I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a while. I was in Edinburgh for a week in December 2010. Before I went I did a bit of research to see if I could find a Mysore room to practice. I was slightly surprised that there wasn’t a more established Ashtanga community in Edinburgh.

I contacted two yoga studios:

• Ro-Yoga run by authorised teacher Rowena Warren.
• Bristo Yoga School run by Karen Breneman

Rowena was away on honeymoon and Karen was away in Mysore. Fortunately one of her students an Australian called Tim was opening up the studio for morning Mysore practice.

The Bristo Yoga School is located in a basement under a church. There’s lots of space and thick mats on the floor which make balancing in Uthita Hasta padangustasana rather challenging. There was a small group of about 5 or 6 of us practicing each morning.

I quite liked the down to earth urban setting and instantly took a liking to my host Tim which always helps. He’s been to Mysore so we chatted about his experiences – he loved it and his comment was that practicing in Mysore adds an extra 25% energy to your practice.

I had a great time in Edinburgh and it’s always lovely to meet other practitioners and have a place to practice while away from home. A big thank you to Tim for being so welcoming. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to return the hospitality when he next visits Brighton.

Check out this cool choon by Dylpostino!

This last week has seen the biggest change to my practice in years!

Last Saturday my teacher Sarah took myself and 4 others to practice with her teacher – Denise Martin-Harker. Denise is an old student of John Scott and studies with Manju Jois hosting him when he comes to the UK. She also runs an Ashtanga teacher training progamme. I’m interested in doing her teacher training after the last course that I signed up to fell through.

I’ve met her a few times before when she’s been down in Brighton when Manju visits, normally around September time. She has an amazing practice and she’s really insightful. Our time with her was very much workshop style self practice and she prescribed us each with a different practice and gave us homework.

I didn’t get very far into the practice before she stopped me – at dve the 2nd position in the first sun salutation and gave me new instructions about positioning my hands further forward. I was slightly bemused by this quick intervention. She also got most of us do do a split primary and intermediate – practicing up to Supta Kurmasana and then going onto intermediate up until Ustrasana in my case. I’d never done this before so it made for an interesting change.

the new way

I’d always assumed that I’d do a traditional split which would mean practicing all of standing, primary and intermediate up to at least Eka pada sirsasana. Obviously for me it’s going to take many years and well over two hours each morning. So I’m open to trying this alternative route. On the way back I asked Sarah about how it would work. It’s a two day split – on the first day you do the sequence that I mentioned above. the next day you do standing and then start at Navasana and practice through until Ustrasana.

The second split is actually deceptively difficult. It’s shorter but I find that I’m not sufficiently warmed up to get into Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana without help from Sarah. The first split is also rather challenging because you go from Supta Kurmasana which is the peak of primary series straight into Pashasana which is also requires great strength and flexibility. But hey I’m not complaining.

Last week was the first full week that I did this new split and as expected it was very hard work. It’s great to be working on all the back bends at the beginning of intermediate every day. I’m surprised by how hard I find the postures, particularly Salabhasana. By Thursday I got as far as Marichyasana C before I ground to a halt on the mat with exhaustion. I went home early that afternoon and went straight to sleep. Friday morning I slept in and had a good primary series practice in the evening.

A tough but rewarding week with more to follow. I’m expecting that it’ll take my body around 4 – 6 weeks to adjust to this new regime. I have to say I’m grateful for the challenge and the change.

Approaching practice without judgement

One of the themes that came out of Kino’s workshop last weekend was a three step process for approaching practice:

1. first become aware of your body and breath
2. then practice satya – truthfulness towards what you discover
3. then practice with maitri (friendliness or compassion) when working in that area

For example in the opening sun saluations you become aware that your left hip is tight. You observe this and truthfully assess it, perhaps your left hip is generally tighter than the right or perhaps you have an injury. Then approach your practice with this truthful awareness. Practicing Satya will help determine how best to apply maitri and ahimsa in any given moment.

This is not something that we do once, rather it’s something that can be cultivated and practiced as we receive constant feedback from our breath and body. Over time the work we do on the mat will have an impact in how we live our lives, responding with seemingly spontaneous honesty and compassion – er, on  a good day of course!

Well it’s been just over a week now since we got back from Buddhafield festival and time for that blog post I promised! You may also be interested in my previous posts on Buddhafield festival: Buddhafield 2008 – Connecting with abundance and Buddhafield 2009.

This year was a particularly special festival for us as Hannah’s sister was visiting the UK from New Zealand with her two boys. We went down on Monday before the festival started as Hannah’s mother is one of the managers of the Buddhafield cafe. I really enjoyed being there with the crew before the festival started. There were a few hundred people on site by the Monday we arrived.

We quickly found a few other Ashtangi’s in the cafe crew to practice with so it was back to practice again on Tuesday morning. If you’ve ever been to a yoga camp or practiced yoga at a festival you’ll no doubt be aware of challenges of practicing outdoors in a tent. Firstly even flat ground is not flat and it’s generally much cooler than practicing indoors.

So all the standing postures become rather challenging. Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana is a hoot, jumping back and through in the seated postures is also a bit crazy depending if you’re on an uphill or downhill angle. Postures like Marichyasana C and D are also made rather interesting too! My first response was: ‘why don’t the organisers build a nice flat platform?’ but that’s just the city boy in me. You do have to maintain a sense of humour and adventure when practicing closer to nature. I also think there’s a lesson in letting go and allowing things to be imperfect (or perfect) whichever rocks your boat.

I really enjoyed our self practice mornings in our little group while things were still quiet. The festival officially started on Wednesday and more and more people steadily arrived. Joey Miles (now based in Leeds) regularly teachers at Buddhafield or at least has done the last 3 years I’ve been going. He taught the 6:30 – 8am  Ashtanga class which was billed as ‘intermediate’. I’ve only ever done led classes with Joey and I love his direct no nonsense style. He really does inspire you to work hard. The class was a mix of primary, intermediate and one cheeky little modified posture from 4th series or advanced A – Astavakrasana. It’s not actually as difficult as it looks!

During the festival we had opportunities to chat with Joey on a range of topics including going to Mysore with children and how having children affects one’s practice. We don’t have children yet but it was really interesting to hear Joey’s experiences. The one thing that struck me while hanging out with Joey is his love for the practice, there’s a twinkle in his eye when he talks about practicing in Mysore and attempting really challenging asana from 4th and 5th series.

This has inspired me to approach my practice with a joyful attitude. I can’t recommend Buddhafield festival highly enough. It really is a treat! For more about the festival, music, ecstatic dance, tantra workshops, check out my posts from previous years: Buddhafield 2008 – Connecting with abundance and Buddhafield 2009.