Yoga and meditation are not methods of anaesthetising your experience in life, rather yoga and meditation techniques are tools of managing those experiences. The anger, the anxiety and grief of the life experience are all real just as the joy, curiosity and happiness are real. However. they are also passing waves that do not define who you are. This practice explores who you are behind these emotions and focuses on discovering the essence of you.
Yoga and meditation are not methods of anaesthetising your experience in life, rather yoga and meditation techniques are tools of managing those experiences. The anger, the anxiety and grief of the life experience are all real just as the joy, curiosity and happiness are real. However. they are also passing waves that do not define who you are. This practice explores who you are behind these emotions and focuses on discovering the essence of you.
Yoga and meditation are not methods of anaesthetising your experience in life, rather yoga and meditation techniques are tools of managing those experiences. The anger, the anxiety and grief of the life experience are all real just as the joy, curiosity and happiness are real. However. they are also passing waves that do not define who you are. This practice explores who you are behind these emotions and focuses on discovering the essence of you.
I’m a busy bunny the next few months so I wanted to take some time to write a few words down and share some upcoming adventures with you all.
Images from internet search of Kumbh Mela
Kumbh Mela 2019
I have gifted myself time to study with my teacher Yogarupa Rod Stryker and his teacher Pandit Rajmani Tigunait at the Himalayan Institute in Allahabad & Khajuraho. I have always studied with my teachers in London or in the States, however have never set foot in India to receive the teachings. So I find myself being ‘baptised by fire’ in the centre of one of the largest festivals in the world. I am really going into this blind, with simple instructions to practice my prescribed mantra for this unique retreat and to prepare for the most intense experience. I will be camping on the Himalayan Institute campus, daily practices which I have yet to know what they entail and excursions to the festival to celebrate with my fellow 150 million other pilgrims. Kumbh Mela happens every 12 years and is an auspicious festival that Hindus & Yogis gather to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges. Kumbha means pot and Mela means gathering. So, it is said that the symbolism of filling our vessel with the scared nectar, amrita, of the ancient Ganges at this celestial convergence is the most powerful and potent energy to create lasting transformation. I know one way or another it will have a huge impact on my life as a woman, mother, wife, teacher and most of all a student. I will return with tails to share with you. I will be away from 31 January to the 25 February. Wonderful teachers will be covering my classes in London so do support them.
Triyoga Talks to Zephyr Wildman
Triyoga has created a podcast called Triyoga Talks which has been a great addition to our community by supporting students and teachers off the mat. I was asked to talk about my life, how I have interpreted the teachings of Yoga and my part as a student to use these practices to keep my life “clean” as well as how to use this to be of service to my students. I hope you enjoy and are inspired to get on your mat and apply the deeper teachings of yoga to your experience. TRIYOGA TALKS PODCAST
I teach at Triyoga Ealing Wednesdays 5:25-5:55pm Meditation, 6-7:15pm Vinyasa Yoga. Saturdays 9:30-11am Vinyasa Yoga, 11:15-12pm Meditation. Go to www.triyoga.co.uk to book.
Yogacampus Manchester Yoga Anatomy & Physiology Training
Applied Yoga as a Therapeutic Tool to Heal. I will be offering a 5 Day Teacher Training filled with the foundations to yoga therapy, postural assessments and techniques in which to enhance your teaching and grow as a teacher. To find out more information and to book click here.
Silatha App: 21 Meditations on Grief & Loss
I have collaborated with Silatha to create an app platform to further support for those in the grips of grief and loss. They have offered my students a month of free access to the full Silatha app, they can then purchase the app for a month on the Silatha website: https://silatha.com/cart Use code: ZEPHYR_TRYAPP at the check out. No strings attached. To purchase any of their jewellery you can use the discount code ZEPHYR10 for a 10% discount!
Peak Yoga & Hiking in Switzerland
Join us for another amazing Yoga Adventure! 5-11 August, 2019. Peak Yoga 2x a day, daily hikes, spa, amazing fresh food & loads of extra adventures planned for our YOGIS! To find out more information and links to book click here.
Zephyr Yoga Inspiration Podcast
Join me anytime for Meditations, Yoga Inspirations & Practices. Links are on my website.
15 % Discount at YogaClicks use Code Zephyr15 Powered by Yogis!
Movement for Modern Life; Online Yoga with Zephyr Wildman
Practice with me at home or on your travels this year with Movement for Modern Life. I have individual classes available as well as a 30 Day Yoga for Transformation Series to deepen your practice and commitment to your well-being. Enjoy! Use my affiliated link to access the classes click here.
Yoga for a good cause!
Support Ourmala by attending every Monday 5:30-6:30pm Slow Flow Yoga class at The Life Centre Notting Hill. For one ticket sold to practice with me, two registered asylum seekers and refugees receive support through Ourmala! We also have filmed some online classes on Movement for Modern Life which too supports this great foundation. To practice online click here.
