lite intensivare pranayama
för dig som vill gå lite djupare och börja utforska lite mer inom denna viktiga del i yogans värld

här går vi lite djupare i teknikerna jämfört med ordinarie klasserna jag håller och även längre intervaller etc.

ej för den helt nya,
lite erfarenhet behövs från t.ex mina Hatha-Sivananda klasser eller
de 20min pranayama klasserna som jag har månd, onsd & fred.

ungefärligt upplägg
uddiyana bandha
kapalabhati
anuloma viloma
bhastrika

so slowly this term is starting stabilize and every week more students start to come to classes and find their routines again.

and also I start to get a bit more time to plan this term with special classes and so on.http://www.studiokarma.se/gastyoga.html

so yesterday I was published at studio Karma as a guest teacher in October, I was there las term for a whole day workshop but then in their old place, now it is a totally new studio, so I am looking forward to that . )

link

my thoughts are to at least once a month do a 1h pranayama class,
and maybe some other things : ) 

so a shorter resumé of my 10day stay at the ashram in Germany. 

when I arrived at the ashram after flying and riding with the train, I got picked up at the trainstation.
my first reaction in my mind when I saw this place was that it was SO big! it looked like a huge hotel complex somehow, and someone later said to me it was actually an old hospital-like building earlier. but I am not sure..
after a few days I realized it was actually even bigger with some more buildings and a lot of people sleeping in tents.. when I was there it was of course summertime so many have holiday, and it was about 500 guests/yogis/particapants there. and 120 people working there, some as karma yogis [volonteurs] and some as contracted staff members.

everythng was so "arranged" if compared to the ashram in India, or maybe better way to explain it "it was more westernized" and this is ofcourse natural since we have other resourses.

I liked beeing there but for me somehow it never gave me the right feeling or energy. it was sometimes a bit to light and a bit like a factory in the sence that it was so big and so many different courses there at the same time [wich is also great that they can offer so many things!].

in my doorm [wich was actually a room with 4 bunker beds] there was just 3-4 others staying, and they were all participating in a buddhist tantra course, so most of the days they had to be silent so my room was very quiet and they had gone to bed already every night when I came back from my last lecture of my course ha ha

and most sad in my point of view is that it was much less internationally adjusted then I had thought, so basicly I felt like a stranger in a german speaking ashram sometimes ha ha.
all the signs in german, al the information in german and all classes in german etc.
my course was led by a Swami english spoken, so the course said in English.
but then it turend out that only her lectures was in english [and with a german translater who transalted averything so it all took the double amount of time to go thru.
and then the actual asana practice was in german, luckely I have the experience and some german words are similar to english or swedish so I could join without to much trouble, and also when hearing some words many times you start to learn.. shenke=leg and so on.
after I asked they arraged a person comming to most classes to translate if I didn get it.
so all and all okey, but you miss out on many small details that different yoga teacher individuals teach, the small things you sometimes get inspired of so that was a bit sad.
they should have been much more clear in the information about this fact that just parts were in english.
I was the only none german person in my course and we were about 20 participants.

I did learn some, and it was great to see the differences they did compared to what I am used to.

I have to say that this ashram in their yogic practice in many ways actually felt more sensere then in India ashram.

so my 10 day ATTC course was for sure okey, and the whole trip there was of course an lifetime experience that I am very happy that I did.
but it was not realy what I have expected.. but that is often the case when going for the first time to a place..

here are some pictures:

1. the main ashram building

2. the yoga hall [Lakshmi hall if I remember correctly]

3. my bed in the "doormitary"

4. my last satsang, it was sent live on internet you can see Swami Atma on stage.  

yesterday I launched Online booking on my site, and the first day already 10 of my participants had registered.

I spent some time this last weekend to make the booking system fit into my site both in size and in colours, and during this week their support man will help me with some last details to make it even a bit extra good looking : )

  
it feels great, I feel this was the right time to do this and that it will in a while be very apprechiated.
basicly it is a good service for my students, a place where they can get an overview of all their bbokings, they can see how many spots are free on a class if you are not sure you can make it from work or so.

and this will probably save some time for me aswell after a while, since now they can all book and un-book themselves whenever they want to more or less.

it seams they are all happy about this new possibility, I have talked about it on my classes last days and I have goten good feedback just for the actual idea even before poeple had tried it.
it is very simple so not to much work, it takes 1 minute maybe to register, then you activate it from an e-mail you get.
but for sure some wont like it. I do have some participants that are not that into new modern technique things, but they can continue booking by text-messages or regular e-mails of course, it is not a must to use the online booking system ha ha.

AUM Shanti

so I want to shortly talk about yoga in the morning.

quit many allways say to me "next term I am gonna go for morning class" but then they cant really find the energy to show up..

here in Sweden of course it is harder to get up in the wintertime when it is really dark and cold.
so I want to give my advice to you all,

if you want to do morning yoga class, now is the time to start.

it becomes much easier if you take advantage of the many things you have right now to get your morning practice to be a routine in your life.
- you have brighter mornings wich means easier to get up
- you have the energy from the sun from summer period
- you might have the longing to really get your yoga practice going again after holidays etc.

to try to start later when autumn is here is almost certain to not work..

some of the old yogic texts states that the best time to start yoga practice is now around september. basicly we want to practice in the interchanges.
the change from summer to autumn, and during the day we want to practice when night becomes morning..

an real advantage with yoga in the morning is that you will energize yourself for the day ahead, you will probably make better decisions since you are a bit more mentally collected & calm.
even if you feel tired and stiff you should have quit som energy since you had a full nights rest.
and.. you havent had to much time to stimulate your mind before your morning practice.
just make sure you dont drink morning coffe before class ha ha.

also of course the fact that you have done your practice in the morning means that you have the whole day in front of you and plenty of time to do all the other things you need to do with work or family etc. and no stress of fidning the time for some exercise.

