Raise you 50!

Dear Yogis

The clattering autumn leaves and the absorbing Harvest Moon can only mean one thing... soon we’ll hear old winter's song. It’s a good time to plan and look forward to next summer’s sunshine and its possibilities. Already I’ve had a lot of responses about joining me for next year’s Kythera yoga retreat. Lisa has already advertised it on her Instagram page. Once on the island we will have to visit my friend Sara’s herbal apothecary. Take a look at some of her inspiring remedies. In the not too distant future I will write about some of her products in a Friday Email. She has a cream that she uses before her yoga practice to encourage the muscles. She has creams for knee problems! I bought the Tendonitis Cream for my tricky knee which has an ingredient ‘Devil’s Claw’.

Talking of which, Lucas Rockwood has a podcast this week called The People’s Pharmacy and he discusses remedies such as cannabis, turmeric/curcumin and the thing that interested me the most: yellow mustard, hot pepper, or vinegar to reduce muscle cramping. (At 26.30 they discuss home remedies if you don’t want to listen to the whole programme). Diet advice is at the end including ‘reverse vegetarianism’. He’s my favourite podcaster.

(PS. Take it easy if the full moon affects you).

Home Studio

Classes are back... and packed. I have the joyous problem of welcoming many new yogis with my limited numbers of classes and limited places. Book early! There are still places available next Thursday. I’m afraid I’m not teaching on Tuesday – it’s my 50th which accounts for my recent escape to Kythera to kick off the birthday season... which may last a while!

Cover classes

Tomorrow (Saturday 7th) I’ll be covering Mark Colleano’s class at Nuffield Ealing. 8.40am. Soon I will also be covering two Saturday classes at Yoga West, 8.30am, for Jenny Fearnley: Saturday October 21st (before scooting of to The Yoga Show) and November 11th.

Training

Tomorrow I was planning to be in Winchester but that class is cancelled so I booked a workshop at Indaba for some backbending with Jared McCann, Saturday 1.30-4.30 for £35. Come with me. He says ‘beginners welcome’ too.

Yoga in the News

The Evening Standard wrote this week about a charity helping refugees recover from atrocities through yoga, Ourmala. Very inspiring! If you’re thinking of becoming a yoga teacher and scared that the world of yoga studios and Chelsea yogis won’t accept you, read this. The yoga world is wide and there’s room for you

Dragon’s Den this Sunday (8.00pm) will feature the founder of a yoga mat company who will be asking for funding for one of the first social businesses to enter the Den. Profits from the company are for the education and employment of human trafficking survivors in Kolkata.

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".

Fierce yoga, I swear...

Dear Yogis

Last weekend I attended Ana Forrest’s workshops to experience her ‘Fierce Medicine’ to ‘heal the body and ignite the spirit’. Ana’s life was scarred by abuse and neglect and even alcohol dependency at 4-years-old. As a result, yoga postures are not the main message of her teaching. It’s about healing, building strength and integrity. I attach the afterword of her book ‘Fierce Medicine’ because I really like her advice. You don’t have to be from a challenging background to neglect yourself; disregard the fact that you are loved, ignore that you have the capacity to love, and to overlook the power of gratitude. We’re all like that a bit.

The ‘F’ word made appearances in these workshops! Like a fool I asked about this in a yoga teachers’ forum. A hurricane followed. However, of the answers that managed to keep a low pulse rate, one Forrest teacher said when he went to his first yoga class he was ‘firmly in the grasp of PTSD having witnessed the horrors of Afghanistan and other armed conflicts’ and if the teacher hadn’t been ‘authentic’ (including swearing) he would never have gone back to class. Another Forrest teacher said: ‘swearing or curse words are quite often used in the training as a way of bringing those of us who are more tentative in our personalities out of our shells. We are encouraged, ultimately, to step up and be our most powerful and authentic selves’. Another one who teaches in prisons and rehab centres says ‘You meet the student where they are’. Ana Forrest herself says that ‘A lot of people come to Forrest Yoga because they’ve got a storm brewing inside them’.

Interesting, eh! So many styles of yoga for every possible need!

Home Studio

It’s Bank Holiday Monday, Carnival weekend, and I have the usual two Monday classes – 6.00 and 7.30. Book a place and have a go. No swearing, I’m afraid. I’ll also be teaching Jenny Fearnley’s Ashtanga class again at Yoga West tomorrow, Saturday 26th at 8.30am-9.45. (Talking of Yoga West, they are in a fight for survival. They need permission from Ealing Council to continue to operate and ask for our help.)

