Over the last 6 months everything has changed. I’ve injured my back, ended a relationship, moved office and finally moved home. So I’ve not done much posting on the website for a while.

2 weeks ago I committed to practicing 5 days a week. Fortunately there was a moon day on the first week ; )

I’ll be writing regularly (now that things are a bit more settled) about how I find the Mysore practice over the coming months.

Today I’m off to Chris Swain’s workshop on the spine which I’m looking forward to. I’ll be taking some pictures so check out the gallery later in the week - You might even see yourself!

It’s good to be back!

Hi Ashtangis,

We’ve added a new Workshops section where we’ll put all the info we have about upcoming workshops.

If you’re interested you can register for email updates so you don’t miss out.

Over the coming year we’re looking to attract more guest teachers from the UK and abroad to take workshops in Brighton. So if you’re a teacher and would be interested in doing a workshop in Brighton then drop us an email at info@ashtangabrighton.com

Former Brighton teacher, Julie Martin returns to Brighton for a workshop on 12/13 July at Yogahaven. Contact Yogahaven for details.

Hi everyone

Thought you might be interested in an upcoming yoga holiday! It’s in beautiful unspoilt Western Crete from 24 June to 1 July. You stay in a small hotel with its own pool, 100 metres from the beach. Yoga twice a day - a mixture of Ashtanga and Hatha with meditation, pranayama too. Teachers are our very own Brighton-based Janaki and er…me (Davy Jones). The holiday costs £410 excluding flights. More details on the Free Spirit website or visit our website or email: janakiyoga @aol.com

Yesterday I attended Anthony “Prem” Carlisi’s workshop: Living Principles of Ashtanga Yoga, Ayurveda and Tantra in Tunbridge wells.

There must have been about 35 people attending, most of whom were Scott’s students. Scott was hosting the event and it sounds like he was a great host to Prem and Heather. I’ll link to Scott as soon as I get details of his blog.

Prem has a commanding presence, tall, tanned with intense eyes and a rather huge beard. I was struck by the ease and authority with which he spoke and his knowledge, energy and humour were great. I’d say the workshop was a taster for Prem’s book The only way out is in.

The workshop started off with a talk by Prem about the concepts from the book. I’m not going to go into detail here as I don’t really know enough about this stuff to be able to do it any justice. There were four concepts outlined:

1. Inside-out
2. Ground up
3. Gross to subtle
4. Everything moves in a vortex

These 4 headings present a clear distillation of ideas that can be applied to life/practice. Prem explained and gave examples of each which helped to contextualise the concepts. I’ve not read the book yet but Prem’s talk interested me enough to buy a copy, so I’ll be doing a book review on it when I’m done.

After a couple of hours of listening I’m sure we were all itching to get onto the mat, well after going to the toilet that is. The practice consisted of the sun salutations and the standing sequence before the primary series. Here are a couple of gems I got from the practice:

• While in Samasthitihi Heather gave me a little adjustment that changed the angle of my hips - wow!
• Ground up - Ensuring a stable base for the asana is established before moving the upper body into position. This gave a reassuring quality to the asana
• Prem’s vortex - circular motion (rather than moving in straight lines) had a great impact in exploring Trikonasana
• Raising up onto the ball of the back foot when going into parivrtta Parsvakonasana really helped me to get deeper into the asana

After lunch we got down to an introduction to Ayurveda. Prem presented practical ways of using Ayurveda to change your life and practice. Again this is not something I know much about and is a rather vast topic, although Prem emphasized a practical approach. There was a brief wrap up on Tantra and a short meditation.

For me the workshop broadened my horizons generally but due to time constraints there wasn’t time to explore any of the topics in depth, but it did serve as a great introduction. Prem clearly has amassed a huge amount of knowledge over the last 30 years or so and is keen to share his insights.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day out and getting a chance to meet more of the Ashtanga community. Hopefully Prem and Heather will be back soon. I’m grateful to have had the experience to have met them both. Namaste.

Guy