AUM Suraya namaha

so here are some more pictures from our shortert trip to north India and the "capitol of yoga" - Rishikeshif you want to see more picture you can look here 

1. one of my favourite ones, a Sadhu and a man in discussion, or maybe a devotee of this Baba?

2. from the big and famous Aarti of Niketan Parmarth Ashram

3. my "bath" in the holy ganges river..  

4. our favourite Sadhu with his dogs..

5. one of many monkeys running around, very cute young one with his mum on the bridge "Lakshma Juhla"

6. one of many pictures we were asked to take with the locals, this time I also gave them my camera  

6. a misty view over Lakshman & Ganges river    
7. Annika is trying to dry som clothes on the roof terass of our hotel

8. a nice and welccome breakfast, this one at a place called little budddha cafe. 

9. a man playing fluit for his Cobra - a snakecharmer

AUM Shanti, shanti, shantíi

after been home for 3 days after the yoga holiday me and Annika left for 16 days in India.
we knew it was monsoon season and quit hot, but I can honestly say I wont go there again in july ha ha.   

we stayed one night in Delhi before we left for 2 weeks in Rishikesh, wich lies just where the Himalaya starts.

Rishikesh is one of these holy sities, so there were no meat served anywhere, and no alcohol. great!
also this place is often called "the capitol of yoga" because of the many ashrams that lies here and also a lot of smaler yoga studios no a days.
but it is fairly commersial many places I think, wich is natural with all the attention this place has gotten.

actually all of us western people we stay just outside of the city in 2 small suburbs tha are called RamJuhla & LakshmanJuhla.
and it is here where most of the yoga places are, along the holy river of Ganges.

but never the less this is India, so even though it is a holy place I found it to be in many ways unholy sadly.
there are so much noice all the time from cars & motorcycles, especially motorbikes that refuce to stay away from the smaller streets and even the walking bridges so they use their horns more then needed, it is also very dirty here, you see people everywhere just trowint their garbage on the streets. and since now a famous place there are many individuals that wants to sell things on the streets, touristy crap and also poeple tat are just enoying and wants to get money out of you and gets angry when dont giving them.

not very peaceful and at least for me a lot of the spiritual expereince was not there.

then we were there just before a big "festival" so a lot of local tourists here and one ashram in the middle of the thing every night played out old texts super loud out in speakers, I can understand if doing a ceremony in hteir ashram every evening etc, but why put up megaphones on the outside facing the center areas and litterary hear a guy shout out for several ours until 11pm.

to be honest though we were not staying at a ashram, we decided to stay in a hotel and try some yoga classes around the area.

the heat and the humidity sadly lowered the whole experience for us though, it was to hot [one day 45 degrees celcius] and soke days so much rain, I have never seen that much I think ha ha

but never the less it is allwasy an expeeince to visit India, I would not go there fo relaxing hoidy, it is just more about all the impressions you get all the time.
you almost need a holiday after beeing there ha ha.

this time we had some bad luck with getting colds etc probably because of the weather and AC in some places and the bacterias in the humid & warm air.

but we just enjoyed it in another way the most holidays to an asian hot country.
we did yoga in the morning most of the days, relaxed with a slow breakfast, lloked around in shops etc for a short while, then rested and stayed at the room mostly to avoid the heat around 12-16. we also had some lunch at this time if not breakfast was to late or to big he he.

then of to evening yoga class, some strolling around on the way back for a shower, then off to a relaxed dinner.
after a while at least in most places we ate, we realized we spent most time there waiting for the food, and when finally came we ate quit quickly, then paid and went back to the room al tired and ready to sleep more or less.

we found a place where they teached a nice calm sivananda inspired yoga so we went there quit many times, I enjoyed it.
that class had of any reason quit many japaneese participants.

we also found a yogi whom I had been recommended before, he was teaching at a hote we found out.
he had a bit more physica classes and a lot of technique, I think he adjusted everyone in each asana so this ment also we held the asanas quit long time.
but he was great, he had so much knowledge and where so positive and encoured everyone all the time.
after class he always had a shorter talk wich both me and Annica really enjoyed. you could sit there and listen to him for a long time it felt.

if we are lucky maybe we can get him to come to my studio, he is of to europe so maybe he wants to come here aswell to see Sweden?

we ended our journey with a night in Delhi again near the trainstation in the dirty backpacker area pahar ganj "main bazaar". and we did some last shopping there aswell.
so now we had bought some new things to have in our boutique in the studio aswell.

Namaskar

wow been a very long time since I have written my blog, it might be because I havent been home more then total 2 weeks in the last 2 months..

first of I arranged this years YogaHoliday to Crete Island for the third time, and it was very succesfull and I got so many nice comments and great feedback from many of the participants.

so I thought I would start my come back with some pics from that trip:

1. the students get some freshly squeezed orange juice before early morning class starts in the sunreise at 7am
 2.
2. this year Annika offered spa massage and she had a lot of work this week, and this was a very apprechiated extra on this trip.

 
3. one of the participants in savasana - final relaxation with a olive tree in the background.


4. on the way to the meditation in the sunset that we did one evening.    

you can see more pictures here

Hari Om