All change!!!

We're fed up. I'm fed up. I need change. So in August I'm flipping the script...

After the response from the recent questionairre, I have consulted with myself, God, and a Chelsea fan on the stands in Moscow while we were being beaten on penalties, and have decided to scrap the two-class-a-night thing. My mate on the stand put it, "yea, yea, do what you like bruv, I'm trying to watch the ******** match!" I took this as a sign from the Heavens that now is the time for change....

So, as of August, there will be one class on Tuesday night, and one class on Thursday night. Both classes will be extended by 30 mins to incorporate other important areas of Chi Kri like meditation, posture sequences, diet, philosophy, and more abs! There will also be time for relaxation at the end again...

Monday classes will remain the same, but Wednesday evening will see a dedicated Pregnancy class being born......(did you like that?) and a Yoga Basics class following that. Everything else stays the same for now...until another fan on a football stand guides me otherwise.

Neil

CLASS TIMETABLE FOR WINTER 07/08

Close 13th Dec / Open 21st Jan 2008 (10 th Jan for daytime classes / 12th Jan for kids')

That's it, I'm off.....I've had enough.....anyone know a good yoga class!? I need a teacher who can relax me, teach me some meditation....and oh yea, need to work on my belly too...! I would go to Chi Kri, but I hear the teacher there is a bit of Drill Sergent!

I have been teaching non-stop since January the 15th, and I'm taking some time off to A) Go to India to look into a yoga and orphanage project over there, and B) to work on some products for yoga, and direct the next course for Chi Kri.....

So, excuse me if it seems a while, but Karupa's classes will return on the 10th of Jan, but they are  daytime classes only - and if you are 10 or under (or short and with a baby face) you could always join the kiddies class from the 12th!

Evening classes with me and Karupa will not begin again until the 21st of January 2008 when the full timetable will resume.....

So, if I don't speak to any of you after this, have a wonderful Christmas and may all your commitments to change fall to pieces by the 7th of January when you pick up chocolate, fags (to my US readers, that means cigarettes not the colloquial slang for homosexuals - who, by all means 'pick up' if that is your flow in life), and meat again! Only kidding, I wish your will power and wisdom all the strength in the world so you can be even more extraordinary in '08 (or 'gr8 in 08' to be 'skool kool')

- Neil Patel

Kids doing yoga!

Who would have thought it would catch on? In India, kids have done yoga for centuries, and look at the Indians! We didn't learn how to answer phones and cook great food just by chance you know! It took hours of meditation for that! Now we have call centres and take aways....and petrol stations. All because we grew up on yoga.....

No, seriously, yoga and meditation has been practised with great benefit in the sub continent. Anyone one of you who have children will testify that one of the most important things they must learn is self discipline. It keeps them calm, focussed, and out of trouble! (more to come....got to run to a class!)

When I was a kid I was taken to long meditations and yoga classes and told to "sit still and be quiet" by my yoga teaching mother...(now I get to tell other people the same thing!) And although I wasn't practising as such, just being around the subject was calming. It taught me how to be still..... and from stillness comes greatness. Solitude breeds supremacy.

When a child is able to be still some of the time, it will make them more patient in the future, more relaxed in the now, and more understanding, tolerant, and sympathetic to all matters. I learnt certain self control and concentration skills as a kid watching adults do yoga...and those things have stayed with me.

If a child learns yoga and meditation from an early age, I believe there is no doubt they are blessed with good karma. Karma is the manifestation of the accumilated store of good reactons "due" to a soul because of good actions expended into the world from previous incarnations. "what goes around comes around...." Any child lucky enough to know peace and stillness from a young age will always have a solid mental and spiritual foundation.

- Neil Patel

Summer is here!...
....Where's that umbrella?"


"...English weather - Could it be any more random if it tried? It's at these times that people start falling like flies with flus, colds, coughs, viruses, and other strange ailments. Now, until the weather becomes more constantly warm we need to protect ourselves against falling ill....

I was explaining in classes this week that bugs, viruses etc etc are around us all the time - and the one thing they need to survive is a nice cold, damp, fermented, un-oxygenated system! These viruses cannot survive in dry, internally warm, and oxygenated bodies.....they burn up quicktime, or just stay for a passing visit, "Hi, I'm flu bug...you looked great from the outside.....so I thought I'd pop in to say hi...but it's not very cosy in here...you got any freinds?"

If you are maintaining a daily yoga practice which involves a range of movements and the breathing exercises I teach in class, I can promise you that these colds etc will only come extremely rarely and when they do, they will vanish as fast as they arrived.

Also, as the weather is up and down, make sure you eat less sweets, dairy, and anything cold. Eat warm foods, sweets are damp to the body and create mucus - hence colds are characterised by mucus. The external dampness, cold, and wind coupled with cold, damp foods equal the ideal breeding ground for bugs. Viruses do not move randomly - they search....eat ginger right now, every day....it will increase your digestive fire.

And that is also the power behind you immune system. If your agni (inner fire) is on form you will be able to destroy any bug that heads your way! How do you increase that fire? By strengthening your Manipura Chakra (solar plexus energy centre) by a series of abdominal exercises...... like we do in class.

Breathing exercises during this period should be done every morning without fail, a combination of the ones taught in classes are good enough - but if you know the names, do kapal bhati, rectangle breath, anulom vilom and surya bhedan (r.nostril breath) to get a good oxygen boost!

Remember, flus, colds, and coughs hate heat and oxygen. I am not promising perfect health, but I am promising serious improvement! You watch, after saying all this, I'll be sick next week! Just do your best to make this a part of your knowledge base and it will help...."

- Neil Patel

previous blogs

Monday classes prove popular...

"I must admit, I wasn't expecting such a huge turnout for the new Monday evening classes (see news section). I personally believed that Harrow needed a good beginner's class where every posture was broken down and explained properly. Seeing over 20 people on the first day proved how many are not yet ready for a strong yoga class (and just need time to grasp the fundamentals of yoga first).

The second class proved equally popular.
 
India has given us an amazing health elixir in the form of Pranayama, and although posture yoga is important, this "breathing yoga" is categorically considered the more essential by yogis in India. It's benefits are so wide ranging....(check the pranayama section of this site to find out more).

The most beautiful thing however was seeing the broad spectrum of people trying the meditation. As people who know me are aware, I believe this is the purpose of ALL yoga practise....to learn to silence the mind and develop a relationship with your own soul and eventually with the Spirit or creator. Someone asked me after the class this week, "is yoga a religious thing?" I told her it was not, of course. I explained it is a spiritual science. Whatever your views on things like spiritualiy and religon are, yoga will be an aid in your practise. Of course, we have our own concepts of God, life etc, but those are offered, not forced, and even if your beliefs are contrary, you will still find the concepts and techniques of stillness, soul searching, peace, and inner-understanding useful as a human being.

The word religion translates as "Dharma" in yoga philosophy - and that merely means that which protects you from suffering....if yoga does that for someone, you can call it football for all I care! The purpose of ensuring someone's peace and happiness is the job of yoga and practising meditation leads you to that final goal. That is why I am so pleased this class is taking off well......make sure you try this at least once in you term, what have you got to lose, apart from your stress and frustration?, and what have you to gain apart from wisdom, peace, strength, and bliss?"

- Neil Patel