Leaving India today and on my way to Toronto, with a short stop in New Jersey. I had a wonderful time in Mysore this last week. It was great to see some old friends and reconnect. The last time I was here was in 2009. So many things are the same. Lots of familiar faces and familiar places. And lots of changes too.
Deep relaxation with Shiva Meditation! Pranayama, yoga nidra and seated concentration. Concentration, meditation, and Samadhi are hard. Most of us need to work on the lower limbs to prepare the body to sit, prepare the mind to concentrate, and learn to turn inward and let go of the outer world. If you are not sure of what direction to take in your life? If you are not sure what intention to set and use in your practice? If you are not sure about your purpose? Start to do some more investigation and get to know yourself a little better. Start practicing! Get on your mat and the answers will come. A good practice is also to look at the 8 limbs of Ashtanga Yoga and think of how you could practice each one a little more than you are doing right now. Could you be a little more kind? Could you tell the truth more? Could you stop stealing on a more subtle level? Could you clean up things in your life a little more? Practice more gratitude? Could you work a little harder and go deeper into the fire? Could you study the mind a little more? Could you let go of something you’ve been holding onto? How could you deepen your asana practice this year? Maybe it’s time to introduce a pranayama or a pratyahara practice too? How could you simplify your life? The yamas and niyamas are very helpful at reducing conflict and eliminating distractions. The asana practice will help you to find more comfort in your body, cleanse and release tension, and help train your mind to focus. Pranayama will purify the energetic body and make the mind clear and sharp. How will you take your yoga off the mat this year? My teacher, Mr. Ramaswami used to say that eventually you have to take your yoga off the mat because one or two hours of practice a day will never compete with 22 hrs of living in chaos. Yoga is not asking us to be perfect, just to move forward one step at a time. Put in the effort and don’t worry about the results. Just show up and do the work.
The thing that always amazed me about yoga from the beginning of my practice is that we do the practice in just an empty room. The thing that always amazed me about yoga from the beginning of my practice is that we do the practice in just an empty room. There’s nothing special there. You get out of your practice what you put into it. If you choose to make that room a sacred space then it will be a sacred space. If you choose to make your practice transformational then it will be transformational. You can choose to just do yoga exercise but why would you? Ride your horse to the destination. You’ve been given this incredible technology to conquer the mind. Don’t waste even one second getting distracted. Concentrate. Go into the fire. Take a journey into stillness and experience the true nature of your self. Yoga can change your life. But you’ve got to be ready to change. Here’s some pics from our opening night dinner and opening ceremony. We set the stage that first night for the week ahead. I love these opening ceremonies. I love hearing from each of the students and getting to know each of them a little better. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for showing up for yourself. What a nice start to the retreat. To survive, science teaches us that we need food and water. But to thrive, we need to also be seen and heard, to feel connected, and to know that we belong. So much of yoga practice is about finding that connection again. Connection to our self. And connection to each other, to our community. We were off to a great start after our sharing circle at the opening ceremony. I could feel that this was going to be a really great group right from the moment everyone arrived that first night and introduced themselves. Thank you, everyone!
Core strength Workshop! Here’s some pics of the students on our retreat exploring the function of each core muscle. One of the great things about understanding anatomy is that you can understand the purpose of each Asana a little better. The body is amazing at getting the job done. The problem is that we all have some muscles that aren’t doing enough and some muscles that are doing way too much. When we break it down and get really specific we can see clearly which muscles we need to strengthen and which muscles we need to stretch. We can start to undo some of the physical patterns that are leading to imbalances in our body, that might be causing pain, and that could lead to injury. Anatomy literally means to cut the body into pieces, so that by understanding the microcosm we can understand the whole body, the macrocosm a little better.
Shiva Power class! Here’s some pictures from our first morning practice together in Chiang Mai! After this class I felt like we had really arrived. I remember my teacher, Mr. Ramaswami teaching us the yoga sutras in my teacher training program with him. So clear! So easy to understand. And I’ll never forget him saying that if you understand the first 4 sutras then you understand the whole book. The rest of the book just elaborates on these first four sutras. Sutra 1.1. Now, time for yoga instruction. Sutra 1.2. Yoga is the practice of quieting the distractions of the mind. Sutra 1.3 Then, (when the mind is quiet) you experience the true nature of your self. Sutra 1.4 The rest of the time you are caught up in the distractions of your mind (and you never get to know your self). So simple! So clear. So easy to understand. Now, we know the goal. And the rest of the book systematically breaks down how to quiet the mind, how to reach the goal. The students were so focused and dedicated on this retreat. It was a lot of fun to hold the space for them and share the teachings. Really, they did a great job holding the space for themselves. My job was easy. Thank you to everyone for your hard work this past week and for going into the fire with me!
Just before Christmas I taught my first workshop in the city of Jiaxing! What a great group of students at YogaWorks! Thank you to Michelle for inviting me to come and teach your students. Thank you to Skye for doing such a great job translating. And thank you to everyone who came to practice with me! We had a deep hip opening workshop and the studio was packed. I loved digging into these practices with you all and helping you find more range of motion at your hip joint. December turned out to be all about the hips! Why do we want to open the hips? To stretch and strengthen the muscles of the upper legs and pelvic region, to protect the knees and the lower back, to increase blood flow to the pelvic region, to connect the upper and lower body, to keep energy flowing smoothly to the lower extremities, to find balance and prevent injuries, to prepare the body to sit for deeper pranayama and meditation practices, and to release tension from the body, which allows us to release tension from the mind. Are your hips tight? In which direction of movement? How is this affecting your body? What are you holding onto? Do you know how to open up, which muscles need to be stretched and which muscles need to get stronger? Do you know the poses that will help you? Do you know how to protect your knees and your lower back? Look forward to seeing you at a future workshop. And hope to see you all again soon in Jiaxing! You did a great job YogaWorks yogis! Very auspicious! I practiced for years in Santa Monica with my teacher @anniecarpentersmartflow at another studio called YogaWorks. Namaste.
