Back to basics…

Teaching these last few weeks has been about coming back to foundations… and for those of you that know me, you will know that I love nothing more! I sometimes (quite often truth be told ;-)) question the advanced poses, I mean do I really need to put my foot behind my head, twist and bind? Probably not… Is it fun - yes! Does it teach me things - 100%. It teaches me where to place my attention, what to value - the foundations. Each layer that I add on, adds a new depth of understanding, a new appreciation.

That depth of the physical postures; the ones before, the ones after and the relationship in between. When I first started practising 20 odd years ago I didn’t understand how the practice was anything more than physical. I could feel the magic happening, I could feel myself softening and the connection to my spirit strengthening. Yet my logical mind, needing to understand at a very practical level, could not grasp how - and I needed that! Nowadays we know a bit more; how yoga affects our parasympathetic nervous system and the science behind the breath. Yet, we also intuitively know that it is working - we feel it, and in every fibre of our being we simply know. p.s. If you are interested in the science Eddie Stern’s book is great ;-)

So back to foundations… I have been teaching a beginners online course and it is honestly something that I love to do. Getting really curious about the foundations, working with eager students full of questions. It honestly makes my soul sing. At the same time, your dedication over lockdown and ongoing enthusiasm has resulted in so much progress that our Mysore community now has quite the blossoming group of second series practitioners! So naturally we are exploring these foundations too :-)

Second series has this wonderful quality of being connected to the inhale, through front body opening, whilst primary draws us inwards, on the exhale. Both are wonderful, both are valuable. Those foundations in primary, opening hips and shoulders give us the freedom to start accessing that freedom in the spine - that glorious inhale. That freedom then feeds back into our primary series making it all the sweeter.

Each layer fascinates me, and I never tire of curiously watching my breath… how can I change it, what happens if I try this? or that…? Whilst some may say that Ashtanga is too structured, I find the series, the structure, the solid foundations provide me with infinite possibilities to be creative, to find new ways, to explore. I hope you do too, and I hope if nothing else, you perhaps watch your breath just a little closer with a spark of intrigue as you settle into your next solid foundation.