triyoga talks

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Cyndi Lee was raised on the idyllic Puget Sound where she grew up playing on beaches and climbing trees in the forest. While attending the University of California Irvine as a dance major, she discovered yoga (or it discovered her), and she immediately delved into all its practices, learning asana, transcendental meditation, chanting and kriyas.

Eventually, she opened the legendary Om Yoga Centre on 14th Street, an institution that started the yoga boom in New York City. She met her guru, the recently deceased Tibetan lama Gelek Rimpoche, in the late 1980s and went on to become an ordained Lay Buddhist chaplain. Today she merges Buddhism and yoga in her personal practice and on her teacher trainings.

In this episode of triyoga talks, Cyndi shares her personal experiences from being at the forefront of the yoga explosion in Manhattan in the 1990s, the differentiation between mindfulness and meditation, mindfulness as a gateway to deeper study, western insights on Buddhist philosophy and her take on the increasing popularity of meditation across the globe.

When discussing state of mind during meditation, Cyndi said, “Everything arises, bides and dissolves on its own. The thoughts that we have are results of the causes and conditions of our life. So the idea of trying to get rid of our thoughts is considered a self aggression… We are training ourselves to be stable within this swirl of thoughts and to get familiar with it and become friends with it.”

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Click here to book a spot for Cyndi’s upcoming events ‘mindfulness meditation immersion + teacher training’ and ‘creating a sustainable vinyasa practice: a masterclass’ at triyoga Camden in June 2019. 

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To mark International Women’s Day on 08th March, we spoke with Alexandria Crow, a leading female voice in the yoga world. Known to be fearless and blunt, Alexandria has strong opinions and isn’t afraid to express them, whether she’s questioning conventional definitions of advanced yoga or busting yoga myths.

Having trained at YogaWorks under James Brown, Alexandria has taught on YogaWorks’ teacher trainings, appeared on numerous MyYogaWorks online classes and graced the covers of Yoga Journal.

In this episode, she tackles the difficult topic of gender inequality in yoga and how women practitioners often face more criticism than their male counterparts. On the differing reactions to male and female behaviours and representations in yoga, she says:

“It tends to be easier to point the cannons at women and to question them, and I think we’re so used to defending ourselves and explaining ourselves, and putting tons of emotional effort into that, that we don’t really notice it as much until it is pointed out. I think it does have to do with it not being as easy to question a man from a women’s perspective – and often times, there’re a lot of techniques to get you to be quiet, or to undermine you or shut you up. So, is it worth the effort? And I think it is, I absolutely think it is, which is why I’m willing to speak up.”

Alexandria also dives into the subject of social media and how teachers can navigate its turbulent waters, and how to define and promote authenticity in today’s multi-disciplined studios.

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19 years ago today on 19th February 2000, triyoga opened the doors to its first centre in Primrose Hill. And so, to mark the occasion, we spoke with triyoga’s Managing Director Jonathan Sattin, in this very special episode of triyoga talks.

As a lawyer, Jonathan worked for 18 years in private practice. Having started practising meditation in law school, in 1985 he met his teachers John Stirk, who taught him the physical practices of yoga, and Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, who became his spiritual teacher. In 1996 he quit law and began to form an idea to open a wellness centre in the UK.

Jonathan talks candidly about triyoga’s beginnings and his original vision “to create somewhere different; somewhere where anyone could practise.”

On the origins of a multi-disciplined yoga centre, he explains, “Having been to YogaWorks in LA, I felt the range of styles of yoga available in LA at the time was not available in London. The idea was to create somewhere where, whatever you wanted from a yoga practice, there would hopefully be a style you could practise with us.”

He recounts the intensity of the time when the Primrose Hill centre closed its door and its relocation to Camden, the many challenges of running a yoga centre and how supporting teachers’ and therapists’ growth is close to his heart.

Seva, or self-less service, has formed a key part of Jonathan’s own personal practice for many years. On whether triyoga is a manifestation of seva for him, he says, “I think that is probably true. It wasn’t conscious, in the sense I didn’t think of it like that. But I realise that this is what I’m meant to be doing. And when I look back at how the whole thing started and how I got into setting it up, and the skills I learnt in the ashram – it is like a funnel. You are just being guided to do this thing. Now, when I look back at my very first physical yoga class, there has been this hand guiding me. Grace.”

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Originally from the East Coast, Tom Myers moved to California as a young man, where he met and trained with Ida Rolf, a biochemist and creator of Structural Integration, or “Rolfing”. He went on to work with Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method, and Buckminster Fuller, the systems theorist who popularised “tensegrity” – or how biological structures are made strong by the unison of parts.

Today, Tom is one of the world’s foremost structural body workers, an expert in fascia and creator of Anatomy Trains, a method that provides a system of understanding fascia and how the human body negotiates between stability and mobility.

In this episode of triyoga talks, Tom discusses fascia and why it’s crucial yoga teachers, massage therapists and personal trainers understand its role. He also shares his views on whether memories are held in our bodies, the finer details of sacroiliac joint dysfunction and the nature of flexibility.

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Click here to sign up for Tom Myers’ upcoming online workshop “BodyReading with Tom Myers” on 18 December 2020.

