Shiva, Shakti, And Their Blistering Love Affair

Dear Yogis
Last weekend I did workshops with the visiting rock star yoga teacher Ty Landrum, currently on his European Tour! Please, please come with me next time he’s in town! He’s a philosopher yogi and his approach to yoga practice demonstrates this. He emphasises that yoga practice is about the exchange of your Prana and Apana– forces of creation and dissolution and the constant effort to align the two. These forces, he tells us, also represent Shakti and Shiva and their blistering love affair, no less, which reminds us of how difficult it can be to align our opposite energies. Despite their blisteringness, they made love for 25 years, probably an alignment record. Ty finished the weekend with the tale of the lovers to demonstrate their significance to yoga practice. Have a listen. Ty is incredibly entertaining. You can read more here if you fancy a long, detailed read!

Anyway! Our yogic breathing is where all this action of opposite energies resides: Prana is inhalation with an upward and outward action and is mentally uplifting and awakening; Apana is the dissolving force and pushes things out of the body such as the exhalation. When the two are in balance in our yoga practice “it allows our thoughts to open, unfold and dissolve”. This is the point, eh! Not grasping and attaching to thoughts.

We also had plenty of physical instruction. It’s so good to hear that it’s not just about bones and joints and muscles but, physically, he gave us techniques to move in an undulating way through Sun Salutations and in the postures we hold. Check it out, it’s beautiful. We did a lot of undulating movement of the spine. It frees the practice from rigidly holding postures.

Retreat.

One of the things we’ll be doing this year on our Kythera Yoga Retreat is a trip to Potomos Market in the middle of the island. This is where people come to sell their hand-made jewellery, their produce, their honey and ouzo, biscuits and sweetmeats, and the phenomenal the traditional liqueur of Kythira, Faturada, made with the local tsipouro, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and mandarin peel. Potomos is the largest village of the island and the square is a bustle of activity where people meet, barter, banter and drink coffee. I can’t wait to take you there.

I just bought tickets to go to Kythera in two weeks’ time and here’s what I spent. It might inspire you to come in September (September 21st – 28th) knowing that there is a non-British Airways/ cheaper option of getting there: Gatwick-Athens-Gatwick on Easyjet is £128.34 and Athens-Kythera-Athens on Olympic is € 110.60 (£95.50). Total £223.84. (PS. Sky Express is the other carrier to the island.)

Home Studio

This is what I’ve been playing in class recently which gets a lot of reaction: Indian Flute Meditation Music. Also this, which might make you vibrate...: Tibetan Singing Bowls. There’s plenty of space next week – for now! You can see class availability on my website (which I update often).

Training

Well, Please consider coming with me for this! I’ve booked flights to do a weekend retreat with Kristina Karitinou Ireland in Kythera. I was there last year; she’s very inspiring. In an old interview, Kristina talked about the similarities between the Indian and Greek attitudes towards their ancestors. Kristina says that the civilisations of Greece and India are spiritually connected and both are recognised as having given us the foundations of philosophical thinking. She says: “The Socratic inquisitive way of approaching discourse and the mental freedom he offers to human existence match uniquely the legacy of practice Patanjali has bequeathed us”. Yoga has a natural home in Greece!  You’re thoroughly welcome to come with me!

Yoga in the news

The Guardian has: Will I find mental stillness while doing these fiendish yoga poses? The article tells us: ‘Everyone wants to try primal yoga – a blend of tai chi, martial arts and vinyasa yoga – because it sounds so macho.’ ‘Positions are more awkward than a classic routine' and 'a lot of stances don’t reveal how hard they are until you’ve been in them for 30 seconds'.

The New York Times gives us: Five Lies Our Culture Tells. Here they are: Career success is fulfilling, I can make myself happy, Life is an individual journey, You have to find your own truth, and Rich and successful people are worth more than poorer and less successful people.  Interesting read!

Pop Sugar gives us: Yes, You Can Recycle or Repurpose a Yoga Mat — Here's How to Do It

(At the Yoga Show last year people were asked to donate old yoga mats to a homeless organisation to give to a homeless person so that it can be used to sleep on under their sleeping bags.)

Alpha, Beta, Theta & Delta Mind Frequencies

Dear Yogis

Happy Good Friday! The full moon is super close to earth as I start writing this late at night, reflecting the sun and throwing it onto our night-time. Full Moon Days are often observed by yogis in the form of not practicing physical yoga. Many teachers give a very muted class. Ashtangis, traditionally, don’t practice at all – a good idea if they have a daily 90 minute practice as many do. Some people don’t have the energy to practice. I do... so far!

Yoga is all about stilling the fluctuations of the mind and the mind can be restless during full moon. Why is that? Well, we have mind waves or mind frequencies which are measurable, and they respond to external frequencies and influences such as the extra gravitational pull of a full moon. Commonly referred to brain waves are: Alpha, which has the frequency of around 7 to 13 pulses per second and describes a state of relaxation. Beta describes 13 to 60 pulses per second which is agitation. Theta is 4 to 7 pulses which is reduced consciousness.Delta... you've passed out at between 0.1 and 4 cycles per second. As with other body systems, out-of-balance brainwaves might give mental and emotional disorders.

