Sunday, June 24, 2012

Wellington Yoga Classes 25/06 - 01/07

Open Circle Yoga, St Andrews Church Hall, Wednesday 12pm-1pm =ON=
Purebalance Yoga, Plimmerton, Sautday, 9am-10:15am =ON=
Open Circle Yoga, Ngaio Town Hall, Sunday 1:30pm-2:25pm =ON=

My new class at Ngaio is being well supported by Zumba practitioners, but I realise I probably need to also market this class to the general public, rather than rely only on a subset of people who are keen to do both Zumba and Yoga. My first method for this will be to advertise my Open Circle classes on the Yoga Lunchbox. Stay tuned :-)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Yoga: animal vegetable or mineral?!?


I do remember in the very early days when I started doing formal Yoga classes there was a level of intrigue and mystique about the teachers themselves.

For one thing they possessed a sense of ease and presence in their own bodies which I immediately coveted. Due to the very nature of the Yoga practice this seemed to be directly related to flexibility, so I very quickly became quite obsessed with the idea that in order to gain what they had, I needed to work very hard to loosen up my (by comparison) impossibly tight body.

Further more, they also appeared to know something about life that I did not. The way  they viewed life and the way they lived it seemed so at peace, yet at the same time strangely out of reach. I came to wonder, after a while, that maybe my personality did not really give me access to this type of existence, but that thought alone did nothing to diminish my desire to work very hard at mastering the physical postures, even though that goal seemed every bit as out of reach as the goal to seek a deeper understanding of their apparently enlightened mental and spiritual state.

The actual style of Yoga I was doing at that time had a strong bhakti/devotional emphasis, which in hindsight definitely presented a challenge for me given the type of person I am. At this stage in my Yoga Journey I feel quite strongly that there are many paths towards "self realisation" and the key to doing Yoga effectively is finding the path that most suits who you are and where you are -but neither of these statements are trivial or easy to put a place-marker on. Often it is the very fact that we don't know who/where we are that we would chose to do Yoga in the first place.

So this mystique of the teachers, I would have to say that to a certain degree it was a projection of my own limited perception as much as it was a true representation of the teachers themselves. I think when you are at a place in your life where you are really looking for answers those who appear not to suffer that same apparent yearning, by implication do not lack that very thing for which you are searching. You therefore see these people in a light that makes them very desirable, both as a role model and as someone you want to learn from.

How exactly I went from being the person I was then to the person I am now had it's moment of fundamental transition when more of my focus and energy started going into the process, and less into the teachers and personalities who shared them with me. After I left my first style of Yoga, feeling quite unsatisfied yet still deeply intrigued and inspired, I found another teacher who taught a style of Yoga that resonated much more deeply. However due to the actual practice itself being the main attraction, when I moved on from this teacher I did not loose the Yoga, for that was something I was already starting to make my own.

Since that time I've had many different teachers, either for very short or longer periods, but it was always the process, not the teacher who mattered most. As I am now a teacher myself I have an acute desire to honour my own belief system about what it means to be a Yoga teacher: To be as transparent yet as effective as possible in delivering the process, without ever being confused as being the process (i.e. the Yoga). Therefore I see Yoga primarily as a large array of processes, each with a fundamental philosophy underlying them, yet ultimately (and perhaps idealistically) all leading to the same place.

The funny thing is what inspired me to write this article is the recent end of a friendship with another Yoga Teacher. Far from being mystics, For some time I have appreciated more than ever that we are just human like everyone else. When I look back at those god-like teachers (as I saw them in the early days) I now realise they never existed. They no doubt had to make the same painful decisions I (and everyone else) has to make all throughout our lives: A choice that has no right or wrong answer. Only a choice made and a choice not made. More than ever the word "Yoga" comes to have less and less usefulness to me yet at the same time feels like a word I feel I understand better than I ever have before.

