MY STYLE
My YOGA teaching stresses the importance of awareness of all aspects of yoga: the body, mind
and soul, and is the culmination of a life time`s study, practice and teaching of yoga. The physical exercises include both
gentle stretching and also strong challenging exercises. At all stages students work within their own levels of ability.
Emphasis is placed on practising yoga with awareness, thus helping to avoid unnecesary injury, but
also to begin the process of harnessing the power of the mind to transform us.
My teaching now incorporates aspects of the styles of the Sivananda school, Satyananda, Iyengar,
Astanga Vinyasa Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. However with the increasing tendency of yoga teachers and `schools` to try
to patent or at least copyright their `names` and styles of teaching my answer to the question `What style of yoga do you
teach is ?`Yoga`. Looking at the traditional forms of yoga - Raja, Hatha, Bhakti , Karma etc in fact my teaching
is closest to Tantra which incorporates all aspects in a framework of the eight limbs of Patanjali and ritual. Tantra
was developed to be appropriate for students of yoga in this modern age ` Kali Yuga` - dark age.
Tantra uses physical and mental techniques together with ritual to open the individual
to an experience of the Divine within them. It is this approach which inspired Budd Thompson to develop what he called
Bodylife, a way of teaching incorporating many approaches, ancient and modern , to achieve
the same effect.
Remembering the words of my guruji at initiation `Clothes are a barrier between you and god, and
should be worn only when necessary `, I believe that yoga is ideally practised. naked (digambar) However
in class and other group situations it is better to be relaxed and comfortable wearing clothes where necessary.
Ultimately yoga is a spiritual practise seeking the realisation of the Self within us. Sadhana
is the psiritual journey that we take through life. To that end all methods have a value.
