, it reduces the risk of common soft-tissue sports injuries’. Nuff said!

The First Lady Of Yoga, Indra Devi

Dear Yogis

We hear so much about the original yoga teachers of our time, Pattabhi Jois, BKS Iyengar, infamous Bikram Choudhury and Sivananda. In this male world, very little attention is given to Indra Devi who was a fellow student of Jois and Iyengar under the strict, famously unforgiving teachings of Krishnamacharya.

At first Krishnamacharya refused to teach Devi on the grounds she was a woman and a Westerner.   This is how Kino MacGregor describes their teacher-student relationship: He “set up numerous tests for her… assuming she would fail. First, he asked her to eat only root vegetables for months. Next, he asked her to sit outside his gate for two hours each morning from 4-6 AM and then go home with or without teaching”. That was in the 1930s. She was an actress and a socialite and this is not the kind of treatment she would have been used to! She overcame all obstacles and ended up teaching in China, India, Mexico, Russia, the US and Argentina and her first book was of the yoga that came directly from Krishnamacharya. She is the First Lady of Yoga, despite the relative silence that surrounds her name.

The only hoops we have to jump through are of our own making. Perhaps it would be easier if a teacher set up ghastly tasks. Here’s a lovely quote from Devi: "You give love and light to everybody - those who love you, those who harm you, those whom you know, those whom you don't know. It makes no difference. You just give light and love."

Kapsali Yoga Retreat

I’ll be in Kapsali next weekend, my favourite part of the world. I’ll be teaching the Allcomers String Orchestra and sorting out some September Retreat details. There are still places if you’re interested in coming. Next week’s Friday Yoga Email might be late! I’ll be practicing Ashtanga with Kristina Karitinou from Friday morning.

Home Studio

I was incredibly happy to see yogis in the studio that I haven’t seen in years. New yogis and past yogis come along perhaps for the physical practice and perhaps for the mental respite. Guess what! You get both!  To come to my Home Studio you can see what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.)  You can book here. Next week I will have two classes on Bank Holiday Monday  and two on Tuesday but none on Wednesday and Thursday. Please don’t forget to let me know if you are observing Ramadan and need a calmer practice.

Training

While I’m away try other teachers in the area. Cath Barnes-Holt is an Iyengar teacher at Triyoga Ealing and also teaches in West Ealing and Northfields.  Ladan Soltani has classes in Ealing Town Hall and West Ealing.

Yoga in the news

This article in The Guardian by Zoe Williams started with: ‘More things than I realised have their roots in yoga, because yoga is at the root of all things’ and ended with: ‘In a situation where you have to choose, always prioritise a straight back over straight hamstrings’. That’s pretty much all you need to know!

The Metro tells us that ‘Dog yoga classes are coming to London and you don’t even need a dog’. ‘If you’re bringing your own hound, just make sure they’re social, vaccinated neutered and insured’.

Dedicate Your Practice To God

Dear Yogis

I have often been in a class where and the teacher has invited me to dedicate my practice to God. But how do we open ourselves up to that invitation it if not brought up with the idea of a god? Kino Macgregor said that she ‘made her peace with the word ‘God’ when she realised that is was ‘way more efficient’ to use one word instead of alternative flowery language: ‘Today I’m going to surrender to the shimmering oneness that pervades all things in the notion of universal love’, or: ‘Today I surrender to God’. She realised that the word ‘God’ is dramatically more efficient.

If you can get your head around the idea of dedicating or offering your practice, you’ll shift away from thinking about what your practice can do for you. The practice of offering is called ‘ishvara pranidhana’. It translates as surrender to the supreme. In reality it translates as letting go of the ego and the smallness and petty issues that can pervade our lives.

Kino Update

Talking of Kino, here’s an update on Kino MacGregor’s workshop on the theme of Vairagya. She said: “The biggest thing that gets in the way of us experiencing the immutable truth of the spirit is the notion of desire. In Sanskrit this is called Viragya. It’s like the English word ‘rage’ – like a raging torrent, not just anger but desire, a powerful flow, a power that runs through you”.

