One of the first things he taught in his book was that in order to get anywhere playing bass you have to like the sounds that you make. He emphasized that this was equally true for a beginner and a veteran.
What is the first waking moment you can remember in your life? I remember being 3 years old and locking myself in an unlit closet. I was trapped and crying for help.
One week you are springing out of bed to practice and the next you are dragging yourself to the mat. It is like being in an ocean where the current is deceptive, you think you are in control, in one place, and then in a snap you are downstream!
How do you encourage a student who keeps taking stabs at Marichyasana D and they still can't bind? As a teacher, how do you not get frustrated and go, “what the hell? You've been working on this for 6 years!"
Yes, the road behind me is strewn with my failures and as painful as all these mistakes were, and are, at least I can say I took on my darkness.
Breathing is the key to opening your body. There is obviously a genetic component to flexibility, but breathing helps you to open up to that.
I used to hear my teacher Sri Pattabhi Jois during conferences go out of his way to remind us that beginning practice with Surya Namaskara was an act of devotion and not a warm up.
Through the practice of mula bandha you set up the conditions for accessing the contents of your mind.
It can be helpful to remember that the system is meant to be fluid as opposed to rigid, like a cell with a permeable membrane. A healthy cell allows traffic to flow both ways across the membrane. The ashtanga system is meant to provide rules and also to l
