Zero Gravitas
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥
Yoga doesn’t need to be fancy. It needs to work.
There is so much yogic literature, content, advice, and culture out there, that it can be daunting. As a newbie, I found it hard to feel at ease in a studio filled with lithe lycra-clad yogins warming up in the splits, while I could barely touch my knees. There also seemed to be a miasma of yogic etiquette - shoes on/off, props, clothes, strange chants - and not a handrail in sight for the uninitiated. I would look around me in running clothes, painfully folded into my attempt at sitting cross-legged, and begin to question myself: “Who can I ask about any of this? Should I really be here? Is it for me?” In truth, I nearly gave up at many points.
But some diamonds shone through in the muddy confusion that were my early years of yoga, so I stuck to the path. I never imagined that I would go on to complete over 500 hours of formal yoga teacher training, from Britain to Bali, or that I would find my own personal, modern approach to yoga, despite it’s bewildering array of lineages, variations, philosophical and spiritual outlooks.
After much rooting around, trying different studios, styles, teachers, and combinations, I decided to go back to the source of all this variety, to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Once I made my own investigations into yogic philosophy, I was able to develop my own practice and my own teaching with clarity. I discovered yoga to be the subjective science of the self - a laboratory, in which the body and mind are put to the test, observed, and treated accordingly.
Drawing on a combination of traditional yoga and modern science, my approach always has efficacy at its core; I share what has worked best in my own practice. Informed by a background in endurance sports and martial arts, I aim to build resilience, concentration, and sensitivity in my classes, since my experience is that the greatest joy comes from simple, honest work towards inner peace.
In real terms, this means dropping the war with the outside world and ourselves, and doing this over and over again, every time we step onto the mat. It means accepting ourselves exactly as we are, every day, and through this simple act of kindness, finding harmony with the world.
Enough seriousness, enough pushing, enough fighting, enough tension, enough strain, enough gravity and heaviness, and - if nothing else - plenty of play along the way.
Zero Gravitas. This is my commitment to life.
Yoga for Lighter Life
Almost all of us can identify with the weight of responsibility, or the pressure of life’s fast pace, and the heaviness and constriction that come with them. It is precisely these feelings that my yoga seeks to address, regardless of age or experience; I practise for a lighter life.
So, yoga may be said to begin when we tire of carrying the weight of the world. Whether in the stomach, the chest, the throat, or the head, we feel heavy where we should feel light. Often, the body gives us many signals that something isn’t right; and almost as often, we simply turn a blind eye.
In the true sense of the word, ‘yoga’ - etymologically linked to our words ‘yoke’ and ‘unite’ through the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ - is the process of transforming this perceived burden through a series of systematic mental and physical practices. These involve ethical alignment, stretching and strengthening the body, controlling the breath, and focusing the mind.
When we sense ‘no medicine in the world can do [us] good,’ we begin to set the world aside, as naturally as day follows night. It gradually dawns on the budding yogin that there is nothing to be found outside, because nothing there was ever lost. Instead, we embark on a journey to reclaim that most vital sovereign territory: the space within. This is what yoga means for me.
Sounds to lift your movement.
In my free time I also like to mix music. I’ve curated some for flow yoga, running, and cycling. You’ll get informed on a new release via my newsletter. Click through to my YouTube and Soundcloud pages.