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Originally from Idaho, Zephyr Wildman has been teaching yoga in the UK since 2002 and currently leads Vinyasa Flow and meditation classes at our Ealing centre. Seven years ago, she lost her former husband to cancer and has used yoga and the Twelve Steps recovery programme to navigate her grief.

In this episode of triyoga talks, she speaks candidly about the death of her husband, working through grief and the daily practices that keep her feeling whole.

On her meditation practice and teaching style she says, “It’s the way that I figured out how to cope with the dis-ease of being myself and I try and share that with other people; I try to be as real as possible and not put myself on a platform.”

To find out more about Zephyr’s daily practices and her view on what makes a good teacher, listen to our full podcast online or subscribe using the buttons above.

Zephyr teaches Vinyasa Flow and Meditation + Mindfulness classes at triyoga Ealing on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To view her full schedule, click here.

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For our latest podcast, we met up with the sisters of wellness – Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips. In this episode, they reveal how to set and stick to new year’s resolutions, the value of rituals and how small actions can have a huge impact.

Nadia was one of triyoga’s original teachers and today is one of the country’s most respected yoga instructors, teaching professional athletes, pregnant women and total beginners. Katia opened London’s first raw food café and is a renowned authority in the health food industry, preparing creative, thoughtful, and nutrient-rich foods.

Their book “Self Care for the Real World”, published last year, explained why we should look after ourselves and their recent “Rituals for Every Day” tells us exactly how.

Listen to the full podcast to find out more about how to make time for self-care amidst a hectic lifestyle, rituals for new mums, why it’s important to let go of guilt, and the secret to happiness.

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Click here for more about Nadia and Katia’s books.

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Following the death of his mother when he was 16 years old, J Brown moved to New York and eventually, in 1995, began to reconcile her death through yoga. Having practised Jivamukti, Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga, he settled on a therapeutic orientation inspired by Desikachar and Krishnamacharya. He went on to coin the phrase “gently is the new advanced” and opened his own yoga studio in Brooklyn, geared towards feeling well and lessening pain. He now lives in Pennsylvania and travels the world teaching his signature style.

In this episode of triyoga talks, we look back at 2018 and get J’s views on some of this year’s key events in the world of yoga. Topics under the spotlight include whether or not the yoga community needs an alliance and, if so, what role it plays, the commodification of yoga through social media, and how further outreach could help make yoga more accessible. J also shares his thoughts on yoga in the age of #metoo, yoga’s role in social consciousness and whether recent scandals have change the role of the guru.

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Click here to sign up for J Brown’s weekend of workshops, “gentle is the new advanced – join the yoga revolution”, at triyoga, 11-13 January 2019.

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Naomi Absalom, Anna Ashby and Jean Hall are three of triyoga’s highly experienced teachers who have mentored and worked with teacher trainees for many years. They also teach triyoga’s Teachers’ Practices in Soho, Camden and Shoreditch – a weekly class that welcomes teachers from every tradition to come together and create a sangha, or community.

In this episode of triyoga talks, they speak about a wide variety of subjects from striking the right balance between a teacher’s personal practice and their teaching (it’s not easy!), to the rise of secularism in the practice of contemporary yoga as spiritual aspects become less prevalent. They also discuss the topic of self-care, and the importance of taking care of yourself as a teacher without falling into self-absorption.

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Teachers’ Practice classes take place every Tuesday at 1.15pm in Camden (led by Anna Ashby), every Wednesday at 2.45pm in Shoreditch (led by Jean Hall) and every Thursday at 3.15pm in Soho (led by Naomi Absalom). For the full schedule and to book, click here.

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Jason Crandell is an internationally renowned Vinyasa teacher who delivers his highly sought-after teacher training programmes around the globe, as well as writing for major yoga publications and delivering classes online.

In this episode of triyoga talks, Jason answers some tough questions on the upcoming generation of yoga teachers, how yoga is evolving – for better or worse – in modern times, and whether yoga and politics should go hand in hand.

On his 300-hour teacher training programme he says, “What I saw is that we needed fewer 200-hour programmes and that we needed to take [this] student base and provide a forum that allowed them to have additional levels of education.”

He adds that new teachers should not be afraid to find their own voice and modify teachings, as long as they have a solid educational framework to work from: “What I think we need, is people who have structure but the capacity to develop their own focal points, voice and personality, and to put their own values within that structure.”

When asked what globalisation and modernisation has brought – or taken away – from yoga he says, “In terms of physicality and biomechanics, I think we are continuing to go in a much better direction, as we are getting away from some of the inaccurate and ‘magical’ thinking about how bodies work.”

To hear more of Jason Crandell’s views on teaching, adjustments and modern-day yoga, listen to our full podcast online or subscribe using the buttons above.

Jason Crandell will be coming to triyoga Camden in January and February 2019 to deliver a three-day teacher programme, as well as a weekend workshop – the next evolution of vinyasa yoga. He will also be returning in August 2019 to deliver his 300-hour advanced teacher training programme. For more information on all of his upcoming workshops and trainings at triyoga, click here.

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