Happy Hols

Enjoy the hols everybody! The pic below is something I took a few weeks ago, along with a wonderful excerpt from the fantastic Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.........



There was a Door to which I found no Key:
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE;
There seem'd--and then no more of THEE, and ME

Recipe: Lentil Risotto

a wonderful dish from Meri’s kitchen......

1 cup rice
1 cup green lentils
1 cup split red lentils
1 brown onion
200g mushrooms
200g baby leaf spinach
salt
black pepper
ground paprika
ground cumin
dried or fresh basil, oregano, marjoram
1 cup single cream or soya cream (optional)

Cook the rice and lentils together in twice their volume of water.
Chop the onions and mushrooms and fry on a pan with a little oil. Add herbs and seasoning.
Mix together onion/mushroom mix with rice and lentils. Add the cream and fresh spinach. Bring to boil and simmer until spinach wilts. Serve with parmesan, cottage cheese and/or roasted nuts or seeds. You can substitute the lentils with beans of your choice or marinated tofu and add any other vegetables to your risotto. Yum!

Chris Gladwell in Newcastle...

by Meri Erkkilä

Chris Gladwell, an ashtanga teacher from Bristol, held a workshop at the Buddhist Centre November 20th-21st. Chris has been practising yoga for over twenty-five years and teaches in a way that is especially suited for the Western practitioner.
I attended the second day of the workshop where I met Chris for the first time. The day began with kriyas, methods of cleansing that can be used to compliment the asana practice. We practised kapalbhati (forceful out breath), uddhiyana and nauli kriya (abdominal churning). A lot of the day was spent on looking at hips and knees and discussing preventing injuries to the knees. We did a lot of postures and stretches that are targeted on opening the hips as knee pain is often due to tightness in the hips.
Chris is due to hold another workshop in Newcastle in September 2010. For more information on Chris check out www.radikalfreedom.com.

Meri Erkkilä - Registered Yoga Teacher!

Just a quick note to congratulate Meri who has just completed her yoga teacher training and who is now an official Yoga Alliance member - Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT).

Well done!

Nancy Gilgoff Workshop, Wiltshire 2009

It was a wonderful experience assisting Nancy Gilgoff in Wiltshire this year. The workshop (9th-11th Oct), hosted by Ollie and Daniel Petkoff was held at Slaters Barn, a lovely retreat hidden away in the lush Wiltshire countryside. The workshop ran over the course of a weekend and included a 2nd series session. It is great to see more people moving into 2nd series - a topic which nancy covered in quite some detail over the weekend.

There is always such a deep sense of touching upon something timeless and authentic when Nancy is in the room and, of course, many stories dating back from the early days with Pattabhi Jois were duly told with great enthusiasm. Nancy hasn’t veered away from the original teaching handed down to her from Guruji so you can be sure that you’re getting the time-tested traditional system when working with her.

If you’re serious about ashtanga yoga then you gotta go meet Nancy!

To see all pics of the weekend then click HERE

Visit Nancy's site at Ashtanga Maui

New Health Food Shop opened!

There can't be too many shops that offer environment friendly, fairly traded, dairy-, gluten- and meat-free foods and goods. Now there is even more choice with the opening of Alternatives in Byker! Check out the latest addition to the Newcastle family of health food stores on 109 Shields Road.
Open Mon-Fri 9.30-4.30 & Sat 10.00-5.00
Tel. 07929634709

The Beauty of Mysore...

Yoga mats are lined up next to each other, the space is filled with the sound of the practitioners breathing heavily and little else. From the periphery of your vision you may see the movement of those around you. Now and again the teacher comes to you to adjust.

Doing a self-practice in a group setting is a way of teaching and practicing that is unique to ashtanga yoga. This style is called mysore and it comes from the name of a South Indian city where guruji Sri K Pattabhi Jois was born and where he taught ashtanga yoga according to the tradition that his teacher Sri Krishnamacharya recovered from ancient texts.

In a mysore class, the teacher does not talk the students through the practice but each students moves according to their own breath and pace, following the sequence as far as they in that moment in time are ready for. Teacher gives verbal and physical adjustments and moves the students on when they are ready for more postures. This method enables the teacher to work on each student individually and at best it is rather like a private lesson within a group of people. It enables the student to practice at a suitable pace and focus on aspects of the practice that he or she needs to work on. Every practitioner is unique in his or her way of practicing and mysore style class accommodates the needs of every students. The atmosphere can be very focused with every student doing their own practice but the energy is felt and shared by everyone, including the teacher. It is the best way to achieve the true purpose of this practice, inducing a natural state of meditation through a flow of movements and turning the awareness inward.

This is what students have said about mysore:
“With individual assistance in every pose I can be sure that I am moving correctly and safely. I go much deeper into the stretch and have seen improvements in myself really quickly. Plus, going at my own pace helps me focus inward and be fully aware of how I feel physically and emotionally that day.”