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…
I’ve just finished reading How Yoga Works. I’ll say it’s not a book I would have chosen to read and I did have to dig in a bit to see it through to the end, but it was loaned to me by my teacher and so I took the recommendation seriously and gratefully. I can’t remember…
Before Yoga found me and took a hold of me Sundays meant this: a lazy lie-in, followed by a cooked breakfast (with lots of bacon!), an afternoon nap, and then a slightly miserable evening involving alcohol in an abortive attempt to avoid thoughts of work the following morning. OK, so this is a slight exaggeration or simplification,…
