Our Mysore program director Emma Isokivi is about to go on mat leave, so writing some exciting updates and plans for what the next few months will look like for our Mysore program at Meadowlark. You can stay very up-to-date with information via our Mysore monthly newsletter sign up here and Facebook private group. 

Hi folks! 

2022 has been a wonderful so far and not boring specifically for me and my family and now imminently expecting baby no.2. 

Our Mysore community goes from strength to strength and it's been a joy to grow the program again post-pandemic into a full and fruitful community again with the support of our Mysore teachers/assistants.

As expected lots of you have been asking, who's teaching when I'm away. Good question!  Here are the plans below...

• My plan is to return in February 2023 and also be at the shala for Friday pranayama/chanting and monthly community conference before then.  During the next few months, we...

In our traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Mysore program here at Meadowlark we observe the “moon days”.  This means on the full and new moons we invite our community to take rest from our more regular practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga. 

There are a variety of reasons for observing the rest days, and for many who practice daily (6 days per week) the extra rest and observation of fluctuations in one’s energy over periods of time is welcomed. 

During these days we invite our community to focus on other areas of practice, including and not limited to prāṇāyāma, meditation, chanting, gentler āsana practice like yin yoga which we offer.  It also invites you to observe the attachment you may have to your ‘normal’ practice.

After advice from Hamish Hendry of Ashtanga Yoga London (who follows the Panchang Hindu Calendar for their Moon day scheduling) and carefully observing...

One of the remarkable things we have learnt this past years, is how success practicing and teaching online Mysore style Ashtanga Vinyasa is.  The ingenuity of how practitioners adapt to practicing at home has been truly a marvel to observe and support and we are excited to continue this part of the community long term. 

Our online Mysore program is largely taught by the *incredible* senior Mysore teacher Amy Hughes. With the rest of the Mysore team supporting and covering her at times. 

Before I dive any further, in the times were we do not have a quiet, dedicated online only time-slot, you'll see this phrase *Mysore connected.  This means that while our in-person Mysore room is open there will be an online connection streaming from the room.  The teacher running the physical room will also provide some small instructions and guidance for those online via this stream.  It still keeps us all *connected* as we navigate this next part of the covid...

We want everyone to feel as safe and as comfortable as possible to be able to attend our in-studio Mysore classes, alongside our extensive online offering. 

See below some finer details and points around a Covid “walk through”; entering and exiting your in-studio Mysore class so you can prepare in advance before arriving for the first time: 

• As per all the general advice NHS/ Scottish Government, please stay at home if you are unwell or presenting any Covid-like symptoms. 
• Please wear a face mask before entering the building. We will be asking all of our community to wear a mask in the communal spaces, until they reach their mat. 
• There is a hand sanitising station before the internal glass door, please sanitise before using the keypad (code is as before, do ask the Mysore teachers/ knock on external windows if you can’t remember it). This keypad will be cleaned before, during and after each mysore session. 
• There will be no sign in...

Dear Friends in Yoga,

I know the cold months of the winter lockdown have presented each of us various challenges. I do hope that as the spring bulbs shoot up, the days lengthen and the Covid numbers come down there is a sense of spring positivity breaking or at least on the horizon. 

During the hibernation period my partner Tom and I decided to move to Cornwall where my family is at the end of March. Lockdown has been a time of reflection and reassessment for all of us. For me, like many of you, my family are incredibly important. So with my parents getting older I have been feeling a deep desire to be just around the corner to spend time in a bubble with them. From Edinburgh I could fly to India faster than I could drive to Cornwall and I have found the distance a real struggle during lockdown.

My community at Meadowlark means the world to me and because of our virtual yoga shala, I will not be leaving you really. Here are the details of my continued offerings and commitments...

In our traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Mysore program here at Meadowlark we observe the “moon days”.  This means on the full and new moons we invite our community to take rest from our more regular practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga. 

There are a variety of reasons for observing the rest days, and for many who practice daily (6 days per week) the extra rest and observation of fluctuations in one’s energy over periods of time is welcomed. 

During these days we invite our community to focus on other areas of practice, including and not limited to prāṇāyāma, meditation, chanting, gentler āsana practice like yin yoga or Matthew Sweeney’s Chandra sequence.  It also invites you to observe the attachment you may have to your ‘normal’ practice.

After advice from Hamish Hendry of Ashtanga Yoga London (who follows the Panchang Hindu Calendar for their Moon day scheduling) and carefully observing our sunrise times here in...

At Meadowlark Yoga, our Mysore program is a key element of what makes up our daily offering with 4 hours per morning in-studio and online and evening options also.  What’s a Mysore style class? Read more HERE

When we work with beginners in our Mysore community, we like to work in small groups, so there is lots of personal attention, and care can be given individually.  This means that we can cater for lots of different levels, bodies and abilities, we have a great belief that everyone can practice and take benefit from the Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga system. 

We new students!  So if you are brand new to yoga, just exploring or returning to practice again after a while know you that we have dedicated session for you to gain your confidence in over the coming months:

Ongoing courses

• Wednesday 1900-2000 6 week Ashtanga Foundations & Level 2 4 week courses: BOOK HERE
• Tuesday & Thursday 1000-1100 4 week Ashtanga Foundations...

Mysore updates: 27th May 2021

Due to Government Covid restrictions our all levels Ashtanga Mysore program operates online and in-studio with our well established program.

All of the most up to date details are on this new webpage. 

All BOOKINGS HERE

On Thursday 9th July, Emma Isokivi and Sarah Hatcher chatted on IGTV and here are some nuggets transcribed from the conversation:

Emma Isokivi is our Mysore Director and a long term student of Sarah Hatcher’s.  On Saturday 25th July, Sarah is running a special 2.5hr workshop for us online (see more details HERE and at the bottom).

Emma:  Sarah why don’t you share a little more about yourself and your connection with Meadowlark?

Sarah: This is fun.

I got connected to Meadowlark Yoga because I came to Meadowlark in 2012 to guest teach and then I ended up staying and the story is a little bit long, but well just the good stuff is I was the director of the program there for a year and a half. Then we moved up to Aberdeen or I started a program up there at Love Yoga. And then we came back to Edinburgh and I was there for another four and a half years or so, and again taught as the director of the Mysore program.

So Meadowlark is, my really heart and...

Written by Kirsten Waugh, our Evening Mysore teacher and general class teacher at Meadowlark Yoga. 

I regularly teach yin yoga classes on the Meadowlark timetable but I’m particularly looking forward to a special moon day practice for our Mysore students this Friday morning.  (Booking details HERE)

I know that many of our students attend other classes outside of our Mysore programme and yin won’t be new to everyone. I also know that even the most committed Ashtangi is often also a keen cyclist, swimmer, rock climber, *insert your chosen activity here*.

Some of the theory we use in Yin Yoga comes from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Yin and Yang are sometimes described as polar opposites but there is no absolute, and one is relative to the other. Yin is cold, dark, passive, feminine, where Yang is hot, bright, active, masculine. The list is far reaching.

If we apply the principles of Yin and Yang to our daily activities many of us are spending more time...