Meet Matt Ringrose from Bondi Meditation Centre

Bondi Meditation Centre is a stunning space in the heart of Bondi, founded by Matt Ringrose. Matt has created a place for people to come together, as a community, and either learn or deepen their meditation practice. We interviewed Matt to learn more about his story, read below!

Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to find meditation and where your passion stemmed from?

I found out about Vedic meditation through the book ‘Catching the Big Fish’ by the film director David Lynch. I devoured the book in one day 13 years ago and learned Vedic Meditation that same week.

How did the Bondi Meditation Centre come about and what amazing work do you do there?

I trained as a VM teacher almost 10 years ago and to my delight and surprise found that Bondi Meditation was available as a URL and business name! How things have changed in the last decade. The first 'Bondi Meditation Centre' was my house in Bondi but we outgrew that. So in April 2019 we moved to the current Bondi Meditation Centre - a beautiful space at the top of O'Brien St. Read more here!

How do you feel meditation has impacted your life?

Meditation dramatically improved my long term anxiety and depression, it cured my long term addictions, improved my relationships and gave me a connection to Nature and myself which I never had, or lost a long time ago. Lots more - everything really - but those are the headlines.

You teach Vedic Meditation at The Bondi Meditation Centre, what drew you to this style in particular?

It's an extremely easy and effective meditation. Anyone can learn. If you can think you can learn Vedic Meditation. And if you do it twice a day your life will be transformed for the better. Vedic meditation is accesible to anyone, whereas some other techniques are much harder to to learn.

Do you have any wise words for those who are struggling with meditation, or who have felt defeated by it in the past?

Find yourself a teacher and learn Vedic Meditation. It's as easy as falling off a log and will give you the meditation of your dreams.

Outside of meditation, what else do you enjoy doing?

Listening to house music, being a Dad and having a laugh.

Do you have a favourite book, song, movie or quote you would like to share with us?

All You Need is Love

Want to learn more about Matt and the Bondi Meditation Centre?

Read here.

Author: This is Yoga

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Friendships Founded Through Yoga

Forming friendships as an adult can be challenging. This has even been confirmed by social scientists! It may be harder to find likeminded people, or simply to make time for each other in your busy lives. Life can get complicated. This is just one of the many reasons yoga is so special. Whether you were looking for it or not, it provides you with an immediate community. You start running in to the same people each week and in time, strangers become friends and studio chats become meaningful conversations. Neal Pollack shares his experience with forming and solidifying friendships through yoga…   

I gave up quite a bit when I left L.A. last year, but I really regret leaving behind my yoga community. My friends and I had been practicing together for years under the guidance of one teacher. Some of us became teachers ourselves during that time. We attended one another’s classes, supporting, assisting, and sometimes filling out the room when not a lot of other people were laying down their mats. There was occasional outside socialising, but mostly we saw one another at the studio. It wasn’t a party crowd, but we had a lot of laughs anyway. I sure missed them when I moved.

Now I’m back in Los Angeles for a bit to attend a family reunion, but I’ve been able to attend another, much more informal affair, a yoga reunion of sorts. As I write this, I’ve been back to see my teacher Patty twice in the last five days. It’s been great to study with her, of course. Her sequences and adjustments are as intricate and challenging as ever. But much more importantly, I got to see some of my yoga friends. We laughed at the usual jokes, helped one another out where we could, chatted for a few minutes, and then we went about our yoga lives, just like the old days.

The New York Times ran a sad piece a few weeks ago about how hard it is to make real friends as an adult, but that actually runs counter to my experience, largely thanks to yoga. I’ve made many permanent friends in the eight years I’ve been practicing, at teacher trainings, retreats, and just hanging out at the studio. These aren’t “situational friends,” either, but people with whom I can have deep discussions, if the need for such a thing actually ever manifests. Adulthood places limitations on your social life, but yoga can remove them.

Just because a person practices doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to become your friend. But at its core, yoga is supposed to help you see reality as it truly is, joyous and impermanent. If you’re sharing that knowledge and feeling with other people, it makes friendship, if not inevitable, then at least a lot more possible. Even if I stopped doing asana or meditating tomorrow—which I won’t, because I’d go nuts shortly thereafter—yoga would have already paid me back a million times in fellowship.

As I type this, I finished a yoga class with my teacher (and friend) Patty an hour ago. After class, Zoe, who’d been just in front of me in class, approached to say hello. She had been a reliable friend to both my wife and me. We’d known each other pretty well. But I was in the mood for more than just a two-minute chat. Some yoga people have busy schedules, but lots of them don’t. Besides, yoga friends are always up for anything. They also know that once you get off the mat, that’s when the real yoga starts. Zoe and I talked and laughed and ate pizza for almost an hour before I had to head off.

It’s been a great yoga reunion. I look forward to more in the week to come, and beyond. Yoga friends, despite what The New York Times might say, are for life.

We look forward to seeing you and your friends in studio!

Original article:
Author: YJ Editors
Published: 9/8/2012
Source: https://www.yogajournal.com/tourblog/yoga-with-friends/

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