Training

This weekend, Danny Paradise is at Triyoga Camden. I haven’t signed up for his classes but he is such fun that I recommend his classes highly. I will be attending Mastering The Splits with Nathalie Mukusheva at Indaba on September 2nd. I can’t imagine what tips she might have for me but I thought I would present her with a fun challenge.

I’m also signed up for Stewart Gilchrist’s Asana Chakrisation on September 9th, at Indaba. Come with me! (Here he is doing a Ted Talk on breathing. At the end he talks about the power of breath in his life and how he discovered how to wilfully move his body through breath as a paraplegic having broken his back.)

Yoga Jobs

Triyoga will be opening a yoga centre in Ealing in November of this year. How cool! They have a recruitment day if you fancy being a manager or front-of-house or a number of other roles.

Yoga in the News

It’s all the usual stories this week: Yoga and meditation are good for you, a survey shows; Yoga good for your brain, a survey shows; Goat Yoga is good for you; Beer Yoga is good for you! Here’s a nice story you can check out if you’re in south-west London. From Weightlifting Champion to Yoga Instructor. Peter Cardona has also been a tennis coach and now teaches yoga in Surbiton.

Spin Those Chakras

Dear Yogis.

The more I learn about chakras, the more intriguing it is. It's a subject that begins to make sense to me now that I have taught for a few years and a few hundred people. In Teacher Training I had no interest in it. Now, I can see that some parts of the body refuse to respond to physical posture practice. How can it be that I cue drawing navel to spine day-in-day-out but some yogis’ abs simply say ‘no’? Why do some bodies look delicate, ethereal and without groundedness? Why do some yogis seem to punish their bodies with yoga? Why don’t some yogis care particularly? Why didn’t I for so many years?

Our consciousness, personality, experience and posture are driven by energy. Actors study this in drama school. You know what your energy is like: forceful or not, hedonistic or not, loving or not. Is your dominant energy power-driven (third chakra) or driven to charity work (heart chakra)? Is it pleasure seeking (second chakra) or intuitive and meditative (third eye)? Is it driven by creativity and expression (throat chakra) or driven by materialism and the need for security (root chakra)?  The chakras actually refer to things we already know about. ‘Unblocking chakras’ is really just a way of describing some kind of counselling or therapy that shows you how to recognise and tackle harmful patterns laid down in formative years. It’s not an obscure subject. It’s actually a useful tool for that old chestnut, self discovery. James French, the brilliant teacher I did a chakra workshop with last weekend, is teaching at Triyoga till early September.

Home Studio

There are still places left in classes next week. Book a place and have a go. Spin your chakras. I’ll also be teaching at Yoga West for the next two Saturdays: 19th and 26th at 8.30am-9.45. It’s early... but gather a group of buddies for a yoga/breakfast outing and it won’t be so bad!  These are Ashtanga classes usually expertly taught by Jenny Fearnley. If you need an introduction to the only dedicated yoga studio in our corner of London, come along.

Training

I’ve signed up for two workshops that you might be interested in trying with me. The first is tonight; Ana Forrest’s Celebrate Your Practice. It starts a weekend of interesting but massively expensive workshops held at Lord’s Cricket Ground to hold the massive numbers of Ana Forrest’s Yogis! The second is Stewart Gilchrist’s Asana Chakrisation on September 9th, again at Indaba.

Yoga in the News

Sweet, local stories this week. The Louth Leader celebrated the birthday of a 90-year-old who says that yoga saved her life. Half her life ago doctors told her she wouldn’t live long due to an incurable chest complaint. They seem to have been wrong. She’s still teaching yoga. For Cambridge yogis, the launch of an illustrated guide to children’s yoga makes the news. It looks like a good one.

This is an entertaining article if you agree that “all this constantly changing information on what to eat or which exercise class to take” means that we form distorted mindsets towards the idea of a healthy lifestyle.  Vogue UK asks; ‘Are You Suffering From Wellness Fatigue?’ I think it’s only about people with too much money and not enough sense... but see what you think.

I Did It My Way

Dear Yogis.

Following on from last week’s Letter From Finland and my little history lesson about yoga in 1975 California, hippies, drugs and carrot juice, here is Manju Pattabhi Jois’ account of yoga according to his father. It’s rather different to the accounts of the first western yogis who trained with him in the 70s and became today’s senior teachers. Manju said: 'My father never tried to control anyone’. There were no rules and regulations. We just enjoyed yoga. Westerners asked him questions but he laughed and nodded. Those people took that laugh and nod to be affirmation but ‘my father didn't understand English'.

