Embodiment is our ultimate rebellion! In a chaotic world full of attention-scattering traps, movement that unites body, mind and breath is sacred. With hands and feet on the earth, we become a temple for grounded intelligence.
Stillness arises from being absolutely absorbed in dancing, surfing, gym, hiking, yoga or whatever moves us.
Continuing from my previous post… Sometimes we have to break-down to break-through. As my Yoga practice softened to the Yin (passive) side, I had to find a way back to balanced Yang.
In a paradigm-altering twist, I started weight-training to resurrect my Yang (active) Yoga practice. As a bonus this totally expanded my limited perspective. At the bottom turn of my burnout I rekindled my love for Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga, seeing the brilliant benefits of each Yang style clearly through Yin sight.
Interoception (internal sensations) as a form of inner alignment is the gateway to honest embodiment. Movement can either be poison – pulling us outward into comparison. Or movement can be medicine – inspiring us to embrace the wholeness of who we are within. The resonance of how we move leaves a subtle residue in our nervous system. Homeostasis is a golden gift. We don’t know the privilege of our vitality until it’s gone.
To choose an uncharted path, instead of staying within the neat boundaries of a particular Yoga system, has been tremendously tumultuous. I’ve lost a lot along the way. But freedom matters most, and so I will continue to explore and experiment, trusting that innate wisdom will guide me, one breath at a time.
Last year over Easter my world shattered. Totally depleted I locked myself inside my Yoga studio in solitude. Rain pouring outside, my crying body cuddled in Yin postures. I was lost.
Everything I believed shattered. Kind of like a mid-life crisis, but instead of divorcing my husband I broke up with the beloved Yoga styles that I was married to all my life. The Iyengar Yoga qualification I worked so hard to achieve suddenly had no value. The strong Ashtanga Yoga practice I cultivated over years became impossible to do.
Feeling fake and phony, my reality smashed into fragmented pieces. My battery was flat, with no more pushing power. Chronic inflammation and fatigue persisted.
Purely by chance, or perhaps through grace, I found solace in Yin, an antidote to my biased view of Yoga postures. Instead of climbing to the peak of a mountain in Yang (active) pursuit, I learnt to relax and flow with the river of Yin (passive).
Finally I enrolled in a Yin Yoga teacher training with Bernie Clark, in the Paul Grilley style, which honestly has been a life-line and immensely insightful. It’s the missing piece of my Yoga puzzle!
Yin Yoga is based on the Chinese Meridian system and Daoist philosophy. It breaks all the rules of Yang Yoga, totally disregards classic alignment cues, and honors the interoception (internal sensations) of each individual.
Today is a little over one year since my major meltdown, and I see a glimmer of wholeness that I never thought I would recover.
Embarrassingly, over the past 16 years, as I built a career in Yoga, I sadly lost the purity of passion that initially ignited the spark of my soul revolution in the 90’s. The competition and oneupmanship of the Yoga ‘industry’ hijacked my heart essence and corrupted my vision of ‘business’ integrity.
The stresses of life kept rolling in, and I continued on the rollercoaster of hyper-vigilance, until thankfully it all collapsed. What a deep sigh of relief, a true transcendent breakthrough.
Such a delight to start all over again, humbly, with a subtle intention to balance Yin and Yang, gentleness and strength.
Our theme this week is ‘deep listening to the subtle wisdom of our body’. Sensing the intimate relationship between our body and emotions. Feeling which parts of our body are weak and need more power, and which parts of our body are tense and need to release. Our focus will be on Svadhisthana Chakra (Sacral Plexus & body parts: hips, sacrum, lower abdomen, lower back, inner thighs, joints, sexual organs) and Manipura Chakra (Solar Plexus & body parts: ribs, navel, adrenal glands, digestive organs). 🧡 The nerve plexus are like electricity junctions of nerve ganglia (collection of nerve cells) that are responsible for the subtle communication between our inner and outer world, and in the Yoga system relate to our chakras (energy vortexes). At these junctions we can sense if our nervous system is balanced, overstimulated or numb. Yoga can be a somatic tool to find out what our nervous system patterns are in response to our emotions. Where in the body we store our emotions and what triggers our tendency to over-push or give up. It can be an uncomfortable process to look this deeply into our self, but also incredibly liberating and enlightening! 🧡 In our physical practice we will gradually flow through warm ups like Ardha Navasana, Ardha Chandarasana and Anantasana towards our peak in Vashistasana. Moving from core awareness as we spread the front body into the back body, and plug the arm bones & leg bones back into the joint sockets. The aim is to find a healthy balance between our flexibility and strength. 🧡
‘Virya’ is a Sanskrit term that refers to Courage. Longterm, committed Yoga practice is not exactly as glamorous as seen in glossy social media posts. 
For sure it can be deliciously dreamy and aesthetically beautiful. But if practiced with intimate awareness, Yoga can also be a confronting psychological science that exposes our neurosis, fears, insecurities and flaws.
As a spiritual practice, rather than a sport, Yoga is designed to awaken us. Sometimes through ecstasy and other times through sobriety. It takes brutal honesty to integrate the deeper aspects of Yoga into our life. and honesty requires Courage. not necessarily external heroism, but inner willpower based on integrity and compassion.
By practicing strong Yoga postures, our quest is to silence the mind, not to perform extravagant shapes. No matter what challenges we go through on our Yoga mat, the outcome is clearer insight, greater acceptance and at least a moment of pure peace. Yoga is not here to flatter us, it is here to help us face our every day life head on, with a content heart and a serene mind.
Our peak posture in our practice this week is Vashistasana. In preparation we will open the legs and the arms and connect to the core. Vashistasana strengthens all the major muscles and joints of the body. Instructions will be given step by step, with variations along the way to suit every body. Alternatives will be offered to anyone requiring a more gentle peak posture. Remember that every day is different, so it’s important that we honour how we feel in each particular moment, while finding our intelligent edge and building our Courage.
Intermediate Level Iyengar Yoga Group Classes are on Wednesdays @18pm (In Person), Thursdays @8am Portugal time (Online) & Fridays @9:30am (In Person)
(This photo was taken in 2011 during my early Yoga Teaching days in Thailand. It’s been a long, challenging journey home to myself since then.)
