Your practice is your own. You breathe at your own pace, you move according to your own range of motion. You decide the effort you put in.
You develop your own sense of independence, cultivating your body-mind-breath as a source of personal power.
The most important thing is to show up, is to be present.
Photo: Independent self-paced practice, Ashtanga Yoga Egypt, Mysore class in La Zone, Maadi.
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Haiyan, one of the strongest storms to make landfall, may have passed the Philippines, but the devastation it left in its wake is just heart-breaking.
I feel very blessed that my family in Manila are safe. And that Boracay Island and the many friends who live there have been spared despite being on the projected path of the storm.
Unfortunately, other parts of the Visayas region has not been so lucky. The death toll is still rising. Many thousands have lost their homes and all their belongings, they are without food and basic resources.
It is so inspiring to see so many organizations and individuals mobilizing good intentions into true acts of love. Been thinking of how to help from Cairo. A very reliable and dear friend is raising money to buy a 1000 slippers for storm victims who have lost everything.
So in the interest of helping people stand, walk and restart their lives in this small and simple way, I am going to donate the proceeds of the first Inner Dance offering here in Cairo to slippers for storm victims. Hoping that there will be more opportunities to share and raise funds.
Inner Dance is a healing modality and a moving meditation coming from the Philippines.
I look forward to sharing it this Thursday at Shanti Yoga Cairo (SYC), Heliopolis, 7:30pm.
I entered into the yoga shala (Ashtanga Yoga Cairo) this evening to find all the early starters taking a moment, all of them sitting and breathing. Ok, it’s that kind of day then…
It made me smile to watch them. It’s beautiful to see yoga in action. Most of the time, we think of yoga as making postures, with ashtanga particularly as movement in space. But this, this is the real thing. The collective, intuitively breathing, knowing that this is what is needed.
This is not a prelude to practice but a part of the great wide open expanse that is practice.
This is not a beautiful example of street art, but it’s real. This street scribble, near where I currently live in Cairo, is someone saying something. In Cairo, which has been the scene for political upheaval of late, where the new is constantly grinding against the old, and bits of old keep on grinding into each other, these words have serious context.
In such a place as this, living is a constant balancing act. There is a quiet and some times not so quiet battle on. And the question for many is how to find peace and at the same time how to fight for survival.
This is yoga, walking the slack line, finding the fragile balance between being centered and strong, but being easy and flexible, teetering between two extremes: haphazard surrender and fighting tooth and nail–to find some kind of middle ground, which at its best remains pretty shaky. But in that constantly shifting space, there is a stillness, a center to stand on.
Will be going this morning to Shanti Yoga in Heliopolis with it’s relatively beginner yoga community to teach a foundational class with emphasis on grounding and feeling the center. Excited to be introducing these ideas to new communities of ashtangis.
I love working through the subtleties of sun salutations and standing postures, it supports the practice. It gives it legs to stand on!
Like in every big city, life in Cairo has its challenges. Tension bubbles up to the surface in a myriad of forms: through levity or manic behavior, traffic or self-imposed isolation. What to do? How to act?
In our yogasana practice, we put ourselves in positions/postures where we are on that edge. And in that place, we find our footing, what grounds us, and from there we find our center. We breathe into it so that we can find that precious balance.
Photo: Monday night Mysore in Ashtanga Yoga Cairo in Zamalek. Mom-to-be Sarah modifies ardha baddha padmotanasana to find a beautiful balance between her practice and her pregnancy.
Fully taking over Mysore Evenings at Ashtanga Yoga Cairo in Zamalek staring this evening.
Classes are 6:30-9:00pm; Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. Call 012 2275 8625 or 012 2371 7729 for address and directions.
Regular class schedule in La Zone, Maadi will start this Friday. Morning mysore class is Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday are 7:00-10:00am. Guided led class every Friday, 4pm. La Zone is located at 23A road 206, Degla Maadi, phone no: 0114 111 1949.
It was over two years ago when Iman Elsherbiny and I had our first real conversation at a social gathering in Gokulam. By then, we had been singing for at least a month or so in kirtan-s at Saraswathipuram, Mysore whilst practicing at the KPJAYI shala with Sharath.
Without knowing much about each other, we seemed to just click after sharing time and prana with the sound practice of chanting. And the idea of me one day coming to Egypt somehow floated up to the surface.
Fast-forward: Iman is a day away from her return to India and I’m here in Cairo, settling in, and slowly taking over Iman’s classes.
This first intense and surreal week has been a special one, packed to the brim, starting with a couple of weekend workshops here in Maadi and Zamelek where Iman and I have had a chance to work together.
I love working with Iman, who approaches teaching with a lot of sensitivity and good humor.
It has been a shakti powered week, from tag-team teaching the workshops and slowly turning over Iman’s regular classes.
I’ve come despite all the instability here in Egypt or maybe because of it. The way I see it, what better place to practice and share yoga, right in the thick of it, where balance is most needed.
Photo: Iman demonstrating technique behind urdhva dhanurasana during out workshop in Ashtanga Yoga Cairo in Zamelek.
one love yoga 