Tag Archives: Ashtanga Yoga Egypt

Cairo, The Romance Continues

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Taken at Cairo’s Gezira Club by the late Zeinab Lamloum, a great photographer, devoted ashtanga student and good friend.

There are some places that simply draw us, that holds a place in our hearts and our imaginations, that stirs in us some deep kind of recollection of what it is to be terribly, beautifully human. Since late 2013, that place for me has been Egypt. So, in this year which I’ve dedicated to living more fully, more authentically, making my fourth teaching trip to Cairo feels like a pretty good idea.

Over the last few years, I realize, I have formed an interesting, and ever changing, relationship with the place and its people. My first trip, I subbed for fellow teacher, Egyptian Iman Elsherbiny when she took her own trip to study with our teacher in Mysore, India. That first experience was like stepping into someone else’s life, living in her apartment, teaching her classes, being taken around by her friends. My second trip, I joined forces with Iman to help her open her new yoga space, The Shala in Maadi, during which we did a few retreats together which solidified our own sisterhood; her friends became our friends. The last time, I was teaching workshops and retreats, mostly on my own, I spent practically every weekend away from Cairo, it was beautiful but discombobulating. I started to make my own connections, but it was snippets of a life in a whirlwind.

In a way, over those trips, Egypt and I were having a romance, intense but fleeting, substantial enough that it has kept me wanting more; so risky at times that I wanted to keep myself at a safe distance. Still, the feeling remains, I know that Egypt and I like each other.

It’s been nearly a year and a half since my last meeting with Egypt and I wonder whether we’ll jive or not, whether we can we still top the magic of the first, second, even the third time?! I’m not going to try to think too much or speculate the possibilities. I can’t speak for Egypt, but I know I’ve changed and I have a feeling that in the backdrop of Cairo I will know how much more different I am from the other times I’ve come to visit. I know I have grown there, and I know there is probably more growing to do together.

I have different intentions than previous trips. Instead of seeking adventure, wanting to teach everywhere and spreading myself too thinly, I am concentrating my energy, hoping for a stable two and a half months of teaching and self-study.

This time, I am making Nūn Center in Zamalek my base for two months, while continuing to offer Inner Dance in The Shala in Maadi, where the healing modality grew a steady following by the end of 2014.

Between April 17 and June 10, I will be teaching a Sunday to Thursday Mysore program between 7:30-10am at Nūn Center (pronounced “noon,” Nūn is the symbol for primordial water in Ancient Egypt), along with supplementary weekend workshop classes on Friday mornings that will include “Introduction to Ashtanga Yoga” and various themed explorations paired with the traditionally counted led class. For more information on the Nūn  Ashtanga and Inner Dance offerings, please check out the website http://nuncenter.com. Email or call for bookings and inquiries we@nuncenter.com/+20 122 398 0898.

I will also be facilitating Inner Dance in The Shala in Maadi on Thursday evenings. For information on the Inner Dance schedule please call 01223717729-01222384498 or check out The Shala Facebook Page.

There will surely be more in store, dates are being floated and ideas are brewing. So, please continue to check in for updates.

I can’t say where this romance will take me, but I suspect it’s where I want to be going, deep into the personal work that fuels my own teaching, my hunger for learning, and my love for living. I’m excited to say: Cairo, I’m coming.

For Weekly Mysore Classes & Friday Workshops
Nūn Center
4 Shafik Mansour, Zamalek, Cairo
we@nuncenter.com/+20 122 398 0898

For Thursday Night Inner Dances
The Shala
6, Road 200 (in front of the South Africa Embassy), Maadi, Cairo
01223717729-01222384498

 

Inner Dance & Ashtanga Yoga in Gouna, Egypt, April 24-26

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Gouna Workshop kaz and imanJoin Amy and I for the Gouna Weekend Workshop on April 24-26. Beautiful Gouna is located on the Red Sea in Egypt.

