Shala

Some pictures from the Anjuna shala.



Finishing postures.


Waiting outside in the queue..




Artjuna cafe. Yoga, arts and great coffee all in one. Yoga hang out place.

Last day chez Rolf and Marci

The last day of yoga in Anjuna. During the last four weeks I’ve got very used to doing my practice in a big (!) group with generous adjustments daily. Now it’s time to resume reality in Newcastle and readjust to self-practice.

Every practice still takes a lot out of me; I have moments of total despair and discourage, but also moments of deep insight. Just like at home, some days the practice is very strong, other days very weak and shaky. I can’t say that the practice has transformed - four weeks is not long enough for that. But I have enjoyed being able to take the time to forget about the trivialities of real life and to thoroughly focus on my practice as it is in this moment in time. The support from the teachers and the group is invaluable; we’re all on the same path and can share beautiful times and experiences from along the journey (often relaxing on a sun bed by the sea or over a wonderful meal or a steaming cup of masala chai). In the mornings, I exchange smiles with many of them, even when we don’t know each others names or speak the same language, and I hope I will see them again somewhere in the world.

I try to take in everything that occurs on the mat so I can keep working on it at home, in the absence of anyone telling me off for keeping my hands too close when I jump back (or for anything else I’m not doing right). Having been to Goa has made the feeling that this practice is so right and amazing even stronger. And maybe that is the most valuable thing I’ve got here - not being able to do karandavasana correctly or floating through vinyasa (I still can’t do that by the way).

Colourful Goa

India is a multi-sensory experience. It fills up your senses with a variety of sounds, smells, tastes and images. Goa smells of spices, incense, dust and the sea. The air is filled with the sound of scooters and cars passing by, the drivers eagerly using the horn. The cows mooing during the day, dogs howling and barking during the night. The sound of waves washing into the shore.

No matter how much I scrub my feet, I seem not to be able to get rid of the dust and dirt I can feel sticking to the soles of my feet. When the temperature peaks, no number of showers can entirely wash away the dust sticking into the sweaty skin. After a day on the beach, I can feel the salt, sand and sun on my skin.

Goa has magnificent, radiating colours. They’re on people’s clothing, the scarves and sheets that they sell, the vehicles, houses, temples and churches. Goa is colourful, its religions, people and food are colourful. It all glows brightly in the sun but I feel that even the darkness has a tone. It brings a welcome change to the matted grey of Newcastle.

I try to preserve it in the pictures but they can never illustrate the richness of the Goan experience.

Fauna in Goa

This is the kind of animal population you come across often in Goa..


Lazy stray dogs (very friendly mostly).


Cute cat drinking milk that was meant for my coffee.


Holy cows.


Queer elephant.

YOGA

My second whole week with R&M is nearly over and I haven't written anything about the most important aspect of my stay: the practice.

Pretty much every day I get pushed in some posture. From day one Marci picked on my vinyasa. “Your hands are too close. You’re leaning to one side”. So, after every posture, I take my time to adjust the hands, lift up, take the legs through.... In backbends, including urdhva dhanurasana, ustrasana, lagu vajrasana and kapotasana, she is getting me to use my legs more. Until they burn. And then some. I’ve had some pretty good adjustments in bakasana B but it still seems very far from my reach.

I hear this a lot: “You’re too weak”. “You need to get stronger in --”. “You need to practice this to get more strength”. I just wanna make excuses (the floor is uneven; but I did it better yesterday; I was unwell so I feel weak today), or turn around and say ‘but I’m trying so hard!’ (and I do, I really do). After some mornings I feel deflated and hopeless, like there’s something wrong with me because I’m so weak. I bite my lips to hold back tears of frustration and tell myself this is all part of the process. And I try again. And again... And again.....

But every day, at the end of it when I lie exhausted in savasana, I feel better than before I started, better than the previous day. And this is why I’m here; to be challenged, pushed, worked hard, adjusted... And hopefully, eventually, ‘strenght is coming, weakness going’.

