An interview with Anna Ashby

Now Anna is over 50 and as she says: "This is a great time of change for women". Last but not least, the body itself changes over time. It is located on a crossroads where she wants to live a life that corresponds to her values ​​in this phase of life. And so her yoga practice has changed in a way and yet basically not - "Yoga has and will always be an investigation of who and what I am - more an investigation than a certainty."

When I ask Anna what else is going on in the yoga world, she looks a little confused. She admits that there is a yoga style that she doesn't really understand, which is loud and fast and is based on social media with crazy poses. This is alien to the experience of silence, silence and space that it appreciates, and everything feels too much after entertainment. Is that yoga? "I'm not saying that it is wrong," she replies, "it is simply not for me. For some, this may be the way for a deeper understanding."

Based on a disciplined background of learning to attend postural practices through the teachings of the great Indian teachers such as BKS Iyengar and their tradition, which fits their learning method, Anna with some sadness notes that there is apparently a real lack of study and immersion in the history of yoga and its tradition, which then gives the teacher a basis for innovations. Her deepest wish is to "see more respect for tradition so that we develop innovations on a basis of understanding, knowledge and respect."

It is this passion for studying and understanding that Anna incorporates into her teacher training at Triyoga, both in the foundation and in the Advanced program. Therefore, from the start we try to encourage people, to think and question, and sow, to invite people, to think, research, study, to explore, to find out, to feel, feel for themselves. This is a great change that is just taking place. " There is also a shift in the way a teacher interacts with his students, away from the 20 The century vertical path of the guru/student relationship to a more horizontal relationship in the 21st st century, where the exchange of knowledge takes place in two directions and the teacher cannot say more than you. "Every person who comes into a class is an estimated member of humanity who has knowledge of the truth that is teaching. Every being is an expression of divinity."

Anna also accepted a more somatic awareness of yoga, which she describes as the anatomical aspect of yoga that the West has contributed to the tradition and practice. If you work within your own experience and the Felt Sense, the orientation can be viewed as a transition to a state of coherence. This leads our conversation to the restorative yoga, the topic of your new book Restorative yoga: A guide for yoga teachers and students appears in March 2022.

in February 2020, shortly before someone of us recognized the devastating effects of the pandemic, Anna Ashby woke up one morning and there was this very strong feeling of 'Write a book about restorative yoga' - 'I didn't have this kind of yoga normal. It was just a strong impulse. " And then the blocking happened and she suddenly had a thorough restorative practice because of her extreme fear of the situation. From the beginning,

Anna was clear in her goal to write a book about restorative yoga that is aimed at teachers who do not really know what the restorative yoga is. She points out that residualorative and yin yoga are very different practices, from different branches of the yoga tree, although they are often merged with each other. The use of props is a characteristic feature of the restorative yoga that Anna attributes to Mr. Iyengar because it circles and connects with tradition.

Restorative yoga slows down things. Anna finds that exciting. You can see that in her eyes. To create the space to recognize when we get out of balance and do what we have to do to restore this balance, creates the prerequisites for deep research into nature. This is an alchemical process like no other, a necessary part of humans . It is an astonishing way to enable people to practice themselves and understand how the nervous system works. It is also involved in a discipline that taps into the source of deep research and learning, assimilation and enlightenment while the nervous system switches down and tapping the essence.

If Anna further explains how residual -organic yoga was primarily developed for the health of the nervous system, I ask: "How important is it to understand the science of the nervous system when exercising restorative yoga?" Science is not my thing. Anna's answer calms me - this is an emerging science that is constantly developing. You don't have to be an expert. But everyone should be taught - nervous system 101. Everyone is different and reacts differently to stress. Simply understand the basics and apply them to subjective experience. ”