February 2021 Newsletter

 Hello yogi and friend;

If you missed my recent newsletter, click here to access the most recent post published 3th February. An update on online practice and news is present.

February Newsletter

Chanting: Why do it?

Thank goodness for this practice of ashtanga yoga, not just the physical practice - but all eight limbs of it. My new favourite limb is the singing limb - where is that located you may ask, in the niyamas?

Yes, svadhyaya!

Is it located in the inner limbs - does it happen during meditative awareness, dhyana? 

Yes! 

What about asana, can you sing in this limb too? 

Heck, why not!

Dash is almost two years old. Since he was born and since the time I became pregnant in the fall of 2013, I have matured as a yogi in many ways. I have gone backwards in my practice and became a beginner all over; then forwards again as I built what was lost back up. 

I bring my teachers into the room to practice with me. They have inspired me to be great and go beyond what I know. My dearest friends and teachers - Randa Chehab, Christine Hoar, Guruji, Sharath, David Garrigues and Dena Kingsberg...they have all taught me nuggets of the yoga practice and I remember their touch and their insight each and every day I practice. 

I absolutely love this practice, I long for it and smell it - Surya Namaskar B is like a little slice of heaven in my mind.

My newest teacher is my Sanskrit teacher, David Miliotis. His website is Here. David teaches me about the yoga sutras and guides me in my daily chanting practice. I look towards seeing one of my teachers of asana once or twice a year if I am lucky - but David I am happy to see more often - once or twice a month if I can so I can learn how to sing and chant the story of yoga. 

The best part is that he lives in Los Angeles, and I live in Edinburgh! We use Skype to connect. It isn't difficult to connect with people whom you wish to learn from. Email, Skype, viber, messaging, hand written letters...reach out!

When you chant you are able to understand YOUR yogic practice better. Chanting I have found helps me understand the asana practice. This is difficult to understand but think of it this way: you see an apple and you smell it and feel it - it looks good. But until you actually bite into it and chew it do you really know what it is like. It is like this - chanting helps you savour and taste and absorb what you are practicing better. Like asana practice, in the beginning you are methodical, robotic almost, memorizing and just getting everything in the series done safely and in the right order. This is like chanting as a beginner, we repeat and learn how to articulate our tongues in the right way and it is often a bit difficult and tiresome. 

Soon though, with practice and time - you can sing the sutras! This would be just like linking the vinyasa with the asana and the breath and dristi - you find a rhythmic smoothness and ease, you almost laugh through the practice with joy since it is easy, free flowing and meditative.  It only becomes this way when you do it often and for a long time.

Chanting also relieves the stresses and pressures of the asana practice and gets me courageously taking a deeper look at myself. Chanting reveals what is happening on that rectangle purple platform, the yoga mat. What is really happening when I do Buddhasana? Sitting and chanting, sitting and absorbing the meditative qualities of the Sanskrit sounds  - this brings out the story of this posture.

Singing and chanting also means that there is joy. Bringing joy and ease into your practice is a healthy way to begin going deeper. We can't take ourselves too seriously, so by enjoying what we are actually doing more we will feel it and experience it on a deeper level. It can be a bit uncomfortable in the beginning, but it will be pain-free and harmonious with time.

As a total beginner to chanting and kirtan or other types of singing - where to begin? Get a recording or record someone great. Have a Skype private lesson with a teacher. Get yourself contemplating what yoga means by weaving your way through the sutras - I promise it will spit you out a few lessons on your Marichyasana D.

I am courageously weaving my way through the third chapter and almost ready to begin studying the fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutras and I am definitely still a beginner. I lead free chanting sessions at Meadowlark on Wednesdays and Fridays. Until I've chanted it for ten years I will remain the beginner. 

If you practice deeply and devotedly any type of the yogic practice - whether it is asana, pranyama or meditation or chanting, you will reach stillness and acquire a meditative mind. And I believe the nirodhaha will come. Actually you don't even need the yoga sutras to explain it to you - though for some of us, the extra information does help guide us along in a very profound way.

Chanting Happenings:

Chanting Workshop 10-11 June - Meadowlark

Weekly:
4 pm Meadowlark Yoga - free
9:15 am Meadowlark Yoga - free

Daily Practical Practice

Dashiel Peter says, "Hello out there from bonny Scotland. I'm almost a year old!"

Often I meet people who think the practice of ashtanga vinyasa yoga is a very rigid practice that has many rules. Often they think they have to kill themselves to do it. 

This isn't the case at all. 

Daily ashtanga practice can be done with as much energy as you have to put into it, it doesn't have to be hard all of the time. 

Being a new mother, I find myself happy to get on my mat to practice. I am not concerned which series I do or how "hard" I practice. Just arriving on my mat and moving and breathing every day is more than enough. 