Visitors from Home...

My good friend Manon, whom some of you may have come across in class, arrived in India just before I did. After spending some time in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, she came to stay with me in Anjuna for few days. We practised together with Rolf and Marci, had some lovely meals in and out, saw a gorgeous sunset, and visited Arambol beach for a couple of days where we stayed in a beautiful hut on the beach. She is now staying in Purple Valley retreat, practising with Petri Räisänen from Finland. It’s been lovely having her, something familiar amidst the exotic, and having been able to share the life in Goa with someone.


Manon and I having breakfast on the rooftop of my guest house.

Belgian Chocolate

Now that I've got your attention...

Please check out Francesca Di Rosso's website by clicking here



Francesca is an Italian ashtangini and runs classes at her wonderful shala in Brussels, Belgium. She's a dedicated student of Nancy Gilgoff so we're singing from the same hymn sheet. Over the last few years I've kept bumping into Francesca all over Europe and recently she asked me to run a workshop in Brussels which is due to take place between 30th March - 1st April 2012. For details please click here

Francesca has such JOY for the ashtanga yoga practice, I just know that it is gonna be so much fun!

Missing pictures....

The Abode.



My landlord Gurudas has been extremely friendly and helpful!




My little kitchen.

Home Sweet Home

Since I am going to be staying in Anjuna for almost four weeks, I want it to be somewhere that feels like home. After I’d arrived in Goa, I had a look around to find a cosy room, preferably one with a kitchen and cheap rate. After about an hour or so, I bumped into Gurudas, who had a room for rent. It was pretty much exactly what I’d been hoping for! Warm shower (between the hours of 12noon and 7pm when the sun is up), double bed (the mattress and pillows are not exactly soft but sleep’s not been a problem), kitchen with a large fridge (since I only have one hob, you have to cook one thing at a time). Ok, it’s not Hilton but I couldn’t ask for more.

Pictures will follow, the connection is a bit unpredictable here. Meanwhile, take my word for it!

G-O-A

Every morning I wake up I still can't quite believe I'm here. Anjuna beach, Goa, India. Almost a week has gone by since I turned my back on wintery Newcastle to escape the chill for almost four weeks. This is my third visit to Goa and third time practising yoga with Rolf and Marci. When I'm here, I let go completely. Days unravel slowly, one by one, with nothing much to do aside from spending time on one of the many beaches in Goa, trying out foods in different restaurants (which in most places are divine) and meeting old and new friends. I make no plans, hold up to no schedules.

The only bit of hard work I put in is on the yoga mat every morning. Here, my practice consists of everything from primary series and second up to Karandavasana. This adds up to about 2-2.5 hours of yoga every day. After that, I crawl back to my room for a bowlful of porridge.

It's total contrast to real life in NCL and this is one reason why I keep coming back.

Yoga will absolutely NOT mess you up

Yoga might be the end of 'you', but it won't be the end of that body. As I have been getting many emails from concerned students regarding the recent publication of a anti-yoga article I have decided to post this blog, which is more of an open email, modified from a real-life (yes really!) reply which, half-way through writing, started to sound semi-decent. Normally I wouldn't give credence to anti-yoga material. So, I haven't done that here either. I haven't read the article nor do I know with with publication it was distributed. Ignorance is just SUCH bliss. I have merely addressed some of the issues that have been raised by one student....



... Firstly, I just want to say that I can understand your concerns. When I first started ashtanga yoga my sciatica was so bad (and running down both legs as far as my ankles) that I could hardly walk without squinting my eyes and clenching my teeth. Funnily enough it was precisly the fact that I had sciatica that I began yoga in the first place: nothing else would work (and I tried EVERYTHING). So, I made a silent pact: if i practice everyday for 6 months and if my sciatica dissappears then I will buy a mat, a rug and every ashtanga book and video in existence! Needless to say it worked and my DVD case and bookshelves are full.