@ Insight Counseling and Integrative Health
Thursday, April 24: Opening Circle/Introductory Class 7pm
Friday, April 25: Yoga Class 10am, Inner Dance 7pm
Saturday, April 26: Yoga Class 10am, Inner Dance 12n

Move to Your Own Beat

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When you really give yourself space, when you give yourself room to breathe, something magical inevitably happens, something moves and flows.

It may be spontaneous dancing, a sigh, a cry or a song. It may be very quiet, a tear drop rolling off the cheek. Whatever it is, let it come and then let it go…

Photo: Shifo enjoying a solitary boogie during our Ashtanga Retreat in the White Desert a couple of weekends ago.

Iman Elsherbiny and I are in Cairo this weekend, teaching Ashtanga and Inner Dance workshops near City View. To join or for more information please contact Mariam Sobhy on 01001188660. 

Ashtanga and Inner Dance, Weekend Workshop, April 11-12

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Ashtanga and Inner Dance, Weekend Workshop, April 11-12

Happy to be offering more inner dance as a compliment to the yoga practice this weekend.

Come and explore the ashtanga yoga practice with Iman Elsherbiny, then open to the flow of your own intuitive wisdom with Inner Dance, a moving meditation and healing modality from the Philippines.

For full details, see poster.

 

Going into the Desert

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In two days: a new journey.

Farfara Oasis with it’s famed White Desert is known for the expanse of chalk white and curious rock formations sculpted artfully over time by the rough desert winds. Once a sea-bed, and then a savannah of lush green with herds of roaming gazelles, giraffes and elephants, it is now a living monument of ever changing time–a fitting place to practice yoga.

Free of distractions, the wide open areas of the desert, is a symbol of the clarity and purity that can be achieved by regular yoga practice. Slowly day by day, we are clearing away the debris of stress and tension, attachment and expectations, of our own preconceived ideas and cultural conditioning.

Going into the desert can also be tough, a harsh landscape, full of trials, bringing out the most innate of survival instincts. This is also true about the yoga practice. It can be full of struggle, pushing one to his/her limits, initiating one into the process of birthing and dying, of receiving and releasing, finding that oh-so-difficult balance between holding one’s center and simply letting go.

And so we plan…There’s no harshness built into the program as we have excellent guides, only one day of camping, a very modern, very comfortable trek into the desert, but the foray into the Great White is built into the yoga practice, into the asana-s, into the meditation, inner dancing and the satsang, each in its own way an opportunity to observe who we are in this liberating landscape.

PHOTO: Care of Freedom Travelers, who are expertly organizing this trip. Ashtanga in the Desert: A Yoga Retreat is on Thursday March 27-30. Co-teaching with me is the lovely Iman Elsherbiny.

Take the Practice into the Streets

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Take the Practice into the Streets

After some time, after regular practice, something strange, different may happen…Before you know it your practice has gone beyond the four corners of your rubber mat.

I arrive Thursday evening. Al Cairo, the crazy city that somehow has drawn me back.

I found myself a little anxious as I boarded the plane. Was this an act of insanity, was I really returning to this crazy city? I worried about life on the road there, the gridlock, the hot tempers and near misses that characterizes life in Cairo.

My friend and fellow teacher, Iman Elsherbiny, has arranged for someone to pick me up. Ashraf is on a yoga study-exchange and only started with visiting teacher Sonja Radvila in February. He’s been going regularly ever since, and he tells me right away how much he loves it.

Not ten minutes out of the airport, a car full of people nearly back into us–we are on a highway. It’s a near miss, but horns are honked, and windows are rolled down and I am expecting the exchange of harsh words.

Ashraf surprises me. He smiles, speaks jovially across to the other driver.

For a split moment there is a sense of dismay; this is not supposed to happen. And then the whole thing shifts. Tension melts away as the other driver laughs as well, goodwill traveling between two cars in the middle of a bustling highway. Then we go our separate ways.

Something in me relaxes. All is well.

I commend Ashraf in his good humor, his ability to change what could have been an ugly situation. And he laughs and credits the ashtanga yoga practice. He says that he can feel the change.

