Tales from a New Mysore Program

Morning Mysore at Love Yoga - the third month of practice here in Aberdeen.

There is something brilliant about doing what you love and I am happy to share I am doing just this: teaching what I daily practice. The morning Mysore programme at Love Yoga is in it's third month, and I am elated that practitioners are understanding the practice and students are moving in the right direction towards having a regular, daily healthy routine of yoga.

What does it mean to practice EVERY day? And early in the morning?

You've gotta change your habits a bit - go to bed earlier, eat and charge your temple with wholesome food and drink and you must maintain the idea of saucha - purification in your actions so that your yoga practice can be successful during those early morning hours.

We do have some guidelines to help us achieve this. Patanjali says in order for us to begin a 'practice', we must first figure out what a practice really is. These are outlined for us in the Yoga Sutras 1.13-15. 

• a practice must be a concentrated activity
• a practice must be done with devotion 
• a practice must be done for a long time and 
• a practice must be committed to without any interruptions. 

So say you are a total newbie and just starting out. You can come three days a week and begin to learn how to practice. Begin knowing that you can add days on as you become successful at this programme. 

As you add days to your regular routine (regular routine means that you do the same practice every day), the habit of daily yoga practice becomes easier and easier, and you begin to add another day on. And soon, you don't even know it happened, but you are up to 6 days a week!

Another precious tip Patanjali offers to us to help us get onto the mat each and every day is to have a strong awareness of WHAT yoga does for us and a commitment to attaining that goal each and every time we practice. How does this practice serve you? If you haven't looked into this, begin by asking yourself, how do I feel after I practice?

I have written about this before so I hope to not be redundant but I can't help myself, sutra 1.20 is a golden one: "shradda virya smrti samadhi prajna purvaka itaresam". 

• We have to have faith in what we are doing; 
• we have to feed it with dedicated actions that get us to the mat every day (healthy eating and sleeping commitments); 
• we must have a VERY strong memory of how we feel when we do yoga and how we feel after; 
• we must have a commitment to discernment of what we are doing (don't just go randomly doing any old type of yoga - that doesn't count - it must be consistent); 
• a sensible goal towards always getting closer and closer to samadhi - a concentrated and meditative awareness towards union with yourself.

These are in my mind the foundational efforts that you must make in order to practice daily. Outline what it is about yoga that makes you feel so great, make a list of the pros of how you feel. Enjoy what you see!

Changing your life so that you can bring something healthy and invigorating into it is a massive change and it will take some adjusting possibly. I too am experiencing this now with pregnancy. I have recently changed my practice from begin a slow yin practice to more of an ashtanga-based practice since I am feeling healthy. This is happening because the same daily practice routine itself created the strength and stamina to allow for this to happen; also, since I am feeling increasingly better in my body and in my mind so it feels natural to build my routine back to a similar practice I had before I became pregnant (believe me, it is modified!).

Changing any plan in your daily life (or practice) takes a long time to adjust. Adding a posture in or taking one away - whatever modification done to an established movement meditation practices requires some getting used to; often it isn't easy to change, especially if we practice on auto pilot and bull doze through our practices without a mindful eye.

Give yourself possibly TIME to adjust to a new morning mysore routine; start small and add on more practices with time. Be practical with your yoga and your goals with yoga - don't let yoga send you into a state of worry. Always, always remain cool headed about starting a daily yogic regime.

Looking forward to seeing more yogis in the morning room up here in chilly Aberdeen. And if you aren't near me come stop by for a visit, I promise you it will be worth your travels.

If you are new to ashtanga yoga, the forthcoming Beginner's Mysore Intensive is February 2, from 2-5 pm at Love Yoga. See you there!