Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.
The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.
-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 78, translation by Stephen Mitchell)
Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.
The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.
-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 78, translation by Stephen Mitchell)
Why Yoga Like Water? I get asked that a lot.
I spend almost as much time in and on the water as I do on land, thats one good reason.
I grew up loving the philosophy of Bruce Lee and his approach to martial arts; thats another!
Water is magical, its a contradiction, soft yet powerful, always seeking the lowest places. Unshakeable.
Although I may guess, in reality I don't know why we are here or what our definitive purpose is. Often I don't think that it even matters, there is joy in mystery and discontent in needing to know all the answers.
What i do know is that life is for living, it’s precious and we shouldn’t squander it. Of that I'm certain.
We conjure all sorts of stories about ourselves, they are all subjective, we can never really know the truth even about ourselves.
I can say that my life has been a non-stop adventure, that’s for sure! Sometimes when I tell people a bit of my story I see them trying to work out if it is actually all possible in the time I have been alive or if I am a compulsive liar spinning an elaborate tale! From time studying medicine and then environmental science; working as an archaeologist; the road protests of the 90's and 2000's; building some of the UK's most cutting edge mechanical art for Arts Council England, Arcadia, Glastonbury Festival and many more. Several years of teaching A-level science, as well as nursery and reception classes. Moving to a derelict smallholding in rural France and rebuilding it from scratch with with Gemma; living in the very north of Scotland and bringing our children up for five years on a canal boat.
For someone with life-long battles with anxiety I have constantly pushed my limits.
I have always preferred to practice on my own than to attend a class. I am freer to experiment, to move at my own pace and to really feel what I need mentally and physically on a day to day basis.
It has always seemed perfectly normal to infuse my asana practice with natural movement patterns from the rest of my life - elements of surfing, kitesurfing and paddleboarding through to martial arts and climbing, all seem to find a way in.
My breathing practice is inspired just as much by my lifelong relationship with asthma and freediving techniques as it is by Russian systema, buteyko and more traditional pranayama practices.
Philosophical musings and meditation draw upon almost any source, from Krishnamurti to Taoism; biohacking and flow state science to Bruce Lee, Patanjali and Buddhism. I think that this has helped me to teach meditation and mindfulness to everyone from billionaires to a group of 150 16 year olds through to 5 year old kids!
Everything has value and you will draw on it at some point. If you cant see the value then you aren't looking hard enough or you are closing yourself off to its potential.
Although raised a few miles from London, I have always yearned for the peace of the countryside and live in North Devon, sandwiched between Exmoor national park and the sea cliffs of the Atlantic Ocean. If there are waves, flat seas, wind or snow I will find something to do - surfing, paddleboarding, mountain biking, free-diving, climbing and bouldering, kitesurfing or sitting in a tank of ice cold water - I need to be in nature. That might well be my asana for the day, I don’t feel the need to spend three hours paddling around in the sea, away from the world getting my mind clear, doing lots of breath holding and stretching and then come back to do another two hours of asana, pranayama and meditation.
For me there is genuinely no separation from ‘yoga’ and the rest of life. The last thing I want from yoga is to inadvertently put up entirely new walls in a misguided effort to liberate myself from other things that I perceive to be trapping me!
I have never felt at all comfortable with any regimented style or practise, it conjurs up exactly the same discomfort as being imprisoned in the classroom. For me yoga is all about feeling, about being intuitive, authentic and true to yourself. I can’t take someone else coat and think that I will ever be truly comfortable by squeezing myself into it. I prefer to rip up the best bits of all the coats that I like and tailor them into an absolutely perfect fit for myself. That is how I practice and that is how I teach. I encourage everyone to make their own coats, I don’t want them to try and wear mine but I’m happy to give them a needle, thread and some fabric if it helps.
No matter what the topic is that I’m teaching, the experiential method is the same: self-guided investigation, me doing 40 percent of the work via questioning and the students doing 60 percent themselves by discovering and exploring what they really need for themselves.
