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!

The Poses of Sisyphus

Dear Yogis

I wonder if your approach to yoga poses changes as much as mine does. My every posture is like a postcard from the past; a chronicle of the journey from impossible or inelegant to not-too-bad. Warrior 2 always reminds me of my original bottom-protruding inelegance. Until I found any height, Hand to Big Toe Posture (B) was five breaths of plummeting dignity. And what about the sheer persecution of hamstring stretches! Shoulder Stand deserves an ‘it’s complicated’ status on Facebook. After years of struggle I found to my surprise and delight the holy grail of surrender and stillness. Things changed after I was in a Hit & Run. Shoulder Stand was as broken as my bike and the uphill climb started again. It’s my Sisyphus pose along with Halasana which is a whole world of frustration.

In a ‘level 2’ class this week the teacher offered various options for poses – as most teachers do – so I did Shoulder Stand against the wall keeping my feet on the wall. Ahhhhh, glory! That’s where the posture is! Another one is Bound Marichyasana C. Why am I struggling to bind when the posture (twisting the spine, calming the mind) happens when I don’t! Ambition o’vaults itself; postures get lost. I’m entering my third decade of yoga and I think light bulbs are only just going on.

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. The second retreat is full.

Home Studio

There are plenty of places to book for next week in the Ashtanga-based classes of Wednesday and Thursday. It’s a delight to welcome new people to my joyful Home Studio. The stretchy classes are popular and packed so it’s probably time to add another class. If a Tuesday 6.00pm class suits you, let me know.

Training

Join me in one of these! Next Saturday February 10th, I’ve signed up for Chakrabatics with Stewart Gilchrist at Indaba. The following weekend I’m in Winchester at the Day Christensen workshops. A long way in advance, in April, I’ve signed up for Eddie Stern workshops in Brixton and in May, when summer will be well on the way, I’ve signed up for Kino MacGregor’s workshops. One I haven’t booked yet but looks thoroughly appealing is on February 24th – a workshop in Ealing Triyoga with Zephyr Wildman on the koshas.

Yoga in the News

Frankie McCoy wrote in the Evening Standard about how bad posture, specifically the spine, is at the root of so much of what makes s feel bad. I couldn’t find it online so it is attached. A really good read. (Grateful to Emma Leahy for sending it to me.)

This is an ‘article’ about Yoga for Energy from Inside Time, The National Newspaper for Prisoners and Detainees. It’s not so much an article than a chart of postures. Pretty useful!

If you like podcasts, I’ve been listening to Fit & Fearless on Radio 5 Live. The presenters, Tally, Zanna and Vic, are not so easy on the ear but they are very inspiring and their tips are brilliant. They are completely positive and encouraging about their experiences, mistakes and  successes and, mostly, about lifting weights.

Savasana Sadness

Dear Yogis

Have you ever found yourself overly emotional or crying in Savasana? I was chatting with a yogi this week who said that he sometimes does... even though he’s a Northern bloke! It’s no surprise at all – in any part of the country. In everyday life we build up or various personalities for work, home, friends, strangers and don many types of armour and emotional control. We layer that with tightly held opinions, politics and beliefs. On top of that, big challenges make us fight, flight, or freeze, all of which show up in the body (perhaps endless colds, perhaps thyroid dysfunction, perhaps psoriasis). The list of ingredients that make us who we are is exhausting! In the yoga studio we start to let go of those layers, those artificial constructions.

Yoga is like taking the armour off – or at least loosening it.  In class we peel back the layers, the koshas, and try to get to our truer self. Whether this is your intention when buying expensive Lulu Lemons or not, this is what’s happening! It doesn’t have to be about tears. Stretching and exercise releases endorphins so your Savasana might be in a state of bliss.

