Tranquility Centre All Things RELAXATION

The Breathe

I recently attended a workshop (2 of 2 on the Breathe) with Pete Blackaby http://www.peteblackaby.co.uk at Cora Kemball-Cook’s lovely yoga studios in Canterbury, Kent (I attend Cora’s monthly Health and Healing group).

Pete’s style of teaching casts away a veil of what other teachers shirk away from (yet seem undeveloped in their opinion of) regarding the mystical element of Yoga.  And like him I live in a western post-industrialized country and because of this I like Pete for not only addressing these issues but telling it the way he feels it.

He talks about his current discoveries and makes clear that he hasn’t all the answers (as most teachers might).  He invites an opinion from the group and intertwines it organically into his organized program.   This difference demonstrates his authenticity and his views mostly coincide with my own.

I began practicing Yoga 8-yrs ago and have taken quite a journey where I began as a very flexible person, but within 3-mths I experienced what led to long-term injury.

Choosing a Yoga Style and Class

My Yoga classes started as a freebie where I worked, and I was excited as I’d been introduced to Yoga in my early twenties and due to (what I felt) was a rather dull Yoga teacher I fell away from it.  My newer teacher came from the Iyengar school, she was tough, relentless and fell neatly into my North of England background where ‘nothing worthwhile comes easy’ so what did I know, then?  She pressed limbs and sat on lower backs to manipulate us into postures I was ‘proud’ to be capable of and continued in this vein in my own usually irregular practice.

However the injury occurred in a Gym as at that stage I was overlapping fitness styles to become healthy.  I was using a Down Face Dog pose as a warm-up exercise (I knew no better) and collapsed in a heap on the mat with a lower-back pain as ice-packs were quickly applied.  I had difficulty in walking for the ensuing months and required an adapted chair at work.  When I finally saw a Physiotherapist (due to ignorance in not pressing for assistance earlier) I was advised that flexible people [like me - and it was 'official' as I was given a 'bendy fingers/thumbs test - the further back you can bend them the more flexible you are, apparently and there's a gauge] are more likely to fall into injury but take longer to recover due to less sensitivity because they have further ‘reach’ before the senses kick-in.  A big learning or was it?  And adversely this indicates that the stiffer you are the safer you are in exercise, because you reach and protect your resistance point sooner.

Injuries happen so Easily

I recovered within 3-mths and regained almost full flexibility in no-time.  But 18-mths down the line I experienced similar but deeper injuries that I’m still recovering from as these continued to escalate with poor balance and lots of falling over!  So why have I not turned my back on Yoga and told it ‘where to go’?

The simple explanation is that I got such great benefit from it and whenever I recover and get back ‘there’ I feel it again.  Initially I experienced such a deep change as I began to ‘calm down’ as one of Harry Enfield’s characters might say.  The inner change was a huge shift for me.

Returning to Health

But due to lack of Yoga and other exercise I have declined into a stiff pole, hankering for the flexibility I took for granted and I appreciate that I can return to it provided I ‘change my ways’ and begin a more conscious-minded practice.  And this is what Pete Blackaby promotes.  His style is not for the ‘work-out’ fanatic, but instead is about taking the route of ‘intention’ (as with all change-processes I believe) and reaching your own resistance point which is where the exploration and learning begins.  For me it will take quite a while (I’m resisting numbers here – after all I wouldn’t want to hem myself in now would I – but I have set some goals!).

He’s based in Brighton (on the south coast) as are so many Yoga teachers in the UK, and Pete trained as an Osteopath and knows his stuff.  This man walks the walk and talks the talk … and I like his style of teaching and will continue to attend his classes where others have left me stranded …

Check out Pete’s classes and courses and if you’re not UK based then you’ll just have to visit these shores or look out for his book ‘How Yoga Works’ (the working and probably final title) which I believe is due out towards the end of this year.

Jane