There have been times in my life where practice has been the most important daily routine and I didn't focus on anything else. And there have been other years where I practiced every day with the least amount of effort applied.

Now I find myself in the middle road after swaying to both extremes. I have done bare bones practices for a length of time and I have done full throttle practices every day as well.  

As a new mother, I am tired most days. To manage this and sustain a six day a week committed practice, I make a practical plan. 

I recommend this method for people who are working intensely, and people who are traveling. This would be great for anyone who is having a harder time than usual, dealing with challenges, or even just needing more sleep than anything else.

While we are on retreat, studying directly in India with time off from our jobs and householder commitments, and when we have carved out devoted time in our daily lives to focus just on the practice, we can study as deeply as possible with full intention on practice for hours on end. This is wonderful when this can happen and I fully urge people to dive into their inward journey as much as possible.

Having a practical practice plan balances this intensity, there must be a balance: we can't sustain deep practices over a long period of time. The body needs a break, so does the mind. Note how when practitioners study "in-depth" it isn't every day for an extended amount of time, usually it is no longer than six months.

If one WERE to practice full throttle every day, there is a higher chance of injury, quitting the practice altogether and burnout. This is what we DON'T want to do, we WANT to practice throughout our entire lives, so let's stretch it out over time and with ease.

Chakra Bandhasana with David Garrigues in 2011. One of the very few photos I have of DG assisting me.

Patanjali describes that higher awareness of the self - one of the foundational aims of daily yogic practice - is very near for those who apply themselves intensely (yoga sutra 1.21: "tivrasamveganamasannah"). But it can also come to those who apply themselves with mrdu - mild effort (1.22). 

In sutra 1.22, Patanjali defines three types of yogic efforts that lead one towards understanding samadhi. Practice can be mild, medium or intense; this amount of effort in turn relates to how fast or slow you understand yoga. 

Another way of understanding this is that there may be a few years where you are learning intensely on a regular basis. You are living in the same town with your teacher, you are seeing them daily, or you are on retreat. 

Then there will be a phase where you won't be progressing so quickly. Maybe at this time you won't be learning any new "postures" but you will be finding your own understanding of the practice; here you are learning how to apply what you have been already taught. You begin to use your own language to describe it. It becomes yours. This is where you build your "bhakti muscle" as my friend Tiffany Lee says.

Then the cycle continues: you'll be there for a while until something changes again, you see your teacher and something shifts. You learn the lesson needed to be learned, and you move on. 

This shifting and realigning is natural. Having a few years of enjoying what you have been taught is important to practice. Don't push all of the time. Or are you that type of yogi?

If we follow Patanjali's suggestion in sutra 1.22, we could have three potential practices IF we were to take the middle road.

1. Do an easy practice (a mild practice in time you spend on your mat and in effort). This practice could be twenty minutes to an hour. It is showing up and putting your time in with whatever you have in the tank to do. This could happen once or twice a week depending on how busy you are. For me this happens at least once a week: the standing and finishing asanas only - including savasana. Times that are very challenging this may be your practice - without shame or guilt. Sure it is a short one, but it is still a beautiful one.

2. Do a medium one (medium in length and in effort). This is the practice that Goldilocks would say is, "Juuuuust right". This practice is the one you try to do three to four days per week. This could be the practice you could do without working so hard but one where you have to still have to apply more effort than the first practice. One hour to an hour and a half. This is the meat of your practice - you spend most of your days doing this one - during this practice perhaps you also approach the asana you are currently working on or "stopping" at. Do this 3-4 days.

3. Enjoy a long one (intense and endurance based). This practice is the one you do one or two times per week. It is your big practice, the one that you pull everything from your tank to do. It could be an hour and a half to three hours. How much time do you have to spend on your practice? Could you turn off your phone a little earlier in the morning to make this practice happen more often? Or go to sleep much earlier? This is the practice I try to do twice a week with the goal of doing it three times a week. For some householders with big jobs and morning commitments in the week, this could be on a Saturday or a Sunday.

**

The reason we vary practice is so that we can:

1), focus on the breath and the vinyasa
2), maintain steadiness and consistency in our foundations
3), establish an unwavering commitment to getting on the mat six days a week 
4), enjoy practicing!

**

To Practice

I will practice today because the day is grey

I take practice today because the day is sunny

I completed my practice today because I needed to breathe
I needed to understand myself better

My body says I need to stretch

I need to chill out

I must learn to relax

I practice because no one tells me to

I practice because I feel God watching me 

Often the practice

Smells like the food I ate yesterday

I'm covered in sweat and I am drooling

I try to hold it together

I feel like an elephant
I am heavy
I unravel

Often during the practice
I am floating in the clouds, again with the Lord

My body is light and my mind doesn't fight

The earth enjoys my company

I join the world around me

I am taken care of

I do not have to be afraid

I love myself, my community and the blessed world

I practice because I believe in it
and it believes in me

Utthi Plutthi - one of the gestures you ALWAYS do, the last gesture before taking rest, the gesture that builds bandhas, builds bhakti, builds peace within.

