Mellow Yoga
There’s something special about doing yoga to the sounds of the ocean. This is something I’ve already noted here on my blog, but now that I get to return again to ocean-side yoga, I feel very blessed. I was teaching yoga at Mellow Hostel in the South of Sri Lanka, in Ahangama, during June 2018. It was the “low-season” in the South as the great, big surf waves are in the East in Arugam Bay during June, and the surf season won’t start here until maybe September or later.
The season depends solely on the surf conditions. So Ahangama is a sleepy, surf down nearly devoid of tourists. The other towns in the south: Weligama, Galle, Unawatuna, Marissa, etc are all relatively empty of tourists as well. It was just what I needed after my Vipassana and my time spent in the beautiful, vibrant chaos of India.
Mellow took me on as their yoga instructor and gave me a beautiful, second story area to teach yoga. I rarely taught a class to more than one or two students. The biggest class was four students and that only happened two times. It was nice to slow down and sink into my own practice, as well as individual teaching. A lot of time can be spent on alighnment and on responding to a student’s individual needs when there is only one or two students in the class.
One of my favorite classes was taught to a couple from South Africa who had been working in Vietnam for the last eight years. The man had never tried yoga before, and the woman had only tried yoga a few times before years ago. I promised to offer them a calm, and stress-free class. They were sore from plane rides and long hours on a train, so they needed to release tension from their bodies and their minds.
They both took to the yoga mat with concentrated attention and as the class unfolded, so did their bodies. I was particularly impressed that during our standing balancing asanas, they were able to hold tree pose for about a solid minute on each side. They were focused, attentive, and willing to release their minds and let themselves sink into their bodies.
I am grateful that I had many students who hadn’t tried yoga before or who hadn’t tried yoga in a long time. It’s a wonderful opportunity to introuduce them to the practice of connecting the mind to the body through the bridge: the breath. It’s a chance to spark their desire to surrender, to let go, to release.
There’s no better way, in my humble opionion, to light such a spark then when people are outside listening to the sound of the ocean and the sounds of the monkeys swinging from the trees. The coconut trees rustle in the saltwater breeze. The puppies yip from below. It’s a beautiful place to teach and learn yoga. It’s a beautiful place to learn to let go.
