“Her open heart is a ballroom in which all of us can dance”
Gratefulness… New Moon Inner Dance at LaZone last night.
Cairo ID schedule next week:
Tuesday, 6 May * Shanti Yoga, Heliopolis
Wednesday, 7 May * On The Mat Zamalek
Thursday, 10 May * Ashtanga Yoga Cairo Zamalek
Join 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
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.
On this desert road, the path disappears into the horizon, but I know it just keeps on going, that the further I travel, the stretch of road will continue to expand before me.
This is the same with practice. There is always more beyond what the eye can see.
Once upon a time, this would have been frustrating. The desire to get to an end, to reach a goal, to finish, is so compelling…
These days, however, am relishing the continuity of practice. How getting better at one posture, for example, means seeing that there’s more work to be done elsewhere. How it flows and flows without end, how there is somewhere else to get to, something else to experience, even when I don’t know what it is because somehow there’s a feeling that I know where it’s all going: home, where the perceived end is only another beginning.
Photo: The road into the White Desert, Farafra Desert Oasis, Egypt. Offerings this Weekend: Inner Dance in Cairo, April 11-12, 8:30-9:30.
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.
For a moment there is only the mountain and me.
No, not even the mountain, not even Montserrat, epic as she is.
Just the rock. And me.
There is no hard place.
Just deep concerted presence,
the sensation of hanging by the edge,
and the complete absence of all else.
Nothing is important. Not the distance below,
not the incredible expansive landscape behind me,
not the meters above to the top, reaching the end of the line.
There is no space or time for thoughts,
or assessments or judgements.
There is no room for fear.
There is only the rock. And me.
There is no hard place.
These are the moments in which yoga happens.
Practice on and off the mat. IN-studio classes still ongoing. Will continue to cover for Paz Muñoz of Pazzifica Ashtanga Yoga until March 7, Friday, this week.
Photo: Taken by my friend and first-ever climbing coach Joan de Arcanye. So grateful to him and his friend Micki for taking me to Montserrat two Saturdays ago (went up a 6a+, up to 22 meters, yikes!). Gracias, Muchas Gracias! Me encantada!
I am walking down from one of the short walks (Camino de San Miguel) right off the monastery in Montserrat, at the top of which is a crucifix overlooking the Basilica and Monastery, when I see the embellished trash bin. It makes me smile, this bit of graffiti.
Practice is like this. We all have our crosses. We bear these things, carrying it laboriously up the mountain. And then we mount them, making them into monuments of our suffering, reminders of our sacrifice–which is, to a point, fine, when it’s all part of a process.
Because we must eventually come down from these peaks and return to where we and others live. And when we do, we must ask ourselves, is there more to leave behind, what subtle energy or feeling is piggyback riding its way down with me?
Up or down, this road of surrender is not easy, but it is also littered with opportunities to let go, to throw away that which is no longer necessary, and to lighten the load on the long walk home.
Surely as we develop strength and flexibility, both in the body and in the mind, the practice should get easier. Right?
Practice doesn’t always work that way; it isn’t black and white; it isn’t so straightforward.
Since last week, for example, I’ve been struggling with kapotasana (pidgeon pose), a posture that I had thought I’d gotten to know, gotten comfortable with. Kapo and I made friends, I thought…
But between deepening my relationship with my leg behind the head and the winter weather here in Barcelona (it’s mild I know, but I am have been living many many many years in the tropics), what was once manageable has gotten a whole lot harder. In fact, backbending in general, which I really love, has changed so dramatically over the last two weeks, it’s been startlingly humbling.
I realize, however, that I have a choice: I could despair, I could get frustrated or angry, I could give up this crazy leg behind the head business and preserve the postures that I’d worked so hard for, that I was admittedly very attached to–the later of which may be one of the reasons, along with tight hips, why it’s taken me so log to get here, this awkward place–
Or I could just practice; practice with acceptance that my body is adapting and that it’s not always easy; practice with patience that these openings take time; practice with understanding that moving forward sometimes comes with its share of backsliding–that practice is an interesting game of snakes and ladders; practice with trust, with faith in this system which has just about turned around every limited thought I have even had about the bounds of my own physical body; practice with love, showing up everyday with an open heart and mind…
Guruji, Pattabhi Jois, said it best: “Practice, practice, all is coming…”
PHOTO: This photo–like practice, like life–taken in “black and white” is full of subtleties in tone and shades. We will be talking more about the struggles that come with practice on the Sunday, March 1 workshop on the Bhagavad Gita, Pazzifica Ashtanga Yoga, Barcelona. More details on www.pazzifica.com.
INNER DANCE – DANZA INTERIOR es una practica que tiene el proposito de ayudar el ser humano a desmantelar patrones de pensamientos y comportamientos, alcanzar la expanción interior y cultivar una relación sana con el YO, su entorno y el planeta.
A través de la ciencia de la musica, la vibración y la meditación en movimiento, utilizaremos esta poderosa practica con el objetivo de cambiar y eliminar bloqueos físicos, mentales y emocionales de nuestro cuerpo energético.
La musica y la conexión con el nuestro interior, nos permitirá observar los movimientos sin pensar. La danza no tiene una estructura, forma o reglas. La danza puede ser dinámica o estática, silenciosa o ruidosa, suave o intensa. Cada danza es una apertura y una invitación al aprofundamiento personal y universal a la vez.
La practica será impartida en LA FLORESTA – BARCELONA, por KAZ CASTILLO.
16 Febrero, Domingo
Programa:
11:00h – Encuentro.
11:30h – INNER DANCE – DANZA INTERIOR
14:00h – Comida.
15:30h – Paseo en el bosque de Collserola.
Aportación: 12,00 euros
Comida: Invitamos a cada participante traer comida para compartir.
*** TRAER ESTERILLA – YOGA MAT***
Lugar: La Floresta – Barcelona
Punto de encuentro: Estación de Ferrocarriles – La Floresta (FGC)
Hora de encuentro: 11:00 – Se ruega puntualidad.
Para más información e inscripción llamar al teléfono:
639 059 919
o escribir un correo a : js.julianasimoes@gmail.com.
(Las plazas son limitadas que se reservarán por orden de inscripción)
To JOIN or see FB EVENT details: https://www.facebook.com/events/365800606891115/e
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!
one love yoga 