Come With Me to Kapsali

Dear Yogis

The Botticelli clouds are gone and the rain is here but my eagerness to plan next year’s yoga retreat has been fed and watered by Kapsali’s magic. Here's my plan: to do two retreats next September, one advanced and one less advanced!  This would be in the last two weeks of September 2018. Let me know if you think you might be interested.

Advanced people, you will have to do a Mysore session under the pre-dawn stars! If you’ve been to previous retreats you know our spectacular workshop teacher Lisa Maarit Lischak  who makes impossible postures possible during the week - our Mission Impossible teacher!. Beginners, you can start later and take in a run or swim before the morning practice. Along the bay and up the hairpin mountain to ‘the capital’ is a nice hour’s run. Hikers can have a field day with Kythera’s marked and mapped hiking trails. Up another mountain is the chapel of Agios Ioannis on-the-rock where we can experience a pranayama/meditation practice. Kapsali, and Kythera’s special produce,  has all we need. You won’t believe the magic in the air here!

Home Studio

I’m not there. No classes till October 3rd. Thank you for your emails telling me of the yoga you have done and the teachers you have tried and for the feedback of cover teachers. I love how you enjoy yoga! There are brilliant teachers all around for you to experience. Classes next week are almost full but there are still places on Thursday. More and more new yogis are discovering my home studio through an online search which is thrilling but, as you know, spaces are limited.

Training

Don’t forget the Om Yoga Show is coming up at Alexandra Palace on October 20th, 21st & 22nd. Phenomenal teachers will be there such as David Sye, Stewart Gilchrist, Eugene Vegan Butcher, DJ Goldie with Benjamin Sears. This workshop caught my eye: Sarah Ramsden who is the yoga teacher at Manchester City and Manchester United football cubs will hold a sports yoga workshop. Download a programme to see all the free classes.

Before that on October 7th I’ll be in Winchester’s New Energy Yoga for an arm balancing workshop with my very dear friend the Mission Impossible teacher! Come with me!

Yoga in the News

This is an interesting article in The Voice, Yoga’s African Connection, which claims that yoga originated from the motherland (Africa) and not India. Published a couple of months ago, it rang a bell with me because of something Stewart Gilchrist said in a recent class. His comment was about the origins of Hindu’s animal deities. He said something like: ‘Are you telling me that a religion that worships the elephant, the monkey and the cobra didn’t originate in Africa?!’ This is an interesting aspect to look at. If you’re interested in Afrikan Yoga here is the website.

Sun Salutations to Kytheran Stars

Dear Yogis

I'm listening to the roll and tumble of Kapsali’s windswept waves as I write this. I got up at 6.00 to do my yoga practice on the balcony under a black starry sky. If only it were this easy to get up at home and practice in less, romantic, perfect, idyllic, superlative, stupefying conditions! That’s the challenge! By the time I finished Orion’s belt could still be seen as the sky turned blue as the sun signalled its arrival. Even yesterday, with a stiff, jet-lagged body, nothing could beat Sun Salutations to the stars. (PS. It is said that Sun Salutations are said to be the most comprehensive workout with wide-ranging health benefits and the only exercise you need!)

Mat Update

I have written about yoga mats before (here and also here.) and often get asked for recommendations. TK Max tempted me just before this trip with a £12.99 Casall mat. It’s unbelievably lightweight, incredibly thin but gives more cushion than you’d expect from a mat topper. On the flag tiles of the balcony it’s more than enough cushioning. The grip is ok but I think it will improve with a bit of use.

Home Studio

I’m not there. No classes till October 3rd. Time for you to find out what else is on offer in West London from Lumi in Hammersmith to Yoga West in Acton. I urge you to try out classes with my teacher, Valentina Candiani. I did her class last Sunday in Virgin Fulham Pools and I had forgotten that feeling of victory and sheer relief of making it through a class of hers. No other teacher assembles the postures in such a way that makes the muscles isolate and work hard or makes Savasana so sweet and deserved.

Training

On October 7th I’ll be in Winchester’s New Energy Yoga for an arm balancing  workshop with my very dear friend and fellow Greece retreat yoga teacher  Lisa Maarit Lischak. Those who have been on my Greek Yoga retreats know how much unbelievable progress you make with Lisa’s magic. Come with me.

Yoga in the News

After writing about Hilary Clinton’s promotion of Alternative Nostril Breathing last week i was told about an actual demonstration of the pranayama on Radio 4’s PM programme with Eddie Mair. It’s hilarious. Blow your nose before listening.

The Mail is again touting another footballer, Gareth Barry, who has taken up yoga, overcoming his prejudice and scoring more goals! Sometimes I think the Mail is on a Yoga Mission!

Good luck if you’re running the Ealing Half Marathon.

The Wise And The Wicked

Dear Yogis

The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 196 Indian sutras in a book that everyone on a yoga teacher training course has to read. We're not ready and, as with the Bhagavad Gita and other profound and immense treatise, very little sinks in. However, a friend of mine has been recently hurt by the betrayal of someone and one of the sutras flooded back into my consciousness: "By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness".

