If you know me as a yoga teacher, you know how it’s important to me to go and train every year so I can learn new things to share with my students. A wise yogi once told me that to be a good teacher you have to be a good student.

So last July I took a training with the great Maty Ezraty about hands on assist and it was brilliant. Maty is a super legit senior teacher, but not an instagram celebrity lol (If you dont know who she is, click here Maty Ezraty .)

Hands on assist have always been my weakness,. I’m not a physiotherapist of any kind and I don’t want to hurt my students. But her knowledge put a new light on that part of my teaching. Cherry on the cake, my friend and amazing teacher Krista Cahill was taking the training too, and as we partnered a few times, it was so amazing to benefit from her knowledge too! (is you don’t know Krista, she’s a fantastic american teacher in Paris and you can learn more about her here: Krista Cahill.

I’m not gonna lie, it was a tough training. I was emotionally in a dark place as my dog was super sick at home, and Maty is hard core. We were practicing for 3h30 to 4 hours before even starting the hands on assist part of the course, with only 15 minutes in between.

The room was filled mostly with ashtangi, as she was Pattabhi Jois’ student. But Maty’s practice and teaching evolved toward an Iyengar style after many trips to Puna in India. We used many props, lifted many heavy blocks. My shoulders were so soar., and the ashtangi so surprised ahahah.

I kept listening her slapping people buttocks when they were contracting the gluts, or telling them not to look up because “there is nothing up there”. She’s so tiny but at the same time has such authority and presence, it’s fascinating.

I’m now more confident in my hands on assist and I’m looking forward to taking more training with her in the future. In the meantime, I will go train in a few weeks with Maty’s teacher Dona Holleman and I’m very excited about it.

I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to train with great yogis, so I can share their knowledge with my students. If you’re a yoga teacher, you should definitely try to take at least a class with Maty, it will change your teaching for the best.

Namaste.

This is, no doubt, one of the most important sutras, because here, Patanjali does nothing less that giving a definition an explanation of the benefits of yoga.

Usually the definition given for yoga is « union », that’s how it is define in the Bhagavad Gitã and in some of the Upanishads, but he never talks about that in the sutras. Instead he defines yoga as the fact to quiet the mind in a way.

Because of how we think, and how we perceive the stimuli from the outside world we are shut down from awarness, by practicing yoga we can still the and the body and therefore we might have access to pure awarness. Yoga was used traditionnaly to prepare the body for meditation, and whant is meditation ? It’s a practice where your body and mind are steady, it.s a place where you concentrate to find awarness.

Patanjali thinks that human beings can’t really make a difference between cousciousness and Pure awareness , so that’s why he said that we have to allow Counsciousness to settle from the whirling thoughts, sensations and emotions to be able to reflect pure Awarness. Yoga is a journey within ourselves, that will help settle down the agitated patterning of consciousness.

And it’s only when it happens that we can reach pure awareness.

Being a yoga brand ambassador is a trendy subject now, regarding what’s going on in the US between a huge yoga brand and a yoga teacher, and the repercussions it has on the brand ambassadors, so I’ve decided to share my own experience as a brand ambassador myself. (Not the same that is involved in the current drama, but a similar one).

A little more than 2 years ago I went shopping in a town near mine, where a store of a famous yoga brand I liked just opened. I used to shop for their outfits when I was in LA, but they were starting to conquer the European market and suddenly here they were at a reasonable distance from my place!

The staff was super nice and I immediately liked them. They asked if I was interested to give free classes sometimes in the store, and I said yes. (I liked their products and the girl I was speaking to was the sweetest).

I came back a month later to teach my free class, and that’s when they offered me to become an ambassador.

I was honored even though I didn’t really understand what being an ambassador meant for them. They didn’t ask me to post pictures on social media (although I did because I was just super grateful), I could wear other brands even when I was teaching in their stores (which I never did because, you know, it felt wrong), they said they would help me for whatever project I could have that would fit their image, and they gave me a gift card, so I can shop in their stores worldwide. (the amount was really REALLY interesting…).

When you’re an ambassador for a brand like this you are spoiled. They took us for some coaching week-ends in magical places, where we were doing yoga and personal development (I even taught a class to one of this event). They told us how much we were family, how it was more than a clothing brand, how they wanted t to spread the message of healthy living, we all shared very very personal stuff during those weekends, it was almost like a group therapy, but we felt safe because, yes they were family remember?

I’m not saying we were brainwashed, but you know, we were super spoiled and they sell us this idea of a dreamy life with them, and I started to believe that they were not only doing business, but that they had a higher purpose, that business was is just a way to serve their “higher goals”….

