Jacky DH
Novice
Jun 28, 2002, 2:41 PM
Post #1 of 2
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Iyengar Yoga Jubilee in London - my experience
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Geeta in the UK
I was able to attend this event, and I just wanted to share my experiences.
First of all, I have only been practicing yoga for 13 months now. It all started last year at an Ashtanga workshop. It was a VERY difficult class for me, weak wrists; bad muscle in my shoulder, the works. The teacher of that class has been doing Ashtanga for 4 years as a teacher, but did Iyengar for 18 years before that. He was amazing. He recommended Iyengar to me due to my wrists and shoulder. He also said this: “It doesn’t matter what method you practice, as long as you practice”. I looked into a beginner class, and was pleased to find one started in the second week of June 2001 that would go on for 6 weeks. I was hooked after the 2nd class!!
The other thing I would like to share is this: After leaving the Ashtanga workshop and feeling that I was a little over my head with that method, a thought came to me ‘I have the only tool I will ever need, my body.’
I wanted to know more and more about yoga, so I bought some books. I was a little frustrated when most of the books I bought were mostly about the asanas. It’s one thing to look at a book filled with pictures of other people doing the asanas, and doing them yourself. I bought Geeta’s book ‘Yoga a Gem for Women’. It filled some of the gaps of knowledge that the other books I tried could not. I thought to myself ‘this lady is brilliant!’
It was about 2 weeks after I finished Geeta’s book that I found out about her coming to the UK. I asked my teacher about it, and she said ‘this could be a once in a lifetime chance’. I took that chance!
Geeta’s teaching and the event as a whole amazed me. A group of teachers from here in the UK kind of adopted me while I was at the event, as I didn’t know anyone there, except my teacher (who was assisting with the event) and Lynda and Gerry (also assisting) from Yogawest. There were over 1,000 people at the general event, and in talking with some of them; I realized that these people have been practicing for YEARS!! Little ‘ol me at a whole 11 months of practicing. Just starting on my path you could say!!!
The group of teachers that adopted me were so great, all telling me about their different backgrounds, what started them on yoga, what issues come up in their classes, etc. They thought it funny when they would tell me what part of the UK they live in and I would just shrug my shoulders, because I didn’t know the area. After all, I told them, not only am I a newbie to yoga, but I am a foreigner as well! (American). They all commented on how brave I was to come to this event after only having done yoga for 11 months!! They were so amazed at how keen I was to learn everything. Heck they even liked my feet!! (I tend to have spaces between my toes naturally, having grown up barefoot in the southern United States!) All in all they added to the wonder at being at this event! They were so great! Which amazes me, these people have been doing yoga for 18, 20, 25, 30 years, and they wanted to know about me. Like I was ‘fresh’.
Anyway, words can barely express the event itself! To be taught by Geetaji! She is so human! She had us laughing most of the time telling us how to hold asanas. She was very stern as well. I think that is important in holding a class’s attention, and a class of 1,000 people!! My teacher is also a bit like Geetaji, very stern, not mean or anything, or like people mentioned on the other thread. Just no time for silliness.
I will say that on day two of the general event, I did feel like I was a bit over my head (literally). I am not to where I have even attempted a headstand, and all of a sudden there are 999 pairs of legs in the air!! I was standing there not knowing what to do or where to go, and Geetaji said ‘you there, what you doing?’ I was speechless! ‘You beginner?’ I nodded a ‘yes’ and then she guided me to do something else. Whew!
After this class I went to change. When I came back up to were the line for the food was, my teacher was standing there. She said ‘you all right? You look wrecked’. I said, ‘no I am fine, I am just trying to remember how I just came up those stairs back there!’ I felt like a puppet on strings. It was the hardest class I had ever done, and I was thirsty for more!!
Unfortunately, that was the last class of the event, and the rest of the time was lectures by Geetaji, etc.
When the time came for the event to close, I was so emotionally overwhelmed by all that I had experienced, that I did not want to leave. How silly is that right? I had just been to the hardest yoga class of my entire 11 months career as a yogi and I did not want to go home!!
It was the energy of the event I think. I was truly in love with the entire human race when I went to catch my train home, and that feeling lasted for days after!! Unfortunately that feeling and attitude ebbed away when reality of work and life in general starting to chip away from that euphoric feeling.
As with some asana’s that my teacher demonstrates, she says ‘feel that, try to recreate that in this other asana (without the wall, etc)’
That’s what I am going to go by:
Feel that (after leaving the Iyengar Yoga Jubilee in London)? Try to recreate that every day!!
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Lianne