FAQ

There are no prerequisite for this yoga. Anyone desiring to learn yoga or Ashtanga Yoga can begin at any stage of life. Aim to be open to learning and allowing yourself time and space to absorb the practice and work with your teacher.

Traditionally, we practice 6 days a week, resting on the regular off-day and the moon days. Practicing regularly helps us to balance our body’s systems as well as our life-habits. Regularity and repetition also serve to make the practice easier. The student and teacher are better able to observe the fluctuations of the body and mind, allowing the practice to be adaptive and supportive as we lean deeper into its nourishing gifts. Developing a foundation in the practice offers us stability and support as life challenges internal or external continue to arise. One can still benefit greatly from yoga practice in any amount. Even one day a week can offer a significant enrichment to ones life. Constancy is helplyhelpful, whether it’s one day, 3, or 6 days per week. Do what you can, little by little, aiming for a sustainable approach.

Using a counted vinyasa, the movements with breathing do not simply blend together, instead we train the breath to coordinate with the specifics of the movements and their end positions. The pace and quality of the movement informs the breath. Each vinyasa is a choreographed movement which has beginning and end point positions that have corresponding inhalations or exhalations.

For example, the transition into the setup position for certain postures may require a longer inhalation, in order to coordinate the body, arms, legs, feet, gaze etc. all in a specific way. Then, briefly pausing at the end of the setup, coordinated with the top of the inhalation. The very next exhalation happens as we enter the pose. Remaining in the postures for a short duration of time (an internally sensed count of 5) we rhythmically breath in and out, until the transition into the next posture, again corresponding with a specific breath. Developing breathing skill and capacity: rhythmic, powerful, nourishing, breath. Learning to build internal heat through the vinyasa, the counted connectivity of breathing and movement.

The step by step learning style of the Mysore class, allows the qualified teacher to slowly, gently guide students to learn the pattern and engage in their own experience. One breath and one movement at a time. 

• Yoga can serve to support ones health and wellbeing
• Simplifying ones life
• Balancing and purify the nervous system or energies of the body and mind
• Spiritual connection & development
• Steady the fluctuations of the mind
• Increasing sense of stability, openness, and in tuning with the natural rhythms of the body and mind
• Ahimsa (non harming) toward oneself and other beings

Wear whatever you are comfortable moving in, knowing that the room may be warm and you may sweat.

Bring yourself, and a small towel or 2, like a kitchen or bathroom towel, in case you sweat and to clean and wipe down your mat after class. You may bring your own mat, or borrow one from the shala.

Generally speaking, daily Ashtanga practice happens in a “Mysore Style class.” (Mysore is a city in southern India where the physical practice is rooted.) Although students practice together in the same room, it is not a typical “group class”. Students are encouraged to start their practice at any time within the timeframe of the class so long as they have enough time to finish. Guidance is offered to students on an individual level, taking into account the skill and capabilities of the practitioner so that their practice can flourish. Much of the learning in a Mysore class is based on your relationship with your teacher, they are observing you practice daily, and can provide feedback in hands on and verbal instruction.

The word “Shala” means home. The shala is a dedicated space, where one aims to reside in the foundation of the divine Self or a higher vibration within. With enthusiasm, towards realizing one’s divine nature, one engages with whatever best energy one has, in practices which provide movement of the mind and body towards a purified state of clear perception. A space for Sadhana. 

Sadhana is spiritual or devotional practice. 

In devotional practice, one engages all the senses in reverence and contemplation of the Divine.