Happy New Year to Everyone! It’s been an incredible 2019! I hope you all had a great holiday and your 2020 is starting off in the right direction. Did you set an intention? What old habit isn’t serving you that you want to let go of and leave behind this year? What seeds did you plant for the new year?
Our master teacher, Sri T. Krishnamacharya, the teacher of several of my teacher’s says, “Yoga is the practice of replacing old patterns that aren’t serving you, with new patterns that will lead you in a more positive direction”. What are your old patterns that aren’t serving you? How are you getting in your own way? It’s time to make some changes. Now, is the time for yoga. It is up to you to do the work. It is your responsibility to shift your perspective. The ego part of us says, ‘I want the world to change for me’. One of my teacher’s used to call this the “Arrogance of specialness”. Yoga says, ‘Change your relationship to your Self and your relationship to the whole world changes. Shift your perspective and you will have a different experience of the world’. There’s a well known modern quote that I love that explains this well. “Yoga isn’t about making the waves go away. It is about learning how to surf”. The teacher can show you the door and encourage you to follow them down the path but you must decide to follow them. You must decide to walk through the door. It’s time to wake up, everyone! Are you still running into the same brick wall? Maybe there’s a better way. Where do you want to go? What shift do you want to make in your life? Create a simple statement. Repeat it to yourself over and over again. Try to see it already happening. You’re already there. You’re already living this intention.
I have just finished leading an incredible yoga retreat in Thailand. It has been such a memorable experience. Thank you to everyone who joined me walking this path in 2019. I look forward to our continued practice together this year. I hope to see you in a class, workshop, on a future retreat, or in an upcoming training program.
Lots of love to you and best wishes to you and your family!
Namaste,
Garth.
I fell in love with yoga when I experienced a moment of stillness. When I first started practicing yoga I fell in love with how different the practice was to everything else I was doing. I remember sitting at the end of class in stillness and my mind was quiet and I felt a deeper connection to myself than ever before. It was so cool! I wanted to learn more!
We’ve got a Core Strength Workshop coming up this weekend at Space in Shanghai! If you want to be able to do arm balance poses and handstands you need to have a strong core, and this doesn’t just mean the superficial abdominal muscles. Join me this weekend and learn about the function of all the core muscles on the front, back, and sides of the trunk. We touched on a little of this work in the Handstand Workshop. We even did 108 Yogi Bicycles! A very auspicious number! Thank you to everyone who came out to practice and went deep with me in this Handstand Workshop! Hope to see you in class or at a future workshop!
What are you ready to burn in the fire? Yoga philosophy teaches us that yoga is the practice of restraining the movements of the mind. How do we restrain these movements? The Yogis say through practice and non-attachment. Practice is defined as — effort to focus the mind. Non-attachment is defined as letting go of distractions. Concentrate and surrender. Over and over, this is our practice. Which one do you find more challenging? You can’t have one without the other. Such a big part of our yoga practice is the practice of letting go. Such a big part our life is the practice of letting go. What are you holding onto right now that you are done with and want to be free from? Is it anger? Fear? Jealousy? Is it a person you are attached to? Is it a place? A job? A relationship or friendship that has run its course? When you are driving, have you ever noticed how much smaller the rear view mirror is compared to the windshield. Look forward. Move forward. Time is marching forward. Don’t spend too much time looking in the rear view mirror, or you might end up crashing the car. Let it go. Let it go. Let go. Here’s a few pics from the fire cleansing ritual in our Shiva Yoga 200hr RYT Teacher Training last month. Want to do Teacher Training with me? We have several programs coming up! Visit garthhewittyoga.com or click the link in my bio for more information. Namaste
We finished the 3rd week of my Shiva Yoga 200hr Teacher Training, with a 108 Sun Salutations morning practice, in the park, near the studio.
The Sun Salutations are essentially a gratitude practice. Practicing gratitude helps to lift the mind up. The yogis understood that the mind was constantly falling down and never satisfied. Modern psychology is starting to recognize this as well. Recent studies have shown that practicing gratitude changes your brain chemistry. Grateful to be right here in this moment!
The Sun Salutations also help to warm the body up, connect body, breath, and mind, balance the nervous system, and help us to connect the idea of the sun as the brightest thing in our world to the idea of our journey in yoga inward to experience the brightest part of ourselves.
It’s wonderful to see growth in your students. It’s one of the most amazing things about being a teacher.
When you are a Sattvic teacher you are trying to share everything you can with your students. Eventually the goal is to give them all your knowledge and all the tools they need to do the work themselves. That’s the job! Share everything you can. There’s an old yogi saying — one who practices but doesn’t teach is a a thief, and one who teaches but doesn’t practice is a fraud. Don’t be a thief or a fraud. Be the Guru— heavy with knowledge, and share your knowledge with your students — help remove the darkness and lead them towards the light
