Practicing without a teacher or class

April 8, 2000

Hi, I felt inclined to respond to your

message b/c it sounds as though you'll be in the same

situation as me fairly soon. After practicing Ashtanga for

4 years in Los Angeles with Maty and Chuck, both of

whom were wonderful teachers, I moved to Angola for

two years. As you can imagine, I'm the only Ashtanga

practitioner here, and as a result, have been practicing

without a teacher since I arrived, In January of

1999. I have found it to be difficult, to say the least,

at times, but have also found that it has offered me

the opportunity to work at my own pace (slow!) and to

practice in ways that work for me, without worrying about

what is "correct ashtanga". I occasionally skip

poses that don't feel right to me on any given day, or

hold poses for longer than 5 breaths, and when I hurt

my knee and had to work in such a way that it could

heal and I didn't have anyone to consult, I left out

Marichasana B and D for a few months. The long and

short of what I'm trying to say is that I suppose

hard-core traditionalists will frown on this type of

practice. But I am grateful to have had a stronge enough

1st series before I left to have been able to carry

on on my own, and I believe that the point of any

yoga practice is to help the practitioner find balance

and peace in life...if you're doing that, I think

you're in fine shape! Do what feels right to you,

use your practice to shape your life, and the

postures will come as your practice grows. good

luck. Namaste, Jen

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