I think this is simply and clearly presented. It is easy to follow and effective.
I would know as I am currently riding on the oceans of a wild and stormy life, it appears that somebody didn’t pack a compass nor packed a guide to the stars. So while my little boat is tossed to and fro and I wonder where it will all lead me – all the while hoping that I will not capsize – this little breathing meditation is soothing and helpful.
.. I just woke up a little while ago because I was in so much pain with my neck that I couldn’t sleep. I tried this yoga video, and while it didn’t fix the neckpain, it did help keep my shoulders mobile, with the neck pain radiating from it’s spot up the neck and down the shoulder and arm these yoga exercises were helpful to keep check of the knock on effects.
This teacher also has a video for neck pain, which didn’t quite hit the sweet spot of mine but also was helpful.
Remember: when you are in pain then the solution may require a few days of regular gentle practice. I think people often want there to be an immediate solution (very understandable from where I am at this morning) but immediate might be even harmful. Think of it this way: it took certain prolonged or repeat actions to cause you this injury or discomfort so therefor it makes sense that it will require some mindful changes to resolve it. What do you think? And do you have an immediate cure for my neck pain? (wink)
I find this video showing the CEO of Nestle speak about nature, water and work absolutely, wildly terrifying. I shuddered all the way through watching this video. Where did this devilish man appear from?! Spawn of rotting badness!.. Vote by NON-purchase. Please do!
And that is just it, if you choose just 5% of ethically, environmentally better choices than you might have done until today. And if you keep up that 5% and maybe make it 10% next month and stick to it, then you can change our world.
We are collective so, so powerful and strong. Everybody counts so much. Everybody’s actions count for so much. Weigh in your vote and vote with your purchase choices.
Climate, ethics, health, mind and happiness. Dear friends will you join me; a tiny bit is so incredibly much more than nothing. And everybody no matter how buys or poor can do their best and contribute a tiny bit, what do you think? Do you agree?
Sorry this is just a short one:
I wanted to quickly share how incredibly much both tumeric and cinnamon seem to have helped me with my terrible joint inflammation on my left big toe joints. The pain was starting to spread and make me quite miserable when I remembered to add the anti-inflammatory tumeric to pretty much everything I ate. (I eat a lot of raw things and banana smoothies made with bananas and coconut milk. I don’t usually eat much wheat or processed foods. But had just emerged from a period of travel in which my food choices were limited, and it seemed to have set off the inflammations, which worryingly I think are a form of arthritis.).
It took just a couple of days to make a difference. Beware though: tumeric will stain your teeth, so brush extra carefully, extra properly. Both spices together seem to have made a huge difference to my wellbeing. I doubt that this was psychosomatic, I was too busy to think about the ‘wonder-cures’, they just worked while I had forgotten that I was even using them. They helped more than I hoped they could.
Traditional one-to-one yoga classes. I teach every morning 7:00 h and afternoon 18:00 h. Additional classes on request.
I am also available for Thai Massage Treatment bookings.
Italy mobile: 327 024 4112
Small classes and traditional one-to-one Yoga lessons are available from June 21st. Every weekday morning 7am & 9.30am AND afternoon: 4.30pm & 6pm
contact me early to book your places.
UK number: 07415 188 944
Italy number: 327 024 4112
I really like the detailed explanations in this talk through of the Ashtanga Yoga practice (many benefits will apply to Asana Yoga in general)
A senior Butoh dancer, whom I stumbled upon and whom I was able to share some time with.
Yoga and mindfulness, breath, health, nutrition, bodywork, discipline, change your life.
I am back and available to teach classes, I can come to your venue and give a group class or I can make home visits and teach you where you live, I have very limited space these first weeks in my own place, but it is possible for individual students to come to my home and practice here. My dream is to help you develop a self practice, empowering you to stand alone on your mat with self direction and the necessary drive to practice wherever you are.
You may be more like myself; I found it difficult for the majority of my yoga life to practice at home, I thrived of the energy of group practices, thrived of the presence of a teacher. This is completely ok. Don’t feel bad about your self practice not flourishing now, it may do one day. Just remember that with this, like with all things that you would like in life, keep the door open to the possibility of your ambitions but don’t beat yourself today about not having achieved the ambition as yet.
A shift took place very recently for me, I wasn’t expecting it and it surprised me: I suddenly crave self practice. I suddenly crave the absence of a class, the silence of just my own breath in the room, the absence of another yogi’s deodorant (remember to arrive to your yoga classes free off added scents, wherever you practice this is good etiquette). Today I crave stillness in the space around me.
This also is part of my hope to teach self practice. Do you feel where this is going yet? I have with my head wanted to return to Ashtanga for a significant amount of time, but now I also want to with a need that maybe you might say with my heart or soul, or simply my body. I have practiced in Mysore, but I locked myself out of study with the Jois family when I took my teacher training course in Mysore with another teacher. I am unsure if I regret this choice or if it simply is at is is. My Teacher training course taught me things I would not know otherwise and it is a choice I made.
