We are day 2 into the 7 day David Swenson Ashtanga teacher training intensive, and so far so good. Ashtanga was the first style of Yoga I practised and while I have since ventured off down the Dynamic-Vinyasa style and more recently traditional Hatha, I am still fascinated by the Ashtanga series, in particular the choice of poses and sequencing and the effect this has on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels over the course of time.
So on the one hand it can be physically demanding, pose after pose, breath after breath, never enough time (or so it sometimes feels) to really "get" into poses, feel them perhaps in the same way that I may do in a more floaty-hanging out style of class, but today, it felt different. Perhaps becasue my mental attitude has changed - less is more, lightness, finding the most energy-efficient way to hold a pose, or at least, to play around with entering and exiting a pose to find that lightness within a pose (a map of the body to find that lightness and energy).
We have run through Surya Namaskar's and also the standing poses, taking it in turns to talk and adjust a partner through the sequence, all good fun, I am enjoying the adjustments even if many of them are too strong for a general non-Ashtanga class, but great to have the awareness in any case - especially in my own practice (I always feel it helps our empathy as teachers, and indeed guides our teaching if we have personal experience).
I stayed after the intensive today to attend a general open class at the TriYoga Centre in Soho. The class was beautiful, so soft and nurturing, incredibly feminine, all about lightness again, but working from inside out, less effort, more lightness, I could certainly feel the energy today, and left the class feeling incredibly chilled out - no mean feat in central London on the build up to Christmas, it is crazy!!!
More later.
until then, Namaste!
So on the one hand it can be physically demanding, pose after pose, breath after breath, never enough time (or so it sometimes feels) to really "get" into poses, feel them perhaps in the same way that I may do in a more floaty-hanging out style of class, but today, it felt different. Perhaps becasue my mental attitude has changed - less is more, lightness, finding the most energy-efficient way to hold a pose, or at least, to play around with entering and exiting a pose to find that lightness within a pose (a map of the body to find that lightness and energy).
We have run through Surya Namaskar's and also the standing poses, taking it in turns to talk and adjust a partner through the sequence, all good fun, I am enjoying the adjustments even if many of them are too strong for a general non-Ashtanga class, but great to have the awareness in any case - especially in my own practice (I always feel it helps our empathy as teachers, and indeed guides our teaching if we have personal experience).
I stayed after the intensive today to attend a general open class at the TriYoga Centre in Soho. The class was beautiful, so soft and nurturing, incredibly feminine, all about lightness again, but working from inside out, less effort, more lightness, I could certainly feel the energy today, and left the class feeling incredibly chilled out - no mean feat in central London on the build up to Christmas, it is crazy!!!
More later.
until then, Namaste!
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