Greek Yoga Retreat

What a nightmare! I’ve had to change the dates of the retreat by one day. I found to my horror that Aegean Airlines has changed its timetable so it’s impossible to leave the island in time to catch a London flight from Athens. Both retreats are now Sunday – Sunday retreats. (Allcomers and All levels will be 9th to 16th September and Ashtanga with workshops will be 16th to 23rd). The price for the first retreat will change slightly to reflect one extra day. The website will reflect those changes later today.

Home Studio

I hope you’re managing to dodge cold & flu season. I had to cancel classes yesterday but I think I dodged the bullet. Samahan definitely helps! One yogi called it ‘magic tea’.

There are plenty of places to book for next week in my little Home Studio, especially the early Ashtanga class on Thursday. The new booking system seems to be well received but please let me know if you have reason to be unenthusiastic about it. Payment is now with Timely (debit card), not Paypal.

Cover

I’ll be teaching Ashtanga at Yoga West this Sunday from 8.30-9.45, covering Titi Rylander’s class.

Children’s Books

This week my favourite children’s books came out inthe Home Studio so I promised links. I’ve used Wai Lana’s Exercise is Fun with my niece since she was three-years old. It’s a gentle and colourful and engaging book. When she was a little older (six or seven) I bought her Babar's Yoga for Elephants which steps up from individual postures to sequences. Inevitably you have to hold your trunk in some postures. We held a teddy instead. My Daddy Is a Pretzel is a book I bought for a friend’s children (under ten) and, along with two other friends, they went off and conducted their own yoga class. It worked well.. I also bought a new one: I Am Yoga by Susan Verde. And here are some You Tubes.

Yoga in the News

The Metro this week told us that ‘Apparently, hot yoga is no better for you than regular yoga’. It’s the postures, not the heat, that benefit the body! Hmmm... but some people just like the heat on the skin.

Ashtanga Insomnia?

Dear Yogis

Do you ever have trouble sleeping after an evening Ashtanga practice? I usually hear the exact opposite but it is widely written that Ashtanga is stimulating and energising so it would be no surprise if it felt like a coffee at bedtime. If this is the case for you, you might need a much longer Savasana after practice – perhaps with legs up the wall for extra restorative effect. Leave out any backbending poses as they are said to be particularly stimulating. Traditionally, Ashtanga is practiced in the morning before the daily grind.

I put the question to an Ashtanga Discussion Group. Here’s an answer from one person which echoes other responses: “I think it negatively affects my sleep if I practice after early afternoon. On the whole though, years of steady practice have generally helped improve my quality of sleep while reducing the number of hours I need”.

Here’s another question which might shed some light on this... what is your Ayurvedic type? If you are a Vata type, then perhaps your evening needs to be particularly concerned with grounding and winding down. Here’s an article about the right yoga practice for your Dosha type.

Greek Yoga Retreat

There are plenty of places left on my yoga retreat for all levels, September 9th – 15th. Take a look at my website page for Greek retreats in September. Check out the Devon ‘Complete Wellbeing Retreat’ in October too.

Home Studio

Every now and again we take a look at angle strength and stability in our sessions. It helps in all the standing postures. Here’s the Physio department of the Australian Ballet to give tips.

There are plenty of places to book for next week in my little Home Studio.  I have a new booking system. Payment is now with Timely (debit card), not Paypal. If you have any problems, let me know. I have ‘data inputed’ with abandon this morning so that current bookings are transferred. If you have been inundated with confirmation emails, that’s why.

Yoga in the News

Here’s a lovely article in The Telegraph: ‘Should our children be learning yoga in the classroom?’ The thrust of the article is that yoga sharpens their developing minds and increases short attention spans.

GQ is telling its pump iron readers that Yoga is the New Rest Day and that it helps with purposefulness and mindfulness. Here’s what the writer entertainingly says about his introduction to yoga: ‘During the first few times I went, I would have been extremely self-conscious about how profusely I was sweating, if not for the fact that I was already extremely self-conscious about the fact that I resembled a stiff, spindly-legged newborn deer while trying to contort myself into each successive position‘.