Samasthiti

Here's a picture of a gorgeous sunset from the balcony at Chez Boileau at 9 pm. It is heartening to realise how many people wish you well when you're starting something new. As soon as I put out a post on Instagram about travelling to Bergerac to teach yoga - I had messages pouring in, friends and family reaching out, wishing me luck for my new adventure. There are times when technology makes you smile and this was definitely that moment for me. When I signed up to work with Alpheus on the project he is building in Bergerac - Chez Boileau - I thought how different could athletes be. Turns out they are supremely different. Before I start on things I am learning from my new friends, I will share some things about Chez Boileau and my time here so far - which is literally 2 days, of which one was gorgeously sunny and the other, today, is very rainy and damp!  I arrived in Bergerac after a flight to London, a ferry to Caen and a 6 hour drive to Chez Boileau. It took...

I love my vinyasa, but there are days when all i want to do is hold a relaxing pose without stressing my muscles for a long time and allow myself to marinate in it. If there is one word I would use to describe the non-yang part of yoga, it has to be Juicy. I love the way my body feels in it - I genuinely love teaching it and hear students exclaim how something as low intensity as a slow yoga class can be pretty high intensity on the mind and sometimes even on the body. I especially love how it benefits students of mine who go to the gym a lot or are runners or are sportspeople from various backgrounds. Restorative and Yin yoga not only helps up their performance but also gives them that rare chance to slow down and heal their bodies in a more respectful manner - something that 5 minutes of "cool down" or "stretch" at the end of their sports sessions usually can not achieve.  I am heading to France (!) to teach at Chez Boileau  in a gorgeous little town cal...

After writing the previous post , I started to track my swara through the day to see how it affects my mood and states of being. My results so far have been consistent with the theory of swara yoga. My tracker is a table as below:  I start tracking at 6 am in the morning - ideally i should begin at 4:30 am or an hour and a half before sunrise. The exact time changes according to the seasons so it's easier to look up sunrise times in the newspapers and then subtract 1.5 hours from it to arrive at this time period we call Brahma Muhurta or the "Creator's Hour" since Brahma is credited as being the creator of the universe in Hindu Mythology. It is said the mind during this time is at it's stillest best and hence best for spritiual practices like meditation.  Do i wake up at 4:30 am which is 1.5 hours before my sunrise here in India - no. I am up at best at 6 am. I want to get into the 4:30 am rhythm and i know that it is a matter of time before I decide...

I know I was supposed to write on Swara yoga - I promise that will be my next post. But today I have to post on this topic because I feel so strongly about it. You would expect that the world of yoga, yoginis and yogi does not know the meaning of the word "hate" or the opposite of love. Love, is that one thing that you would expect to find in abundance in yoga. All you hear and read about yoga online is loving yourself, and this world and everyone around you. Sadly, this is not true. When people ask me why i practice asana and other aspects of yoga, my simple answer is it taught me to love myself, when I thought I was wholly unable of being loved by anyone. I found the courage to pick up certain pieces of my life and rebuild them, I still find that courage every time I step on my mat. I have had the fortune of having being taught by teachers who have inspired me to practice with an open heart. And once your heart is open, it is very difficult for it to go back into it...

A few months ago I was on the phone with someone and they asked me how much I know about yoga, what subjects and theory are I am familiar with. I smiled and wondered where to start. I have spoken on this blog before about how the question "What kind of yoga do you do" also usually leaves me stumped. I do not know where to begin or how to approach the millions of ways to answer these questions and others similar to these. On this particular phone conversation, I spoke about my practice being a mix of Hatha and Vinyasa - my teaching reflecting the same with a focus on a yogic lifestyle off the mat and in addition to all the asanas we practice. Then I was asked if I knew about Swara Yoga. In the course that I did with Yoga Point in Nasik, our teacher spoke about Swara Yoga and how if practiced consciously with awareness, it can help one live a prosperous, healthy and long life. He went onto explain the core concepts of this science and asked us to read Swa...