Yoga training

I'm sitting my favourite way on the train -- facing backwards. I like to watch the landscape unfold in front of my eyes rather than seeking it out, craning forwards. It's like what one of my teachers says about receiving an asana rather than grasping for it. If there's a yoga of train journeys this... Continue Reading →

July 22, 2017 3

Forceful yoga

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... Continue Reading →

July 8, 2017 2

Layer (not lāya) yoga

I found myself quite naturally using the model of koshas when I was talking to a friend recently, a yoga friend that is, so it wasn't as weird as it sounds. She was expressing fear or frustration about decision-making and I was speculating that good decision-making was a matter of getting quiet enough to hear... Continue Reading →

April 26, 2017 3

At the end of the day

Such a personally terrible day yesterday. If I say the suspect heart attack I was called to attend at work was not the worst bit, you'll get a sense of it... So how to ease the pain I am feeling? Of course by a bit of yoga escapism! Now usually I think of yoga as all about... Continue Reading →

April 12, 2017 3

Come on, it’s not that weird

"How weird is that? I mean -- how weird is that?" I met up recently with a girlfriend, one of my dearest, oldest friends, but absent from the country for quite some months now. Last time she saw me in early summer I was pre-TT, still unable to articulate what I was doing or why,... Continue Reading →

March 11, 2017 2

Country mouse yogini

I committed the ultimate London yoga studio faux pas -- I spoke to people in the changing room!! I had had a great class. ...Well apart from two name calls from the teacher during class which I found slightly embarrassing -- being asked to translate Sanskrit after the opening chanting (of course not a chant I... Continue Reading →

March 10, 2017 4

In praise of husbands — and KD

So I am BEYOND EXCITED that I have just booked tickets for Krishna Das's kirtan in London this summer. Anyone else going, I wonder? And I am also beyond excited that a beautiful friend of mine (lost for more than a decade, recently very happily reunited) is coming with me. She's new to KD, new... Continue Reading →

February 9, 2017 6

On friendship

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... Continue Reading →

January 9, 2017 2

Validation and witness

"I give you permission NOT to do full Chaturaṇga each time". I wondered at this comment from my teacher in class today. Do people really need this permission? Do they feel some necessity for this action in every vinyasa? If they do, would the validation of the teacher make a difference? I wonder... I don't do... Continue Reading →

December 18, 2016 6

P*ssing about in yoga

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... Continue Reading →