This morning I went to my very first ever ‘Mysore’ class. It is safe to say I am hooked. I have been wondering, waiting, willing myself to go for so long and it wasn’t until a change in the timetable at one of my favourite yoga studio’s forced me to do it, that I finally took the plunge.

For any of you out there going, ‘well what the hell is a Mysore class’ here goes – it is basically self practice, moving through the Ashtanga sequence as taught by Sri K Pattabi Jois, with an experienced Ashtanga teacher there to help guide, support, adjust and extend you. That is my brief understanding and explanation for now, I could go on…and on and on and on, as does the lineage of Ashtanga yoga and Mysore classes, but for now I just want to share my experience.

It is normal in life to feel fear, and even if we are intrigued and jumping out of our skin to try something new and exciting this fear can often, and with some people will often, stop us from ever experiencing it. This is a true and sad fact of life. While I am definitely not one of these people who would let a little scared feeling stop me from doing anything, when it came to trying a Mysore class I was apprehensive, nervous and found myself putting it off.

I think this is a part of why Mysore/Ashtanga is a method that really will change your life. It makes you face your crap, and my crap was the same old story ‘I’m not good enough”, I’m sure you’ve all heard it in your own heads at least once or twice before. You don’t have the safety net of a teacher telling you exactly what to do, or even as was my case I wasn’t just in my own space, practising my own style without anyone to judge or ridicule me. You are surrounded by people who know what they are doing, some outstanding yogi’s moving through a practice with grace and fluidity one breath and a time. But after walking into that yoga room and beginning with Surya Namaskara A I quickly realised, no one cares what I am doing, they are all too focused on themselves! And this was a truly liberating feeling, I could move through my asana knowing there was a teacher there who I could ask for help and who could assist me in taking my practice to the next level. I’m not going to say there weren’t times when I didn’t doubt myself, there were many, I had moments of overwhelming emotion and of feeling like I was too heavy to get off the ground but then I felt the combined energy of the group and it lifted me up. Being in that room surrounded by normal people just doing their best energised me to try that little bit harder, to hold that pose a little longer and it opened my heart to remind me I am not alone. We are all moving through our lives, just like we do in our practice, trying, falling, getting up and trying again. Progressing sometimes, and plateauing others, learning about ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. All we have to do is keep turning up.

“Do your practice, all is coming” Sri K Pattabi Jois