Day 3 - Creating a relationship with the practice

In the afternoon there is pranayama session and discussion group.

Iain said yesterday that we should be able to have a relationship with our practice instead of having it through the teacher. The commitment toward the practice is the commitment toward ourself. If you are practicing fast you are probably running away from something, from yourself. The practice should be the reflection of the relationship toward our own body, mind, ourself.

Having a relationship with our practice, such a beautiful sentence. I never thought of it like this and it is so true.

This morning during the practice a lady just burst into tears while doing Parshvotanasana. It remind all of us the power of the practice, the power of the breathing and furthermore the power of let it go.

As per Iain if you are stuck into an a asana it is because you are not ready to let it go, you are not trusting your practice and so yourself.

Not to remind that I am stuck with Supta Kurmasana. This morning I had bad thoughts during my practice. I've seen 2 men practicing without any flexibility, not really biding in Marychasana D and practicing the full series. I thought why? Why not me? 

Back from my practice and typing the blog now I am thinking "Why I am still having this kind of thoughts? Why still comparing me to others when I should just practice and take care of what is happening on my mat!!!!"......

Right now I will define my relationship with my practice unstable, sometimes I like it when I do the all series and other time I am frustrating because I am stuck with one asana....

I still need to grow.....

Day 2 - Practice with Iain Grysak, Ubud

If you have to stop in Ubud I highly recommend you to stay at the Gayatri Bungalow. The place is beautiful, the staff is very nice and professional and the owner, Bagsu is an Ashtanga Practictioner, he is Iain student since the last 2 years.

You will have the opportunity to speak with him about the practice and it is priceless.

One view from the back side of Gayatri Bungalow

This morning practice was good. Iain adjusted me in Supta Kurmasana, my fingers touched each other but still unable to grab... big arms? big ass? I don't know but still it is not working. For now I stopped here and go directly to the closing series. But it was a good practice, focusing more on my breathing and my alignment. It was also a good sweat.

Today we have an afternoon session, no practice but discussion and pranayama. 

I feel very lucky and bless to practice here in Ubud and to meet such good people.

Day 1 - Ubud, Bali practice with Iain Grysak

Ubud is hotter than Mysore which was great for the sweat this morning. I did a normal practice, I stopped at Supta Kurmasana then backbending and closing series. This afternoon I will try a Vinyasa Class in Ubud I still don't know where but I will find. In any case I can still practice in my room as I do miss my little sequence for my backbending.

I am also changing my food habit. Will go completely vegan for the all month, will see if it changes something to my metabolism.

Nothing special after all. But it was a good practice ;-)

I'm 43 Years old - A Yogini in the making

10 years ago I thought I was too old.

I was deeply in love with a guy who clearly make me understand that I was "too old" for him. As a result he married and had a kid from a youngest lady who was 25 years old.

My life was taking a new direction. I was about to leave my comfortable job for becoming a Pilates Instructor after meeting Martine Curtis Oakes on September 2006 who basically changed my life. She does not know about it, but it all started from her.

So I was 33 years old and resetting my life once again. It was my second shot, the first one was when I was 24 years old and move to Canada for 7 years.

I thought I was too old because I felt rejected. And it did got worst when I was taking acting class with Michel Galabru, I was the oldest student and then they were casting me for all role of mother.....

Later on I met my second teacher who did have a huge impact into my life, Gérard Arnaud. He is the one who brought the Vinyasa Yoga in France early in the 80s. At that time I was more into the Bikram Yoga method and was thinking of attending one of their training. Fortunately I did not follow that path.

Ashtanga Yoga came to me later. When I was ready for it.

In 2013 I moved to India after meeting 3 Yogis who provoked a tsunami into my life and by all means changed my way of thinking and becoming. 

I can say that I am a complete different person, I have grown up in a way I never thought it would have been possible. When you live in a foreign country your perspective changed a lot but when you live in India where everything is not the way you are used to with 3 yogis coming from a Gorukulam not even your environment changed but also your approach of life is changing.

In 2016 after practicing on and off the Ashtanga Yoga I have signed an oath with myself. What if from now and then I dedicate all my yoga practice to the Ashtanga system?

And so I did. I started on January at the  BNS Iyengar school and then attended an intensive retreat with John Scott for 3 weeks, from there I did Sarawasti and Sharat in Mysore.

And I am completely hooked to it.

I am 43 years old and more flexible than 10 years ago, not only in my body but also in my mind, my spirit, my brain, my nervous system.

I am 43 years old and I am stronger than 10 years ago, not only because of my new biceps and bigger trapezius but also in my behaviour, my way of thinking and managing my emotions.

I am 43 years old and because of my regular practice I am becoming wiser. I don't really read yogic books because I am lazy and need a good story to be entertain but by my regular practice I do understand the concept of the 8 limbs of Yoga and I completely surrender to the "Sthira Sukham Asanam" of Patanjali.

I am 43 years old and finally I am connecting with myself, knowing me better.

What I learnt since the last 10 years is that it is never too late to start a new project, a new journey. Only the sky is the limit. We should live outside of the boundaries and create our own paths. I am in my 40s and I am living the best part of my life.

The next 7 months I will be travelling to Bali, Thailand and Greece to practice with different Ashtangi (Iain Grysak, Manuel Espinosa, Mark Robberds, Kristina Karitinou).

I will be forever thankful to that guy who broke my heart 10 years ago and told me I was too old for him. It was hard to digest at that time but it was a necessary step.

Thank you Mark Robberds!

Since last March where I hurt my neck doing Chakrasana I was not doing it anymore. Even though my neck was not painful anymore I was scared.