How can you detect your vibrational frequencies? Here are some suggestions from a meditation book I’ve mentioned before called ‘Inner Listening’: In meditation, see if you can hear an inner sound, a shimmering, ‘high-pitched inner ringing tone’ like a white noise. A yogi ‘might feel it in the body as a delicate, pervasive vibratory quality, a humming resonance, a tingling in the hands or a subtle, energetic presence, a continuous vital current through the body.’ (I get the hands thing).

Sharman and yoga teacher Danny Paradise says: “Brain wave function slows down with the rhythm (of music) moving the brain from Beta to Alpha states and sometimes into deeper trance states of Theta and Delta. This happens as well with breath in the practices of asana and pranayama or even just walking in nature. As brain wave function slows, perception, insight, intuition and ways of seeing can deepen” (He’s teaching in this country, in Oxford, in July.)

Take it easy and enjoy the beautiful moon. The April moon is called a Pink Moon because of the pink blossom at this time of year. In India, the birth of Hanuman is celebrated by his devotees. The splits posture is named after him.

RETREAT

A bright, gorgeous moon makes me think of the moon over Kythera bay. I have strong memories of watching the silvery moon throwing its sparkle on the sea from Banda Landra cafe. Sometimes I go there during meditation and breathe in the night time Kapsali bay feeling.  Come and drink in some of this magic with me. Details of the retreat are on my website. Valentina Candiani is the second teacher this year. There may be a third! Flights can be made cheaper if you take a budget airline from London to Athens and the cost of parking at Luton or Stansted are surprisingly affordable.

Home Studio

No classes on Monday. It’s Bank Holiday! Have a break! The classes on Tuesday are all booked up so I put on an extra class on Thursday at 6.00. We can make it an easy class to make up for the lack of a class on Monday! You can see class availability on my website (which I update often). The latest availability is attached to this email.

Yoga in the News

If you’ve ever been to any of the Triyoga studios, particularly our Ealing one, The Independent had an interview with the founder and owner. A View from the Top: Jonathan Sattin, founder of Triyoga, on reinventing his life and career through yoga. It came out in February. He says: “I used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day and a drink about 14 cups of coffee with two sugars each. Within three months of practising I quit all of that.” Yoga “Encouraged me to do better.”

The Telegraph says: Professional footballers are turning to yoga – here's why. “Shaking off its new-age connotations, yoga has truly hit the mainstream, and footballers are climbing fully on board. From the Premier League to Non-League, yoga is helping footballers with strength and conditioning, flexibility, recovery and mindfulness. Whether compulsory or through their own volition, yoga is firmly in”.

BBC News tells us that: Yoga 'eases my Irritable Bowel Syndrome'. It’s quite a good little piece! Have a watch.

Covered in Koshas

Dear Yogis

I was back at Amaravati Monastery for a weekend retreat last Friday... a silent retreat! It’s really striking that 53 people come together without introduction, names, accent, or status but purely with the equality of being on the same venture. No one says: "I'm a doctor" and no one replies: “I'm a lawyer... teacher, accountant, carer”. And then the dynamic that you might find in a group where similar people get together doesn't happen. The judging that oils the wheels of society doesn’t take place. Lack of a pronounced self-definition makes for a gentler and perhaps truer connection.

This made me reflect on what is called, in yoga philosophy, the Koshas. This is theory that there is an essential self buried under layers and layers of identity, ego and the word ‘I’. Identification with these layers gives a false experience of who we really are. There are five koshas. The first of the layers is the Food’ Kosha - the name for the physical self. If we identify to closely with this ever-changing, ever-ageing self then loss of looks, change of weight or declining health can be devastating. We strongly identify with body image and vigorously resist change to this altering thing.

The next one is the Prana Kosha which refers to the energy body. This might be the Yogi’s favourite one: identifying with the promise of vital energy, with moving ‘stuck’ energy, connecting to the energy of others, the energy in nature and purifying oneself through the practice of Pranayama. Big attachment!

The Mind Kosha is the next one. It’s easy to over-identify with this one. We are all the time caught up in thoughts and we identify strongly with our opinions and memories. “That means believing that the contents of your mind—your thoughts and feelings—tell you about who you really are, about the nature of your self. This is a critical error.”

The next two seem to hint that we’re closer to a truer self; the Wisdom Kosha and the Bliss Kosha. The first is your intuitive self, consciousness beyond thought, where Buddhi nature arises. The second is the Bliss Kosha where the mind chatter stops and a sense of oneness replaces the sense of a separate individual ego. Promising... but these two still involve identification with a layer and is still not the true self.

Not easy, eh! However, the experience of getting to know others in silence gives an inkling that we are not the things we tell strangers we are: the profession, the place in the world, the age, the taste in music, and all the other elements we spend a lifetime collecting to make up our treasured personality... the persona... the mask.

