Last class with Amy before Rishikesh
“You’re going to Rishikesh. I’m so jealous.” Amy exclaimed in her tactful Parisien English.
“Good” I said, “I am doing something right if you’re jealous.”
Amy was my first yoga teacher in Morocco and her classes are full of connections because she understands her own body so well. Her yoga journey and experiences compliment her teaching style and she challenges students to open their bodies and minds simultaneously.
As my own practice improves, it has become increasingly important for me to find great teaching and I look forward to classes with Amy as they do not happen all that often. Today might be last time she teaches me until I complete my yoga teacher training course in India and return to Morocco.
Amy’s class started with music and lying in corpse pose. She guides your mind through a great release and into a state of relaxation and focus, like dreamland - the practice of yoga nidra as I perceive it. The feeling of existing, almost floating and also sinking into your mat as your body sleeps while the mind stays alert to keep your breath and stillness constant. Time doesn’t matter here. Only quality.
My intention for the practice was to listen to my body and to put 100% into each pose. My teacher was not told this but with yoga, that’s not always necessary. Amy gave me the right guidance and motivation when these intentions were ignored, without needing to know the words I spoke to myself.
Pranayama follows the 10 minute corpse pose and really helps your cleanse the body, internally. I love starting class this way and really feeling like it’s a yoga class, rather than fitness or stretching class, brings the connection that I am looking for so that yoga can be achieved, rather than simply done.
She introduces some flows, sun salutations and challenges as she builds rhythm and the sweat starts to drip onto my mat. I can feel my heart increase it’s tempo as it helps sensations travel through my veins to my muscles and organs.
Her warrior and angle sequences are delicately arranged and puzzle together for a fast flow. Then, like a river reaching the ocean, the practice ends and the rest of the day begins. I’ve flowed down the river and am in the ocean.
It must be time for a surf.
