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, for want of a better word, that yoga can be daunting. As a newbie, I found it hard to feel at ease in a studio filled with lithe lycra-clad yoginis able to do the splits, while I could barely touch my knees. “Should I really be here? Is this for me?” I began asking myself, and nearly gave up at many points.
But thanks to some wonderfully kind and attentive teachers along the way, I stuck to the path. Over 500 hours of formal yoga teacher training later, from Britain to Bali, I’ve found my own modern approach to yoga, despite it’s bewildering array of lineages, variations, philosophical and spiritual outlooks. After much rooting around, I decided to cut out the middlemen and go back to the Yoga Sutras, deriving my practice and my teaching from the source. I discovered yoga as 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 instruction always has efficacy at its core; I pass on what has worked best for me. Informed by my background in endurance sports and martial arts, I build resilience, concentration, and sensitivity in my practices, since my experience is that the greatest joy comes from simple, honest work towards inner peace.
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.