RETREAT

I bought flights this week and it cost £403. That’s for the return flight on BA from Heathrow to Athens and the Sky Express return flight from Athens to Kythera. You might make it much cheaper by using a budget airline for the part from London to Athens. NB. London flights need to hook up with the internal flight so you might end up needing a night in Athens to make use of the cheap flight! See attached for the Athens to Kythera flight. Details of the retreat are on my website. Valentina Candiani is the second teacher this year. There may be a third! Porto Delfino will be our home. Come with us!

Home Studio

There’s no class next Thursday, 18th.  If you’d like me to put on a replacement class, I could do Friday 19th at 5.00-6.00pm. Let me know if that would suit you. You can see class availability on my website (which I update often). The latest availability is attached to this email.

Training

Ty Landrum for weekend of Ashtanga workshops starts next Friday at 7.30: The Wonder of Embodied Experience at Triyoga Soho. Come with me!

Teaching

This Sunday, the 14th, I’m teaching at Virgin Active Fulham Pools, covering Valentina’s class at 11.00-12.15. I’m also covering this class in May on the 19th at 26th. I’m also covering Mark

Colleano’s classes at Virgin Active Chelsea on Saturday May 18th and 25th at 10.30-11.30. I’m also covering Alain’s 90 minute class at Eden on Wednesdays ay 2.00 till the end of May.

In our yoga community

Nigel Tufnell is a London photographer. His project is to take photos of 100 strangers. It’s so interesting. Peter Tatchell is one of his strangers. Paul Canoville is one. I’m stranger #223! Please take a look at stretch1000 London Faces. If you need a photographer - perhaps for your website or maybe portraits of children – get in touch. nigel_tufnell@hotmail.com

Yoga in the News

Reuters says: Workplace yoga can indeed lower employee stress. Absolutely! “Yoga is one of many approaches a growing number of employers are using to combat stress and improve workers’ mental health” and “usually requires low investment, with minimal equipment”.
The Evening Standard has: 7 best places to practise meditation in London. Both expensive and free are here

Sitting With The Spine

Dear Yogis

Joseph Pilates was known to say: “You are only as old as your spine is flexible”. I’ve been thinking a lot about the spine recently during my monastic retreat. We’re used to thinking of the office as the place where most damage to the spine is done but one nun said, rather wearily, “We do more sitting than an office worker”. Seated meditation is a practice of extreme stillness. Office sitting isn’t.

After a night of lying in sleep and decompressing the spine, de-pressurising the discs, elongating the body into its taller self, monks and nuns then start the day with concentrated sitting. Gravity is happily targeting their spines and dumping down on them. That happens many times throughout the day.

Whaddaya know; yoga can help! A 2011 study in Taiwan showed that the yoga teachers had “significantly less” degenerative disease than their control group. The physicians in charge of the study said “that spinal flexing may have caused more nutrients to diffuse into the disks. Another possibility, they wrote, was that the repeated tension and compression of the disks stimulated the production of growth factors that limited aging”.

David Keil, in Functional Anatomy of Yoga, asks: ‘How can we free our spine from the forces of gravity and our slouchy posture?’. He suggests: “Sun Salutations are a great place to explore... the movements of all parts of the spine. Look for the spine to undulate through the forward and backward movements in Sun Salutations. Try to loosen the movements a bit and even exaggerate them to see if you can assess which parts move and do not move in your spine. Then you can place a bit more emphasis on any areas that don’t move so easily”.

Hallelujah for Sun Salutations! (Here's Kino to take you through the basics.) It doesn’t cater for all of the movements of the spine but it’s a great place to start and a go-to practice to give your spine a daily minimum care.

RETREAT

I’ve designed a poster for this year’s September retreat. It’s attached. Please have a look. If you like it, would you be able to post it at work or send it to someone who might be interested? If you don’t like it, tell me and I’ll re-design. Details are uploaded on my website. My teacher, Valentina Candiani, is the other teacher this year. We may still have Lisa! The beautiful Porto Delfino will be our home and our venue. So far, we have a mixture of new people and returnees signed up. Come with us!

Home Studio

A couple of classes are full next week but most are not. Please give notice if you can’t attend so that anyone on the waiting list can come. You can see class availability on my website (which I update often). The latest availability is attached to this email.

Training

The next training I have lined up is on April 19th – 21st with Ty Landrum for weekend of Ashtanga workshops: The Wonder of Embodied Experience at Triyoga Soho. In the first workshop on Friday evening “we explore the internal mechanics of surya namaskar”. Ha!

Teaching

Next Sunday, the 14th, I’m teaching at Virgin Active Fulham Pools, covering Valentina’s class at 11.00-12.15.

Yoga in the news

At the beginning of the week, Business Matters had: Fintech lender Iwoca to offer Lirpasloof Yoga for stressed SME owners. I teach at this company! Nice to watch their You Tube and see their April 1st offering.

This article warms up and becomes quite a good read: The Guardian’s When I could barely look in the mirror, hot yoga untangled my darkest thoughts. The author says: ‘When I describe that time to people, I tell them that when my brain was broken I focused on my body until my mind returned to me’.