To celebrate International Yoga Day and raise awareness of the benefits of yoga we asked some of our favourite triyoga teachers about what keeps them coming back to the mat.
Bridget Woods Kramer
What is the most unexpected thing you have gotten from yoga?
I practice to help work on my contractions of my mind , originally it was just for the physical benefits. What I found though was the amazing sweetness, support the students have given me and each other, a real sense of community, my students have become great friends a merry band of wonderful talented, compassionate seekers .
Where is your favourite place to practice?
I have the good fortune to live in Cornwall ( except when my train gets delayed and it takes me 6 hours to get to London to teach!). So my favourite place is a little patch of Soft green grass just off the coast path over looking the sea.
What keeps bringing you back to practice?
The challenges in my life, when I’m on my mat my practice is my puja to my teachers to God to the divine that lives in the heart.
Bridget has been teaching yoga since 1988. She teaches classes, workshops and teacher trainings at triyoga.
David Behrens
What is the most unexpected thing you have gotten from yoga/mindfulness?
When I first began practising Mindfulness and Meditation my goal was a deeply spiritual one; finding a joy within and a sense of inner freedom. When I transitioned from my life as a monk for 27 years and entered the field of mental health and addiction recovery, I soon understood and experienced that Meditation and Mindfulness can be an amazing and potent tool when applied in a holistic treatment plan to support and maintain long term recovery.
Where is your favourite place to practice?
My favourite place is when I am in a sacred space where I can feel the purity and sacred vibration of life energy. A place where there has been long unbroken acts of worship or prayer or spiritual practices. This has brought me often to places where great saints or Meditation masters have lived. This has taken me to Assisi, Saint Francis’ tomb, the many saints of India, or the ancient monasteries in the desert outside of Israel where the desert fathers have lived. In those places I feel a lifting energy and natural quiet that descends within. In such places one feels the Meditation energy surrounding one and almost effortlessly the practice of Meditation happens, like riding a wave or being in a gentle current that carries one to the
What keeps bringing you back to practice?
The spiritual practices of Meditation and Mindfulness have always served me. They nourish me and take care of my inner and outer world. They cleanse me, and build my energy. And this is from sustaining my physical energy to actual spiritual energy, where you I feel dynamically full inside. And this creates a wish to dedicate myself to helping others.
David teaches meditation and mindfulness. His next course at triyoga starts on 8th July.
Anthony Abbagnano
What is the most unexpected thing you have gotten from yoga/breathwork?
Within one hour of my first breathwork session I understood everything in a different way. What I had searched for was right under my nose all the time! From that point on, each session has illuminated me more. I use a breath practice as a fundamental part of my meditation, and love to teach it. Best of all, it allows for safe intimacy with my fellow breathers, and we have a growing and thriving community dedicated to emerging consciousness and self-development.
Where is your favourite place to practice?
The bath! I submerge all but my mouth and nose, and voila! Within a few minutes I am deeply immersed in the breath experience. I also practice not just as a part of my meditation practice, but during the day too – the supermarket queue, in traffic or whenever I feel stressed or stuck.
What keeps bringing you back to practice?
It’s the best way I have found to stay connected to myself, and anyone else. I want to surround myself with people who are open-hearted and true, who want to explore their inner landscapes and live on the tender edge of self-exploration.
Using the breath I have discovered vulnerability isn’t my weak spot, but rather the centre of my creativity and strength. There’s no bringing me back really because it’s always with me, one breath at a time.
Anthony specialises in Self-healing Breathwork. Join him for his next workshop on 2nd July.
Nadia Narain
What is the most unexpected thing you have gotten from yoga?
A career teaching others. I thought it would be a nice thing to do when I was in my 60s. I never expected to be a teacher at 24 and be teaching for 20 years! If you had told me then I would be a yoga teacher I would have laughed! That was something you could do when you were old and wise.
Where is your favourite place to practice?
I love practising in the heat, so anywhere where the sun shines (regularly) and a dip in the sea after!
What keeps bringing you back to the mat?
Being on the mat changes for me all the time. How I practised at 20 is different to 30 or 40.
A regular meditation practice, a gentle yoga practice and once a week going to a class and being pushed helps settle my mind and makes my body feel grounded. Sometimes I take a break from the mat and when I return I always remember how good it feels!
Nadia is a leading yoga teacher and teaches classes and teacher trainings at triyoga.
Carolyn Cowan
What is the most unexpected thing you have gotten from yoga?
Relief from anxiety
Where is your favourite place to practice?
At home.
Carolyn is a leading Kundalini yoga teacher and teaches classes and courses at triyoga.