Bruges
Back from a couple of days in sunny Bruges. Now Bruges, as well as being famous for 'lazy chestnuts' (Doctor Evil) is also famous, being in Belgium, for chocolate, waffles, chocolate, mussels and girl beer (Colin Farrell In Bruges). Did I mention chocolate? Not easy being a yoga abhyasi in such a town. That said we didn't indulge in that much chocolate, mostly just the hot chocolate on a stick kind that they bring you with steaming milk and in which you stir in the chocolate yourself.
Think we had just the two waffles though it probably would have been more if I'd discovered the sweet chewy kind earlier. Beer, had a couple the first and second day but I'm no longer used to it and ended up hungover from a couple of beers made by Trappist monks. What kind of a monk makes beer for heavens sake?
Bruges is of course a beautiful town, you might remember it from The Nun Story, the movie opens with Audrey Hepburn walking through the streets, or the Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason In Bruges, which we watched again yesterday, a comedy about redemption.
Curious thing about the trip, all through the colder whether I've had to shift my Ashtanga practice to the evening as I find I'm too stiff for anything other than 2nd series or a heavily modified Vinyasa Krama until around 11am. Either it was the better mattress or all the walking but I came back and had the best Primary early sunday morning.
Highlights of the trip apart from being able to spend some quality time with M. was Michelangelo's Madonna and child and the lay nuns singing vespers in their little chapel in the Beguinage of Bruges, a small lay community in the city centre. What made it so moving I think was that it was so unexpected, just the nuns chanting their daily prayers, not as part of a service and to a congregation but just the nuns and the chant.
Week off
So I have another week off and I want to focus on Pranayama, tightening up my Primary and 2nd series with the Jois led Videos from Yogaworks, 2nd in the morning Primary in the evening and if I have time finish off rewriting my practice book and formatting it for the paperback version.
I picked up the Derek Ireland Pranayama CD and practiced with that last night plus I have the outline of Tim Miller's Pranayama practice that I want to run through that again, then explore some of the pranayama's that Ramaswami taught us (and review the pranayama chapter in his Yoga for the Three Stages of Life) that I don't tend to include in my daily pranayama practice, I also have Iyengar's Light on pranayama and Andre van lysebeth's Pranayama ; The Yoga of breathing that I've been wanting to get stuck into. Post to come on all that.
an AYC day.
Today however is fasting and an AYC Day. I have a series of videos from the recent Ashtanga yoga confluence and intend to spend the day with them Big thank you to studioactive8 for posting these, I hope they have the blessing of those involved in the confluence.
Just about to practice with Nancy Gilgoff and her...
Introduction to Ashtanga primary (part 1 of 2)
Follow that with the yoga philosophy discussion by the panel, Eddie Stern, Tim Miller, Nancy Gilgoff, David Swenson, Richard Freeman
The Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga (part 1 of 2 below)
Then Richard Freeman's, seemingly Vinyasa krama approach to backbending workshop
Backbending on the current of the breath (part 1 of 4 below )
Finally watch the panel discussion
Ashtanga Yoga and Daily life (part 1 of 2 below)
Back from a couple of days in sunny Bruges. Now Bruges, as well as being famous for 'lazy chestnuts' (Doctor Evil) is also famous, being in Belgium, for chocolate, waffles, chocolate, mussels and girl beer (Colin Farrell In Bruges). Did I mention chocolate? Not easy being a yoga abhyasi in such a town. That said we didn't indulge in that much chocolate, mostly just the hot chocolate on a stick kind that they bring you with steaming milk and in which you stir in the chocolate yourself.
Think we had just the two waffles though it probably would have been more if I'd discovered the sweet chewy kind earlier. Beer, had a couple the first and second day but I'm no longer used to it and ended up hungover from a couple of beers made by Trappist monks. What kind of a monk makes beer for heavens sake?
Bruges is of course a beautiful town, you might remember it from The Nun Story, the movie opens with Audrey Hepburn walking through the streets, or the Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason In Bruges, which we watched again yesterday, a comedy about redemption.
Nice attic room in the hotel but hard to find a place to throw a yoga mat and practice, tried the hallway but ended up having to practice in the bathroom.
Curious thing about the trip, all through the colder whether I've had to shift my Ashtanga practice to the evening as I find I'm too stiff for anything other than 2nd series or a heavily modified Vinyasa Krama until around 11am. Either it was the better mattress or all the walking but I came back and had the best Primary early sunday morning.
