Breathe In, Breathe Out

'Asana is that perfect moment when the body is utterly still, effortless; sensation and breathing suspend themselves so that time comes to a halt.

Then: happiness in a moment of infinity.'

Patanjali, Yoga Sutras II, 47


Patanjali's Yoga Sutra (Penguin Classics)

Tariffs

CLIFTON HAMPDEN
Drop in: £9 each session (90 mins)
Four classes card: £32 (to be used within five weeks)
Ten classes card: £80 (to be used within eleven weeks. If used within 10 weeks, eleventh class is FREE)
Group and One to One sessions also available. Please contact me for tariffs.

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Comment on a workshop

J’ai beaucoup aimé le stage, surtout le fait que tu ais adapté le cours selon les besoins et respecté les niveaux respectifs des différentes participantes. J’ai beacoup apprécié aussi que tu ais pris le temps pour répondre aux questions. Il me semble que tu maitrises vraiment l’alignement correct des différentes postures, et j’ai trouvé tes instructions très précises, claires et utiles.
Yvonne Schleiss, Fribourg, juillet 2010

Banana Pose (or Locust stretch- salabhasana)

 

I would just like to say thank you for your help and I have enjoyed the classes and despite the problems with the old knees I feel much better and more flexible although I will never be able to attain the banana pose (I don’t know the correct name but I call it the inverted banana pose) without your help!!!!

Janice I., McCormick, UK

Tailoring postures

 I have really enjoyed the two classes I have been to
and look forward to more.  I like the pace that you take us at – you
seem very aware of each students ability and happy to spend time
tailoring postures and focusing on ensuring that people are working
safely within their ability. 
Helen M., Oxfordshire, UK

Yoga in Prison

I attended a meeting organised yesterday in Oxford by the Prison Phoenix Trust (PPT).

I was interested to know if I could one day teach Yoga to students who don’t have access to Yoga classes.

I also reflected on my daily practice and thought that if one day I got locked up, the only thing which could help me cope would be my Yoga practice.

I also found the following video, an interview with Sandy Chubb,director of the PPT. Her path is inspiring. She’s very clear about meditation for instance. Listening to her, I realise that I do meditate a lot. I choose not to teach it straight away, rather helping students to feel more at ease with their body in the various postures. But on my own I very often sit still or walk along thinking at nothing special, but keeping in touch with my breath. I’m sure you do as well from time to time.

 

A shapeless body with Christian Pisano

How to forget, the shape and the colour of your body? Why not try Savasana, the corpse posture.

I sometimes find it hard to relax at the end of a class, as I keep thinking how to add to my teaching the things I’m being taught…. But last Sunday, I practiced at the Iyengar Institute in London with French Yoga teacher Christian Pisano.

We worked hard on backbends and I felt like starting all over again while pulling my arms back, using ropes tightly screwed in the wall, taking my chest out and tucking the tailbone under.

 I enjoyed the workshop and liked hearing Pisano’s muted voice at the end, asking us to let our body go , “shapelessly”. Forgetting the shape, letting the body melt completely into the ground helped me sinking in the final posture.

Christian Pisano coruns The Nice Iyengar Institute with his British wife June Wittacker. Both were in London to run the workshop on Sunday. He  was talking through the postures and she was either demonstrating or  helping  the students. There were about 40 of us in the room.

Pisano reminded us about discipline, tidying up and moving in the space carefully. That was much clearer than the beginnning of the class, when Pisano and Whittacker started reading English translations of Ancient sanscript . Texts extracts that are already hard to understand when you read them yourselves, but become completely obscure when  someone tries to  read loud.