Three Easy Practice Rules Post Baby or Post Break

Greetings, yogis and friends. I have surfaced from the depths of Motherhood to join you all in cyber-blog world. Becoming a new mummy has been an incredible experience but it has taken me far from writing and sharing about yoga. 

The vessel I am now occupying is a much different one. My body is clean and my eyes are sharp. I am stretchy, just like Elasta-Girl from "The Incredibles" which makes perfect sense, since my son is named Dash.

My body is now likened to a wing of a house that was once closed off which is now opened.

The positives to this of course is that I am able and bendy, the not-so-good parts is that I need STRENGTH to support this flexibility.

I thought about doing supplemental exercises to gain strength: pilates, running, climbing, or any type of fitness routine. But then with time being an issue, as I only have SO much time in the day to myself, I realised that my yoga practice is going to have to do much more for me than just bring me to a meditative state of calmness, it is going to have to heal my body, build strength AND make me calm.

Can your practice do all of this?

Yes, but you have to have a plan. I decided on three practice rules: 1), get through a practice every day - for as long as it takes. Once the mat rolls out and baby Dash has had his breakfast, we begin. 2), do Full Vinyasa and 3), practice non-attachment or what Patanjali calls, "vairagya".

The first one is easy, do the practice every day and during a time I set up specifically for it's success. It won't work if I say to myself, "I'll practice at 11 tomorrow, today at 9." It has to be at the same time so that you actually get it done AND so that it becomes a routine. In a two hour chunk of time, often I'll practice for thirty minutes, then I'll need to take a break to feed Dashiel; then I'll have another thirty minutes more of practice, and need to take another break to play. And so on...since I practice with Dash, this means that his needs are met throughout the practice. This is why they are so many stops. 

Oftentimes I do five or ten Namaskars to warm up to get back to where I was in the sequence before. This builds strength because some days I end up doing twenty to thirty Namaskars!

The second one requires coming to standing after each asana at the top of your mat. The positives are that you are able to settle yourself before undergoing the next asana, and you can give your wee baby (if you are practicing with your child) a kiss or a cuddle. You can also catch your breath and build your momentum again. If you are coming back to practice from a pregnancy or a break, this is a very good way to develop stability and stamina. 

The third is much more elusive. Patanjali calls non attachment "vairagya" which is first introduced in the first of his four songs on yoga, in the Samadhi Pada at sutra 1.12: Abyasa vairagyabyam tannirrodaha.

The concept of being "without attachment" to our highly cared for and oftentimes precious practices is something that many of us work on. Daily practice - done with steadiness, for a long time and without breaks goes hand-in-hand with also not striving for perfection while learning to let go.

Years and time on the mat inside yourself and with your practice will give you the information to make vairagya work. We need patience, perseverance and a lot of inward looking (within this same concept, I say "just say no to the daily yoga selfie!"). What we don't need is taking daily practice in a way that removes us from keeping a poetic reality on our life or becoming attached to the final end perfected product. 

Non attachment also means practicing every day within the limits of our abilities, without harming another vital aspect of our lives. We must try to let go of our attachments to the pleasurable parts in our practices; on that same note try not to be adverse to something in our practice that we are dodging; we should do it with equal effort placed on the pleasurable bits and the uncomfortable bits.  

A practical example is that I can enter a posture right now and say to myself the entire time, "It used to feel like this...I am not as flexible or strong...it should be like this" and my mind can take over comparing myself to this yogini whom I used to be.

INSTEAD I must think, the vessel I am occupying is different, that time before is over and now, with this new awareness and strength that I am building, I will do the posture with more ease, more stamina and it will feel differently, look differently and be a whole new experience. So because of this, the posture won't be like it used to be, so I can't attach to that experience at all. It won't serve me or my practice if I do.

It is this clear mind of not thinking of the past or what we were once before which can bring us to a place of deeper meditative awareness.

**

And how is it working so far? Dashiel is now four and a half months old, and I can share that we are rockin' practice. There are new yogic nuggets that are born every day. I find new gems of information from each jump back. 

What am I doing differently? I am not changing the practice in any way, just altering how I enter and exit asanas. Here are a few examples listed below. And maybe they can help you, yoga reader, become more committed to daily practice, and even let go a little bit more so that vairagya becomes achievable.

Cheers  to you, and happy practices from Love Yoga, Aberdeen.

