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.