Upcoming schedule stuff:
**Beginning Feb 6, the Monday night Ashtanga at Yoga Garden will be from 6-7:15pm.
**February 18th Mysore will be cancelled, and check the Evolve and Yoga Garden websites before heading to Moon and Ashtanga classeson February 19-21. There will either be someone awesome subbing or the class will be cancelled - I'll keep you posted!
**I'm working on offering a couple of things in the next month or so - a Beginner Course in Ashtanga, and another Mysore Intensive - probably early March. I'll keep you posted on that as well...
And now for a few words...
"Meaningful change is not possible when one is trying to be something other than what they are" Arnold Besser
Matthew Sweeney offered this up as one of his favorite quotes in a workshop several years ago, and it's been rolling around in my mind since then, influencing how I practice and teach.
Practicing yoga is not about changing, or fixing, or adjusting. It's about digging down to find the true self that is already there, and is perfect. Brushing aside the distractions that come in the form of doubt, fear, desire, wanting to be someone or somewhere or something else, and finding those divine spaces within us where the truest, purest form of the ourselves lives.
In the context of a physical practice, alignment details, instructions, and even a set sequence of poses to practice can help the yogi to stay on the path, stay focused, with their eye on the prize.
In Ashtanga yoga, that path is very defined. There is a breath (vinyasa) assigned to each movement in the practice, or rather, a movement assigned to each breath. Once the student is familiar with that pattern (the sequence), they are free to explore more deeply with each practice, and at their own pace. But, as David Keil said in a recent interview (posted on the Elephant Journal - read here) "The practice is the teacher, and the teacher who is standing there is just guiding you along the way."
I love this because it brings to focus what is so different about Ashtanga yoga from other forms (a question I hear a lot). A truly deep and meaningful Ashtanga practice requires that the student commit the sequence to memory and practice it consistently, with diligence, over a period of time (months, years, decades perhaps). This means developing some sort of self-paced practice - either in a Mysore style class, or a home practice with guidance from a teacher. This way, the student can find their own way down their own path, to their own truth.
Namaste
Stacy
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