Samantha Warrington Yoga

Finally got into the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Rooms at Tate Modern – only been trying for two years!

It was interesting to read that she admitted herself permanently into hospital after experiencing hallucinations. She recalls a childhood memory: ‘One day after gazing at a pattern of red flowers on the tablecloth I looked up to see that the ceiling, the windows, and the columns seemed to be plastered with the same red floral pattern. I saw the entire room, my entire body, and the entire universe covered with red flowers’. She felt as if she was disappearing or dissolving. She describes this as "self-obliteration".

This reminded me of a kensho experience I had on the Tube on my daily commute while working with the koan "Who am I?" After weeks of "meditating hard" with it, I had been getting really angry with the koan, and also starting to think the whole process was stupid and pointless. Suddenly the Tube carriage fell away, and I experienced myself as particles or atoms of matter, floating in the universe elementally as part of its energetic continuum.

I never even dreamed I would become a "calendar girl" or rohatsu card person. So I am humbly honoured to be both!
Thank you and best rohatsu greetings

Who ever imagines they will add "calendar girl" and Rotatsu card person to their list of achievements?

I taught my first class at Soho and got a lovely five-star review! So grateful to be able to do what I love and make other people happy too!

The newest Warrington is one month old today. Happy birthday and všechno nejlepší k narozeninám darling Zoe

Parliament. And yoga.

Here we are in committee room 10 at the Houses of Parliament listening to the fantastic Dr Paul Fox and Heather Mason (with whom I Imost recently trained to teach the Yoga4Health NHS protocol), as well as young and elite sportspeople, making the case for more yoga in sport.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Yoga in Society heard how yoga not only improves strength, agility and awareness while competing in sport, it also reduces injury, and the effects of pressure and performance anxiety, as well is accelerating recovery.

The meeting was well attended, except that some of the MPs present kept leaving as they were called to vote on the government's stupid and inhumane immigration bill 18 times.

Andrew Mitchell professed to be a fan of yoga and quipped that MPs were sportingly playing ping-pong with the bill, by sending it back and forth between the Commons and the Lords.

More yoga in parliament, please. It may help to prevent injurious actions.

Please join me for coronation weekend yoga -

Please join me for coronation weekend yoga My dear yoginis and yogis I trust you are well. I hope you will join me this weekend for yoga classes that are on as usual at Preson Community Library on Saturday and Sunday morning, and Wednesday evening. Times and links to classes are provided below. We will be in the computer room on Saturday mo...

Yoga at Preston Community Library -

Yoga at Preston Community Library My dear yoginis and yogis Wishing you all the blessings of this very spiritual, reflective time, which is full of potential. Spring is the season of reawakening and rebirth. We emerge from the winter, ready for growth. So let's practise together and reach for the light! Classes are on as usual thi...

This was me this time eight years ago learning to become a yoga teacher with my teacher at my spiritual home, .house. I always say it was the best (ie most transformative) two weeks of my life.

Now I am honoured and grateful to be passing these teachings on and training others (much taller than me, but that is not a prerequisite!) to become amazing yoga teachers.

We are hovering between and spring at the moment, and our practice can combine aspects of both: warming kidney and core work, as well as tentative spring energy liver and gall bladder postures.
 
If you practised yin yoga with me during lockdown, you may remember that this posture is my nemesis! It has so much to teach me!

I would plunge deep into this lunge, my ego telling me I could easily hold it for two and a half minutes, and within 30 seconds I would be wishing I hadn’t gone so low, fighting the urge to come out, experiencing a fiery engulfing heat rising up out of that left hip flexor, accompanied by an overwhelming rage at that those muscles for being so tight and shortened by prolonged periods of sitting at work.
 
The emotional response is not surprising: the liver meridian runs right through that groin area, which gets so compressed in sitting, and blockages in that energy line can lead to feelings of anger and frustration. When it is functioning freely, we can experience kindness and creativity.

Please join me for winter/spring yoga practice: 

Saturday mornings 9am at Preston Community Library and on Zoom with Zenways
Register here. The meeting password is zenyoga
You are welcome to make donations to Zenways here. 

Sunday mornings 9.30am at Preston Community Library and on Zoom – please register here. Zoom will send you the meeting link.

Wednesday evenings at 7pm at Preston Community Library (not online at present)

These classes are donation based to help the library charity.

I look forward to practising with you! Namaste and arigato gozaimash*ta
Samantha

Gassho!

This is my world this week after having a hole in my retina repaired on Saturday afternoon. I have to be face down at all times so the gas bubble in my right eyeball has the best chance of squishing the edges of the hole back together.

I am so grateful to the surgeon who somehow went into my eyeball, drained it of its vitreous filling, replaced it with gas, and drew the edges of a hole less than 1mm wide together – all the while chitchatting with a trainee about her career path and commentating on the differences between her approach and that of other surgeons — and then sent me home.

And also to Katarina, whom I have never met, but lent me her massage table and accessories to help me comply with the extreme prone positioning.

This is so hard, as we strive for balance in yoga and in Zen, and physically it is a very one-dimentional practice.

However, I embrace it as an opportunity for stillness – maybe!

Things one sees in Shoreditch after lunchtime yoga practice

Extra yoga at the library and online this weekend - https://mailchi.mp/6b4a125474ed/extra-yoga-at-the-library-and-online-this-weekend

Extra yoga at the library and online this weekend Saturday morning Zen yoga for spring at 9am in the library and on Zoom with Zenways https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArd-irrj4rEtLLL-SysTwXti_-I_GywGGD The meeting password is zenyoga You are welcome to make donations to Zenways here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&h...