Ayur-what?

​"Just to improve the physical health is not enough. The mental health must also improve, the nature must change, the personality must change, the psychological and the psychic framework also has to change."
Muktibodhananda, Swami. Hatha Yoga Pradipika . Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, India. Kindle Edition. The Muktibodhananda, Swami. Hatha Yoga Pradipika . Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, India. Kindle Edition.

​My goodness, what a busy month March has been. It has been wonderful to see the regular  faces at class, a few new ones and to get to know people a bit better. It is also wonderful to see the progress being made and listen to some of the great feedback as my fundamental goal as a teacher is to share my practice and the benefits it has brought to me with my students. When that actually happens, when people tell me what it is doing for them, it brings me an indescribable sense of joy because I know, I've been there, and it's amazing.  
 
Spring is certainly the season of growth and regeneration with everyone waking up and getting active again. Co-leading a Yin Yoga & Mindfulness Meditation workshop this month gave me the opportunity to reconnect with both practices myself. I’ve talked before about the mind/body connection and how for me it’s impossible to be healthy in one without being healthy in the other as well. They’re simply not separate, but part of the whole. One of the things I love most about tradition medicine systems like TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine upon which Yin Yoga is largely based in its energetic aspect) is that they look at the whole individual – physical, mental and emotional. Our Spring Yin practice was made up of postures that work on the liver and gallbladder meridians linked to the Wood element, the element of Spring. Yin is a very still practice and marries very well with meditation, bringing a sense of calm and relief to the mind as well as the body. I’m hoping to hold another workshop on Yin & Five Elements Acupuncture with my friend and acupuncturist Emma Russell (www.nbacupuncture.co.uk) later in April, in Chipping Norton, so watch this space. 
 
As you know, I like to mix it up a bit so…. Hatha Yoga’s “sister science” is Ayurveda (Science of Life) and, in common with TCM, it is a holistic tradition of medicine and healing that goes back thousand of years. I’ve just today started studying Ayurveda with Anne McIntyre (annemcintyre.com) who is an amazing authority on the subject and luckily for me teaches less than an hour a way from where I live. It was absolutely engrossing and there’ll be more on what I learn as we progress. Today it was all about the five elements and doshas as described in Ayurveda. Are you an airy Vata type, creative, but a bit spacey perhaps, and constantly flitting about, always moving? Or more fiery and forthright with your diary meticulously organised for the next year (like me lol)? Or perhaps a stable steady, loyal and loving, but prone-to-stubbornness Kapha? We all embody all the doshas, physically, mentally and emotionally, but one tends to dominate in each of us and this largely depends on our parents’ doshas when we were conceived and our environment in the womb. For true health our dosha now (vikruti) needs to be in balance with our birth dosha (prakruti) and living according to Ayurvedic principles is the key to that. The quote above from the Hatha Pradipika– a key yogic text - fits with this nicely, I feel, and I’m so happy and grateful to be expanding my knowledge of it with Anne and my fellow apprentices at Artemis House. 
 
That’s enough from me for now, but do keep an eye out for workshop announcements and hope to see you on the mat some time soon. Peace and Namaste as always!