• Float to standing from downward dog - take time to hang in the air
• Stay in chataranga for more than one breath - sometimes five or ten breaths
• Jump through alternating the top crossed leg; jumping back alternating the top leg
• Instead of jumping through with straight legs, go for the tight cross, hovering and straighten the legs out in in front, and then sitting down like a helicopter - stay here for a few breaths before lowering!
• Do fifteen to twenty back bends; limit the drop backs and doing more floor work; using a block to get the legs to do the work, and of course the chest follows suit
• Sing the sutras while practicing to calm your baby (or calm yourself).

Us doing our practice, and singing prayers, at Eco Yoga, Argylle

Yoga is a Family Affair: Poems from a Pregnant Ashtangi

Pregnancy and Ashtanga

Tic tac toe

Baby inside goes up and down

up and down

Easy and free - joyful jumps

Breathing with Momma is better than the jungle gym

and it's as easy 

as one two three

 

Let's sing songs to Patanajali

Vande Gurunam 

always we are grateful

Charinara vinde

Prepare and Cultivate

our warm home

 filled with thoughtful love

the sweetest practice ever is to come

Yoga is

preparing for Parenthood

Yoga is 

Birth

Yoga is 

a Family Affair 

Tic tac toe

The itsy bitsy spider

climbed up the water spout

Down came the rain and 

washed the spider out

Breathe deeply yogi baby

Daddy and Mommy are ready for you

You are safe

come enjoy this beautiful world

May we be filled with loving kindness

may we all be loved

Om namah Shivaya Gurave

Little baby hush hush don't you cry

breathe with Daddy 

breathe with Mummy too

You are our source

our wisdom and joy

you are 

our Yoga

You are

our divine guide

**

At the tail end of being thirty weeks pregnant, I am happy to share with you all that little Baby Hatcher and myself are loving our pregnancy and our daily practice of ashtanga yoga helps us in every way. 

It's a family affair - an event we do together - the baby and me. Because of this, I never feel alone on the mat or wondering if I am doing anything harmful to myself or to him. He tells me while we are practicing; in fact, he is definitely an excellent teacher and sets me straight if anything goes squint. It's a team effort - some days I ask him, "Come on, get us up in this handstand, little man!"

The week is difficult to begin; Sunday is the first day on the mat for us after Saturday resting, and this practice is usually a bit slow and curious. Usually I focus primarily on my breath and how broad I can move the breath through my body and to the baby. Monday and Tuesday's practices are the most challenging, it is as though my body and the baby inside me are a bit slow to catch on...By Wednesday, we are singing. The asana and breath, including the chanting practice we do before we start each and every morning, are in tune and we are moving together in unison. This makes the last three days of our practice week, ending on Friday - a wholesome attempt at a steady and healthy ritual.

As I look to the future of being an ashtanga mum and continuing my studies with trips to Mysore and trips to see my teachers, my intention is that my yoga practice is a family affair. My husband practices, I practice, and so does our son to come. He has always practiced, in fact. From the very first day of conception he has practiced, and this routine I hope - will be comfortable and habitual for him.

As my son grows up, we will encourage him to have a daily personal time to himself; whatever personal time (yoga) that may look like, we will encourage him that there is an importance to carving out time in the day for "calm", "quiet", and "settling" activities. This doesn't necessarily mean he has to practice yoga - just any practice where he can purify his body, tend his mind and take care of his thoughts. 

This offering of the same time every day for him to go into a safe and quiet place is just like what his father and his mum do each day - we head to our mats for some quiet time where we rejuvenate ourselves through asana, pranayama and meditation; all this effort is a commitment to healthy living and overall personal wellness.

Patanjali serves as a beacon to the practice for us: maintaining optimal mental and physical health every day is a ritual we as humans can't afford not to do; and if you are a parent or soon-to-be-one, you can offer the wisdom you learn from your practice to them. We can easily overlook the basic daily ashtanga vinyasa yoga practice as being hard and challenging and filled with difficulty, but really it is all about rejuvenation and wellness. Through the daily potent practice (whether it be big or small - short or long - who cares which series you are practicing - whichever one you are working on), we discover new awakenings within us which we can take out into the world and share with others.

Until the end of May when our little one comes into the world to join us, I continue to get up early and practice, continue to teach my daily Mysore programme, and most importantly, prepare for the birth of the newest yogi in our lives - our wee son.

Tales from a New Mysore Program

Morning Mysore at Love Yoga - the third month of practice here in Aberdeen.

There is something brilliant about doing what you love and I am happy to share I am doing just this: teaching what I daily practice. The morning Mysore programme at Love Yoga is in it's third month, and I am elated that practitioners are understanding the practice and students are moving in the right direction towards having a regular, daily healthy routine of yoga.

