Yoga Intensive

For eight of the past twenty-four hours, I have been doing yoga. And I've got three and a half hours to go tomorrow morning. It's called an intensive. I am fortunate to have stumbled into Iyengar yoga just over seven years ago. You've heard of wine snobs. Well, I'm a yoga snob: I see no reason to do any other kind of yoga.

The centre where I go for instruction is wonderful, and my teacher is committed to making it possible for us to study with some of the best Iyengar certified teachers in the world. These senior teachers have been practising for over thirty years, have studied directly with Iyengar at his centre in India, and have achieved their certification through the many levels required in order to be able to claim their particular title. Every few months, one of them comes to our centre to do workshops or weekend intensives. That means three hours of yoga on Friday night, five and a half hours on Saturday, and another three and half on Sunday. My teacher is excellent, but these senior teachers really take it to the next level. I always come away from an intensive with a sense of possibility. So far this weekend has been no different. I have discovered that I can do things I never thought I could.

I remember when I was in my twenties and I joined my first gym. I was really into aerobics classes and weight training. We used to laugh at the women in their thirties and forties doing yoga. "They don't even work up a sweat" we used to say. What we didn't realize was that, first of all, they often did work up a sweat, and second of all, yoga is about much more than just doing a workout. It's a life practice that steadies the mind as it improves the body. I highly recommend that you try it, and if you don't know one kind from another (as I didn't when I first began), make your way to a certified Iyengar instructor. [p.s. that's not me in the photo; the pose is called "urdhva mukha svanasana."]