Wednesday 3 September 2014

Off to Dublin



This is an ongoing blog about Marella’s midlife odyssey through yoga life.

I hang around after class has finished and sidle up to my yoga teacher pretending to help her collect the mats but really wanting an opportunity to speak with her about the yoga class. “Hi Nancy I was just wondering would you like me to give you a hand with those mats”? She answered immediately "Oh that would be  so lovely". I set to at once picking up mats, rolling them up whilst trying to articulate  the question that has been kicking around  in my head. You see she knows that I didn't want to come to her class and what I am about to ask her will signify my climb down. “Uhm, Nancy I was just wondering what sort of yoga was it that you just taught us? Anusara she replies, a type of Hatha yoga. I ask her “ if I wanted to do that in Ireland, where would I go?” Nancy is from the States, pausing as she answers, I can see the twinkle in her eye  and I sort of gaze into the middle distance not quite meeting her eye. “ You know Marella I am not sure as it’s relatively new in the USA also, I guess you could try on line”. The brief conversation is left hanging in the air as we continue to gather up the mats. I later meet her in the breakfast queue and whilst scooping porridge on to our plates, she, with great gentleness and yet slightly teasing asks " did you enjoy the yoga then?"


Its around October when this conversation occurs, over the next six months I spend some time on the internet getting a feel for what a yoga world is.My impressions are that its a huge and varied discipline with shades, nuisances and variations that seem to stretch from OHM to eternity. In particular I do a fair bit of digging and research about the Anusara  area of the yoga planet. It seems all good. A structured approach using alignment as a basis yet emanating from the heart. It was strenuous but different entirely from a mere physical jerks type of  session. It offered more, much more and I felt that it would be worthwhile to try it out. What was my next step? I knew Anusara yoga was not available in Omagh so I had a look around Northern Ireland and nope, no-one was offering it at that time. Looking more widely I discovered that there was a weekend coming up being organised by some folk in the Republic of Ireland, they had invited a teacher from the States to introduce  Irish yoga folk to Anusara, it was to be a first. I decided that I had to go, I phoned up the organiser told them that I had the grand total of four hours yoga experience and could I come ? He hesitated, I immediately reassured him that I was quite fit and able and that seemed to do the trick. I set off for Dublin with my long suffering husband Billy and my best friend Nadine, having persuaded both of them that they would have a great weekend, needless to say  neither of them had any yoga experience whatsoever!  



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