Tag Archives: Practice Practice All is Coming

Wide Open Spaces

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7:00am, January 7, 2014. I turn the key, turn the lights on, place Guruji’s photo on the altar, I light two candles. Students start to arrive, they lay down their mats and they start to breathe. The room heats while students move between standing postures. At a quarter to 8, we stop for a moment to fill the room with “Om” and the opening mantra.

What was an empty, dark room fills into my first mysore class in Barcelona, the beginning of a whole new teaching adventure.

Photo: The room and the mysore practice. I love this open space in Yoga con Gracia where Pazzifica Ashtanga Yoga has daily morning and evening mysore classes. Big windows, high ceilings, the room lends itself to the spirit of potential. Mysore mornings are Monday-Friday, 7am-9:30am.

Above It All

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Lucky are those who have the opportunity to climb up the mountain side, sit solitary on the top, surveying the world in deep and peaceful silence.

And for the rest of us with no mountains to climb, no sacred spaces that facilitates easy meditation?

We must scale the challenges of every day life, the shortage of time and the peaks and valleys of our own ego to rise above it all in order to sit at the summit of our highest potential, where the noise and endless whirling activity of the world below quiets at the distance…

Photo: Sunset. Someone sits in meditation on one of the hills overlooking the beach here in Naweiba, Sinai.

Practicing at Dawn

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December 20, 2013.

It’s dark. The air is still a night time cool. The horizon’s color is just starting to brighten with the rising sun. And the moon, the moon still hovers over the Nile River.

In terms of practicality, of winter weather, it seems an odd time to get on the mat. But here in Aswan, with the air so fresh, with students still in bed before the first full day of the retreat, it’s an ideal time to wake, stretch and welcome the rising sun.

Key words today: gratitude and potential as I prepare for my first solo retreat: Ashtanga in Aswan.

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.

Meeting in the Mysore Space

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One class day to go here in Cairo. The countdown, I have to be honest, makes me sentimental. While my stay here has just been shy of two months and I recognize that in many aspects I have just been skimming the surface, there is such a great depth built into this work, into this practice of ashtanga yoga.

As we breathe and move in space, taking shapes with deliberate awareness and attention, we embody this process called yoga.

The mind and its trappings come into play, our issues and injuries–physical or otherwise–come to the surface. Our desires and attachments bubble up…and then the practice attempts to burst them.

The practice shines a light on the shadows: tension in the body often reflecting tension in the heart or mind, the dark of the ego lurking in the corners…

Teaching in a Mysore space is like getting to know someone very intimately without any context–and without any judgement. It’s like knowing nothing about a student’s life story yet observing personal symptoms of life and signposts of living.

The joy, particularly, is seeing how it gets physically worked out through this incredible whittling down process, sometimes with grace and ease, while other times, let’s face it, it’s a shit fight!

Sharing in this quiet personal process makes people who practice together incredibly close, sometimes without any of the usual friendly exchanges. We feel each other’s struggles and we celebrate each other’s victories on the mat, which is really a metaphor for our lives.

As for being the “teacher”, I feel incredibly blessed to take part in this process. Often, I do little other than being there. And there are times I need to admit to myself that there is nothing I can do other than to back up and give someone space.

Then there are the little moments that amount to so much: jump starting someone’s practice, moving someone in a different direction, aligning the body to feel secure and spacious, holding someone in a difficult posture…

Understanding and trust are built on this straightforward physical exchange and a very special relationship is formed between a teacher and a student.

I love meeting like this, in such a space that is both so real, so organic, so surprising; this is a space where yoga happens.

Photo: We ease into each other’s company with fluidity that comes with breathing in the same pace. The regular practitioners (Ashtanga Yoga Egypt, La Zone, Maadi) and I engage in the most common post-practice practice: having breakfast fit for champions at Lucille’s on Road 9.

Night & Day

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ImageAshtanga Yoga Egypt in La Zone, Maadi, Morning Mysore Program 7-10am

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Ashtanga Yoga Egypt in Ashtanga Yoga Cairo, Zamalek, Evening Mysore Program 6:30pm

Practicing in the morning and in the evening are as different as night and day–or, rather, day and night.