I love this. I love how the process works, how the care, calm, consciousness cultivated in yoga practice inevitably spreads into daily life.

LIVING IN CAIRO & INTERESTED IN YOGA: Iman Elsherbiny (0122371729) and I (0101348097) are offering privates in Maadi. Iman’s regular class schedules can be found in Ashtanga Yoga Egypt’s FB page. We are taking a group into the White Dessert this weekend, March 27-30 for a special yoga retreat, if you’re interested, call or email me kaz.castillo@gmail.com. More details on FB, look for Ashtanga in the Desert.

PHOTO: On the road with Ashraf and Iman, sunset along the Corniche in Cairo.

Event Teaser… Ashtanga in the Desert: A Yoga Retreat

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Event Teaser... Ashtanga in the Desert: A Yoga Retreat

PHOTO: White Desert, Egypt. Save the date announcement was posted today on Facebook. Very excited to be planning my trip and class offerings,not to mention the chance to reconnect with students, friends, and adopted family. More details to follow soon!

Playful Spaces

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Playing Outdoors

Yes, there are such things as ideal conditions for practice: a windless place, even floors. If you’re going to get all picky about it, you can go for wood floors and a temperature-controlled environment that duplicates the degrees produced by 65 bodies practicing in the shala in Mysore, India between the fall and winter months of the year.

Wherever you practice, you want to be able to cultivate focus and create a healthy platform for the body.

Recently, however, as I traveled between Aswan in Northern Egypt and Naweiba in Sinia, I found that outside the constructs of the “yoga studio”, spaces have a life of their own. They were often outdoors where cold, wind and sunlight  invariably come into the practice. Objects, passers-by, animals come into view, tugging at the focus. Noise calls for attention. In Naweiba, the most even ground was carpet atop gravel.

During the retreat I was teaching, there was one day we thought we had sneakily secured a chance to practice at a sweet spot in the Philae Temple in Aswan. The floor was stone, hundreds of years old. And even. I rejoiced at the flat surface on which we could go over the finer details of jumping forward and back in the vinyasa. That was until the guards totally panicked as they saw us get started on our colorful mats and we were only just standing and breathing. They freaked and ran us (infidels) out of the temple.

As a teacher, I wanted to be able to provide my students with the best learning experience. The space is a crucial part to that experience. And so far, we had no space and our poor logistics had resulted in unnecessary drama. As we chugged along in our boat to another island on the Nile River where our local guide said he knew a spot, I wondered whether I was failing my students in some way.

Said island was amazing. And sandy. Unevenly sandy! I tried not to panic. Instead, we started where we’d left off in Philae, “Aummmm,” getting on with the afternoon workshop program.

It wasn’t what I had planned–as I’d planned for having a nice stable ground to work with. But the result was so much better than I could have planned or anticipated. We adapted to the environment and adopted a sense of fun and playfulness that you can’t help but feel when you are out of doors, enjoying the afternoon sunlight, feeling the sand at your feet. It was probably the most fun class we had that weekend. It was spontaneous, light-hearted, but also quite challenging physically.

Sometimes the conditions for practice is far from perfect. Try not to scoff at it; for all you know it might be better than perfect!

Photo: So successful was our class in this spot that we planned the same outing for the second retreat in Aswan. This is batch 2 retreat participants enjoying their savasana in the late afternoon sun on the slope of this picturesque river beach.

Thank You, Cairo

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Last Sunday, I taught my final classes in Cairo. And while my time in Egypt has not yet drawn to a close–In a few hours I will be taking a plane to Aswan in Upper Egypt. My first retreat there will start tomorrow afternoon. The second on the 24 of December (which there is still spaces for!)–the last couple of days have been about wrapping up my time here in Cairo.

It will take more than one article to express all that I’ve experienced and learned here. But for now, just a moment to express my deep gratitude.