I had so many responses including this from a wonderful yogi who I know through my Home Studio. She said: ‘I am a student Sanskrit ( and a native speaker of a few related Indian languages) so I thought I should share with you that the meaning of “vairagya” is not desire, but almost the exact opposite of it - a freedom or detachment from desire or from “maya”. You are right in saying that maya gets in the way of a deeper spiritual yoga practise, so the idea is that we ought to get ourselves into a state of vairagya to begin to experience our true essence - both on and off the mat’.

I looked back on my notes. Yes, Kino said that too! I think she was talking with such high energy and excitement that the ideas were tumbling out in haste. I wrote to her. I’ll let you know what she says.

Kapsali Yoga Retreat

Thank you to the Yogis who have paid in full. Here’s a gentle reminder to others to suggest an instalment plan. There are places still on the first retreat. These are the costs: Single £700; Shared Double £650 (Each); Shared Apartment £680 (Each). The deposit is £200. Please come!

Home Studio

Ramadan has started. If you want to still practice yoga, come to the low-key Monday and Tuesday classes. (If you still want to do Ashtanga classes there’s no problem but just take it easy – Child’s Pose instead of Downward Facing Dog, for example). Here is the Wall Yoga pdf so you can have a gentle stretch at home. In any class just let the teacher know that you want to conserve energy due to Ramadan. To come to my Home Studio you can see what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.) You can book here.

Yoga in the news

The Metro tells us that ‘Yoga has lost its zen thanks to show-off influencers and novelty studios’. The writer feels that the West has ruined yoga with our ’amateur acrobats masquerading as yogis’. The writer reminisces that: ‘When I started practising years ago, it was in a dingy university hall with crap mats and bad balance… And while there was no chance we’d ever get into a headstand, it was a pretty honest attempt to find mental and physical clarity’. Yuck! (PS. ‘Zen’ is there if you’re looking for it. If you want a physical workout, that’s what you’ll find. No judgment necessary.)

Vairagya, Not Viagra!

Dear Yogis

I spent the bank holiday weekend, all of it, in workshops with Kino MacGregor. There are many famous teachers with finely honed teaching skills but my heart opens wide as the world to Kino’s teaching and humour and cartoon-like noises and the easy, smiley way her philosophy tumbles out. By the end of the weekend I was so full of big loving feelings that I promised I would go and study with her in Miami! (Help!)

On the first day she talked about the Sanskrit word Vairagya. (I know! It sounds a bit like Viagra!) It means desire; powerful, raging desire. In yoga practice, the biggest thing that gets in the way of us experiencing the spiritual practice of yoga is desire; we want more difficult postures, deeper backbends, more flexible hips, longer hamstrings. But this is like obsessing with the finger that is pointing to the moon instead of looking at the glory of the moon. Kino says; ‘All the poses and the body itself is the finger pointing to the moon of the deep spiritual realisation that yoga practice promises.’

If you get lost in the Instagram hype of worshiping the body and physical accomplishments then you will always feel ‘less than’. This is something that every yogi has to contend with. Desire left unchecked leads to accumulation of things, not only amassing poses but pursuing the perfect job, perfect relationship, perfect poses, perfect house…When we have all the things we desire, will it be enough? The basis of all desire is the feeling of not being good enough; the feeling of ‘if only I had that, I’d be better’.

Yoga practice encourages you to relocate your sense of self-worth in the eternal and beautiful spark of your spirit (which in Sanskrit is called Purusha) that lives in all of us. OK. How do we do that? Vairagya is the active practice of letting go of the results of our actions. In class, the paradigm shift is when you replace desire with listening and try to experience the pose to see what happens rather than projecting what you want to happen. As soon as you hear the voice in your head saying that it wants the posture to be deeper, the hips to be more open, the hamstrings to be more flexible, THAT is your yoga, THAT is where you begin to practice.  The paradigm shifts to listening and mindfulness. Listening implies that we are open to change by what we hear and what we experience. Listening allows you to be vulnerable to yourself and to be compassionate to vulnerability in others. We have a responsibility to listen and to respond and to change.

