Abundance for the New Year

It's that time of year again. When we turn within and set noble intentions for the year to come. I've always been a fan of new year's resolutions. I think they are immensely powerful, even if you crack straight away,  the imprint of your will is deep and will resurface with renewed power next time round.

We also tune back into our resolutions from a different perspective. This resolve in yoga is called 'sankalpa' and we would do well to set a clear intention at the beginning of our practice sessions.

A few years back now I set the intention to not say a bad word about another and it served me very well. It caused me to reflect on what it was that I despised in others and to see these things as a reflection of my inner state of agitation. Surely I slipped , but the choice to be mindful is paramount here. Surely enough I now find it easier to see the good in people and I am a happier person as a result.

I would like to share a few tips that have helped me when it comes to setting these important resolutions

We live in an age of conspicuous consumption and though we could all agree that we would do well to waste less, we could also admit that its as if we've been programmed to consume ; so add 'more' to your list!  Our minds are mechanisms that consume insatiably, we consume information at a reckless speed and though short, sweet aphorisms are potent beyond measure we need to fill the spaces in our lives ; so add life enhancing activities, people and places, in my book this means: yoga, yoga and more yoga!

This year when you write your resolutions notice whether its the word 'more' or the word 'less' that is more prominent

Make your intentions stand out, make them different from last years, if your resolution is to give up smoking why not instead: take up pranayama (yogic breathing exercises), if your resolution is to eat less junk, why not instead: drink a delicious green smoothie first thing in the morning. Swear less? say I love you MORE. Stress less? stretch MORE. Wake up earlier? go to bed earlier. Use the computer less? make MORE eye contact with people.

In Spain we eat 12 grapes with the 12 bells that herald the new year, this symbolises abundance. 

its very more-ish

Happy 2017

yoga in a tight space

As someone who loves to travel, visit friends and move about I often find myself sleeping on floors, kids' bunk, squeezy attics and generally awkward little spaces. I am also someone who (clearly) loves their yoga and can't live without a daily practice. I have had to navigate a lot of interesting spaces in my time and I would like to share a little of what I have learnt over the years.

The most important thing is to assess your situation first of all. Be realistic, if the ceilings are low; urva hasthasana is going to be a frustrating experience. if the floor space is narrow lying twists will need to be done with bent knees not straight legs. Work out what postures you can modify and which you should immediately put aside for a time when you have more physical space. 

You will be able to practice in a way that suits your circumstances even if you don't have a mat and the floor is too slippery for ardho mukha svanasana. 

I find it helps to make a bit of a plan, look for the elements you can incorporate into your practice and build around those. For example if you have enough space to separate your feet but not as wide as you need for trikonasana, think about a practice that builds up to parsvottanasana.

Begin by doing a few rounds of cat-cow to stretch out the spine, practice uttanasana to free up the lower back, uktakasana to build stability in the legs and gomukhasana to stretch open the shoulders. Then progress into parsvottanasana and wind down with malasana and baddha konasana. There are thousands of variations you can think up.

Standing one legged balances such as vrksasana are good to practice if you're staying in a room where the floor is strewn in lego, you can clasp your foot behind your back in natarajasana preparation to get a nice quadriceps stretch and preparation for back bend. Ustrasana can then be practiced using the hands to support the lumbar initially. Most spaces can accommodate child pose in some form. 

If the ceiling is particularly low you could use it as a fulcrum for standing back bend as long as you don't crunch into the lumbar vertebrae you can lengthen and stretch the front of the spine deeper than without this support.

Walls are always wonderful to stretch against. Stand about a foot away from the wall and stretch arms overhead, place your hands onto the wall shoulder width apart and pull hips away from the wall causing the hands to slide down the wall, this way the whole mid line of the front body will elongate and the chest and shoulders can open without strain.

To finish a practice you need to work out whether you have enough space for savasana. A good alternative would be supta virasana followed by supta baddha konasana. A little longer than usual in a seated meditation will ensure you are able to cultivate that ultimate state of harmony. Try to make the best of these opportunities to explore your pranayama practices, for example nadi shodana (alternate nostril breathing)

I'd be happy to help you build a practice that suits you, contact me with any questions and good luck in yoga!

self practice: pratyahara

Yesterday evening I had the honour of leading a workshop on self practice. I say honour because for me teaching yoga is and always has been just that. I say honour because it IS an honour and a blessing and is in a sense out of my hands ; the source of my teaching being divine inspiration.

During the workshop we talked about the various stages of practice and also the art of sequencing, linking one pose to the next, the order and so forth. For me this sequencing has always come about from experience, careful planning but primarily ; inspiration. 

I was inspired to talk about the 8 branches of yoga, the sequential map of the yoga path. Each branch leads onto the next and yet being attached to the same tree means they are as important as each other. 

