So, at last I’ve joined in and joined up to the Independent Yoga Network, an organisation comprised of yoga teachers working independently to share the life long gifts of yoga. Yoga for the householder as the ancient texts call it. It’s taken me this long, 19 years at the time of writing this, since my teacher training course in 2002 in Mysore, India, because I couldn’t decide which gang to go with.
The concept of binding oneself up with regulation seemed at odds with the ever evolving expansion of yoga practice as I experience it. I wanted to remain under the radar of the politics of yoga. After some research the IYN sat well with me, and I gently thawed into the idea of it. As a sole practitioner it can be easy to stay in my comfort zone even when everything I know requires stimulation or provocation to exhibit change and growth. It was an interesting process of reflection and essay writing which required me to revisit my values, always tricky when you must then put pen to paper. (You know what I mean).
This foray into the outside world runs alongside my Advanced Yoga and Ayurveda course which is an ongoing project. There is a real need for change and choice in peoples access to health and well being. Yes, we have an amazing emergency medicine system but our quality of life medicine is lacking through no ones fault in particular. A cultural view, a reductionist philosophy, unrealistic demands on it, to name a few. My belief is that people are really looking for options and alternatives to becoming reliant on pharmaceuticals. Something they can do for themselves. Yoga is vast in it’s methods of application. A wheelchair bound yogi can participate in Kriya Pranayama, (a method of consciously breathing and directing their mental focus into areas of the spine in a particular sequence). No physical leaping about required. The potential for pain relief is tremendous. We can all practice some aspect of some yoga methods. As an osteopath I can see how many practices can and do affect physiological systems as we understand them in current medical thinking today.
I hope to sustain my renewed desire for blog writing in an effort to share things I have learnt along the way in my journey. Even some of the pitfalls have been learning points which I openly share with you.
I hope you are able to pop back for any updates and find useful practices and explore your inner world along the way. Remember you can subscribe/unsubscribe whenever you like.
Anybody who might be interested in extra yoga classes please contact me as I am trying to ascertain what days and what times are generally in demand.
I generally do stupid early a clock!
Enjoy your practice. x