You can read some more interviews with me here
I spend almost as much time in and on the water as I do on land, thats one good reason.
I grew up loving the philosophy of Bruce Lee and his approach to martial arts; thats another!
Water is magical, its a contradiction, soft yet powerful, always seeking the lowest places. Unshakeable.
Although I may guess, in reality I don't know why we are here or what our definitive purpose is. Often I don't think that it even matters, there is joy in mystery and discontent in needing to know all the answers.
What i do know is that life is for living, it’s precious and we shouldn’t squander it. Of that I'm certain.
We conjure all sorts of stories about ourselves, they are all subjective, we can never really know the truth even about ourselves.
I can say that my life has been a non-stop adventure, that’s for sure! Sometimes when I tell people a bit of my story I see them trying to work out if it is actually all possible in the time I have been alive or if I am a compulsive liar spinning an elaborate tale! From time studying medicine and then environmental science; working as an archaeologist; the road protests of the 90's and 2000's; building some of the UK's most cutting edge mechanical art for Arts Council England, Arcadia, Glastonbury Festival and many more. Several years of teaching A-level science, as well as nursery and reception classes. Moving to a derelict smallholding in rural France and rebuilding it from scratch with with Gemma; living in the very north of Scotland and bringing our children up for five years on a canal boat.
For someone with life-long battles with anxiety I have constantly pushed my limits.
I have always preferred to practice on my own than to attend a class. I am freer to experiment, to move at my own pace and to really feel what I need mentally and physically on a day to day basis.
It has always seemed perfectly normal to infuse my asana practice with natural movement patterns from the rest of my life - elements of surfing, kitesurfing and paddleboarding through to martial arts and climbing, all seem to find a way in.
My breathing practice is inspired just as much by my lifelong relationship with asthma and freediving techniques as it is by Russian systema, buteyko and more traditional pranayama practices.
Philosophical musings and meditation draw upon almost any source, from Krishnamurti to Taoism; biohacking and flow state science to Bruce Lee, Patanjali and Buddhism. I think that this has helped me to teach meditation and mindfulness to everyone from billionaires to a group of 150 16 year olds through to 5 year old kids!
Everything has value and you will draw on it at some point. If you cant see the value then you aren't looking hard enough or you are closing yourself off to its potential.
Although raised a few miles from London, I have always yearned for the peace of the countryside and live in North Devon, sandwiched between Exmoor national park and the sea cliffs of the Atlantic Ocean. If there are waves, flat seas, wind or snow I will find something to do - surfing, paddleboarding, mountain biking, free-diving, climbing and bouldering, kitesurfing or sitting in a tank of ice cold water - I need to be in nature. That might well be my asana for the day, I don’t feel the need to spend three hours paddling around in the sea, away from the world getting my mind clear, doing lots of breath holding and stretching and then come back to do another two hours of asana, pranayama and meditation.
For me there is genuinely no separation from ‘yoga’ and the rest of life. The last thing I want from yoga is to inadvertently put up entirely new walls in a misguided effort to liberate myself from other things that I perceive to be trapping me!
I have never felt at all comfortable with any regimented style or practise, it conjurs up exactly the same discomfort as being imprisoned in the classroom. For me yoga is all about feeling, about being intuitive, authentic and true to yourself. I can’t take someone else coat and think that I will ever be truly comfortable by squeezing myself into it. I prefer to rip up the best bits of all the coats that I like and tailor them into an absolutely perfect fit for myself. That is how I practice and that is how I teach. I encourage everyone to make their own coats, I don’t want them to try and wear mine but I’m happy to give them a needle, thread and some fabric if it helps.
No matter what the topic is that I’m teaching, the experiential method is the same: self-guided investigation, me doing 40 percent of the work via questioning and the students doing 60 percent themselves by discovering and exploring what they really need for themselves.
You can read some more interviews with me here
