On the Sunday morning, the first day of the week, Sharath gave a Q&A session after practice. These are our notes from some of the more memorable bits:

Yoga is for relieving the suffering caused by the 6 poisons which surround each of our hearts. The 6 poisons are: Kama (lust); Krodha (anger); Moha (delusion); Lobha (greed); Matsarya (envy); Mada (sloth).

It’s recommended to practice 6 days a week but practising 4 days is better than 2 days which is better than not at all. But 6 days is recommended. If you make it part of your life then it won’t be something you feel you have to do, it’s simply something you do every day, like brushing your teeth. He said the asana practice is the foundation of your spiritual practice and the purpose is to make your body healthy. It’s very difficult to be spiritual if you’re not healthy in your body first.

Teaching yoga has become very difficult in the West as it’s become like $15 per posture, i.e. if you give your students more postures they’ll come back, but if you don’t they won’t. So some teachers just want to give students more and more postures. But he said it’s not about looking for more advanced postures, in fact it’s not about the asana at all. Whatever you’re doing is your practice. If you’re bringing up children they’re part of you so your children become your yoga.

“Yoga is within me. Wherever I am yoga happens.” (This was a defining moment for both of us and even though he said it as an almost throwaway comment, it really struck a chord.)

He said our practice will support many other things in our lives. We have to make many adjustments in our lives, e.g. when we have children. But we shouldn’t stop practising yoga.

He said Yoga is getting very fancy. People want to be very expressive and put their arms up like this (raised his arms in a very elaborate manner). He said it doesn’t matter how you put your arms up, just put them up!

When asked how long to leave it before practising again after having a baby and whether you should only do primary he said you should do whatever feels right, whenever you feel ready, even if this is 1 or 2 years. If you’re pregnant you can practice up to 8 months into your pregnancy, but no twists. After childbirth you should take at least a 3 month break. If you’ve had a ceasarian you should wait at least 6 months and be very careful.

He told a story of when he injured his shoulder when he was younger and he could feel something tearing inside. That afternoon he went to Guruji to tell him he couldn’t practice the next day but Guruji told him he’d volunteered him to give a demonstration. Sharath protested and said he couldn’t even breathe properly but Guruji told him to just do it. So the next day Sharath gave the demonstration which was very painful but once it had fully healed he actually had more flexibility and felt stronger so he could see the benefits of just getting on with the practice.

At the end of the last session he reminded us to keep practising and that places like London need Yoga. He said if we continue to practice with dedication and faith then knowledge will come easily to us.

Om shanti!

Adrianne teaching Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga in Brighton

We’re very happy to have Adrianne covering for Sarah while she’s away. Adrianne will be with us for around 2 months. Adrianne used to live in Brighton and she’s been based at Brahmani Yoga in Goa for the last few years. She’s also a very skilled Thai Yoga Masseur – I highly recommend you book a massage with her while she’s here. She’s the best!

Well this is certainly the highlight of the year for UK Ashtangis. Sharath will be teaching for a week in London in August from Sunday 21st to Friday 26th. There’ll be a led primary and led intermediate each morning.

There’ll be a Q & A session on Sunday 21st at 11:00. The workshop costs £180 for the week and you can book now on the Astanga Yoga London website.

There’s a small group of us going from Brighton so get in touch if you’d like to travel together or meet up when in London. If you’re already going and want to tweet up you can follow @astangabrighton on Twitter.

We’re very excited to Have Monica Marinoni coming to Brighton to do a weekend workshop in June. This two day workshop will be held on the 11th & 12th of June at the Bodhi Garden.

Monica is a long-term traditional practitioner and has received authorisation to teach beyond primary series from Sharath. She’s based in Auroville India and teaches in Europe over the Summer. This is her first visit to Brighton.

Read more details about the workshop and book online. We have 8 early bird discount tickets left.

Would you like to put Monica up during her stay here in Brighton in exchange for a place on the weekend workshop? Drop us an email at news@ashtangabrighton.com

The Joey Miles Ashtanga workshop fell on a weekend after a new moon. Well rested from a day off the mat, the room at the Buddhist Centre was a buzz. It was nice being in the company of about 20 participants – new faces and more familiar ones from morning Mysore practice – and knowing that we would be sharing each other’s energy.

Saturday morning

Joey began the workshop with breathing exercises, having us lay on our backs with our knees bent and feet flat on the floor. It was a great way to begin the session, grounding us and bringing awareness to the upward and downward movement of prana. Sitting up in Sukhasana, Joey led the chanting of the opening invocation, the authenticity of his Sanskrit very moving.

This was followed by leading us through the Primary Series, with a few modifications to some of the asanas and added hip-opening exercises. Working with postures in different ways is always a good approach to veer away from usual habits or comfort zones, which may eventually enhance the strength of the posture.

The led practice seemed to go quite quickly however like all Savasanas, this one was much welcomed. As we lay on our mats, Joey read us an excerpt from Michael Stone’s book “The Inner Tradition of Yoga”, which turned out to be a foreshadow of the afternoon session.

Saturday afternoon

When we reconvened after the midday break, Joey refreshed our minds with the excerpt he previously read. Having a pen and paper ready, he asked us to answer in stream-of-consciousness-style writing the three questions: What is the body?, What is Yoga?, Why do I practice Yoga? Such thought-provoking questions resulted in answers that brought about insightful discussions with others, and possibly ourselves.

The afternoon continued on with the chanting and interpretation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2:3 “avidyā ‘smitā rāga dveṣā ‘bhiniveśāḥ kleśāh”. This Sutra highlights the five kinds of suffering or afflictions (kleshas), our worldly baggage that prevents us from attaining Samadhi.

We were then introduced to some relaxation exercises for the torso and arms, as well as recognising moments in transition between postures when relaxation could be done. They were fun and as the practice of Ashtanga Yoga can be quite rigorous, easing up and letting go surely has its benefits.

Sunday morning

During our Surya Namaskaras on the second day, we worked quite differently with bringing awareness to the opposite direction of the breath and the pose. Inhaling our arms up from Samasthiti found us grounding our feet even more, and as we exhaled folding forwards we brought our attention to our sacrum.

After the standing postures Joey proceeded to take us into the Intermediate Series, guiding us through with modifications and techniques on how to get into the more challenging postures. It was an enjoyably invigorating class as it is always fun trying new postures that are not part of one’s regular practice.

Sunday afternoon

In the afternoon session Joey focused on Pratyahara, the fifth limb of Ashtanga Yoga. It is the internalisation and drawing back of the senses, where we remove any distractions from the mind. While seated on our mats, he led us through a process of carefully withdrawing from each sense, one by one. This was followed by other meditative exercises, making use of blocks, blankets, and chairs where we were curled over in Balasana and on our backs as in Savasana. This brought a close to the workshop – a perfectly restorative way to end a week and begin another.