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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By Laurence Nagy, on 22 March 2010
Can Yoga be taught in a gym?
Ten days ago I was offered a job at  David Lloyd Leisure in Oxford. One hour and a half every Friday morning. A good size class of 10- 15 students. The Welcome pack was promising: “You have been selected for your excellence and knowledge in your chosen field”.
I nearly forgot that Yoga was about humility and not glory. I was teaching in a chilly windowless room next to the boom-boxing aerobics studio.
Anyway I took the job, ran two classes. In the afternoon of the second class, I received an email from the Group Exercise Coordinator, Becky, who had suddenly decided to remove the Friday morning Yoga class from the timetable. I would run my last class on April the 9th.
Her reasons were suspicious. She was worried about not finding cover for the class when I was away. I had already found someone from a list provided with the Welcome pack for the 9th of April.
More surpisingly, the day she wrote her email had seen a major mix up at D.L. Arriving in the studio that morning, I had found another Yoga teacher getting ready to operate. Elena had been promised the same job as me, wasn’t able to run the previous class and hadn’t signed a contract. When she heard I had been given the job instead of her, she left the room determined to have a word with the management. I guess this mix up is connected to the termination message I received a few hours later.
David Lloyd claims to be the leading Health and Fitness Operator in the UK with 78 centres inland and 10 abroad. Founded in 1980 by former UK tennis player David Lloyd , it was bought by Whitbread in 1995 for £200 million. It was acquired for £925M in 2007 by London and Regional properties + Bank of Scotland . A juicy bid I guess, but in the health business David Lloyd Leisure has an unhealthy disregard for the basic decencies of staff management.
By Laurence Nagy, on 1 February 2010
When you come to Yoga, please feel free to feel tired , even exhausted, even achy. Yoga is there to sort you out.
BUT, if you have your period, PLEASE let the teacher know. Some postures are better for you, some are not advisable (inverted postures, strong twists).
If you have a bad back, bad foot, a stiff neck ,
never mind. Do come and ask the teacher to find for you a nice relaxing pose. A lot of discomforts can be relieved through relaxation.
Please, do speak to the teacher, either before or after the class. It’s very pleasant to know how you feel and if the class has been beneficial.
If you really need special attention, then please ask for a one to one session.
By Laurence Nagy, on 20 January 2010
I’ve just read some of Ganga White’s Yoga Beyond Belief and was intrigued by the chapter called “Pain is your friend”.
Some teachers pretend Yoga presents no risk. In fact things can go wrong, according to White who first welcomed big names like Patthabi Joïs and B.K.S. Iyengar to Los Angeles in the 1970’s.
Ganga explains how he started practicing Yoga without paying much “attention to sequencing, structural dynamics, alignment and physiological principles of kinesiology”. He was more or less told to achieve the postures.
“Soon I started developing back pain.” He finally had to stay in bed for a month. But when he started to feel better, he also started practicing again, finding new ways of practicing. Finding awareness. ” Initially, the pain limited me to only the simplest of poses and I could not bend much at all.”
Ganga realised that pain was “a language”, the “voices of body intelligence”. “Pain is necessary and defines the limits and the edges of strain and injury.”
 Ganga White and Peter Sellers He kept exploring new ways of practicing, learnt the “inner process” of Yoga. The inner voice of Yoga.
“Sharp pain can mean “Stop!” Dull pain can mean to go slowly and breathe as we move energy into new areas.” … He “began to see how these inner messages literally guided [him] to adjust [his] movements’s subtlety and showed [him] the way to heal [himself].”
“There is no magical technique or practice that will keep us free from harm, injury or physical problems… It is staying constantly alert and vigilant that will guide us in the right direction.”
By Laurence Nagy, on 4 January 2010
 You would imagine Elvis Presley more interested in boxing and karate. But according to his personal hairstylist, Larry Geller, he also studied yogic philosophy through books brought by Geller. .. Who since the King died published his own ”spiritual biography” of Presley, Leaves of Elvis’ Garden: The Song of His Soul
Anyway, just for the fun, I chose here a video on Youtube, where Elvis sings with joy about Yoga.
watch?v=x-Tw2THK8jk
Elvis Presley – Yoga Is as Yoga Does
(Words & music by Nelson – Burch)
Well I can see that you and yoga will never do
Yoga is as yoga does there’s no in-between
Your either with it on the ball or you’ve blown the scene
I can see lookin’ at you, you just can’t get settled
How can I even move, twistin’ like a pretzel
(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)
Come on come on, untwist my legs
Pull my arms a lot
How did I get so tied up
In this yoga knot
You tell me just how I can take this yoga serious
When all it ever gives to me is a pain in my posteriors
(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)
Stand upside down on your head, feet against the wall
A simple yoga exercise done by one and all
Now cross your eyes and hold your breath, look just like a clown
Yoga’s sure to catch you if you come falling down
(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)
(Yoga is, yoga does)
(There’s no in-between)
(Your either with it all the way) Or you’ve blown the scene
(Or you’ve blown the scene)
By Laurence Nagy, on 11 December 2009
I was going to write a piece on Yoga schools battles. if you are practicing happily, you probably can’t care less about who does what and the difference between
 BKS Iyengar, founder of Iyengar school Iyengar,
 K. Pattabhi Jois, founder of Astanga Yoga Astanga,
 Swami Satyananda, founder of Bihar School Bihar
 Bikram Choudhoury, founder of Bikram Yoga Bikram
But if you are in the ” industry” and teaching Yoga, you might want to read the well researched “Yoga battles“, published last June in the Indian Calcutta Telegraph.
 Inspiring Yoga teacher Wendy Teasdill once told me: “Don’t worry about school battles and do your practice.” I often think of her and practice as well as I can.
In the UK , a lot of teachers go through the British Wheel of Yoga to qualify. Now if you go to American Yoga Alliance website (they have recently opened a UK branch), you read:
Quote 1 “…The BWY are NOT the governing body and you do not require to do their training courses to teach yoga. There is no official governing body for yoga in the UK.
Quote 2 “…There is no governing body for yoga in the UK. Yoga Alliance UK has been established to promote and encourage high standards of teaching. Joining is on a voluntary basis, and we do not claim (or want) to be a governing or regulating body.”
My qualifications being certified by Yoga Alliance, I therefore stick to it and do my practice as well I can.
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Biography I am a qualified teacher of Vinyasa yoga, which involves connecting postures with breath-synchronised movements. I trained with Gerard Arnaud in Paris, and have also worked closely with Hatha Yoga teachers in Somerset, Astanga tutors in Japan and Iyengar practitioners in France. I run classes in South Oxfordshire, where I live with my family. I love teaching and hope to share all the benefits I get from yoga with my students.
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