The body is different. Having woken up from a night of sleep, the morning body is a little more stiff, sometimes: a lot! But then there’s a freshness in the morning practice. In the early evening, the body is warm, more flexible, but also more tired. There’s a certain depth to stretching and willingness to surrender after a full long day.

The mind is different, too. The morning mind is less cluttered, emptying out during sleep. In the evening, the mind can be churning from a day of activity, stress, work, etc…The opposite can also be true, the anticipation at the beginning of the day can also create turbulence in the mind, while the tired mind can at times relax more easily.

The energy, of course, is different depending on whether it is the start of the day or the end of the day. Morning is a jump start while evening is a wind down.

And while practice is most ideal in the morning–very early morning, as the sun rises (aghast! totally unreasonable, I know!), and the air is fresh and vibrant, prana (vital life energy) is up–it’s more important to just practice, to find the time to show up on your mat for your own personal well-being whether it’s in the morning, at noon or at night…


Classes in Zamalek and Maadi continue until December 15. I will be heading to Aswan for 2 yoga retreats, December 19-22 and 24-17 (there are still spots for the second retreat) at Fekra Cultural Center, followed by a stint teaching at Deep South at Marsa Alem to ring in New Year 2014. 

Sun Powered Practice

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Usually, I am a fan of “controlled” environments for yogasana practice. Enclosed spaces that are safe from the wind and other elements.

But on occasion the call to practice in the outdoors is irresistible. And there is something lovely about breathing through the surya namaskara with the warmth of the sun in your face.

I bow to the light of the sun, I feel gratitude for the warmth and the energy it gives, for the illumination and the nourishment…

Photo: The sun beaming above my rooftop practice today.

The Practice Continuum

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The Practice Continuum

The practice does not stop, not really.

It is continuous–and yet is never the same.

It is constant–and yet always changing.

It is complete–and yet is always expanding.

We each experience it so differently and yet it connects us all.

Photo: Veronique Tan continuing the mysore program at Spirit Yoga in Osaka. A great teacher for great students, who I miss much-ly!

Yoga Chikitsa, Yoga Therapy

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I’ve had a good reminder recently why Primary Series is called Yoga Chikitsa. Pattabhi Jois used it as such, individualizing the practice as a tool for helping people through their ailments.

As ashtanga becomes more and more popular and as the shala in Mysore, India fills with more and more people, the teaching can’t be the same as when Pattabhi Jois was working with12 students at a time in his Lakshmipuram home.

Sometimes, we get the impression that even Ashtanga is becoming more and more a cookie-cutter practice–and perhaps this is true with led classes emphasizing pace and count and with just a few emphasized adjustments to work with the large numbers shuffling in and out of the KPJAYI shala.

But look carefully at the mysore space and you’ll see the spirit of self practice is still alive, still strikingly independent, still very personal. Peek into the afternoon classes with just a handful of people. Or observe the individuals working through specific issues.

But during my visit to Barcelona, this spirit, I recognize, comes to life in the more intimate satellite spaces around the world where the practice is taught–where teachers have time and space to get to know their students, to take into consideration their personalities and lifestyles, injuries, physical, mental and emotional states. It’s exciting to see. It’s inspiring. And, for a teacher, incredibly instructional.

Photo: Pazzifica Ashtanga Yoga (Gracia, Barcelona), a space where the tenets of yoga therapy are in practice. Honored and excited to sub for Paz in January.

Every Space Is Different

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IMG_5414One of the many gifts of traveling the last couple of years has been the chance to visit different mysore programs in different parts of the world.

The architecture of the place, the culture, the rhythm on the city or town, the culture, the students, and most especially the teacher are all variables that make each mysore program unique.

Again, one of the things that continue to thrill me about practice: how it adapts to all places, to all cultures, it is whatever it needs to be for whoever seeks it. A little like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement, the mysore space transforms itself so that it can fulfill the needs of those who whole-heartedly seek it.

Photo: The altar at Pazzifica Yoga in Gracia, Barcelona where Paz Muñoz teachers, and where I will be heading back to in January.