The Yoga Sutras tell us in the first line to ‘still the fluctuations of the mind’ and then goes on to tell us how to do that. Some call it The Yogi’s Roadmap! One crucial way to keep a calm and even mind is to dwell in good company. When you think about how the wrong company agitates your waters and, by contrast, how much beautiful energy you get from celebrating good people, you can see that this sutra is a great tool or reminder of how to use your energy. There is a yogic way to approach every kind of person.

Home Studio

I’m completely delighted that new people are coming here every week. More and more people discover the magic of yoga and the relaxing, re-setting effects after a day of work. I love it. Next week I’m only be teaching on Monday and Tuesday. I’ve added an extra 6.00 class on Tuesday 19th and there is still plenty of space on Monday. No classes in the following week but people are booking for the first week in October.

Training

No workshops this weekend but join me for classes if you’re free. I’ll be at Yoga West for Jenny Fearnley’s Ashtanga class Saturday 8.30-9.45 and then I’m off to Indaba for Saskia Vidler’s Ashtanga class at 11.15-12.45. Come with me. (Then to the V&A at 3.00 for an African Heritage Tour.)

Yoga in the News

I’m still ignoring Goat Yoga but this comes close. The Debrief reviews Hilary Clinton’s recent book on losing the election and finds this nugget: ‘I did some yoga,’ she said. ‘I tried Alternative Nostril Breathing. I highly recommend it. It calms you down.’ (That and Chardonnay!) The article includes CNN footage of her demonstrating.

Hips Don't Lie

Dear Yogis

What did I learn in the splits workshop last week? It was brilliant. Nathalie Mukusheva teaches with such interesting detail to target individual muscles and, importantly, align the foot properly. However, it’s as I suspected; the Royal Ballet will not be knocking on my door anytime soon. Walking with a strange new wiggle in the street afterwards I got a wolf whistle from a terribly young man. Oh baby, no! It’s not a come-on. My hips have gone! This prompted the need for a proper Nuad Thai massage the next day to put my legs and hips back in place. (Don't be put off if you think a workshop is too advanced for you. Go and see what you can learn. Reward yourself with a massage!)

Teaching

I’m teaching tomorrow, Saturday, at Virgin Pools in Fulham in their fundraiser for Grenfell. The class is at 10.45 – 12.00 and it’s free. People who are not members of Virgin Active are able to come but you need to come a little early to fill in their PAR-Q form. There will be a bucket in the studio for donations.

Home Studio

There are places left next week and in the following week I’ll only be teaching on Monday and Tuesday. I’ve added an extra 6.00 class on Tuesday 19th. We can make that an Ashtanga class.  I’ll be away after that. I’m celebrating my birthday in Kythera, my favourite place on earth.

Training

On Sunday I have signed up for a handstand workshop with Sainaa Janchivdorj.  He’s great teacher and he is apparently the UK’s ‘go-to’ guy when it comes to handstands. I’ve a better chance at this than splits! Its Stewart Gilchrist tomorrow for Asana Chakrisation and I’m happy to have the company of a few Friday Yoga Email readers. I’m so pleased!

Yoga in the News

Kenny Farquharson in his Notebook in The Times writes about being a middle-aged man with aches and pains in a yoga class with twentysomethings. It’s funny. I wonder if he’ll go back. The Express & star has a nice article about how West Brom players are taking to yoga. One player, Craig Dawson ‘has been doing it for about five years and he’s never had a strain or a hamstring problem’. John Terry is taking most of the football/yoga headlines, though.

Alone in a Crowd

Dear Yogis

If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while at your gym, it might be time to try Mysore-style yoga. If you can commit to memory the Sun Salutations and Standing postures, you’ll be fine. You turn up, lay down your mat and start. Other yogis may have arrived before you, some after you. You move with your own breath at your own pace.

There's tremendous freedom in knowing the sequence and flowing with the breath in this way and that. This is where you find self-enquiry, meditation and insights. One GTY yoga student said: “Mysore is in some ways the same feeling as leaving your parents house for the first time, so many unknowns but... can result in empowerment which is just beyond words”.

In Finland we had daily Mysore. On the first day I was delighted with my cooperating body. Poses rattled by, like being on a train and passing beautiful villages. The second morning, some of the villages looked a little tatty but the journey was nice.  The third morning was a tatty train, tatty villages and an uncooperative body.  Thursday was better and Friday, not only better but utterly surprising and a glimpse of those inner ruminations that yoga promises. I thought: 'I'm finally getting this yoga lark'!

Home Studio

Let me know if Mysore-style classes are something you’re interested in. I can add it to the GTY timetable here. Yoga West has Wednesday morning ‘Self-Practice you could try in Acton. Gyms don’t generally offer it. There are plenty of spaces left next week in my little home studio. (I’m away from the 20th of September through to October 2nd. Places are already being taken up for the next three weeks.)

Training

Come with me! Tomorrow I’ll be at Indaba for Mastering The Splits with Nathalie Mukusheva This should be hilarious! Next Saturday I’ll be at Indaba again for Stewart Gilchrist’s Asana Chakrisation and I’m so pleased to say that a couple of you have booked to come with me. 

Yoga in the News

The Telegraph writes about Disco Yoga which takes place in Shoreditch. Hammersmith Today breaking news is free yoga every Saturday at 10.00 on Brook Green and Tudor Rose Community Centre. I just love this article from Pop Sugar about improving your sport with a yoga mind. The writer says that "over the years influenced every other physical activity I participated in, especially running".