Connection

I’m not sure if H came to Conference with a theme or plan of what he would talk about. He started off by talking about what the word yoga means to him, “Connection” and “Community”, he said yoga can also mean yolk, but he said that’s for eggs! How the practice isn’t just the near two sweaty hours on our mats, but how it relates to our lives off the mat, how we treat other people, how we treat ourselves, if we forgive those who we see as wronging us, or as he put it, putting the loo roll on the wrong way round!

H said one of his latest favourite saying was the Japanese term Ika Gai, the meaning of life. Finding the right balance, what gives you a sense of purpose, a reason for living.

H talked about how we should Practice detachment in our practice , life needs to work around it, work, family etc all have a bearing on how much effort we can put into our practice on a given day.

He finished with a quiz, his list above, calling out Sanskrit words and we had to say what they meant, when he said “asana”, he added if we don’t know that one we’re fucked! It’s surprising how many you kind of know without realising, when he said “heyum” I immediately thought of “heyum dukam anagatam” , so heyum = Avoid. He passed the list around for us to take a picture, wonder if he will be testing us next week!

Practice is painful of late, the new occupation involves quite a lot of standing and my lower back is seriously pissed off, the practice I’m managing is only thanks to opening my final tube of Rumalaya. The massage therapist did her best, but I think it’s going to take time. In the right conditions with Rumalaya, heat and help Kapo and dropbacks are possible, but at home with only the Rumalaya it’s a frustrating mess.