Don’t f**k about yoga!

This morning I decided to challenge myself with Jock’s 35 minute practice which is for intermediate and advanced students.  I know Jock is incredibly strong with a very advanced practice so I was ready for it!  The sequence started with extended side angle pose (utthita parsvakonasana) which is one of my challenge poses, so I tried not to grit my teeth as I moved into my uncomfortable version of the pose.  From here we swiftly moved onto pigeon pose (eka pada rajkapotasana) which can bring many yogis up against all kinds of resistance, me included.  As the practice continued I started to feel that maybe I was not quite as advanced as I thought 🙂  And my especially vata body at the moment, feeling dry with aches in the joints from the autumn season and from lack of adequate rest, was resisting in all kinds of ways!

As I continued with the practice, modifying the poses which I have not yet progressed to which is very good for reminding the ego of it’s place, I started to smile at the dive straight in, no chit chat and ‘don’t f**k about’ vibe to the practice – I love it!  Sometimes yoga in the west can get a little too sugary, lovey dovey and smoochie smoochie.  As much as I LOVE the nurturing aspects of yoga, it was certainly a fun change of pace to jump into this hardcore, super awesome practice with Jock.  Enjoy!

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Hard-core hour with Georgie!

Wow our Georgie is one strong lady!  This is a fabulous hour long core focused class which is certainly challenging, although she always offers modifications and emphasises listening to your body and not doing too much.  Obviously as a ‘yoga teacher’ I SHOULD do all the hardest variations and ALL of them!  This was my first thought realisation, so I worked to remove the dreaded SHOULD from my thought vocab and be mindful of Georgie’e encouragement not to do too much too soon.  Which was not difficult as I find Georgie has the lovely teacher quality about her that makes you want to please her and do everything she says just as perfectly as you can 🙂

The instructions are incredibly clear and it was refreshing, if not challenging, to bring the focus to such small, and at times tricky to connect to, areas such as the pelvic floor.  If ever a question popped into my head like; where exactly is the pelvic floor again?  Georgie was quick to answer it in full with examples.  Another realisation I made about my own practice is I use plank pose as a transition in the flow, rather than giving it space to be it’s own pose.  I struggled with holding plank and as soon as I was in it my mind said ‘What’s next?’.  I think this is reflected generally in my practice, and in my life.  I am a future thinker, always having ideas and planning for what is coming next, so to learn to hold a strong pose in stillness was an excellent practice for me.

I learned so much, lots of which I hope to incorporate into my practice and inspire my teaching, about how to effectively bring the core strengthening into the class and maintain centre and focus.  Thank you Georgie – much love xxx

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