Hi,

Your home practice and the regular weekly classes you attend are the bedrock of your yoga practice.

Showing up on the mat at a regular time and place is what establishes yoga as an intrinsic part of our lives.

But what about yoga workshops? How are they different? And are they worth spending extra time and money on?

Workshops – what are they?
Usually, they’re longer than your usual weekly lessons.

They tend to have a clearer focus – this could be a general focus like energising, or calming, but could also be a particular group of poses, or even just one more advanced pose that takes more time to warm up for.

But the clue is in the title. Workshops are a way of being more explorative with your yoga.

My Own Experience
I remember the first workshop I ever went to.

It was at the Iyengar yoga studio in Maida Vale with an amazing teacher called Pixie Lillas, a Senior Australian teacher. I had been attending classes with my then teacher for about four years, but I had never managed a handstand. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to kick up without help.

But that day she said, ‘Adho Mukha Vrksasana’ (Downward-Facing Tree pose) and I panicked. Everyone else seemed to just float up into the pose, while I flailed frantically. But just as she came over to help me I suddenly found an extra boost button and I found myself upside down. It was a real ‘Eureka’ moment, and since then I’ve absolutely loved handstands.

The workshop gave me the confidence to push beyond my comfort zone.

Online or In-Person
Before March this year, I’d never been to an online yoga workshop, let alone taught one. But 2020 has meant that we’ve had to use technology in a way that we’ve never had to before.

Iyengar himself was a great innovator and his use of props created a whole new methodology of yoga. Taking yoga online has its drawbacks, but it has opened up a whole new way of working too.

This year I have taught two online workshops, which worked surprisingly well. I have also attended many myself. They have a different feeling to in-person classes, in that you are more responsible for your own actions. You can take a break if you need to (even if it’s just a micro-break). And the voice of the teacher is your main guide.

It also means less time away from family which can be important especially at weekends.

However, there is nothing to beat the energy that comes from being in the same room as your teacher. Being able to see their demonstrations up close, and having their eyes as your only mirror mean that you place more trust in them.

But I’m pretty sure that going forwards workshops will be both in-person and online.

Doing more Yoga
Workshops are not necessarily about getting to do the jazzy poses, it’s also about exploring those poses that we do often in more depth, or in a slightly different way.

They’re also a way of simply doing more yoga! The body adapts to whatever we usually do. So if that’s one lesson a week, yes, there’ll be benefits from that one lesson, but if you then start attending two classes a week, you’ll notice a change in your practice, and if you add in regular workshops, your practice will move on again.

It's also a way of saying to yourself - and your family – that yoga is important to you, and that you want to make time for it.

They’re Fun
They’re not always a barrel of laughs, but yoga workshops have the potential to be more fun. Because there’s more time to get into the sequence you might do poses you’ve never done before, or find that you can get more out of the yoga poses you do every week.

It might be that you’ve forgotten what you loved about yoga – workshops can be a way of re-igniting that passion for yoga and giving you ideas that you can take into your home practice.

And I would also say that, as we head into this winter, they can give you something to look forward to!

Experience the teaching of new Teachers
Obviously I’d like to say that you need only ever come to my workshops, (and yes, please do come to my workshops).

But workshops can be a great way to experience different styles of yoga teaching and can give you new insights into yoga.

Now that Iyengar yoga has adapted to online teaching, there are lots of online workshops which means experiencing Senior teacher’s teaching is easier than ever. Recently Abhijata Iyengar taught in a workshop to raise funds for the NHS. Usually, the only way to be taught by her is to go to Pune in India or to travel to a national convention.

But Home Practice is still the Fundamental Building Block
This blog started a year ago in order to help you with your home practice journey. I hope you've found them helpful, and most importantly, I hope you've found a way to fit a home practice into your already busy lives.

So yes, I do think that workshops are great – and I’d love to have you in one of my workshops.

But as the late daughter of BKS Iyengar, Geeta, said:

“It is your practice that brings the secrets to you. No teacher can give you the secrets.”