The 8 branches of yoga (astanga) are a beautiful map of the journey we are taking. Once we establish ourselves as generally good people, behaving well to ourselves and to others (yama, niyama) we progress steadily in our asana practice, creating a stable foundation for our wellbeing. The stillness that emanates from this stability allows us to develop our pranayama also, the energy levels are equalised through these subtle but deeply powerful breathing practices. 

When it comes to self practice I want to draw attention to 'pratyahara' ,the fifth branch of yoga, often translated as withdrawal of the senses, but which I prefer to think of as a retraction and a turning inwards. In our self practice we have the opportunity to turn the senses in on ourselves and develop this inward listening, this inward seeing and this inward sensing. 

We taste the flavour of our mood, we feel the texture of our breath, the subtle pulsations of the various organs and their correlates. Pratyahara is the gift of self practice. Unlike in yoga class where our pace is not our own in self practice we can truly go where our body asks us to go.

This in no way means that you don't need to go to class anymore in fact rather the contrary. By developing this inner sensing you will get so much more from your classes, you will respond and adjust quicker, the senses are sharpened in this infinite inner space. 

May swift bliss be with you

energy levels - the gunas

Yoga shows you how you relate to your inner world; this is the first connection we make. Connection to how we are feeling, connection to how we are doing...

Connection to the natural rhythms of the universe, to others, to the outer world that is but a reflection of the inner world.

According to the traditions of yoga and ayurveda we can tune into different rhythms and be governed by them. Life passes through different energetic states known as gunas and we would do well to learn a bit about these as they can be really quite enlightening.

When we shine this new perspective onto our moods and those of others we can wake up to a different reality, one that requires our participation rather than our resistance. Matter too is a form of condensed energy and so is also governed by the gunas: the food we eat, the places we inhabit, the objects we attract...

My beautiful friend Xochi Balfour, aka the Naturalista has included an extensive piece I wrote on the gunas on her blog, so do click here for further reading. 

May you be enveloped in sweet sattva!

pace

Variety is the spice of life.

Sometimes our yoga practice can begin to die a slow death and then in an instant it can be revived just through the power of our attention and crucially - by slowing down.

Moving through our postures quickly can bring a sense of lightness but it can also mean that we miss out on those full bodied stretches, stretches where the very sinews are able to expand. We rush into our asanas and rigidity sets in so that expansion is no longer an option. Our bodies need a little time to get into these various shapes we embody.

Try this: stretch you leg from the lower abdomen, the stretch burrows deeply through the pelvis melting open the crease of the hips, the flesh of the thighs hugs on to the femur and the femur itself hugs onto the bone marrow, keeping the knee aligned you can feel the flesh of the calves extends toward the elastic tendon of the achilles heel. The arch of the foot contains no rigidity but naturally domes toward the inner knee and the inner knee continues its ascent toward the groin. The leg is switched on.

Through the full support of the legs we are naturally more grounded and our upper body is more energized as we literally can channel the energy of the earth, the feedback response from the magnetic draw of the earth rebounding and charging us as if we were plugged into sockets through the pores of the skin on the soles of our feet.

I sometimes practice in this way. My practice is richer when I slow down. As long as your mind doesn't drift off to the the distant planes of elsewhere I highly recommend it.

where is my...?

There is a very famous song by the Pixies where the singer asks earnestly "where is my mind?" I love that song, he may not be sure where his mind is but by the moving effect of his lyrics he sure knows where his core is.

I had the privilege of being invited to a day of mini lectures by top scientists, innovators and academicists at the Royal Institution in London where we the audience proceeded to have our minds blown by the lecturers. We were let in on the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence, the current breakthroughs in organ cloning, how solar energy is gradually becoming a real alternative, self-driving cars, the cities of the future, extracting hydrogen from aluminium and water, scientific solutions to altzheimers and a vaaaaast array of utterly enthralling ever evolving and increasingly more sophisticated pieces of knowledge.

It got me thinking, seeing as the crowd seemed to be overall much better informed than I and generally more on it, what exactly might the role of yoga be in this increasingly technological and ultra connected world we live in. There were a couple of points I took away from the lectures that I found particularly relevant, and chances are these are not news to you the reader but I felt like a pre schooler learning that red and yellow make orange

1. Neurones naturally want to connect. If you take the brain cells of two mice and put them in a dish they will look at a way of connecting, of communicating. This to me is fascinating. Essentially when we practice yoga we too are looking at ways of forming connections in ourselves, and as a community with other teachers, practitioners etc. In fact it is the very meaning of the word yoga: connection. I myself have felt in the very core of my being this very strong urge to communicate what I have learnt through my own practice.

