They arrived! Got a great deal on foam yoga mats on ebay and thought for sure they would come and be micro sized or yoga mat covers or some kind of a scam. But no, they are the real deal and I’m feeling pretty chipper about the whole thing. It helps that the sun has decided to grace London with it’s presence for the entire afternoon!
Things are starting to shape up for my first class, I sat on my balcony (did I mention it was sunny?) and sequenced my first class. I was having a hard time with it, one of those things where I have lots of ideas but actually putting a pen to paper feels so final I was afraid to write anything down… To help myself, I decided I would pick a theme! Something to focus the class around and help me get my bearings. I chose Svadhyaya,or self study.
If you go back to the yoga sutras, Patanjali defines yoga as chitta-vrtti-nirodah (‘what?’ you might say) but this simply means ‘the cessation of the turnings of the mind’. Basically, Patanjali, and yogis world round are trying to get you to think less. No one wants you to be a vegetable, or stop having those fabulous creative thoughts, we just want you to think… less. And one of the ways to do this is through self study. You see your mind will work in patterns and circles. We have 10,000 thoughts a day, but how many of those do you reckon are original? If you stop and listen to your thoughts, you’ll find, that like most people your mind is running in circles. By taking the time to meditate on your thoughts and just observe them you can start to figure out your patterns of thinking. Where do you get stuck? At what point does your mind want to loop around? This can be great for our general awareness, but can be really beneficial if you find you’re getting trapped in NEGATIVE thought patterns. We’ve all had these, one thought seems to trigger another that triggers a voice that says you’re not good enough. What?! Where did that come from?! Noticing your in that pattern is the first step, and finding a way to break it is the next! If you’re practicing yoga and meditation, you’ve got a one up on those negative thoughts and can detect them before they take hold.
I wanted to start with Svadhyaya (one of the niyamas) to give my students a chance to explore and listen to their bodies. To instantly cut the idea that we are here to perform for anyone else and to get them to focus on their own practice and not look outside of the mat for answers, but instead to turn inwards. I hope to bring this spirit into class on Tuesday, along with my beautiful blue mats of course, and can’t wait to see how it goes!
bonnyleeyoga 