Morgane TIY’s very own Bhakti Yogi. She has been practicing yoga for 15 years and shares her learnings and discoveries beautifully with her students. We sat down with Morgane to find out more about her practice and the passion behind it.
Can you tell us why this is an area you are passionate about and want to share with others?
That could be written in a book, or many books. For me, although I need the physical practice to get into my body, the practice has never been just about the physical asana. So like everyone, I need the asana but I am not attached to it, I never really was so I don’t have this obsession that students can commonly have like ‘I need to nail this pose’, ‘I need to nail that pose’, ‘I need to go deeper’.
I do the work and I do strong practices. I practice with Ari for that reason, because I need to get into my body and my breath and do a practice that makes sense and that actually allows you to go deeper into the asana practice, so you can let go of the asana practice. It’s one of the sutras - steady, effort, ease and surrender. We do the part that we need to do, we practice, we welcome all the limitations we face on our mat and we get excited about that. We encounter all the physical limitation in the asana but also the mental, emotional and spiritual limitations. These will present on your mat pretty obviously if you are open and curious, that is what I get excited about - how can we use the practice to welcome those limitations and beyond so we can live the yoga outside of the studio. That's where life happens, that's where pandemic happens, that's where losing jobs happen, relationship issues happen. So if we can’t take the practice beyond the mat and asana, we are not going to feel that peace and freedom when life gets messy, and it does all the time. I think finding tools to go beyond the asana, beyond the mat is how we find that peace. The asana is one tiny part of the picture so we can have all these tools in the box meaning we not only have the physical practice but we can also tune in to the breath, mantra and meditation at any time. Tune back in to that space of higher self - that inner wisdom, that internal landscape and when you're in a meeting with your boss, or driving, or dealing with drama/ trauma you're not going to break into an asana practice but you have these other tools ready to come and support and bring you back to peace, freedom and equanimity. You can use these in any situation and you can hopefully share that with others as well. There’s that ripple effect, like when you meet others who have this grace and wisdom, like Ari and some of my others teacher, they practice their yoga and they embody the yoga off the mat and practice what they teach, that’s what I try to do but it’s not easy, it’s difficult.
So many people can’t tap in to meditation and I wasn’t able to for a long time until I found mantra so it’s just giving people an awareness of what other tools are out there. I am excited to share what I love most and what works for me and to support the community and to help provide the tools to stay curious and work through stuff with strength and grace and wisdom. A lot of people feel they don’t have it but it’s there, we just need to tap into it.
For many, the physical asana practice is what draws them to yoga - as you touched on earlier. Why do you believe it is so important to grow beyond that?
For those who are attached to the physical practice, I think it is good to understand that as westerners, this helps us to find yoga because we need to move, it is important to move the body. When we move the body we can tap into the breath and it is much easier to breathe when sitting down than when the muscles start to shake or the mental constructs come into play e.g. I'm not flexible enough, I need to do more, I should push more, I'm not bendy enough, why is this person in a deeper backbend than me etc. So for those who love the asana practice, it is a great way to introduce you to yoga and then find out through that the tools that may lead you to something that is a bit more holistic.
It will still be a strong physical practice and we need to move, we need to be in our body and to get the breath and energy going, so that will be a big part of it. We’re not ignoring the physical part at all, we are just using it as our point of departure and then we see if we can go a little bit deeper, a little bit further than that.
Is tHIS PART OF THE PRACTICE SUITABLE FOR everyone?
Yes it is accessible to everyone, anyone with a curious mind. Whether you love a progressive class or you want a slow flow, there will be that, whether you have touched on meditation and mantra or not, there will be that as well. It’s worth mentioning that mantra is not religious, it is accessible to everyone, regardless of our background or culture. It was not religious the way I was taught it and that is how I teach it. We use mantra to transcend the mind, to go beyond the thinking mind, using sound to go back to that inner sound, that place of stillness and silence and equanimity. That is the mantra practice itself. They say it is the fastest journey to that space because we are using this practice that goes right deep in to the cells and parasympathetic nervous system, that’s why there's always silence after we sing or chant. That's what students have told me as well, for the 60 minute asana practice they have still been caught up in their head but then comes savasana and they hear me sing or chant and can just let go. So it is powerful but not religious. Pranayama is self explanatory, it's how to come to your breath. Meditation is the nectar, what happens after all of that. The asana practice should be accessible to everyone because I teach in a similar way to Ari, who is my teacher and mentor so we have a similar sequencing style in that you can choose if you want a more chilled practice or to spice it up.
What exactly is meant by ‘the higher self’?
The higher self is that space of, well, some people call it love, soul, spirit, higher consciousness. Something that is greater than the self, greater than the personality, the body, the meat suit in this lifetime and that is something that we try to connect to. That's the practice of yoga, the practice of connecting to oneness. Whatever we want to call it - soul, love, god, universe. We have our personality in this lifetime, our karma, our purpose, but we also have this place of oneness, connection to something greater. Something that is divine without being religious, if you get what I mean. So you don't have to be religious to understand that there is something a little greater, you may be connected to the earth, the ocean, just that place that is bigger than us and that we reconnect to, where we step out of our way and find a little peace. Once you connect to that space you find more freedom and equanimity and that's the space where there's no fear, anxiety, wishing, resentment, holding on to the good stuff. That's the higher self.
is there anything else you want to share?
As we know, the asana is only one tiny 8th of the yoga tree. I want students to gain the tools they can explore further and that have hopefully I made an impact on them to take their practice beyond the asana. Also understanding that the physical practice doesn't matter in the end, it's how you breathe and how you sit. The point is to come back to silence and that space in between where there is peace and freedom, which is definitely not relying on your level of asana practice or whether you can get into a handstand, do full splits or a deep back bend. It’s not about what you see on Instagram. It's about how we can bring the yoga into our lives when things get complicated. That's the yoga and hopefully these tools can support students in their lives and perhaps make them a little less asana obsessed in that if they can’t make it to their mat for whatever reason, they understand that there are still other ways they can practice yoga regardless.
Click here if you would like to learn more about Morgane!
Author: This is Yoga