Ashtanga Yoga Unlimited

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“The quickest way to still the mind is to move the body”  (Gabrielle Roth)


It's already been a challenge keeping up with blog posts lately, so naturally I started another blog, hahaha. Naturally. Why? Well, as you know I've started a new Mysore program from scratch here in Stockholm. This being the third Mysore program I've been a part of. Going in, I new it would be an undertaking that would take a fair amount of work and energy. The good kind of hard work. Teaching at this level can be harder on the body, especially when keeping up my own daily practice. With more physicality to endure the first few months have felt like some type of high level athletic training, and really it's all mental. Getting up extra early adds to the whole meaning of tapas. My word. Another form of mental training, really. I don't use it as a badge of honor. It only highlights what discipline can add to life. With discipline comes freedom. Crazy? Yes, at times it feels like that. But on a simpler level it's just a new habit being formed. Nothing is being taken anything away, it's adding to.  


So, the other blog. Well, I've launched another blog centered around the practice of Ashtanga yoga and the Mysore program I am facilitating at Yogayama. This blog, Peaceloveyoga, will continue. I'll be carrying forward posting on yoga per usual on a personal level regarding my own experiences with practice, insights, and thoughts. You know, things I debate and contemplate. I've got an active mind. if you couldn't tell already. It's like a mine field, haha. Stay tuned. 


The new blog, Ashtanga Yoga Unlimited, will be centered around Ashtanga yoga, practice, teaching, philosophy, and theory, all supporting the community of Mysore practitioners in Stockholm and extending out worldwide. Interested? Please visit if you feel so inclined. We have some interesting projects and ideas in the pipeline for the future. When the creative juices start to flow it's best go with it. Fun. Fun. Sharing this practice has been beyond rewarding. It's all about community at the end of the day. Already I've started to see people transform. Shed. Come alive. I can't say it enough how powerful this practice is. So in that way as we connect to ourselves, I'd like to put energy toward connecting together, as people, as practitioners, to all on the path of discovery. 


Namasté

Guruji

Guruji is the coolest. Marking the 2nd year anniversary of his passing I am once again filled with gratitude for all that he gave, for all that he was. He was simply doing what he loved. Living what he was passionate about. What came of it is beyond remarkable.

Thank you Guruji! 

Transparency

Being in the yoga world, so to speak, comes with a fair amount of interesting baggage. And, when I say yoga world, I am referring to the modern interpretation of it. I haven't understood why nowadays it is about having the "right" things to say, or a big dose of charisma to establish yourself as a yoga teacher, but not only that, a yoga expert. It's doesn't seem to add up. Techniques and quick fixes into postures don't make an informed yoga teacher, necessarily. But then it goes back to the question, "what is yoga?" What does it mean to practice yoga?  Looks like this topic will have to be summed up in another lengthy blog post. I mean, I don't really have the answer(s) (obviously), but at any rate, they are important questions to ask and to revisit from time to time. Like I find myself doing. I'm weird like that.

The best advice I have ever received when I entered into teaching yoga were two fold. First, teach as a practice in itself, and at the same time, never sacrifice my own practice to teach. What I teach must be a part of my experience, part of my daily practice. It then emanates from and through me. Energetically, I find you can't really fake this one. Maybe for a while, but it doesn't last for long. Two, being transparent to the method/practice I am teaching. Meaning, keep it pure, taking my own judgement/spin off of it. Taking myself out of the equation. Being more concerned with teaching the method correctly than having the desire to be liked and/or approved of. See, being transparent doesn't necessarily mean being devoid and without passion for what is being transmuted. If anything it seems to invoke even more passion and wisdom when it comes to teaching. Emptying myself, being open to allowing the wisdom to work through me is the residual effect from practice and has a way of naturally unfolding. Call it grace, call it what you will. The more I empty, the more the energy and wisdom come through. I loose individuality. I expand into something bigger than myself.

Of course there are days when it is harder to connect than others, but then again, it goes back to looking to teaching as a practice. As time goes the intuitive nature grows. There is an expansion, there is a deepening. The practice of teaching breathes unto itself.

What I have come to understand is I can always take a break from teaching, no problem, and resume it again as long as I continue my own practice. In many ways it is one and the same. You can't learn this stuff in books. You have to walk through the fire daily on your own volition. The experience is the teacher. Books, trainings and the myriad of workshops are the mere 1%. Theory can be talked about until kingdom come, but experience, well, it can only be felt into the reality of who we are. The formless, unspeakable, unexplainable part of who we are. The gateway, conscious breath. The path, breath synchronized movement, vinyasa. We experience yoga. The journey and the destination in union.

I don't understand the need for a stage. Getting the hands dirty is where it's at. Into the nitty gritty of what my students are about and what they are coming to know about themselves. It's about them, not me, and at the end of the day I couldn't be more fulfilled coming from this place of ultimate service. I am learning just as they are. In a way, I come from a place of being a teacher's student when I teach, because I always find myself being a student. A mirror image. A transparency develops between the two relationships. This is where the juice is. In the interdependent relationship that develops within ourselves and how we approach the practice. Between us, our teachers, and the community we find ourself connected to. I find it fascinating. The roles we play seemingly melting into each other. A synergy that speaks louder than words because what we experience is energetic in nature. The unseen reality. Isn't that what we are tapping into anyway?

Healing

"It hurts sometimes when you’re healing. It’s the sensation of your heart growing bigger. It’s the feel of your old scar tissue breaking up and stretching. It’s the tight and fearful knots of emotion opening up and learning to relax. Those old hurts were actually shrinking your heart with tension, the way tightness in the back can curve and distort the spine.

I know it hurts, but you can learn to experience these feelings as intense sensation and simply surrender yourself; trusting that a new and better you will soon emerge. Fear and resistance will increase the pain. Love and acceptance will ease it. Let your Heart open wide. You’ll be opening up more room in your life for love."

— Dorothy Mendoza Row