Week off
So I have another week off and I want to focus on Pranayama, tightening up my Primary and 2nd series with the Jois led Videos from Yogaworks, 2nd in the morning Primary in the evening and if I have time finish off rewriting my practice book and formatting it for the paperback version.
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an AYC day.
Today however is fasting and an AYC Day. I have a series of videos from the recent Ashtanga yoga confluence and intend to spend the day with them Big thank you to studioactive8 for posting these, I hope they have the blessing of those involved in the confluence.
Just about to practice with Nancy Gilgoff and her...
Introduction to Ashtanga primary (part 1 of 2)
Follow that with the yoga philosophy discussion by the panel, Eddie Stern, Tim Miller, Nancy Gilgoff, David Swenson, Richard Freeman
The Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga (part 1 of 2 below)
Then Richard Freeman's, seemingly Vinyasa krama approach to backbending workshop
Backbending on the current of the breath (part 1 of 4 below )
Finally watch the panel discussion
Ashtanga Yoga and Daily life (part 1 of 2 below)
If they make it for a week in NYC next time I think I'd be tempted to make the trip.
6 comments:
Hmmmm chocolate.... Hmmm....
Had not seen these vids... Would be lovely if the next one was in NYC indeed!
Good Morning Claudia : )
Have you had hot chocolate on stick before? We tended to have ours at a chocolate makers called Dumon but you can find it in cafe's too. As i mentioned they bring you this steaming hot glass of milk and a large cube of chocolate attached to a plastic spoon (sometimes it's a wooden spoon or stick) then you drop it into the milk and stir making your fresh hot chocolate. best thing about having it at the chocolatier's is that they also bring you a couple of sample chocolates on the side.
The videos are interesting though the quality isn't so great obviously, takes a little while to get used to the sound and pick up on what everyone is saying.
The Nancy Gilgoff one was good to practice with, she mentions the changes from when she was taught but here it's in the context of practice, she also mentions why some approaches to posture are different from Iyengar etc, fascinating stuff. I'm going to go through it again and take notes today.
The Richard Freeman workshop was very ....wordy, hard work because of the sound to catch half of what he was saying but there was some interesting stuff that will end up in my practice. He talked about bringing the sitting bones together and the coccyx towards the pubic bone creating that lift that I've been using a lot lately but he also talks about drawing the pubic bone back towards the coccyx so everything stays parallel to the floor I've had a tendency to lead with the pubic bone when I nutate but he seems to be suggesting to bing everything in together and then bring the sacrum through, nutating that way...that's how I've begin to understand it VERY VERY interesting for backbends. I carried on with some more backbends after the workshop ended and they got pretty deep, lots to play with and explore there.
The panel discussions are a bit rambling and all over the place at times but some excellent stuff too. I'd like more on what it's like to practice for so many years, they touched on that at the end.
The section on enlightenment was interesting, perhaps we expect too much from this householder practice but I couldn't help but wonder if the five of them had studied/practiced Zen with the same intensity for 30-40 years how their answers/outlook might differ.
What is the goal of this practice?
Great post, omg the chocolate thing is making me crazy this morning, trying to figure out how to replicate chocolate on a stick, probably impossible.
Did you know Richard Freeman is doing a live streaming pranayama class at sounds true right now? One class a month for six months, I think the second class is tonight actually. The first one is available for download. Might fit in with your current theme....
Have just added two pictures of the hot chocolate on a stick thing Maya, good luck with it. the place we were at had all kinds, white, milk, dark, black (74%) there were also ones with chill or ginger in the chocolate and one that was on a pipette that had run in it : )
I heard about the Richard Freeman pranayama course, somebody's blogging about it, now who was that. I have his Yoga Breathing cd, was listening to the first session of that, interesting exploring his, Derek Ireland's and Tim Miller's but I still prefer how Ramaswami taught it to us, no doubt because it's what I'm used to having practiced it that way for a couple of years now.
Bruges is pretty although I really couldn't get into the movie (with Colin Farrell), probably because I watched it on the plane. Agree with you re: the sound of the videos but I guess that's part and parcel of "unofficial" conference videos like this. Thanks for linking all of them on your blog, looks like it's going to be an AYC day for me too!
The chanting of the nuns was sweet and lovely. Thank you for posting the video, Grimmly.
I've been doing Richard's Sounds True Pranayama course. It's...interesting, but good.
(btw, those Belgian waffles with the caramelized sugar beads melting in them are truly decadent and addictive. I discovered them at Mt. Snow in Vermont - they sell them via a little franchise called the Waffle Cabin - http://wafflecabin.com/)
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