What does it mean to practice EVERY day? And early in the morning?

You've gotta change your habits a bit - go to bed earlier, eat and charge your temple with wholesome food and drink and you must maintain the idea of saucha - purification in your actions so that your yoga practice can be successful during those early morning hours.

We do have some guidelines to help us achieve this. Patanjali says in order for us to begin a 'practice', we must first figure out what a practice really is. These are outlined for us in the Yoga Sutras 1.13-15. 

• a practice must be a concentrated activity
• a practice must be done with devotion 
• a practice must be done for a long time and 
• a practice must be committed to without any interruptions. 

So say you are a total newbie and just starting out. You can come three days a week and begin to learn how to practice. Begin knowing that you can add days on as you become successful at this programme. 

As you add days to your regular routine (regular routine means that you do the same practice every day), the habit of daily yoga practice becomes easier and easier, and you begin to add another day on. And soon, you don't even know it happened, but you are up to 6 days a week!

Another precious tip Patanjali offers to us to help us get onto the mat each and every day is to have a strong awareness of WHAT yoga does for us and a commitment to attaining that goal each and every time we practice. How does this practice serve you? If you haven't looked into this, begin by asking yourself, how do I feel after I practice?

I have written about this before so I hope to not be redundant but I can't help myself, sutra 1.20 is a golden one: "shradda virya smrti samadhi prajna purvaka itaresam". 

• We have to have faith in what we are doing; 
• we have to feed it with dedicated actions that get us to the mat every day (healthy eating and sleeping commitments); 
• we must have a VERY strong memory of how we feel when we do yoga and how we feel after; 
• we must have a commitment to discernment of what we are doing (don't just go randomly doing any old type of yoga - that doesn't count - it must be consistent); 
• a sensible goal towards always getting closer and closer to samadhi - a concentrated and meditative awareness towards union with yourself.

These are in my mind the foundational efforts that you must make in order to practice daily. Outline what it is about yoga that makes you feel so great, make a list of the pros of how you feel. Enjoy what you see!

Changing your life so that you can bring something healthy and invigorating into it is a massive change and it will take some adjusting possibly. I too am experiencing this now with pregnancy. I have recently changed my practice from begin a slow yin practice to more of an ashtanga-based practice since I am feeling healthy. This is happening because the same daily practice routine itself created the strength and stamina to allow for this to happen; also, since I am feeling increasingly better in my body and in my mind so it feels natural to build my routine back to a similar practice I had before I became pregnant (believe me, it is modified!).

Changing any plan in your daily life (or practice) takes a long time to adjust. Adding a posture in or taking one away - whatever modification done to an established movement meditation practices requires some getting used to; often it isn't easy to change, especially if we practice on auto pilot and bull doze through our practices without a mindful eye.

Give yourself possibly TIME to adjust to a new morning mysore routine; start small and add on more practices with time. Be practical with your yoga and your goals with yoga - don't let yoga send you into a state of worry. Always, always remain cool headed about starting a daily yogic regime.

Looking forward to seeing more yogis in the morning room up here in chilly Aberdeen. And if you aren't near me come stop by for a visit, I promise you it will be worth your travels.

If you are new to ashtanga yoga, the forthcoming Beginner's Mysore Intensive is February 2, from 2-5 pm at Love Yoga. See you there!

Life Changes and Maintaining Steady Practice towards Transformation

Up until about four months ago, my daily efforts practicing the advanced series truly gave me the tools needed to quiet my wandering mind and soothe the dark waters of my soul. This ultra nourishing and potent series was the perfect recipe that changed my life: it taught me how to give and receive love, how to breathe and move to my fullest potential, and how to be more compassionate in this mighty world.

Now, being almost four months pregnant, I am without this sharp tool of discrimination; I am being tested in a new way to access those divine places inside me while maintaining the integrity of the practice. I have intensified my supplemental practices instead of practicing deep asana. These are the ones that used to be on the outside - the practices that used to support my asana practice have now become more important than ever.

Breathing, chanting the sutras and singing devotional prayers and mantras has become my daily practice. Add a small bit of asana to this (no more than forty five minutes) and there is clearly a new path of travel towards my inner temple. It isn't as easy as it used to be when a mentor like Viranchasana took me there every day.

Dena's teachings are quite luminous right now:

"Let It Go

Let It Out

Let It All Unravel

Set it Free

And it may be

A path

On which to travel"

Chanting to Shiva removes all of our illusions. Shiva has been removing the illusions about my self, about the baby and the mother I will be, and about my own suffering. Surrendering to the divine source of wisdom and love, isvara pranidhanani - is truly the greatest practice we can cultivate. And this directly brings all previous and current transformational practices into clarity. 

