Back in business.

Hi there. 

It has been a long while since I posted here.

Still here. 

Back in business.

This is a new post, at the age of 54, I am here still, together with my eight year old daughter and my wife and life partner of 26 years. When I first started this blog, I was only just starting to frame my general interest in health and fitness. Over the years, this has become more important. The biggest change happened when I began to pursue a spiritual life, guided by Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and, more recently, The Bhagavad Gita. This slotted in quite beautifully with my pursuit of postural yoga. My pursuit of postural yoga was inspired by my mother beginning with it in her youth. It has been  a constant part of her life. The spiritual path has led to a filling of the black-hole-existential void I felt inside of me with some space. I can't say that it is full of bright light yet. But maybe one day, if I live long enough, it will. So that is an inspiration to keep myself going, in a strong enough physical state, to be able to work towards that. 

Teaching yoga

What has changed?

I have been teaching yoga asana for a long time now. First I was teaching at training centres. I did that for a while. As my own practice deepened, so did my need to deepen my understanding of postural yoga. I began at a "proper" yoga studio. Since then I have moved studio once. It would be hard to explain how important teaching is to me. When I look at how I've changed over the years, I think I could explain it best from the perspective of being a teacher, rather than what I've learned as a yoga asana practitioner. My entire focus now is to be a better teacher. The areas I am working on now are communication based on the level of students, hands-on adjustment - when appropriate, anchoring of the asana in yogic philosophy, and deep respect for each individual in the class. We made some changes when moving to my current employer's studio. We structured the classes on a level basis, and I began teaching a five week vinyasa fundamentals course per semester. Of all the levels I've taught, level 0 - new beginners - have been the most exciting, challenging and interested group. I had to up my game! Suddenly I was cutting all the unnecessary language and focusing on verb (your body part) direction and /or placement. Clean and simple. This is just one example of many other bits and pieces that have become much more powerful than the sum of the parts. It is exciting.

Follow up

OK. So let's see what I end up posting. If you're interested in yoga - my website over Cobra-Yoga.com might be interesting. Otherwise - I'm still strength training, still running and still obsessed with health and life. So maybe I will see you here instead.

Big love. I wish you balance, calm, peace and strength. Namaste.