That’s a lot to take in, eh!

Kapsali Yoga Retreat.

The first retreat arrives with the new moon, the Harvest Moon, on September 9th. The second retreat leaves just before its fullest glory on September 24th. I have never seen such a huge and shiny moon but that’s probably because of the setting, over Kapsali bay in a wondrous galaxy of stars. It adds to the enchanting spirit of Kapsali, the reason I am drawn there and the magic of teaching yoga there. Please come!

Home Studio

It’s always fulfilling to teach people who are new to yoga. It’s just lovely to introduce people to Ashtanga and see the spark light up in them. Thank you for making the studio such a blessed space. If you haven’t come already, come and have a go! See what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.) You can book here.

Training

To regroup after the weekend you really can’t do better that Yin Yoga with Ruth Voon at Triyoga Ealing. It’s at 6.15 on a Sunday evening and is just the stretch you need to round off your Sunday to dive into Monday.

Yoga in the news

BBC News tells Asks: Can prison yoga help tackle reoffending?  The first prisoner says that yoga makes her feel free, gives her hope and takes away her stress! Just like civvy street, then!

The Business Insider tells us that: Doctors are warning people not to wear Lululemon-like clothing during MRIs. This is worth knowing!  Athletic clothing manufacturers weave small threads of silver into their clothing to prevent smells from sweat during exercise. Metal heats up in MRI machines and people have experienced low to moderate burning. (Check out silver nanoparticles.)

The Evening standard tells us: This is the difference between Bikram, Vinyasa, Rocket, and Power yoga — and how to know which one is right for you. (That’s helpful – especially since I saw a class called ‘Space and Flow’ and had to ask my teacher what it meant). The evening standard helpfully covers the established types.

Light the Corners of my Mind

Dear Yogis

I practiced Ashtanga the other day with a mind resolutely opposed to any stilling. It became fascinating to see how one immaterial thought careered into another and another and another like a mad Bond car chase in tiny Italian streets. Watching the breath never had a chance; I was barely in the room. And yet, by the end of the class, I still felt better and a tiny bit closer to enlightenment, and incredibly grateful for the practice and the teacher. In Savasana the mind finally parked up and turned the engine off. Practicing a Loving Kindness meditation naturally suggested itself. You could do this in Savasana.

First of all, say to yourself: ‘May I be well and happy. May no harm come to me. May I have courage to face life’s fairness and unfairness alike. And may I have a peaceful heart.’ Then bring to mind someone you love and repeat the whole thing: ‘May you be well and happy…’. Then bring to mind someone you don’t really know – perhaps a neighbour you only see in passing, the newsagent, perhaps the person you buy your train ticket from, and repeat. Then bring to mind someone who is difficult in your life and repeat with a sincere heart: ‘May you be well and happy…’ Finally, you can widen the wishes: ‘May all beings be well and happy…

Yoga Retreat

There are still two places left on my September 9th-16th retreat. You’re very welcome to come but take a look at the flights – you need to spend a night in Athens. It’s straight through on the way out on Sunday 9th. There’s a 06.45 flight from Heathrow to Athens that hooks up with a 17.55 Aegean flight from Athens to Kythera. On the Sunday 16th return you could have the Aegean 19.05 - 19.45 to Athens and spend the night there till Monday or get the Saturday flight at the same time and fly back to London on Sunday. It’s well worth it! Come! (If you’re interested in driving over the Peloponnese and taking the ferry, let me know.)

Home Studio

There are 12 places booked and 12 available next week. The 6.00 classes on Tuesday and Thursday could do with a bit of your affection! No classes on Bank Holiday Monday as I’ll be training. See what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.) You can book here. You can also see my Eden Fitness classes and the dates that I cover at Yoga West further down on the same page.