When life brings about challenges, absorption with ourselves is going to be more difficult and we often resist the practices we know that mend our hearts. If the suffering around you or within you has taken over your ability to focus on accessing the inner temple of your being, then it is necessary to look at the suffering as a preliminary practice before any yoga study can begin. Start by knocking on the door of your own haunted house.

To fully access transformation of the self one MUST take a detailed look at their own suffering. Then once it is on the table, there must be a plan to remove it or fight against it through the effort of specific yogic practices. One must look deeply at why we suffer, and this in my mind, is one of the pivotal preliminary practices to achieving yoga. 

The Yoga Sutras 2.12-2.25 go into depth about our suffering and Patanjali did not put these sutras into the second book on Sadhana, or "Practice" for just any reason. He places suffering and witnessing our own frustrations and karma as an initial step before one can even begin to work on the eight limbs. He offers us many practices on how to calm the dark waters of our citta vritti, but we have to do some work before we can actually begin.

One way for transformation to happen is IF all forms of suffering are removed and limited. When we find stillness in our asana and meditative practices, it isn't necessarily clean and tidy. Sitting with adverse thoughts of ourselves IS one of the most important tools that yogis need to be meditating upon. Suffering is to be avoided, but it can only be avoided if we actually look into its source and find out where it is coming from and contact the source, become intimate with the source in order to make the changes needed.

Being pregnant has taught me that asana and holding on to a practice such as advanced is not really practical right now. I let the practice go right when I found out I was pregnant. My body is different than others, so I am definitely still practicing, but it is a gentle combination of a few of the asanas from primary, intermediate and advanced.

Am I receiving the same information as I did when I was practicing advanced? No, it is definitely different. But though my daily practice has changed, I am still sharpening my tools (this is the hard part) so that I can move through my own personal battleground and achieve yoga.

Life's challenges will come - and our frustrations with the world (and ourselves) are buried inside of us. With this realisation, we must be ready to take on supplemental practices that still take us to the same place where we can combat the frustrations that some times never go away. Don't just rely on asana to take you there; it will, but be observant of how much you rely on it. Remember, this is just one limb.

For transformation to happen in your life, perhaps you are dumbfounded as to where to start. Try the yamas, look deeply into the first limb of yoga. And if you are truly looking in the right places inside you, you'll know this is the best place to begin as the yamas reveal the kleshas that hold us back from achieving yoga. 

I'm off to go chant to Shiva and sit in padmasana. This my friends and readers, is the best gardening that I can do for myself, and for my growing and blessed family around me and inside me.

I feel blessed I have had such incredible mentors to help me understand some of the wisdom that yoga offers: Christine Hoar, David Garrigues, Dena Kingsberg, Randa Chehab and my dear friend, Gretchen Arguedas. It is with great respect that I share that if I hadn't been taught additional practices and spent great amounts of time with these individuals, I wouldn't have the ability to share such thoughts revealed in this blog post - or the tools needed for the greatest practice that lies ahead of me - motherhood.

Yoga Sutras for Everyone

I find that when I clean my bathroom on Thursdays, I turn into a fembot. Ok, so I am exaggerating, but my mind wanders just to one place, that of resentment and anger. Thanks to the tools I have learned from ashtanga yoga, I have been able to curtail these thoughts of destruction and ire and channel them towards enlightenment. My sweet trick, you may ask?

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yep, I listen and chant the YS of Patanjali while I clean, while I cook, while I do wee chores around my home so that I am in a state of meditation and concentration. A few hours go by and I am surprised how shiny my bathroom looks and amazed that I didn't turn into a demon.

Adding spiritual study to your yoga practice - Svadyaya - is a key component - in fact it is the backbone that supports niyama - the second limb of ashtanga yoga. Having svadyaya in your practice arsenal will allow you to access a greater part of yourself that may be hidden or covered up. 

One translation of svadyaya means studying sacred texts. Which sacred texts should you be reading as a keen yogi? Two for sure: the Bhadgavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. They specifically bring our lessons from practice and show us how to bring them into our day. This is especially important when we are having an adult meltdown.

One great way to begin studying the yoga sutras is to find a teacher who you like. Do some research online and search for an online teacher. I recommend learning from the Mohan family and with Nitya Mohan at the Yoga Sutras Online website. This gives you the opportunity to listen to detailed philosophical insight on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and learn how to properly chant the sutras.

I recommend just like an asana practice, only chanting as far as you can remember. So when you begin, you don't learn the first twenty. You learn the first two. You get those two down to memory, then you add one more. Just like an asana practice, you don't go do the entire primary and see how it goes. You learn it one asana at a time so that you fully learn the postures before adding another one on.

