I’ve had the total pleasure these last few days of seeing the Yoga Shed full of yogis practising early in the mornings.
Old yoga yoga student, Rick Alexander, visited us Weds. and Thurs. […]
Yoga teaching
So Happy!
First of all, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with Kookaburras, but they are so darn cute that I thought you would like to see them. There were 5 of them hanging around in the trees back of the house, not making a sound. Perhaps all the wet weather dampened their intrinsic mirth.
What I really wanted to say today is how happy I am to be back in the saddle, that is, teaching. I have a really lovely group of people coming along already. […]
Lineage
I have been quiet on my blog for the last several days because I’ve been completely absorbed by Darwin and one of it’s great emissaries, Carole Baillargeon.
This a pretty charming place. I shouldn’t be surprised because I’ve been hearing about it for years. The city is little by most standards – just 100,000 and very friendly because lots of people are newcomers.
We had the most amazing experience in Kakadu, going in on the cusp of wet season transition to dry. On the Saturday night big storms kept campers from getting to one region. […]
Top End
For some people, dying and going to heaven is staying in the Gold Coast Versace Hotel or a 4-hour shiatsu from Mardi Kendall – www.mardishiatsu.com.au. To use the French cliche, chaqu’un a son gout.
In this moment, for me, it is to be accommodated as I am in this loft bedroom at the Darwin Yoga Room, founded and directed by Carole Baillargeron.
I can open the curtains of our little mezzanine and look down on the big yoga warehouse space, replete with all manner of delicious yoga tools. […]
Surrender
The Yoga Shala in Seminyak is an Iyengar school that I attended yesterday. A stunning un-walled space that could hold perhaps 40 people, though we were only four in the evening class.
An ex-pat teacher named Christine took our group in a Beginners Level two session, and a very nice one it was, too.
Iyengar classes aren’t everyone’s cuppa but they do feel like they are quality-controlled because the teachers are certified.
Christine told me that she was nervous about my being in the class. […]
A Tidy Mind
One of Patanjali’s niyama – precepts – is Saucha (which translates as purity or cleanliness). When I was training yoga teachers in Sydney, I would test the trainees to see if they could recall all 10 of the yama and niyama. Saucha often would be the one left out. I thought maybe, as precepts go, it was not so cool as Satya (honesty) or Ishvarapranidhana (devotion to a higher power).
How many these days would want to be considered pure? I like Donna Fahri’s interpretation of Saucha as wholesome. […]
One Student
Do you as a yoga teacher resent having small numbers of students in your classes?
Amazing Grace
Tonight I became all choked up while singing “Amazing Grace”, as our community choir was using it for our warm-up.
What was that about? I don’t follow any faith so it wasn’t a religious experience, but the group singing was palpably moving. It just caught me in the throat and that was it.
Many years ago at Sydney’s Circular Quay, I was waiting for a ferry when I found myself drawn to a young man positioned right in the middle of the pedestrian traffic singing show tunes, of all things. […]
Is Yoga Enough?
I want to set the record straight.
The choice is not yoga or Pilates. I’d like to have a Lindt chocolate for every time that someone says when asked if they do yoga, “No, I do Pilates.”
Don’t get me wrong, I like Pilates. Feeling the awakening of transverse abdominus (TA) after years of neglect or abuse is a wonderful experience. I think there’s plenty of evidence that strengthening TA can help heal all kinds of back problems.
But really…! Yoga is a holistic system that offers gifts on all the levels a human is comprised of. […]
Dare I? (Y.T.A.P.T.)
I guess not. I’m not game to put it right up there in the title.
Nevertheless, I would like to talk about sex. In the spirit of Yoga Teachers Are People Too.
The ancient sage Patanjali comments on the topic of sexual energy in the Yoga Sutra and his writing has been variously interpreted as Don’t Do It (Brahmacharya). […]
Radical Acceptance
Over the last week I’ve been writing about the ways yoga teachers are expected to behave by their students or the general public. Paragons of virtue and purity, it would seem, is what is wanted, not adulterated weaklings.
In the spirit of coming clean, I’ve been revealing some of my frailities.
