Un-Layering with Philippa Asher
Yoga is a journey of un-layering that we embark on again and again, each time we peel back another covering of our inner light the process of transformation takes place. It’s shedding the masks we wear to navigate our way in the world and place down the “airs and graces” we often take up to make ourselves feel superior to others. It is becoming who we truly are. More natural. More simple. More real.
In this episode you’ll hear Philippa Asher and I peel back the layers of the Ashtanga yoga practice. As two of twenty Certified women who teach this method, we’re talking about unique issues that relate to female practitioners. We explore what it takes to become a Certified teacher? And what are some of the pitfalls, obstacles, and challenges you may encounter along the way.
We touch upon the similarities between ballet and Ashtanga yoga, as well as what Philippa’s first trip to Mysore was like. You’ll find out what it was that continued to pull her back again and again, year after year, until she finally moved to India permanently, building a retreat centre in the jungle to host students of her own.
After going through eight rounds of IVF and tragically miscarrying twins, Philippa has learned a lot about letting go, as well as when it’s most important to hold on.
Philippa reminds listeners that Ashtanga yoga is actually a life choice. A state of being and a state of mind to help guide how you live your life. The practice is about so much more than simply collecting asanas, it includes the integration of all eight limbs into your day-to-day experience.
Two years back, Philippa returned to London, England, and you can find her teaching students in person as well as in online classes, workshops, and retreats around the world.
“If you want to speed up the process of yoga, slow down.”
After a vocational ballet school training from age twelve and twenty five years of studying and teaching dance at universities and ballet companies all over the UK, Philippa randomly walked into an Ashtanga yoga class in London.
From the late 1990s, she began learning and practising the Ashtanga yoga system, daily before work (in the media, film and music industries). For over twenty years she has studied for several months each year at the KPJAYI (now called the Sharath Yoga Centre) in Mysore. Philippa Asher is one of a few Ashtanga yoga practitioners in the world (and the only British woman), to be Certified by the late guru, Sri K Pattabhi Jois, to teach the Ashtanga yoga method in his tradition. She has learned the Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A and Advanced B Series under his and his grandson Sharath Jois’ guidance.
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The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
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Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
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