First and foremost, thank you to Amy/Iman Elsherbiny, who invited me to come and teach in her place while she studies in India with our teacher. Who knew that one casual conversation two years ago in Mysore would give birth to this incredible life experience?! I feel honored that you would trust me with your community here. Before you left, you made sure that I would have a life, friends and family here to help navigate the Cairo craziness–and that has made an incredible difference in my time here. And even in your absence, you have been totally present in this adventure of mine, assisting me all the way from India, being my springboard, advisor, and friend.

I want to thank the amazing students that I’ve met here. It has been such a pleasure to share with you all. I am so happy to take part in your yoga evolving journey–even for such a small sliver of time. Thank you for surrendering to me, for trusting me with your bodies and your practice! I have learned more from you all than you can possibly imagine! Your love, curiosity and excitement about the practice, your perseverance in times of change inspires me.

I am grateful to all who have genuinely and lovingly welcomed me, you know who you are! You opened up your homes, offered up your friendship, almost always upon the first meeting. You warm my heart so. You have translated for me, supported me, helped me go beyond just living to teach, you have reminded me of who I am off the mat, and have taken a great role in the greater yoga practice in which I am constantly challenged by: how to live a more balanced and integrated life.

And finally, I must thank the city itself, Cairo as a whole has been so incredibly welcoming. So strangely instructive; it has been a great teacher these last couple of months. I am challenged by you, also blessed, fascinated and everyday just a little bit more in love with you. Thank you, Cairo.

So much love to you all! I won’t say goodbye, because I know we will all meet again!

Photo: My last Mysore class in Zamalek, December 15, 2013. Amy/Iman Elsherbiny will be returning from her Mysore adventure in February.

So…Self Practice

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Self Practice: a wild beast, appearing like an inconceivable task for the student used to guided classes or mysore spaces held by teachers. It can seem daunting and difficult to go through the practice on one’s own with no assistance, no adjustments, no corrections, not even the watchful gaze that keeps us on the breath, keeps us intentionally in the zone in which yoga happens.

With me preparing to leave Cairo and with my friend Iman still studying in India, there is a short gap of time in which there will be no present teacher for the Ashtanga Yoga Egypt students and the choice to self-practice will arise.

I can only hope that most will choose this path for the short term–it is a wonderful opportunity to connect with the guru within, to get to know yourself, to grow with your practice.

I cannot stress enough the importance of having a teacher with whom you deeply resonate with and with whom you are willing to trust your body and your process. But in the times when there is no teacher, when there is no mysore space to rely on, the responsibility of practice falls into the hands where the practice of yoga belongs to the most in: your own.

It’s true, a solo mat practice has its challenges but its rewards are incalculable.

In my own experience, over the last 7 years, I have been blessed with instructors who passed through where I was living; they would come and they would go, but always leaving me with so much. In 2010, I then started practicing in India with Sharath Jois, who I now consider my main teacher. Since then, I have been in the presence of my teacher for three months out of the year, and then I am on my own again and self practice is often the only option.

It’s ok, because there’s plenty of “homework” –lots to cultivate, to practice until the next time. This time of self study (svadyaya) can be a wonderful experience of integrating the practice into the system, into the body and the mind.

These gaps have been very rich. They have allowed me to take responsibility for my own practice, they have taught me to be independent, to be inquisitive and discerning. I have learned the difficulties of self-motivation. And, yes, I have at times stumbled and lost my flow. I’ve also felt the joy of returning to practice, how my body rejoices at the breath and movement, how my mind stills and empties, how grounding it is, how expanding.

More than anything, self practice establishes the relationship between you and your own practice, that whether your teacher is present or not, your practice is yours–recognizing this is so very important.

Sunday is my last class in Cairo. The first Aswan retreat starts on December 19 (to the 22), the second on the 24-27 December. Spaces are still available in the second batch.
& Iman Elsherbiny will be returning to Ashtanga Yoga Egypt from a very fruitful Msyore, India season in February.

Photo by Zeinab Lamloum. Bakasana during my own self-practice after teaching.