Here’s another way I can prove to you I’m human. I get grumpy when tired. Yoga teachers are not even supposed to get tired. To add crankiness to the bargain must certainly threaten the paragon’s credentials.
The problem is I get tired every day. Since my surgery Feb. […]
The Other Drink (in the Series – YTAPT – Yoga Teachers Are People Too)
Yoga and coffee go together like your two interlocked hands. A good yoga class builds thirst and appetite for a good cafe latte, or some version of that delicious brew. Why is that? And, does it matter? The stimulant loosens people’s tongues and makes them want to stay around chatting for hours. It’s the stuff of community-building.
I started drinking coffee when I was 16 because I thought it would help wake me up for my early morning summer school classes. I’m embarrassed to say it was instant coffee, but what did I know of the world of coffee. […]
Yoga Teachers Are People Too
Eve and the Gelding
I’ve been wanting to write about the ways that yoga teachers express their human side, so you might just see a series of vignettes over the next few days telling it like it is.
Let’s start with yoga gear. When I was new to yoga, women performed shiny, day-glow poses in lycra. If you were a bit trendier, you would buy your leotard and tights at the suppliers to the ballet industry – Bloch’s in the Strand Arcade. […]
Next to Godliness
Did you know there is a past tense of the word forego and it is forwent? Just so you don’t think I’m being showy when I say, I forwent my regular yoga practice this morning. I substituted 18 minutes on the stationary bike and two hours of cleaning the yoga studio.
Once you’ve seen the 72 squares space I practice in, you’ll wonder how someone could spend so much time tarting it up. Well, the usual dusting and vacuuming was de rigeur, as well as shifting spiders and skinks to the garden. […]
I'm back!
As of today, I’m announcing to the world I’m back on deck teaching – in the Yoga Shed at Mitchells Island.
Yesterday was exactly 3 months since my surgery, and I’m fit and well. Certainly beach walks, fresh air, green vistas, and daily yoga practice have gone a long way towards my feeling reconstituted. Life is good. […]
Beginnings
It was October 1979 mid-week, I don’t know what day. I walked into the yoga premises on the first floor of a rather run-down building on Spring Street Bondi Junction. Really I was walking into the rest of my life.
I’d heard about this mad Yorkshire man teaching something called Iyengar yoga, but I never got around to seeking out a class until a year after the recommendation.
There was no internet then so I couldn’t check on class availability so I just rocked up. […]
Power
A saying I ran across in the nineties while I was participating in a Human Awareness workshop went like this: Real power is based on vulnerability.
It sounded good, but I don’t think I really understood what it meant.
It’s so hard for me to be vulnerable, and maybe the only shard of comfort is that many other people feel the same discomfort with vulnerability.
And, it’s such a good thing to be vulnerable. There is power in it because a person who is willing to own their weaknesses has nothing to cover up or resist. […]
Inside Job
Attending classes are a tremendous way to be introduced to yoga and to enjoy the comraderie of others. I was completely hooked on classes when I learned Iyengar yoga in the early 80’s. I can’t believe it now, but I used to do more than one class a day. I think the cost of a class was $8 then, and the price went down to $5 if you were enrolled in the six-month teachers’ training course. Come to think of it, all the classes were two hours long! I don’t know if I was passionate or just obsessed. […]
Best Practices No. 7
Everyone can benefit from giving your overworked liver a mini-holiday. I notice what a beating mine got because of major surgery and subsequent medications.
So, here goes:
Liver Balancing
Adho mukha svanasana, supported on ropes
Urdhva mukha svanasana
Supta baddha konasana
Supta virasana
Prasarita paddottanasana, 1 Min. concave back, 1 Min. Hands supporting under legs
Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, on chair, head supported on bolsters or blocks
Sarvangasana
Halasana, supported on chair
Viparita Karani
Ardha Jatara parvatanasana x 2
Supta Padangusthasna 1 & 2, 1 Min. […]
Best Practices No. 4
You may have been overlooked one of the really beautiful practices that I’ve encountered if you don’t follow the Iyengar method. This sequence was buried in the last pages of B.K.S. Iyengar’s marvellous book, Light on Life. […]