To find out more in how you can support this amazing foundation, go to www.ourmala.com
Triyoga has created a podcast called Triyoga Talks which has been a great addition to our community by supporting students and teachers off the mat. I contributed a bit the other day with a few words about my life, how I have interpreted the teachings of Yoga and my part as a student to use these practices to keep my life “clean” as well as how to use this to be of service to my students. I hope you enjoy and are inspired to get on your mat and apply the deeper teachings of yoga to your experience. TRIYOGA TALKS PODCAST
I teach at Triyoga Ealing Wednesdays 5:25-5:55pm Meditation, 6-7:15pm Vinyasa Yoga. Saturdays 9:30-11am Vinyasa Yoga, 11:15-12pm Meditation. Go to www.triyoga.co.uk to book.
It’s a new year and everyone is feeling a bit of motivation for manifesting a new start. Zephyr’s message in this podcast is a focus on encouraging us all to look at our past and recognise our experience and how it has become helpful or has hindered our evolution and our ability to move forward. A meditation to set the tone for a four-part lecture and practice that will welcome you into a new year of self reflection and purification.
The brief meditation at the start of this podcast is a great way to prepare yourself to plant seeds of purpose and help reduce seeds of suffering that have been planted through your own experiences throughout your life. The clarity to our path forward is often blurred by experience and our reactions to life are just that, reactions. Use this meditation anytime you want to comeback to these themes and practices of self-reflection and moving through life with purpose. Whenever you find yourself reacting rather than responding to life’s obstacles, come back to this practice and work on continuing to build skills that help you see life more clearly and navigate through it.
Zephyr has shared the slides from this lecture with you below, so when you have time you can follow along with her.
Creating a bit of heat in our practice this week requires a balance that can be brought with a smile. Sounds simple enough, but being present in the moment often requires that we find a bit of dis-comfort and at the same time find, define and nurture our intention for our practice.
In this Slow-Flow session Zephyr will remind you how being on the mat can be a practice in “being here now” which is a lesson we can all take graciously and use off the mat in our everyday lives. Engaging with those around us, our family, friends or our colleagues and our children is not always the easiest to maintain a meaningful presence. This practice will help with life’s discomforts and give you the tools to be more present and allow you to give and receive a more meaningful and present interaction with life and those you engage with (including yourself!).
A focused breath, a gentle downward gaze and a slight Buddha smile is all it takes.
As a Yogi, we are all working to to find stillness. It is in fact the definition of Yoga (contrary to the popular belief of many of my contortionist colleagues). The whole reason the modern day Yogi movement is such a popular and well populated movement is because when we get the message, when we (sometimes just for a fleeting second) lose ourselves and enter the presence of the moment it tends to feel really, really good and we look for it again. When we find the presence, we can navigate the rest of our day and take the lessons from that experience with us. The hard part, however, is getting to the presence.
In this podcast Zephyr lets us all in on a little secret to help bring a bit more presence to our practice. She describes how skillful movement whilst being present is not rushed and is certainly not anticipating the next pose. 108 Sun Salutations can bring discipline, but rarely does it bring presence. It takes a Buddha smile and an intention on letting go of what you stepped on to the mat with. Only then can you step off the mat with a clearer presence and be ready to face the day “here and now”.
Zeph continues on the subject of cultivating the Love and Kindness for ourselves with this series entitled Pray it Away which includes the Meditation, Practice and here, the Preamble. The series, used together, urges the Yogi to see ones practice as a garden of sorts in which you can plant, cultivate and nurture a bit of loving kindness and connect with the desire to be happy and to decrease the suffering. By cultivating Love and Kindness for ourselves but at the same time acknowledging the suffering and embracing it as a teacher, it can release you from the downward spiral of suffering and dis-ease. As a teacher it creates choices that can draw you closer to spirit or, push you farther away. That is where Yoga and Meditation become really powerful. At that point, having the courage to Pray it Away (the suffering) and breathe these mantras in (cultivating the Love and Kindness) and choosing the path back to balance and relief from the dis-ease, wherever it may have come from.
Embracing the suffering, understanding its roots, recognising the choice and finally finding the positive Love and Kindness to cultivate and meditate upon is the goal of the Love and Kindness series.
In this Podcast Zephyr analyses the roots of anger and resentment showing us that often, our attachment to reinforcing aversion, creates that anger and in effect creates a suffering for ourselves. Its a tricky little cycle that is hard to break-free from and usually causes that not-so-calm, not-so-cool and not-so-collected self to show up when things get a bit heated.
Zeph shows us that by meditating and giving a moment of pause, we give our anger a moment to be heard. By pausing and focusing on the anger that may dwell inside, you can explore where that anger comes from and why it created the reaction it did.
Zephyr shares a personal story as an example and offers a practice that will allow you to tap into anger and question it, acknowledge it and release it.
Use this meditation anytime you recognise a bit of heat or downright fury towards someone or something. Take the time to acknowledge it, explore it, give it a moment and you might just be surprised your reaction the next time you are faced with it.