This morning during my practice I recalled the video of Marck Robberds about Chakrasana and one version was instead of rolling on the neck you slightly rolled on the shoulder..... and it works!!!

Can not be more thankful to Mark Robberds, I am very happy and this will have a huge impact on my practice and on my day for sure :-)

Tutorial Videos are very helpful to enhance your practice, since I am following Mark Robberds I have learned a lot because he is not only a good practitioner but also a very good teacher. Sometimes good practitioner does not how to teach and teaching is definitely an Art. 

Keep practicing and it all comes - it is so true!

Have a great day,

- Namaste -

Can we practice Ashtanga in cold country?

What a stupid question I know.

I am not sweating during my practice, so today I practiced in the afternoon, the temperature was about 25° as it is still the winter in Mysore.

I am amazed to see how much my body has becoming in tune with the weather. I really can stand hot as I can not stand anymore cold. It is my 4th year in India and this winter 2016-2017 is cold, well not cold as in Canada or Europe because still during the day we have 25° but now to me it is cold.

So I am not sweating at all during my practice. In the morning no sweat because it is about 15° and in the afternoon neither.....

In the main shala I was sweating like hell, also we were about 60 students practicing altogether so of course it might help a little bit, but now I do not really enjoy the practice. I like to sweat. Still the practice was good today, body flexible, practiced beautiful backbends, practiced Shirshasana with the head not touching the floor, Pincha Mayurasana was completely under control, so I really enjoyed it and I was fully happy after it but I am missing the hot weather.

Santosha! I am satisfied with what I am doing right now.

Therefore I am full of admiration toward the Ashtangis living in NY, Yukon, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden etc. and still practicing during the winter - for this it takes a lot of TAPAS!!!

Can not deny that the best practice of all time is when you are by the sea shore and then after it you go for swim, this the perfect yogic life and it is so easy to follow it but when you are living in the city to have a real yogic life is really hard.

Tomorrow back the morning practice.

- Namaste -

How long the Primary Series is supposed to last?

I am now practicing the Primary Series in 1h20 minutes. Still I have added Bekasana and Urdhva Dhanurasana but I do believe that when I am practicing on my own my breathing is faster.

In 2 weeks I am flying to Bali to practice with Iain Grysak and I can't wait. In Mysore it is still the winter, kind of, and in the morning it is cold... then I am wondering how did I survive up to 6 years in Montreal when it was -20°......

This year I will be travelling up to 3 months to Bali with 3 different trips (Ubud for Iain Grysak, Canggu for Mark Robberds and Lombok for our TTC) also 2 months in  Thailand. The rest of the year  I will be in India and probably in the West for 2 months.

I do not have any expectation about my practice, I take it as it comes. The more I practice, less bad days I have. If I have to compare my practice from now to last year I will say that there is nothing to compare at all. Last year I thought that I had a good practice but this year I can really say that it was not the case. Now I am having a good practice, when it starts becoming an habit then it is the sign that I am on the right path.

I have more understanding about the body and how it moves. I want to go deeper in some aspect and I understood that I could not hurt myself if I do it with care.  

The only problem I am facing is I am losing the interest of teaching. Right now I am in the learning phase, I just want to become a student, I just want to learn and to receive and I am not interested at all of giving anything back to anyone. It sounds very selfish I know but this is what I am really feeling from the inside. So for the next 6 months I will be only practicing and learning, and when the time will come for me to teach again then hopefully I will be blossoming!!!

- Namaste -

My best Guru so far is Myself!

So far I haven't find "my" teacher. I can not consider Sharat as my teacher as I don't know him and have been practicing with him for only 10 weeks. I will say that I am my own Guru and my own teacher. My yoga mat is calling each morning and I have to admit that I am reaching a very comfortable practice without any pain and a lot of improvement.

This morning was a blissful practice, my nose was blocked so I started all Suraya Namaskara breathing from the mouth.

All asanas are coming easily and flowing. My asana practice last for 1.25 hour. Then I did 15 minutes of Pranayama but with a running nose I did not really enjoy it.

Still I can not grab in Supta Kurmasana but for the rest everything is just fine.

I am not looking for a Guru, I am just looking for practice with different teachers. 

First practice of the Year 2017!

After a statu quo of a week I am back to the mat.

Lately my practice was not that good, I was preparing for my eyes surgery therefore a week before the surgery I could not wear any lenses, which was really disturbing for my practice, no balance at all, could not see anything (my eyes were about -5,45) so practices were not pleasant at all.

This morning I woke up at 3.30 AM, last evening before going to bed I unfolded my mat by my bed in order to get ready early morning and it was a good practice after all.

Maybe my breathing was too fast as I finished my practice in less than 1h30..... still I have added Bekasana, Dhanurasana and Parshva Dhanurasana, Ustrasana to my practice and in about 1h20 my practice was finished..... I did also Pranayama and Kriya.

In 20 days I am flying to Ubud to practice with Iain Grysak and can not wait about it, very exciting! I also wanted to practice with Mark Robberds in Canggu but accommodation is about 1,920 USD!!! too expensive for me so that is a big no.

I am waiting for another shala in Thailand, they should resume their Mysore Classes by March 2017, I have sent an email and so far no news.

I don't think I will go to Montreal in April, I can not stand the cold anymore. In Mysore it is the winter and I am freezing in the morning and in the evening so I can not imagine myself in Montreal for 2 months knowing the weather over there, I know a snow storm can happen on May!!!

So I'd rather stay in Asia from March to mid-July, therefore I am looking for Ashtanga classes in Thaïland. I did not find anything in Vietnam, Philipinnes so right now I don't know where to go by March..... will see....

Happy New Year for whoever is reading my blog!

- Namaste -