Yoga was simple and easy and to be enjoyed back in those days. “Our job is to keep it that way”. (I relate to that entirely). If you miss a day it doesn't matter. Do it the next day. (I relate to that more than is good for me!). “If you can’t do certain postures you can skip them and go to the next one. That’s how you open up your body. The body has to open one way or the other. That’s why we have so many postures. When you start practicing like that then you really enjoy it and you get all the therapeutic benefit”.

How could this man not be my guru?!

Home Studio

I’ve been heady with my Finnish experience of Mysore yoga under the guidance of such a liberating teacher. On Thursday in my Home Studio all the classes were Mysore. This means self-practice in a class with a teacher to help, not to teach a class. Most people liked it! Some thought they might get to like it! It’s clear, even when not knowing quite what to do next or what direction to go in, everybody still gets a lot further into the Ashtanga practice than would otherwise be the case. I might add it to the timetable if there’s demand. We also had an extra 4.00pm class yesterday (Thursday). Let me know if that would suit you or if a lunchtime class would work for you. And there are still places left in the usual classes next week. Book a place and have a go.

Training

For something completely different, I’ve booked a day-long workshop called ‘7 steps to transformation: a chakra daylong workshop with James French. It’s this Sunday. This is a subject I gave no thought at all to before teaching. Now, it’s just obvious. The description tells us to dive into the hidden knowledge of this beautiful system. Come with me!

Yoga in the News

Here’s a lovely article from Business Insider on how to be happy. Matthieu Ricard, 69, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, is scientifically the world’s happiest man. The article is from World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where Ricard has been scattering his happiness to business leaders.

The New Scientist tells us that: Hot yoga classes reduce emotional eating and negative thoughts. They report on a small selection of women with high stress, unhealthy eating patterns and depression who were sent to Bikram yoga. Well done those women! If you’ve never been to a Bikram class, reading this account is compulsory!

Yoga is Dope

Dear Yogis.

I write this from Finland in the beautiful haze of its late evening sunset. I’m learning the traditional technique of teaching ‘Yoga Chikitsa’, yoga therapy and healing, with Manju Jois. This was the original use of yoga in Mysore in the 1930s when Manju’s father, Sri K Pattabhi Jois started teaching. Doctors would send hopeless cases to do yoga and be cured.

On our first day in class, Manju spontaneously recalled the simple and easy time of 1975 when he and his father took Ashtanga yoga to the hippies in California. “Everyone wanted to get high one way or another and when they started yoga they were already high. They all had the same kind of smile. My father did not understand why they were smiling. Then everyone was saying :’Oh man, there’s a new drug in town called yoga’. So that’s how it started. Everyone was looking for some kind of escape or some kind of answer.”

Manju said in those days it was very, very simple everybody just enjoyed yoga. It was never serious. “Yoga is a beautiful subject if you do it right. You’ll be happy all the time. But if you do it wrong it’s the satanic version. You get angrier and angrier. When people take it too seriously they ruin everything and become like militant sergeants”.

“The 70s was great. Nobody was serious. They practiced yoga, smoked dope, and drank carrot juice. Instead of rules and regulations it was free yoga”. (Interesting to learn that Guruji never preached giving up drugs. He just taught the yoga and let people move away from drugs themselves.)

Home Studio

After a week off, there are plenty of spaces available next week. I’ve missed you and, if you’re interested, I’ll demonstrate some of the yoga massage that I’ve studied this week. So far we have been concentrating on the back (scoliosis) and a small amount of knee therapy. All classes but the Tuesday class have spaces. On Thursday we can have a go at Mysore style yoga. Book a place online here.

Yoga in the News

Here’s an article that tells you who the best yoga teachers in London are. It’s a surprise list. I know a few and the others look interesting. Some of the more obvious names are not there, though, so I’m guessing this is the personal favourite list of the writer.

The New Scientist weighs in on the subject of yoga and depression and reports on a study which looks at the ‘link between meditation, which is at the core of many yoga styles, and boosted insulin production and slower cellular ageing. Yoga may also dampen down inflammation genes. (If you’re interested in the links between stress, sleep, hormones and weight loss, FMTV carries an entertaining interview with Jon Gabriel who lost 230lbs by rediscovering sleep!)