In our 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 our sunrise times here in Edinburgh, Scotland we have chosen to closely follow...

Exploring Yoga Sūtras 2.15 and beyond…. Suffering, its causes and how to avoid future suffering.

As we still find ourselves moving through these unpredictable times, days can feel challenging. I find myself observing difficult situations that arise frequently and how I react to those situations - be it disappointment, frustration, annoyance or fear. I feel things go wrong when I act from a place of misunderstanding - things go better when I take a breath, step back and attempt to engage elegantly with whatever is going on.

Read on to discover more about suffering from the context of the Yoga Sutra, the causes of suffering and how to avoid future suffering. 

YS 2.15 - For those with discrimination, suffering is to be found everywhere due to change (pariṇāma), pain (tāpa) and habit (saṃskāra) and also because the mind is in constant flux due to the guṇa. 

(Trans. D.Charlton, R. Roy) 

Duḥkha: the essential concern

Duḥkha is one of the main concerns of Indian...

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...

We have been overwhelmed by your messages of support over the last few months.  Some of you have been asking how you can best support us as we navigate the uncertain territory ahead:

1. Keep joining us in class! Online and in-studio, however you can, as often as you can.  
2. Pay-it-Forward - anonymously support a member of your community by paying for them to attend class:
   • Pay for 30 days of online yoga - £50
   • Pay for 10 online yoga classes - £70
   • Pay for 5 online yoga classes - £40
   • Pay for 1 online yoga class - £9
3. Pay more for your pass - If you're on our monthly auto-renew and you're able to pay more than the £40 livestream rate, please contact reception to let us know.

For more information and to apply for sponsorship, please visit our Pay-it-Forward page.

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...

We can hardly believe that it's been 2 months since we scrambled to adjust to our new world online.  We were so delighted with how many of you joined us for the ride, without even batting an eyelid - thank you so much for your support, and patience as we tackled the tech.

We are now settling into our new groove and making necessary changes to accommodate the financial shift that comes with the "new normal".  As a result, from 1st June 2020 will be increasing our unlimited monthly pass prices.  The new prices will be:

One Off 30 Day Livestream Pass - £50

Autorenew Monthly Livestream Pass (minimum 3 months) - £40

But there's still time to get on board with our current autorenew price of £25 per month.  If you sign up by 30th May you will be locked in to the £25 rate until you choose to cancel (minimum 3 month period).  Once you cancel, the new prices would apply from that point on.

So snag yourself a £25 autorenew pass if you...

Stuck for inspiration or just curious about anatomy? Join Karen on selected Fridays at 4pm for one hour of enthusiastic, fascia-aware, yoga-centric exploration of the internal workings using the Visible Body 3D software plus functional demo and Q&A.

These webinars are all now listed on our Trainings page, you can register for them individually via Zoom through to the easy PayPal payment. Your confirmation email contains the link, so just turn up on the day! Blow your mind with the awesomeness of anatomy, all dates from 1st of May through the 12th of June before Karen's 15-Hour CPD weekend of Level II Anatomy for Yoga (the Five Flows) on the weekend of 13-14th June.

All Zoomed, all full of love and wonder as usual.

Happy Easter, everybody, it's Karen here writing up a wee progress report for you. We are acknowledging the occasion by leveling up our tech another notch. Instead of manually creating Zoom events for each MBO class, logging the unique links into a spreadsheet, manually generating an email list of attendees and emailing these clients two hours before the start of each class (yikes!), then ticking all the boxes for attendance to follow up, we've found an app for that. Fitgrid, in fact. If this helps any other studios who are groaning under the weight of their MBO admin, even better! 

What does this mean for our community? Well, here are a few takeaways:

• Fitgrid will send you an elegantly simple email with your link to the class approx 30 mins before the start time
• Fitgrid emails the instructor too
• We will use this platform to reach out to you for feedback
• You tell us how we're doing and how we can improve!

Please be sure to check your spam tomorrow as the new system kicks in....