I am are very happy to open our doors, receive you for practice and see all of you at our beautifull yoga school again as of July1! I really missed you and cannot wait to see and teach you in person and at our school again soon!! It has been great to be able to stay connected online and outsides when possible, but it has also been a bizarre time.

Of course after my initial enthusiasm for re-opening I also faced some questions and doubts, such as:

• How are we going to operate with 1.5m distance?
• How many people can responsibly participate in one class (session)?
• How do we ensure the safety of everyone in our yoga school?
• Will the Bhumi Yoga yoga practitioners actually come back to practice in our school?

Quiet some difficult questions to think about...

Luckily, with the assistance of the branch association (Vereiniging Yogascholen Nederland) and all Bhumi Yoga teachers and assistants, a sound and safe protocol for re-opening formed. Thus, in regards to the protocol, governmental measures and with the Mysore style in mind, me and my growing belly went into action and measured the school, reorganized the school and the schedule, ordered lots of handalcohol, etc...  so that Bhumi Yoga is ready to open its doors when we are allowed to again!

To be able to open our shala and welcome you all for practice some of our means of operation will, for the time being, be different than what we all were used to. This will require a little bit of effort in getting used to for all of us.

Some of the measures may come across as strict but they are all there to accommodate practice at the school under the current safety guidelines while ensuring a smooth operation - this is what is possible for us under these circumstances.
We can’t know for sure but we anticipate that these measures will be in place until the end of this year and possibly longer.

If you want to come to the shala from July 1 onwards, make sure to read through the info following below.

Please keep in mind that this is a new situation for us as well, as we move along some details herein may change stilll.

*Weekend Mysore in July is: Sunday July 5 and Saturdays July 11, 18 & 25
*the Wednesday evening Yin & Restorative Yoga class will start again as of 1 September
*from September onwards there will be two morning Mysore shifts on Saturday
*View the schedule from September onwards

Two time slots will be available for Mysore practice Monday - Thursday and on Saturday (Saturdays from September onwards).

Monday - Thursday: 

• Mysore 06.30-08.00h: For this time slot teaching starts at 07.00h; thus if you start your practice prior to 07.00h you have to know the first part of your practice already and feel confident about it. Of course, it’s also ok to start at 07.00h or a bit later but know that you have to be out the door by 08:00h (this means clothes and shoes on before 08.00h). Door opens at 6.30h (not earlier). Opening chant is at 07.00h. *Beginning students can arrive from 6.50h onwards.

• Mysore  08.00-9.30h: For this time slot teaching starts at 08.00h and ends at 9.20h (by 9.20h everyone is in savasana). It is ok to join after 8.00h but you have to leave the school by 9.30h. Opening chant is at 8.10h

Saturdays in July:

• Mysore 09.00-10.30h: You can come to the school as of 8.45h to get settled. Chant is at 9.00h - teaching is until 10.20h. Leave by 10.30h

Saturday (from September onwards):

• Mysore 8.30h - 10.00h: For this time slot teaching starts at 09.00h, thus if you start your practice prior to 09.00h you have to know the first part of your practice already and feel confident about it. Of course, it’s also ok to start at 09.00h or later but know that you have to be out the door by 10:00h (this means shoes on and clothes on before 10.00h). Door opens at 8.30h (not earlier). Opening chant is at 09.00h.

• Mysore 10.00 - 11.30h: For this time slot teaching starts at 10.00h and ends at 11.20h (by 11.20h everyone is in savasana). It is ok to join after 10.00h but you have to leave the school by 11.30h. Opening chant is at 10.10h.

• Fridays at 7.00-8.30h - you can arrive at the school from 6.40h onwards. Don't come last minute!

Once per month this class is substituted by a Led Moon Sequence.
​Members can attend this class once per month at the shala and the other times through zoom online.

• Wednesdays 17.30-18.55h: This class will be 5 min shorter than originally to ensure the room can be cleared and cleaned (all props can be returned while adhering to 1.5m distance). Starting prior to 17.30h is not feasible for most of you. 

