My Blog
Healing Energy: Prana Vidya
I embarked on a 10-day course in Prana Vidya at the Mandala Ashram Wales (an independent ashram that follows the Satyananda school of yoga teachings) without really being sure what it was about. Google searches weren't particularly illuminating, and the Bihar School...
Perfecting Pranayama: Sadhana Intensive at the Sivananda Ashram Madurai
I arrive at the Sivananda ashram in Madurai at just past midnight on New Year's Eve, after driving through pot-holed country roads popping with firecrackers and bright-eyed skinny boys shouting "Happy New Year" at the rickshaw. I'm here to do the two-week Sadhana...
Lectio Divina: reading as meditation
Reading spiritual texts is an important part of yoga spiritual practice. Svadhyaya, study of both the self and the scriptures, is one of the niyamas or virtuous habits. The Niyamas are the second of the eight limbs of yoga as described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras....
Going deeper at the Mandala Ashram, Wales
Yoga postures are not just about moving limbs and coordinating breath. Subtler dimensions exist like the chakras (energy points), nadis (energy lines) and koshas (different bodily layers). The course I did at the Mandala Ashram Wales, Embodying Insight, emphasised...
Yoga for Anger Management
I can get angry. I don't lash out; it's a quiet anger. I feel the heat rise to my face and feelings of frustration well up in me. When I was at the Mandala ashram in Wales, run by disciples of Swami Satyananda, I asked Swami Krishnapremananda for advice. Here are his...
Getting into Alignment: Yoga and the Alexander Technique
I went to a yoga workshop at the London Sivananda Centre on the Alexander Technique and Sivananda Yoga, given by Sita from the Hamburg centre. I’ve always been a bit over-awed by Sita. She’s a slim blonde with an impressive bone structure; her manner is compassionate,...