The article you mention has been written many times over the years and is nothing new! The stories of young brahmin boys has been banging around now for decades. Again, nothing new. For me those articles simply do not 'arise' here. When fear bubbles up, articles appear. But, alas, there is no fear here. A dictionary definition of Ashtanga Yoga could actually be 'The Absence of Fear'. But, I will offer a few (likely to be many) words...

This practice has an extremely powerful and healing effect on the body. The entire musculo-skeletal system realigns, re-tunes, and strengthens. Even the essential physiology of the body changes, slowly, over time, along with dietry and lifestyle changes, and drops into a more relaxed, refined and economical state. Old broken pathways are reasserted, past niggles are addressed; even the nervous system is 'cleansed'. The overall essence of dilligent, daily practice goes so much further than basic physical excerise that I can now barely even consider this practice a physical practice at all. To do so, as far as this (my) perception is concerned, is to reduce ashtanga yoga down to a banal one-directional activity. It is practically impossible to convey this without have undergone years of daily practice. It is impossible to describe. But, to set up ashtanaga yoga alongside other physical activities doesn't really warrant the comparison at all. There is nothing that penetrates as deeply as this practice as far as I am aware. The synchronicty of moving the breath, bandhas, drishti and the parts of the body independantly and yet in unicity is unparralled in its intensity and potency.

As such, there is much that comes 'up' and 'out' from this practice.

Soreness? Yes.
Tenderness? Yes.
Strange/new sensations? Yes.
Difficulty? Yes.
Frustration? Yes.
Niggles? Yes.
Pain? Yes
A whole myriad of emotions? Yes!

These ALL subside. Breath is the key. Injury only occurs when breathing stops! So, that is why you will often hear me asking the student who I am adjusting to kindly "breath", as often the student actually holds the breath. Hold the breath for long and what happens to the body?!!

Pain? In my experience, and every other student willing to stick it through the tough times will confirm that, pain arises when a certain weakness is highlighted in the body. This practice is a wonderful highlighter! It is like a magnifying glass and will absolutely tell you if there is something that needs attention. It is like a nagging know-it-all! Often this is met with frustration on the very outset of pain, and sadly people run away in the other direction without realising that walking slowly in the positive direction with breath and fire reveals that the exit is on the way out and only just a few steps away. To put it in Pattabhi terms - pain is either "weakness" (via negative) or "strength coming" (the positive!)

Whichever way you look at it, new life and healing occurs.

Poor adjustments and poor teaching in general can also be an issue. This is a point at which concerns can be understood. Overzealous adjustments from inexperienced or unskillful teachers can be a problem. Same goes for teaching incorrect method. Teaching students to fold forward with a straight back and holding students back on primary series for too long are two extremely cruel endeavours in the ashtanga world and two of the main bugbears that Nancy Gilgoff and myself are working towards eradicating in the ashtanga world. I have accompanied and assisted Nancy throughout the UK and Europe and we see so much of this happening. It is quite rife, and many students are in pain constantly as a result. It is upsetting to see.

Age is absolutely NOT an issue whatsoever. Pattabhi Jois would receive any student whatever the age and condition of the body. He would actually teach people who could not walk. Anyone can do this practice. For modern examples please check out Lino Miele (one of the foremost teachers and practioners) who started in his late 30s (perhaps 40s? fact-finders?)

Lino Miele

Also, check out Gwendoline Hunt who started in her 50s or 60s (!) and kept practicing until her 70s when she sadly died in a drowning accident. She also performed (during her 70s) in one of Lino Miele's instructional videos and displays amazing strength and flexibility. Quite incredible:

Gwendoline Hunt

To say that yoga is not good for someone with back problems is something of an oxymoron. Just a blatant contradiction in terms.

And concerns over the western body-shape? Large strong bodies are ideal for this practice. Kapha is King. Try Derek Ireland:

Derek Ireland

Need I say more?

Actually I didnt need to say anything coz this guy, Eddie Stern, has already done it for me here:

Eddie's clever article