Another way to study the sutras is to get a practical book that you like. Edwin Bryan't book, "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' is as in-depth of a book as you can get and for the beginning student, it may be a bit much. Mind you it is perfect if you are a seasoned YS buff, because it goes into great detail of commentary from Vyasa, the wise-expert on the Yoga Sutras. Dive into this book with a bit of courage as it will give you many perspectives on the sutras. 

A practical and all levels book which is great for beginning as well as intermediate students is B.K.S. Iyengar's book, "Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjal". This book is a gem; it is filled with easy-to-read descriptions of the sutras, but unlike Bryan't book, does not have much commentary from Vyasa. What Iyengar's book will offer you is a simple outline of the sutras and a roadmap of them too - you can trace how and which sutras relate to each other. And this is always good if you are trying to bring the wisdom of the sutras into your daily practice.

Here are two videos of me chanting Book 1 and Book 2 of the sutras. It took me a few years to memorize these two chapters. So remember, take your time and read, study and repeat. And notice, I am a novice, still just learning! 

In the second book, you'll see I have made a mistake - and I repeat the sutra I fumbled at the end. Can you hear which one is a miss? This sutra is a landmark sutra of Book 2 and this is why I must get it right.

I always thank Timbo, my sweet husband for introducing me to sincere sutra chanting; now, it is just as important as the asana practice. 

May your chanting be filled with Joy!

Book 1 Samadhi Pada

Book 2 Sadhana Pada

The Misfits of Ashtanga

This past month I have been teaching heaps and meeting new yogis in the Aberdeen community, sharing a simple message: practice the misfit asanas, the challenging ones. Don't skip them.

If you practice every day, approach what you have been taught with genuine effort and the practice in turn will take you all the way towards understanding the last three limbs of ashtanga - dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). 

Patanjali calls these last three limbs of ashtanga, a complete form of integration, Samyama. 

The last three limbs come when there is no more wondering or questioning what we are doing in the asana. It is required that we have already done all our work and research and we are able to invite a quiet depth to seep into our practice.

If you are not practicing every day or very often, the misfit asanas will urge you to quit and fidget and fumble instead of experiencing samyama. 

One of the ring leader misfits in the primary series - Janu Sirsasana C - is the posture that most people who are learning ashtanga simply skip. Others are a trifecta of difficult lotus-based asanas - Marichyasana B, D and Garbha Pindasana. These also get specifically left out because they are not easy, nor do they feel good for the first few years of practice.

Work on the difficult asanas that you may want to  overlook. If we are incapable of disciplining ourselves to attempt the challenging asanas, then there is no way that we will understand samyama. 

Without daily effort, how can we expect to advance or be more comfortable in the asanas that are alarming, if we don't go play with them every day?

Daily practice is the backbone of ashtanga yoga. Place practice as a priority over theory and study. You can do all the research you want - watch youtube and videos of pros all over, take workshops and go see famous yogis talk and demonstrate. But if you don't get on your mat and try, by yourself in your kitchen or in the Mysore room - samyama will definitely not happen.

I urge practitioners - whichever asana you are working on - first and foremost, try it every day. Why not spend a little bit more time working on what you are NOT good at and master that challenging misfit asana that is giving you grief? It may be giving you the right lesson you are needing to learn.

Here is my misfit asana - Sayanasa. Don't be fooled, I am not quite there, here I am falling out of it. Maybe in a few more years it will be easier. Well it took four years for that other misfit asana, Janu Sirsasana C to feel good, why would this one be any easier?

Patanjali outlines a perfect remedy for us on 'how-to' attain the riches of yoga. The crux of this method is practice: practice done for a long time, without a break, and with effort. If we can practice the feel-good asanas along WITH the misfit asanas with effort and with devotion, then one day we will understand all of the limbs of ashtanga yoga, including samyama. 

Thank you Aberdeen, for inviting me to teach at the The Yoga Spot, Love Yoga, and at Mo Yoga. A huge thank you to Michele, Rebecca and Mo for inviting me into the community and giving me the opportunity to share my love for ashtanga. And may samyama seep into your practices, dear Aberdeen yogis! And to the yogis beyond Scotland, too!


*Teaching Update:

5 October Chanting and Philosophy class Yoga Spot - 10:30 am

Week-long Mysore intensive at Love Yoga October 14-18

Ashtanga Yoga Edinburgh week intensive October 21-25.

Unraveling in Aberdeen

We moved this past week from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. This stressful time of clean-the-house, pack-the-car, say-goodbye-to-friends, and then move-to-a-new-city is one that requires some recovery time.

Thank you, Ashtanga Yoga Edinburgh!

I begin this new chapter in Aberdeen with rest. Rest is reading books ("The Autograph Man" and "Wolf Hall"), practicing, chanting, making ghee, taking walks, cooking, journaling, and writing letters to friends.