I know I won't ever be that enlightened teacher I imagined I saw when I first started Yoga, but I don't feel a sense of disappointment or failure about that. I think I am becoming something more real. I know I am vastly different from the person I was when I started, so transformation has most certainly been taking place. But I know I will always be human: I know I will make mistakes and will sometimes be cruel and selfish. Sometimes I will be a coward when I should and could have been brave. But mostly, I realise that the process of Yoga has served me better than I could ever have imagined, and that I'm a better person today than I was yesterday, and that as long as I stick with the process I will be an even better person tomorrow.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Wellington Yoga Classes 18/06/2012 - 24/06/2012

St Andrews Church Hall, Wednesday, 12pm-1pm =ON=
Purebalance Studio, Plimmerton, Saturday, 9am-10:15am =ON=
Ngiao Town Hall, Sunday, 1:25pm-2:20pm =ON=

I'm very pleased to say the trial class at Ngiao went very well and on the strength of both the feedback and vibe I got from the class it will move to the next phase, which is that I will now run classes for the immediate future with the hope of cementing it as a regular fixture in my weekly timetable.

I will reiterate that this class is directly linked to the St Andrews Class and will therefore:

  1. Share the same costing model of 50 dollars for 5 classes or 12 dollars for a casual
  2. Allow the usage of the same concession card for both classes
  3. There is no expiry date on concession cards

Please note that my view on payment is flexible. I would prefer you take a concession card when you need one in order to keep record of the classes you have attended and then make payment for the card when you are able. The only limitation I have on this is you cannot have a second card if you have not yet paid for the first card.

Namaste
b

Monday, June 11, 2012

Wellington Yoga Classes 11/06/2012 - 17/06/2012

St Andrews Church Hall, Wednesday, 12pm-1pm =ON=
Purebalance, Plimmerton, Saturday, 9am-10:15am =ON=
Ngiao Town Hall, Sunday, 1:25pm-2:10pm *Trial Class* =ON=

I am excited to announce that I am trialling a new class at Ngiao town hall this Sunday. The background of this class is that there appears to be a synergistic interest from the lovely Zumba peeps whom I've come to know through Carolyn Patchells awesome Zumbalicious group dance/fitness classes.

With her blessing and enthusiasm I have decided to run this class with a view to making it known and available to her Zumba clientèle, but also open to anyone interested specifically in doing Yoga. It is important to note however that if the class continues as a permanent fixture it will be run as an independent Yoga class under my own branding called "Open Circle Yoga". In other words, it will be linked to my other existing independent class at St Andrews Church hall. In a practical sense this means it will be based around the same (very reasonable) pricing structure and offers the advantage that people who buy concession cards from me will have a choice of two classes.

I do not yet know if this class will stick, or go beyond an initial trial (which I'm running free to everyone) but obviously I hope it does prove to be viable. Believe it or not, I truly love teaching Yoga, and while I will never be the perfect teacher (nor in my view a particularly traditional one) on balance, I know that what I share brings a lot of good and joy into the lives of others, and just as importantly, into my own life too.

As a teacher, I feel it very important to reiterate that I am just a normal fallible human being like everyone else. There was just a natural and organic (if unexpected) calling for me to facilitate a process that has worked very well in my own life and which I now also like to share with others, as an open offering that they might find something of value in it. Teaching itself has become a part of my own practice and it keeps me challenged and growing in ways that for the last several years, while not always easy or without complications, have always been for the better.

Om Shanti
b

Monday, June 4, 2012

Wellington Yoga classes 04/06/2012 - 10/06/2012

St Andrews Church Hall, The Terrace, Wednesday, 12pm-1pm =ON=
Purebalance Studio, Plimmerton, Saturday, 9am-10:15am =ON= (Deidre-Lee)

Two things to note:
(1) I am running a trial class at Ngiao Town Hall on Sunday the 17th June. While this class is being targetted at Zumba participants, it will be an independent class in the same way as my Wednesday class. If it goes ahead on a permanent basis it will therefore be available to all existing peeps who buy conecssion cards off me. Will provide updates on how this evolves.
(2) I'm off to Gisborne this weekend to attend some workshops hosted by Amber Spear, who ran the Bali Retreat I did in March. Am very much looking forward to catching up with her again, albeit without the tropical weather!