This blog is based on  a video  interview I did with my dear friend and film maker Erick Joseph at the Bali Spirit Festival last year. You can also read the article i wrote about it recently.

“There are certain things we should all be doing before, during and after our yoga practice on a physical (anatomical), energetic (physiological) and emotional level. These three main levels are interconnected, and by appreciating and enhancing these connections, the way you live your life can help you improve your personal yoga practice, and also, your practice will feed into and help improve the quality of your life, and the lives of those around you.” … These things include:

• Lengthening and relaxing your body as well as being less rigid, more flexible and relaxed in your mind,
• Getting your energy to flow and
• Shifting your attitude.

In the second part of this video interview of me by Erick Joseph I talk about how to incorporate the ethical principles of yoga, Yama and Niyama, into your physical yoga practice and into your daily life. This is best summarised in this beautiful 5 minute video made by the award winning film maker Alessandro Sigismondi, who honoured me recently by making this video of me.

I must thank Alessandro for his amazing job. He filmed an impromptu 15 minute video of me practicing on the beach, and an unprepared 5 minute voice over off the top of my head just before i went to the airport to get on the plane home from India, In it I summarise Yoga in terms of Yama and Niyama as I see them as follows:

• Yoga (in terms of Yama) is the Gentle (Ahimsa) Balanced (Satya) Giving (Asteya) of Nourishment (Brahmacharya) and Freedom (Aparigraha).
• Yoga (in terms of Niyama) is the Passionate (Tapas) Inner Quest (Svadyaya) to Remove the obstacles (Saucha) of Happiness (Santosha) and Loving Connection (Ishvara Pranidhana).