Reflections on Nancy Gilgoff’s workshop
This weekend I had the pleasure of practicing with Nancy Gilgoff, the first Western woman to have studied with Pattabhi Jois. The following are my notes and thoughts.
On my practice
On Saturday, we did lead primary. For me the pace was good: not staying in asana forever but not rushing through vinyasa either. My problem with lead practice in large groups still remains: I struggle in small spaces and the dynamics of who occupies space and who gives it. In addition, I was annoyed with my knee. It was a block of wood and I got mad at it instead of forgiving it. And then my thoughts started wandering on all things superficial and all things work. Every time this happens I think my yoga has not changed my mind at all: it is still fickle yet stubborn — a butterfly mule.
Sunday was a bit better and we did up to ustrasana. My block of wood got a bit of attention from Nancy and the soles of my feet cramped as we stayed in some of the backbends for a longer time than I am used to. Probably did not help that I drank only coffee for breakfast. I was quite tired at the end of the practice and had trouble staying up in the headstand as long as she counted.
On breath
Nancy talked about breath and how they were taught to breathe loud and hard. She is not sure where the current trend of not breathing with no sound comes from but for her, the breath is the key not only to concentration but also to getting over fear. If your thoughts wander, breathe louder, and if you are afraid of going into an asana, breathe harder and just go.
She shared a martial arts technique for the breath: place the front part of your tongue on the slot behind your front teeth and breathe. Don’t use the tip of your tongue because it locks your jaw. She keeps her tongue there throughout her practice. I need to try this because especially in the finishing postures, I tend to lock my jaw.
The breath is not the same throughout the practice, it is faster and slower depending on the asana and where people’s individual difficulties lie. She also clarified the topic of ujjayi. Ashtanga practice does not have ujjayi, it is a pranayama technique. Ashtanga breath is similar to ujjayi but in ujjayi, the exhale is two times longer than the inhale so applying this to asana practice is not correct.
She teaches pranayama only to her own students whose condition she can monitor as pranayama done wrong can screw people up. Screw up does not always mean crazy, just unwanted effects such as egomania. In general, her stories about kundalini and energetic body were really interesting. We have three channels: left, right and central (kundalini) and we are mostly using the left and right which are positive and negative, the side depends on gender. The way she talked about these things was, paradoxically, very down-to-earth.
The breathing exercise we did was quite nice:
- activate mula bandha and inhale
- activate jalandhara bandha and hold
- exhale and once all out of breath, activate uddiyana and hold
- repeat 10 times
On bandhas
When asked about bandhas, she explained that they become automatic with the daily practice. Pattabhi Jois only talked about mula bandha to them, and apparently mula bandha should be there 24/7 in everything you do.
She also demonstrated how by listening to your body, you can keep the connection between mula and uddiyana bandhas in the asana throughout the practice. If this connection becomes automatic, your practice will be very light. Yoga is about saving and conserving energy, not wasting it.
A related topic is how the asana should be enjoyable and we should try not to always push ourselves further as yoga is not about that. And you cannot twist or bend yourself to no end.
On the series
She told us stories about how the series were taught to her (see details in her article). She continues to teach like she was taught which means people with daily practice can advance to ustrasana relatively fast to allow them to alternate between the two series. For her, the demand of being able to stand up from backbending before going to intermediate series does not make any sense as the intermediate is the sequence that opens up the back.
She emphasized several times that ashtanga is a daily practice. It does not have to be long but it should be regular.
On meditation
On Sunday we did the loving kindness meditation that she practices. It is a set of four mantras and thoughts we send first to ourselves, then to someone positive, to someone neutral and finally to someone challenging. Repeating this helps us do something for the people we feel for but cannot do much about, and practice ahimsa towards ourselves and other difficult people. I enjoyed this technique a lot and was actually quite touched by it.
On being a woman
On Sunday a lot of students asked questions about periods, pregnancy and parenthood which was slightly boring for me. In brief, Nancy said ashtanga should not be practiced when on period because of mula bandha: with it, the energy goes up while on period, it should actually come down. Iyengar can be practiced because it does not use bandhas, but never inversions.
She also said India taught her to be more mindful of her womanhood. She was a political activist in the early 70s (civil rights and) women’s lib movements but felt that the intention was never to become like men, especially in the practice: women should not practice like men. I did not want to think about this too much as I don’t believe it is such a straight-forward topic, especially since practice is not about physical body only. So while she was talking about these things, I was thinking about how people often ask teachers for permission rather than advice.
On teaching
When asked about whether we should practice only with certified or authorised teachers, she was pretty straight-forward in her answer: no, it is not important. It is more important to find out who your teacher’s teacher or guru is and go see how people teach before practicing with them. She is not certified/authorised herself as Sharath scrapped all Pattabhi Jois’ certifications and started from the beginning with new rules.
She did not think people with 200 or 500 hours teacher training can properly teach every style of yoga as is the current trend, but at the same time she thinks if someone asks you to teach them, you become a teacher. Pattabhi Jois himself apparently was not concerned about different people teaching yoga, he was just happy that the word yoga was mentioned in a sentence.
Final words on teaching and choosing your teacher stuck with me. She said to choose wisely, because by following your teacher’s practice, you will become like your teacher. Who do you want to be like?
