The Practitioner

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Leanne is a mostly self- taught home practitioner of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga but she embraces other useful practises and styles with teachers who she trusts.  She also meditates daily using the Vipassana technique.  Through the years the relationship that Leanne has had with the practise has gone through many different phases and brought up many changes and transformations, not physically, that too, but emotionally and spiritually.  Through her own personal practise she experienced that which the words, stories and techniques do their best to explain, or keep secret within the older texts. She believes that only through a personal practise can this occur, yoga is not easily gifted, bought or learned, it must be felt for oneself.

And so through his practise Leanne came to be steadier, calmer and kinder towards herself, others and the world we all share.  Yoga will teach you to see the world from a clearer, truer perspective  if you let it; away from your everyday mind and to the view point of the Self where everything is seen clearly for what it is and in this way the world becomes easier to navigate and much much more beautiful!  We appreciate life!

As a lone practitioner Leanne's practise has evolved alongside serious study and research into the method and it's techniques and she closely follows the work of her fellows and elders for inspiration, support and general spiritual guidance. Of these teachers the work of David Garrigues is her biggest influence and guide, through his work she became passionate about the energetic dynamism, the subtle energetic work and the philosophical and tantric works that illustrate this and the divinity of this great practise.

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Recently her personal practise has evolved into a phase of softness and deep listening and nurturing.  In a hard, unstable and restricted modern world she found refuge and comfort in a more personal and tender practise. Releasing herself from expectations both set by herself and the tradition she has come to feel the quality of peace and yoga at the level of the heart and no longer has a rigid or linear approach to the physical practise. 

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"It may at first seem that the yoga practise on the mat is about our bodies, our arms, our legs, our shapes, our ability to balance flexibility and strength and yet over time the focus moves away from the physical...far way.  What we are really working with is not the body, but the mind within; the body and the postures are just the physical work, the tools, playground, the scene, the way to grasp it, and from the first breath this tangible, visible, physical material and techniques command us to pay attention, focus, and remain in the present moment only.... setting up a control boundary around our bodies and our mats the practise has this way of narrowing down the limitless variables of life so that we may start to observe them more clearly, initially we are amazed by all that we had not noticed when we were rushing about, self important and blindly caught up in the world.  This world that we get caught up in not only exists outside but also inside, as we each carry our own world of thoughts and snares with us around in our heads...

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Aided by the quiet comfort of a steady practise the mind relaxes and begins to learn that it is actually OK to relax, to give up the control, to slow down, to stop chasing the next thing!   In this first stage the mind ( or should I say 'We') starts to let go of the external, superficial or physical layer and gradually and naturally starts to descend within, through the breath , every breath , and every part of the breath and it's sensations and we begin to discover the splendour and richness of our forgotten inner worlds, not the superficial layer of thoughts and snares but the deeper layers that lie covered beneath...

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We learn, if we are lucky, and with time, to let go of all that bubbles to the surface for us along the way... for you see each practise is different, as is each moment, there is just no point of trying to over-examine, analyse and 'find out why' about everything that comes up, it is endless work, if we get stuck here, as we all do for a time, we will lose the inner path which continues on to deeper more subtle layers of discovery.... The practise spotlights parts of us and makes things surface for observation and analysis, which afterwards become identified and dismissed, or rather acknowledged and accepted.  Over more time and this ability to learn about ourselves and then let go we may just transcend beyond it all, to a place where we still may be in the act of moving, positioning our body, breathing and knowing and yet it all happens somewhat spontaneously, in the background, at a distance, on the surface...

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As our focus gets softer and softer and we learn to let go let go and keep moving onwards and inwards through our work we find that the mind we started out with has also loosened it's grip on us... it's like whatever we thought we were before, we are released from.  If we reach this stage we have made space for consciousness, which can be thought of as shy or subtle/ fine, to be experienced because the more gross mind and logic have been quietened. Only when we have this willingness to not only take responsibility for, but to rise above the control of ego, mind, breath and body can we reach the glory of the deeper levels of the heart and Spirit. And then the whole process of the awakening becomes unveiled.  Then we know in an instant that which we call yoga and why we do it. 

This is the way of Yoga for me,

This transcendence to freedom.'

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-Leanne

the truth maker

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What good is practise and study without contemplation and integration?!

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Leanne muses and questions as she continues to discover the ways of yoga through experience and study, as is the self- enquiry nature of any spiritual practise.  She has found that writing, discussing and journaling has helped her to clarify and consolidate the experiences and knowledge so that they make sense within herself and within her role as a human being and a yoga teacher in this modern world.  These words naturally pour into notebooks, blogs, videos, social media and poems...

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DISCOVER ARTICLES, MUSINGS, DIARY PAGES AND POEMS IN THE ASHTANGA GEEK BLOG

LISTEN TO AUDIO BLOGS ON SOUNDCLOUD

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Watch videos of Practise Tips, Advice and Discussions

Or dive in deeper with Leanne's Instagram IGTV Library

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insights

questions

internal

battle

changing perspectives

despair

joy

reality

perception truth

raja

hatha

ashtanga

philosophy

technique

wisdom

faith

samadhi

samsara

why

values

heart

spirit 

human

consciousness

journey

within

unfolding

"The world needs people like you, the ones that doubt and tell their students that they're doubting, struggling, questioning.  Cause that is the real thing.  That is the real life.  And that is also the real yoga"

-Margaux

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'After so much self- discipline, sacrifice and arduous mental mountain climbing  to achieve success in yoga, the modern yogi must be braver still! She must make herself vulnerable to fully experience life again!   The self- mastery of yoga puts her in the eye of the swirling storm of prakriti, but where is the sense of willfully remaining apart and withdrawn when this yoga love and wisdom shines out of her? 

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What good is the yoga if bound up and locked away like a box of jewels or a great secret?  And so she flings open again the gates of her body and the senses of her mind to experience this world that is out of her control and always will be.  For she is alive and is here to serve!
 

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I feel like I have come full circle and I am back where I started, or so it appears on the outside, only my eyes, my perception and my soul feel different.  I look the same but i have this feeling of not quite knowing who i am anymore, but within me there is this electric current of excitement.  I want to talk about this unexpected new turn in my yoga path, or should i call it a circle, or a sphere?! I know I sound like I am talking in riddles but that’s how it feels! Somehow I have stumbled into a new ‘layer’ or ‘depth’ of understanding reality and all here is not as it seems, I am pretty sure that I am facing my first hesitant and brave steps into Seventh Series!    I am wary and alert like a lost thing in a new planet but i am somehow tingling with a freshness and interest in life, an exuberance that I haven’t felt in years! I feel a great change here, let me explain….'

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Excerpt from ' Suffering to Samadhi and back again'

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'The powers are plenty

Overcome Idleness

Tamper down Ego

Seduce your senses

Sharpen your mind

Hone your awareness

and Magnify!

The stick that stirs

The bath plug

The eye of the storm

The deepest ocean

and the darkest cave

Bedrock of the subtle

Magnificent as the sun

Magnetic field

Hidden and great

Sees nothing

Feels all 

The relentless reach

Harness and control

To revel in wisdom and grace

The superpower behold'

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'MULABANDHA'

A poem inspired by verses of the Hathapradipika

@Ashtanga_geek  on Instagram