To clarify: it is a strict rule that if you practiced with Pattabhi Jois or later his grandson Sharath Rangaswami, that respect for your teacher meant that you were not allowed to study elsewhere within the city. Many western students don’t understand this need for this one strict rule. I do and will maybe write about it another time. Let’s accept it for now. I broke this one strict rule and thus expressed a disrespect for my teacher Sharath. I appreciate that we sometimes have to make choices and that these choices carry consequences. I appreciate the lessons of discipline that I learnt from Pattabhi Jois and more so from Sharath’s strict teaching at the time that I practiced in Mysore in 2007.
I learnt something there for life and the discipline also had a liberating effect on me. I would fully trust Sharath with my body and spirit, I can not say that I have had many teachers whom I would trust to know how to protect my needs and challenge my ego, all for the better. I have had few if any teachers before him whom I rate this highly and would give my trust to in this deep way.
Injuries in Mysore: yes, I got injured, too. I was embarrassed about it because I thought I was ‘better’ than those somewhat Alpha driven origami specialists whom I heard around me bemoaning their torn or strained tendons.. But I still went ahead and out of insecurity drove myself too deep or too hard into Asanas. Insecurity is also an expression of negative ego. You might feel superior as you move around the world humbly, but are you sure your humbleness is not another expression of arrogance? Your insecurity, too can be this.. So I learnt my lessons. I cried a lot in Mysore. I fought a lot with my thoughts. Why did yoga in Mysore make me cry, when at home it made me sigh with deep relief from weekly stresses and strains..? I couldn’t understand it, I proceeded to judge it instead.
Judging … another way of escaping surely. It was in my case. I am a great escapologist.
It takes time to digest the lessons you learn in life; and that is if you are even willing to put in the discipline of digesting.
So I may have locked the door on future practice with Sharath, this means also a locked door on ever being authorized by a system that I trust implicitly now. Now.. this is the operative word. I had to really make a mistake first to understand some things better. THAT, too is the value of discipline that you can not argue with, of rules that exist and once broken carry consequences. And this is good. It is good that sometimes we can not talk our way out of ‘it’, can not wriggle and whimper until we get another ‘chance’. I am still growing in my understanding of discipline and how it can be liberating for your mind and soul.
We all make too, too many excuses, too, too often.
I feel for now that by locking myself out of a future of an open door at the shala with Sharath I have still gained an ongoing lesson. I think I am learning more right now from considering myself outside the door than I might have done had I bumbled along unthinkingly from the other side, inside.
But I would like to teach Ashtanga.
And I would like to teach it to people, too, even people who think it is too demanding, too Alpha, too strong, or hard. Hard is good by the way, but hard doesn’t need to mean straining, hard can be in the mind.. At the moment I am practicing the sitting sequence only. (sacrilegious to many, I know) I feel weak and I feel I need stillness. I hold all asana for an eternity in a very Yin way at the moment. And you (if you are a real Ashtanga Yogi) may tell me how terribly faulty my approach is, but I feel that it is incredibly beneficial to me right now. I look forward to standing on my mat again, I look forward to sun salutations that wake my body in a different way, heat my body from the inside, but right now I feel weak and want to begin in a place that my body calls for. So I am returning to Ashtanga the wrong way but the right way for myself.. And I will return to the discipline of order when I am ready. Discipline is very important for health.
And I would like to bring some students on the journey with me. Building up a yoga class starting at the beginning. Beginning for you as you learn the asana, their sequence and names, as you learn to breath because breathing is your most important action this minute… Beginning to be aware of what the body needs. And sometimes it needs starting a yoga practice from the middle while other times it needs discipline with NO excuses.
So I am looking for students who dare to approach a change. Yoga changes you even if you have no plans to change. The change will undoubtedly be good for your body, mind and health. You might think clearer, might change choices. How yoga will affect you is for you to feel not read about.
Come and practice Yoga, regardless of if you are new to it, regardless if you feel as flexible as a plank or if you already origami your way through life. I need to earn a living, but I also have a need to share what I learnt and learn from teaching you. I have a donation tin into which you can pay your contribution if you are as poor as I am. I am not opening the tin until it is full, so your amount will be very anonymous within it.
Otherwise my aim is to earn an absolute minimum of £30 per hour. Rising to £45 – £80 one day when I am in the place and time that allows this. But as I am as poor as a church mouse at this moment, I choose any offering over an empty fridge. I have rent to pay and a pension to start saving for. I trust that you will give or pay what is appropriate. I also trust that you would not be so silly as to not come and practice because you can not pay what you feel I should be paid. It is better for me to work for too little than not to work at all.
You know how it is, as you have the opportunity to work and share your skills you gain strength and reputation, this helps move you and me into the future. And you should practice Yoga now, not tomorrow, or next week or next month or next year when maybe you have money. Money should not stand in this place between you yourself and your basic needs of health and happiness.
Sen Traditional Thai Massage 