2. The organisms that live in our gut are highly sophisticated and unique and possess their own neurones, our guts are in fact intelligent. This was not exactly news to me but it did get me thinking about the importance of sensitivity which is something we as yogis set about to cultivate constantly. When we realise just how intelligent our living, breathing, digesting body is we may pay it more heed and honour it as our greatest teacher

3. Virtual reality is going to play a big role in the future of humans. Up until now this idea makes me want to ask the planet to stop rotating so perhaps I may be allowed to step off, we are barely awake to real reality and seem to be less and less so with increasing digitisation and yet when put into context some of the developments in virtual reality I found utterly fascinating. For example  being able to simulate a frozen landscape for a victim of burn injuries undergoing surgery is umpteen times more effective than morphine as a method of pain relief. We have heard of meditators in the freezing Himalayas being able to increase their body temperature through meditation and this sort of research beautifully ties together this intrinsic mind-body relationship.

There were many more fascinating speakers speaking on a range of incredible topics, I was particularly enthused by one man who defined luck as a skill, the skill of being curious. The skill of being open to not just the unknown but that we can't even conceive of not knowing. 

It is in this spirit, of open curiosity and deep delving that I invite you to my next workshop on core yoga. Come along and we can have some fun exploring, even if we do know where our mind is!

Sunday, December the 4th, 6-8p.m at Yard Yoga, Forest Row, click here to book

from the gross to the subtle

A good yoga experience makes you remember to sit upright at your desk.  An alignment cue may come into your mind at any point throughout your day and remind you to exhale a little longer if you get het up in the supermarket queue, to sink your heels into the floor as you stir your cooking, or simply to get up and stretch when you get a chance. As your shoulders hike up to your ears at the first drop of rain, you notice yourself and let them drop. This sort of thing...

Yoga can transform you and yet from one yoga class to the next a lot of the good work seems to come undone. You arrive with your shoulders all bunched up again, with your hips in a tight, rigid mess, your chest constricted and all the worries in the world nagging in your inner ear. 

So how can we keep practicing yoga off the mat? I like to remember that this yoga we do is so much more than a physical practice, it is a form of mind training, bringing your awareness to everything you do. This sounds do-able but we need tools, we need tools to keep this awareness fresh. So that it doesn't simply become a concept, the concept of awareness. Another mental construct. 

I would like to offer up the practice of moola bandha as a way of bringing you back to the yoga practice in whatever situation you find yourself. As the most subtle practice of all, a shift of awareness is exactly what we're talking about here. Not so much the contraction of the entire structure of the hips, more the ever so subtle elevation of the perineum. A practice through which you can become embodied again. A practice which draws us away from this overactive mind and back into the body from where awareness can be truly cultivated. 

Seek out an experienced teacher and go forth to practice moola bandha. 

an exciting prospect

I was doing something mundane when a very inspiring thought brightened up my day. More and more people are getting into yoga, this is nothing new, the teachings of yoga reached the west long ago but big shifts occur over time, like the peristaltic shove of human consciousness.

All these millions of yogis who have been drawn to the practice for just as many reasons have nowhere to go but deeper. A small number of people may give up practice altogether but most become hooked, fascinated and completely transformed. These people who are transformed by yoga  are people waking up. The practice may initially be physical but very soon the more subtle effects can be felt and this spark ignites our very existence. 

The times we live in may be dark, some say we are living in kali yuga  the dark age , the age of disconnection for sure, but the next wave to come feels to be like a great one indeed.

I feel honoured to be a part of it. I salute my teachers for sharing their depth.

I am teaching a workshop on stepping up your yoga practice and learning about Moola Bandha, on sunday the 27th of November, 6-8p.m at Yard Yoga, Forest Row. Click here to book

how to never stop 1.

Sometimes our practice can become mechanical, we do what once worked and somehow it does no longer. We need to refresh, to inspire, to remember why we practice this yoga in the first place, our practice need never stop but sometimes we progress and leave our old practice behind.

Thank you to the great teachers who keep our practice alive, and here's a book by one of the greats, buy it, buy it now:

Love to love you

May we practice with our hearts and not with our brains. Through the heart we are elevated in the postures, through the brain we become rigid.

Our mind expands into every cell of our being and brings back messages, some of love, some of hate. We aren't always happy in our bodies. Our bodies aren't always happy with us either, but we're married and only through love will this marriage flourish. So acknowledge the upsets, work through them. Sometimes its all in the imagination, can we recognize this? Work hard to not make the same mistakes again and again.

In your yoga practice you can bring your attention to the physical heart. The space around the heart increases as you open your chest, or when you reach your arms overhead. Notice also the space behind the heart, this elevation all around, as if it were suspended in zero gravity, with no pressure on either side. Allow the heart to be big and notice, notice the sensations. Any gripping, closing, numbness, be attentive.

Practice with the heart and all the greatest gifts shall be yours.