I was listening to a senior teacher talking recently about her background in dance and music and performance and wondering how to relate to that. I am not an exhibitionist or a performer. I write an anonymous blog. I prefer to be a silent witness in the back corner. Barely seen, not heard. My social interactions…
I started my class this week by asking if anyone could remember what we’d been chanting the week before, a simple sutra, familiar enough to me now that it readily springs to mind or lips in particular situations. It can be something of an anchor when I feel drowning in a sea of new (half)…
I’m the urban spaceman, baby; I’ve got speed I’ve got everything I need I’m the urban spaceman, baby; I can fly I’m a supersonic guy I don’t need pleasure I don’t feel pain If you were to knock me down I’d just get up again … I wake up every morning with a smile upon…
I had lunch today with a fellow new graduate. She wanted to talk through the questions she’s asking herself right now about teaching. It felt funny with her seeking my perspective on this. She has much, much more yoga experience than me (not just more years, but wider experience of different traditions) and her teaching…
Crazy, wonderful Tuesdays. Up early for some teaching practice before breakfast. Then a busy day at work including a full-on couple of hours with my boss working through something bogglingly technical together because it was a two-brain problem, my lunchtime spent writing a little story in Sanskrit for my homework, then finally running out of the office…
I’m starting up my little bit of teaching again in a week and my thoughts are turning from my own practice to my teaching. I have a weekly semi-private with two former colleagues who sit on the edge of my friendship circle: we do a little bit of mostly in-office socialising, lunch and stuff. Ordinarily…
I went to my penultimate Iyengar class (5/6 introductory classes done) this weekend. Arriving early at the Institute I decided to roll out my mat in the neighbouring park. The October sunshine was warm enough to roll lightly through some parts of my teaching sequence, establishing it in my body-brain ready for a few classes I’m leading this…
In one of our assessments in TT we were given a sutra from Patañjali at random (we picked blindly out of a box) and we had to present it to the group a day or two later. The process of receiving a sutra was almost as interesting as the presentations themselves. I was struck by how…
When we OM in class, my teacher often encourages shy types or newbies by saying when you OM no-one can hear you. Well, maybe not technically true… but I try to suspend my disbelief with things my teacher says that I don’t immediately get. What d’ya know – there’s always some wisdom in there, even if I…
“Can I be cruel?” my Sanskrit teacher asked in class this week. Actually all he was proposing was that we read out loud the new vocabulary lists rather than listening to him introduce us to unfamiliar words. Not so terribly cruel after all, but the rules of engagement for adult learning are very different to…