Training

It’s Kino MacGregor this weekend for her three-day Ashtanga immersion on May 5th-7th . There’s plenty to choose from if you want to come for just one workshop – backbends, handstands, twists and arm balances! After that, don’t forget AliceLovesYoga, May 12th with her team of Reiki healers! Tickets here.  Or you can fly with me to Kythera for the Ashtanga Workshop on Kythera with Kristina Karitinou. Way into the future in June I have booked a weekend at Indaba with Gregor Maehle who will teach ‘how asana prepares you for pranayama, which prepares you for meditation, with the Yoga Sutra explaining how all are connected’. That sounds right up my street.

Yoga in the news

The Metro tells us that: Lululemon and Psycle London are offering free yoga classes for Londoners. These are free yoga sessions in Covent Garden over the next couple of months from 8.15am and they started yesterday! Book Here.

The Voice Online tells us that the Balance Festival Announces 2018 Line-Up. It’s at the Truman Brewery May 11-13 2018. Take a look at this to get a flavour: ‘On Saturday, workout with Cat Meffan and Michael James Wong for a girls vs. boys kick ass yoga’. You’ve been warned!

The Telegraph covers ructions at the British Wheel of Yoga, the qualifications governing body: Yoga wars as heads of British ruling body quit in protest of 'interfering trustees'. The Guardian in 2016 has the background: Disharmony in British yoga community over moves to regulate teachers.

On The Pull In Yoga

Dear Yogis

The shoulder workshop last weekend with Andy Gill shone a light on some incredibly obvious points but things I had never really considered. He said that many people come to yoga not as athletes or gymnasts but from sedentary lives. We come with muscle imbalance, tightness and weakness already in place. On top of this, we immediately rely on the shoulders to carry body weight in Downward Facing Dog, Chaturanga and arm balances. The shoulder structure is designed for incredible mobility, not enormous weight-bearing.

Some of you find Chaturanga totally elusive but it’s not really shoulder design at fault. Here’s why… we’re not working our muscles groups equally in our yoga practice. There’s plenty of push effort but no pull activity, like rowing or pull-ups, so perhaps we’re in the habit of only using half the muscles available to us. By chance, I found this piece about ‘Yoga’s Missing Nutrients’ and advising us to get a pull-up bar! Even just hanging is recommended. The upside-down rowing is doable – just about! (I just did four and a half (!) and you can probably hear my thumping, jumping heart!). The grip action will also strengthen wrists. And here’s a lovely demonstration from Yoga Journal on ‘Cross-training for Chaturanga’!  

Yoga Retreat

There are four full months to go before the need to pack starts nudging our consciousness. Please include your mat, a cork block and a yoga belt. I notice that Decathlon has some good prices. I’ll write to everyone this weekend to make sure you have your tickets and travel plans. And I’ll send out some information about Kapsali village where we will stay: about the people we will meet, alternative activities, tavernas and bars and, to top it all, a picture of the gorgeous infinity pool in our hotel! There’s two places left on my September 9th-16th retreat. You’re very welcome to come.

Home Studio

My lucky Home Studio welcomed more new yogis, more joy and laughter and some really lovely yoga practices. There are plenty of spaces next week. (There doesn’t seem to be any demand for the 6.00 Tuesday class so I might cancel it if no one needs it). See what’s available here. (I update this before posting this email.) You can book here.

Training

May is a packed month for training. Join me on one or all of these. Kino MacGregor is doing a three-day Ashtanga immersion on May 5th-7th at Seymour Leisure Centre – a big venue to pack the numbers in. I have also signed up for AliceLovesYoga  on May 12th. She will teach Yoga with a small team of Reiki healers! Tickets here. At the end of May I’m flying out to Greece for the Ashtanga Workshop on Kythera with Kristina Karitinou. Please come!

Yoga in the news

Business.com has this great article: ‘Yoga in the Workplace: More Than a Wellness Fad’. Absolutely! The writer is a corporate lawyer who says ‘Beyond the physical benefits, we've witnessed a change in the day-to-day interactions around our offices. Collaboration has increased as listening skills and emotional intelligence play a more significant role. Company events often focus around fitness and competition rather than food. Employees are happier, office morale is consistently positive and retention rates have grown’.