….Until the store that recruited me was shut down.

Just like that! In a month time, may be more, they closed the store. The staff was very sad, because they have created an amazing team, and because them too, have believed all the beautiful words they were told about being a family and stuff, and everything happened so fast. They told us that for us it will not change a thing, that we were still ambassadors.

We had another weekend scheduled, which some of us (including me) attended. But it was different, than the last one. Suddenly we had less attention, it’s like they were embarrassed we came.

After that week-end I never heard of them again. Except for one email saying they will call, it was months ago, they never did. Suddenly there were no more family, no more sharing, no more support. Only some dollars left on my gift card. And it made me realize (although deep inside I knew it all along the way) that the only thing that matters for them is money. They just try to wrap that in a beautiful healthy loving and caring package, but in the end there is no real humanity and it’s all fake.

I was suspicious during all this time, but you know, you always want to believe the good things people are selling you.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m forever grateful for this experience, I’ve met good friends and good people (the staff from the store, some other ambassadors…), I was showered with gifts…

What I’m trying to say here is that when you get an opportunity like this one, never lose the idea that this is only pure marketing and business, a brand rarely become that big without doing pure marketing and business. And most of the times they have more than yoga pants hidden in their closets…

India stole my heart. Honestly, I had negative preconceived ideas about this trip, mostly because of all the people who tells you how much you will be sick or how many traumatizing stuff you will see. It’s also true that it was a yoga retreat pretty well organized and that we were not backpacking around. But for a first time it was exactly what I needed.

After Delhi and Agra, we went to Jaipur, the pink city, and it was the highlight of this trip. Yoga twice a day with Annie Carpenter, and many excursions. Everything was breathtaking. The city itself is incredible, we had lunches in some hidden gems where we forgot where we were, shopped in many different places from cheap bazar to high end stores, visited a local house, learned how to fly a kite (it’s a Jaipur favorite lol), and we’ve attended a private concert of Rajasthan traditional music (absolutely delightful). We also had the opportunity to watch briefly a polo game not with horses but with camels (one of the most ridiculous thing I’ve had the chance to watch lol).

The variety of vegetarian food is incredible here, and I was surprised by how they are ahead of us in terms of healthy food. You find superfood and many organic stuff super easily.

I highly recommend Jaipur modern kitchen for some healthy vegan/vegetarian indian inspired modern cuisine. And for a nice royal experience baradari inside the city palace, where you can eat or have a drink.

After a short week in Jaipur we headed to Rishikesh where I’ve spent a few days in an ashram. I’ll write about the ashram experience shortly.

If you have more questions about my trip, send me a message.

Namaste

We left Delhi for Agra, by train. An intense ride where the train rolled over a motorbike, a piece blew away the window of,my row, the train had to stop. I had pieces of glass all over my hair, a man was bleeding a little. India is always an adventure!

Did you know that the Taj Mahal is the Tomb of love? Built by Shah Jahan for him and his wife Mumtaz, who passed away while giving birth to their 14th child.

A love story that deserves a Hollywood movie. He met her when he was visiting a market anonymously. She was watching a necklace, he bought it for her. They’ve been married for 20 years.

Right before she died, she asked that when the time comes they will be buried together. So he built the Taj Mahal, where they are both still buried.

In Agra, pay a visit to the Red fort as well. Beautiful monument from the moguls era.

An interesting note for us yogis, it’s forbidden to practice yoga inside the Taj.

Honestly, we were expecting the worse for our first time in India. Everybody has something to say about it: rude people, dead bodies in the street, scary stray dogs, but also good things about how it is fascinating. And it really is fascinating.

Yes it is dirty but we were expecting worse, some part of the city are totally fancy and hip, we had lunch in a place name Social in a hip part of Delhi, amazing fusion food, and obviously in this country I can find many vegetarians options!

We started in the morning by visiting the biggest mosque of the city and a rickshaw ride in the old Delhi. I absolutely loved it. It is so typical with thousand of people everywhere, good and bad smells, so many colors, people honking everywhere, all your senses are awake. It could be overwhelming but so fun! I highly recommend the rickshaw ride in the Old Delhi.

People are nice most of the time. ( seriously the rudest people were the staff of our fancy botel). Our guide told us what kind of clothes not to wear (no short pants, no short skirt..) so we won’t be provocative.

Regarding stray dogs, one of our retreat mate was bitten the first day and had to receive a rabies shot… So I have to refrain petting every dogs I see, and it’s not easy as they are so cute and everywhere.

We left Delhi this morning to Agra, by train. A scary experience that I’ll explain in my next post.

Namaskar from India.