Long walks along my new favorite river, the Don, involve navigating pathways and trails that somehow just end! Though I am often lost, it is familiar to live right among the trees. In less than five minutes I am right at the river's side taking in the smells of the river: sharp detritus of rotting logs, bright green freshwater moss, piles of leaves, and abandoned forts that animals have built left like abandoned Scottish castles.

Intertwined foliage creeps everywhere, all around me, right inside me. It is lush, it is organic, it is juicy. Nature inspires me to practice, so I bring the memories of the natural world in. Can I feel this enamored while in Poorna Matsyendrasana? I shall try.

I have also been cooking as much food as possible with the guidance of Yotam Ottolenghi. Yotam transforms vegetables with heat and fire into a metamorphosis of joy. He may blind side you by asking you to garnish your masterpiece with a voluptuous egg. Deliciously daring!

Yogic practice has been a very relaxed affair; home practices have been sprinkled with peace. There haven’t been any early morning cycling/walking escapades through dark streets to get to practice. Practicing in your living room is sometimes the best place to approach any difficult asana.

Now, after morning coffee I stroll to the runway and the riches of this practice we love come right out. All it takes is a clean room without clutter and a lot of effort. Practice doesn’t need to be a gruel of sweat left drying on your mat like a heap of exhaustion, either. Use the right amount of effort in order to make it successful and joyful. 

Along the River Don, there are many kinds of geese and ducks flying about tending to what needs to be tended to before flying south in the coming cooling months. The cold wind in the air is nature’s warning; these birds know it, and they are hurrying about in their preparations.  

I too am gearing up to teach and join the yoga community in Aberdeen, though I may not be as busy as these birds! I am offering a few workshops in the coming weeks and in the meantime, I shall continue to admire the birds’ efforts and learn from the most glorious guide, nature.

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Teaching schedule in Aberdeen/Edinburgh:

14-15 September, Love Yoga - weekend workshop, book Love Yoga

30-September -7 Oct, The Yoga Spot - week of Mysore intensive. Book The Yoga Spot.

21-25 October Ashtanga Yoga Edinburgh - week of Mysore intensive, book AYE.

Please Practice Padmasana

I was told earlier in the year by one of my teachers to sit in Padmasana as many times as I could throughout the day. I have been doing exactly this - three or four times a day - five minutes to twenty minutes or so every time. 

Jewellea Photography

Sitting still in any position with a ready mind will lead you towards yogic bliss. But padmasana brought me right up close to the five yogic afflictions, also called 'kleshas', or hindrances to yogic practice. These can be painful, impure or colored thoughts - said plainly, these are anything that hold you back in yoga. I have been focusing on the first one, avidya - spiritual ignorance. 

Stillness in Padmasana develops insight into ourselves - notice how it was just sitting still that brought this on - it wasn't while grabbing my heels in urdhva dhanurasana or an advanced posture in the third series - though having a calm mind in these asanas will also lead you towards understanding your avidya.

While you are practicing, try to find stillness at each and every posture (not fidgeting, not looking around, being steady, being calm). This allows you to witness your thoughts so that you can look into what you are day dreaming about. The mind is often comfortable with covering up such thoughts so it goes into auto-pilot and thinks "I am not that", or "I don't think that way" and cleverly replaces the difficult or uncomfortable sensations with something easy to handle instead.

Choosing to remain oblivious to what is holding you back from attaining peace in your life is also avidya. Being 'spiritually ignorant' suggests that you are aware of what is harmful in your life but still you do nothing to change it.

Studying the yoga sutras will inform you that avidya breeds all of the other kleshas, and if we can get straight to the source of our spiritual ignorance - then we will be able to curb the growth of other kleshas. The five kleshas are avidya (spiritual ignorance), asmita (ego), raga (attachment), dvesha (aversion) and abhinivesah (clinging to life or attachment, even fear of death). Click here for a detail on the kleshas.

In our daily practice, there are asanas that befuddle us on a regular basis. Returning back to these places that are uncomfortable is where we are able to learn most about ourselves. For me, Sayanasana is always a battle. I fall some days and others I balance like I am teetering on a dime. I am always taught humility in each of my three successful breaths.

Some days your effort will be rewarded and the results are positive, other days no amount of effort will fulfill what is required to access the inner linings of your mind. The journey of a committed, daily self practice gives you the tools needed to accept this.

Work on those hip openers and healthy knee practices so that you can learn how to fold your legs into lotus - if this is too much for you, then try sitting on top of a block or blankets in sukhasana. Anything to offer space and length in your hips so that when you cross your legs with your heels lining up with your pelvic floor - your knees drop to the floor - this will allow lotus to happen eventually. 

For the auspicious padmasana is worth all your effort towards understanding your own avidya.