A Yin Yoga Workshop with Norman Blair
Sunday 4 December 10am-1pm
Brighton Buddhist Centre – 17 Tichborne Street Brighton BN1 1UR

Space to soften as we practice with consciousness and compassion, with attention and awareness. Yin yoga postures are floor based and we stay in the shapes for prolonged periods of time.

All money raised will go to support the Buddhafield Festival Land Appeal – for more details go to www.buddhafield.com

- suggested donation is £15-£20. For information on teacher and yin yoga go to
www.yogawithnorman.co.uk

I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since we returned from Santosa yoga camp. It’s a small 10-day yoga camp just outside Shepton Mallet near Glastonbury. We went for the last weekend which turned out to be a stroke of luck weather wise.

Hannah, her friend Tammy, and I hired a camper van from a friend which was a first for me and an absolute luxury. I never want to sleep in a tent again! It was heaven having a proper bed and living room with running water and a gas hob. Joey Miles described it as the A-Team van as it’s a Toyota Hi-Ace 4×4 and looks a lot more flash than your average VW Combi! Traffic both ways was a breeze and despite the occasional navigator error (that’ll be myself and Tammy) we made good time getting there and back.

Santosa is a really low key yoga camp of around 250 people. There were two catering options. Angelic Feast and The Outer Regions Cafe who are regulars at the Buddhafield festival amongst others. There were also hottubs and a sauna which I didn’t check out this year. Each day was packed with yoga classes and workshops in a range of styles by different teachers.

Looking at the programme there was a lot of good stuff we missed because we only stayed for the last 3 days of the camp. Of interest to me was a backbending workshop, a history of yoga workshop (3000 years in 30 minutes) and Shadow Yoga with Sasha. We did catch some Integral Yoga with Manjula, Qi Gong with Jacob, Yoga Nidra with Ram Das and a workshop on the classic Hatha Yoga Pradapika with Uma.

Every evening there was devotional singing in the Bhakti space which was really lovely. On Saturday night we were treated to a Kirtan concert led by Brighton based Narayani. I’ve never come across her before so I was extra pleased to hear she was based in Brighton. She’s doing a voice circle at the BNHC in October which we’ll be going to. Come check it out!

The Ashtangis were well represented at Santosa. Joey and Donna had been teaching earlier in the week and were chilling on the last weekend so I got to practice next to Joey as he cruised through a lovely 3rd series on the Sunday morning. We also met Richard and Nicola from Sheffield, who were teaching the led Ashtanga morning class, and Justine who’s based in Hassocks.

It’s a great family friendly camp with loads of yoga and workshops. It is a camp though, rather than a festival, and you will need to self-cater most of the time. I’m not a hardcore camper myself so a week in the rain would not be my idea of fun, but having a camper van made all the difference. Check out the Gallery to see pictures of the camp.

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.

Last weekend we went to the Wild Heart gathering held here in Sussex.

There were around 300 gathered to mark the Autmnal Equinox. We arrived on site on Friday afternoon in time to catch James Low’s Dzogchen talk. A rather lovely teaching of being present. James has been teaching for over 20 years and his teaching style is very relevant, clear and direct. It was a great way to arrive at the gathering.

The Wild Heart gatherings are a mix of shamanism and other spiritual traditions. Emphasising connection with nature, ancestors, self, and exploring true masculine and feminine. The site is really beautiful and has a lake that we swam in after a hot sauna. We had truly spectacular weather by English standards too.

As part of the opening ceremony we did a men’s and women’s lodge which was really quite touching. At the men’s lodge before the storytelling, we were asked to bring to mind the names of our Grand fathers and then to call out there names to honour them while sitting around a fire. It was quite an emotional moment for me when I realised that I never met my grandfather on my mother’s side and didn’t know his name.

I’ve since spoken to my mother and his name was George. I honor his memory and his name now.

There were also enlightenment intensive tasters that Hannah went to which sounded like rather powerful experiences. In the evening there was live music in a barn which was great and on Saturday night we caught Avalon Roots, one of my favourites from Buddhafield festival this year. I heard someone describe their sound as conscious reggae which seems like a good description.

There was also daily yoga on offer with Suzie Daw and others. I decided not to practice as I’m nursing a couple of injuries at the moment and have taken the week off practice to rest. We were very lucky with the weather and I’d highly reccommend Wildheart to anyone into conscious camping – It’s also really family friendly too.

Hannah and I went off to Buddhafield this year for the first time together. We met there last year so it was something of an anniversary. It’s a really awesome festival and we had a great time! Joey who used to teach at Triyoga in London was there taking the morning led Ashtanga classes. He has a nice teaching style and I appreciate his sense of humour.

The morning classes had 20+ people of mixed level all practicing in a big tent on a slope, which made the standing postures fun! It was just the break I needed in my practice. A new group of people in a new environment was just the thing I needed to break me out of the difficult cycle I’ve been in recently.

The musical highlight for me was being introduced to the honey voiced Carrie Tree who has just recorded her debut album. Some of my other favs Bindu Babas (whom I can’t seem to find anywhere on the web) and Martha Tilston were also there playing live accoustic sets. Avalon Roots were also a band I’d not heard before which were pretty cool too.

I did some Soulful Singing with Mahasukha which was good fun and went to Jewls ecstatic dance and we did her couples Heart Tantra workshop too. I also caught Christopher Titmuss an excellent Dharma teacher giving a talk on love.

To read more about Buddhafield why not check out my blog posts from last year Buddhafield 2008 and Connecting with abundance.