I confess. The resistance/surrender duality is alive in me. The dictionary definitions of surrender are: ‘Stop resisting to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority’, and ‘Give in to a powerful emotion or influence’. In yoga practice, I experience both. I’m reminded of the Balinese checked fabric poleng—black squares against white—a metaphor for life’s many dualities which at its best, symbolises the balance of the universe. It was a pleasure, after returning to yoga last year, to move to a teacher’s voice like a marionette on strings—a willing surrender to both the higher authority ..read more

Part 1 Personal Experience Often students ask me how to start a personal home yoga practice. It is easy to dismiss this question as silly. Surely the aspirant just gets on the mat and practises the poses that they know. But students and teachers alike know that it is not so easy. It took me five years to establish my own personal practice. It was a struggle. There were many mental obstacles to overcome. For the first five years of my yoga learning I was, as Prashant Iyengar says, “a class goer” only. Initially I was going to two classes per week. After two years of classes, I began to contempl ..read more

In September, I attended Ballarat Iyengar Yoga’s annual 6 day retreat with Senior Iyengar Teacher Shayna Ogden. This was a wonderful opportunity to step back from the day to day responsibilities of work and family life and become immersed in the benefits of a yoga practice under the tutelage of a wonderful teacher without the usual distractions and pressure to move on to the next task in the day. Held at Continental House in a delightful bush setting, nestled in the foothills of Hepburn Springs, accommodation is very comfortable, the old worldliness charm of the historic building and gardens p ..read more

In my previous blog post, I described my personal journey in establishing a home yoga practice. In this post I examine three sutras that relate to that experience. The obstacles that we all face when trying to establish a home practice are outlined by Patanjali in Sutras 1.29 – 1.31. Sutra 1.29 tatah pratyakcetana adhigamah api antaraya abhavah ca Meditation on God with the repetition of aum removes obstacles to the mastery of the inner self. (Iyengar, 1993) Leaving aside the God aspect, this sutra tells us that there are impediments to self-realisation – or obstacles, in our path on the yoga ..read more

In the previous two blog posts I shared my own experience of establishing a home yoga practice then explained some of the obstacles to practice that we all face, as outlined by Patanjali in sutras 1.29 – 1.31. Here I give some practical tips as to how to start your home asana practice that will get you onto the mat and keep you returning on a regular basis. Be Organised Put all your printed yoga material in a ring binder folder. Use divider tabs. Alternatively, organise your files within a specific folder on a computer or tablet. Keep a note book for your ‘yoga journal’ in which you can write ..read more

Often students ask me why they should go on a yoga retreat. I answer honestly “to do more yoga”. But this doesn’t really do justice to their sincere question. Attending a residential yoga retreat is a completely different experience to attending yoga classes on a regular basis. Below I have tried to outline a few major points about the effectiveness of yoga retreats for yoga students. Immersion One of the major reasons for going on a retreat to study yoga is to allow complete immersion in the subject. Languages are sometimes taught using the immersion method where the teachers speaks the new l ..read more

Hello, this is Lara. Is this Colleen? Yep, it’s me. What are you doing right now? Not much, just getting ready to go to yoga. How are you feeling? Fine. How are you? Colleen, you need to get yourself to the emergency department. Your liver enzymes levels are off the chart. Can I check myself ..read more

by Emily Corbet June, 2018   About 6 months ago Shayna asked if anyone in class would write a blog about their yoga experience. I thought there’s a challenge, that’s something I wouldn’t do. So the seed was planted and as I sat in my bed sick all weekend with tissues stuck up my nose ..read more

by Susie Surtees  ‘You could write about the Yamas’, said Shayna Ogden, my yoga teacher. ‘Sure’, I said, and after a little research, decided to start with Satya, the second of the yoga Yamas, or restraints. Put simply, it means thinking, feeling and behaving from a place of truth in both your inner and outer ..read more

by Susie Surtees I confess. The resistance/surrender duality is alive in me. The dictionary definitions of surrender are: ‘Stop resisting to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority’, and ‘Give in to a powerful emotion or influence’. In yoga practice, I experience both. I’m reminded of the Balinese checked fabric poleng—black squares against ..read more