The Telegraph gives us: ‘HIIT x Yoga: the rise of the mash-up fitness class’. The mash up combines yoga with Spinning or with High Intensity Interval Training. “Many people don’t want to sacrifice a ‘workout’ for a yoga class but the mash-up option offers a balance between functional strength and mobility and flexibility." Good Grief!

Why Does Yoga Work?

Dear Yogis

Last week, I wrote about Eddie Stern and the vargus nerve. He started his lecture by asking ‘Why does yoga work?’ Having established the significance of the parasympathetic nervous system and the vargus nerve, he then wanted to know: ‘how do we make the vargus nerve stronger and reap more benefits from yoga practice for a wider assortment of conditions? Here comes the science bit. Concentrate, as Jennifer Anniston used to say!

Four things improve Vagus nerve tone. The first is breathing consciously which changes the PH level of the blood and balances the parasympathetic (PSNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems. If we live life on the acceleration pedal, SNS overload, the system reorganises to a new reality of overstimulation with a higher heart rate and higher blood pressure. Conscious breathing, lengthening the exhale, breathing with sound (Sound of the Sea breathing) and breathing with vocalisation (like Om-ing) hacks into the nervous system and presses on the brake pedal.

Number two is chanting and singing. The vagus nerve is connected to the vocal cords and the muscles at the back of the throat and so is toned by chanting. Number three is posture practice. This is because of Baroreceptors which are all over the body sensing blood flow and blood pressure and sending messages back to the brain to make adjustments. Yoga postures, by making us concentrate and use strength while consciously breathing and slowing down the heart rate, bring balance to this monitoring system.

The last thing which tones the vagus nerve, I like this one, is behaviour. Things that negatively affect vagus nerve tone and heart rate variability are; anger, irritation, judgment, criticism, stress, overwork. The opposite, things like gratitude, compassion, love and positive thinking, have been shown to tone the vagus nerve and improve heart rate variability.

Do Yoga!

Yoga Retreat

There’s two places left on my September 9th-16th retreat. You’re very welcome to come. By the way, if you play a stringed instrument and you’re more interested in an orchestra retreat than yoga retreat, check out Strings In Greece. There are places left for this year’s trip, Friday 25th May to Sunday 3rd June. I’m going along to teach some Yin Yoga. I started visiting Kythera in 2004 when Chris Shurety started his musical retreats using Kapsali’s Amphitheatre. Eventually, inevitably, I spotted someone with a yoga mat and so finally, predictably, I started my yoga retreats there.

Home Studio

It’s getting hot in my little studio; the fan is on setting 2 and the window flung open! I have added a 6.00 class on Tuesday and taken off the 6.00 Thursday class until the demand returns. See what’s available here. (I update this every Friday before posting this email.) You can book here.

Training

Andy Gill is running a workshop on Pain-Free Shoulders in your Yoga Practice. It’s tomorrow, Saturday 21st from 14:00 to 16:30 at Globe House, London, SE1 3JW. It’s £25. He will be teaching shoulder anatomy, ‘de-bunking yoga myths on what constitutes healthy movement for shoulders’, how to stay injury free and shoulder rehabilitation practices. I’m definitely going to this! My shoulder hurts! To book this workshop contact Andy at andy@andygill.yoga or 07913-615984

Yoga in the news

The Telegraph asked this week if Yoga improves your skiing. The journalist goes skiing with a snowboard champion who is also an Ashtanga ‘master’, Emilien Badoux, who aims to bring this feeling of calmness to all his yogis and skiers.

This piece from Health 24 tells us of medical research into four chronic conditions: 4 ways yoga can improve chronic health conditions. This is what Eddie Stern was saying – treat the underlying condition which is apparent in the nervous system.

The Evening Standard tells us, in London Marathon week, ‘Why you should take up yoga if you want to be a better runner’.

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!).