Members can attend this class once per month at the shala and the other time through zoom online.

This class will resume again in September.

Adhering to the governmental measures we can only accept 12 students practicing at the school during one time slot (or class) for Mysore and 13 for the Led Primary and Yin & Restorative class. This means we all need to become more organized, that is ok - a small effort to ensure everyone can practice. Read further, and please know some of these details may still change as we better understand how all this works out practically - this situation is also new for us.

Memberships:
While we can accommodate less people per class with the safety measures, we still aim to have you at the school as much as possible.
From July onwards membership holders will have a monthly class credit to come to the shala for 14 classes (while using the Friday led class and Wednesday Yin class over zoom as much as wanted). We come to this number based on number of membership holders prior to the COVID situation.

If you have a regular work schedule, we ask you to try to evenly distribute these classes over a one month period, e.g. take 3 Mysore classes per week and 1 Friday Led class per month.
Schedule your classes using our online class registration tool Momoyoga.

​Class card Holders:
Class card holders and newcomers can schedule their classes as previously using our online class registration tool Momoyoga.

Once the pre-Corona number of people practicing at our school is reached, sign-in for new people will not be possible to ensure everyone has space to practice.

Class sign-in will always be possible 7 days in advance.

It is possible to join the Wednesday Yin & Restorative Class (from September) and the Friday led class (from July) from home using Zoom.
Joining the Yin & Restorative class and the Friday led class is included in the membership of membership holders, classes taken over zoom don’t count for your 14 classes in-shala class credit. For non-members joining the Yin & Restorative class or the led class over Zoom a EUR 10 fee applies.
To follow classes from your home through Zoom, go to Momoyoga, click on the class you want to follow, click on the zoom link in the class description and register for class in zoom. You will receive a confirmation e-mail about 30 min prior to class start.

During the month of July when we transition back into our school, Maxi will stream some of the in-shala Mysore classes through zoom, for members of our yoga school it is possible to join these classes from home as self-practice.

During the month of July there may also be the possibility to come together for self-practice outsides in the park during the weekend as the weather allows as indicated in the online schedule.

​Health:
Don’t come to the school if:

• you feel sick, have a cough, a runny nose. 
• you don’t feel 100% - if the teacher doubts, s/he may send you home
• someone in your household has been diagnosed with COVID-19, has the cold or has fever

All our teachers will, of course, adhere to the same principles and stay at home in case of questionable health. 


At the School:

• You need to register for class in Momoyoga prior to coming to the school; all class payments have to be made through Momoyoga prior to coming to class
• Upon arrival knock on the shala window and then walk around to our entrance, don't come before class starts - if you start your practice before 6.50h use the door code to enter.
• Upon arrival for every practice you need to fill out a small form about possible heath issues related to corona, if you have any health issues associated with corona you sadly cannot join practice. To make this process more swift at the school you can take a few forms from the school with you and fill it in at home before you come to practice
• Keep 1.5m distance to each other: When waiting to enter to school, in the school, outside the school.
• Only 1 person in the entry room at a time! Thus, if you are just about to enter the school but someone is in the entry room, please wait until they move into the kitchen, then you enter.
• Only 1 person in the kitchen at a time
• Only 1 person at the practice room, at the chair putting shoes on at the exit door at a time.
• There will be hand disinfectant in the kitchen, in the toilet room and at the exit of the school. The use of hand disinfectant is required when entering the kitchen to go to the shala, and also after using the toilet.
• Take your own mat to practice, no mat storage at the school, no mat cleaning at the school. Clean your mat at home after each practice.
• Take a small clean towel to dry hands - there won't be any hand towels at the school.
• Toilet use is not allowed unless it’s an emergency (I understand emergencies and will not police you; but I have to put this here).
• Only take to the school what you really need.
• Come in your practice clothes (or layers that you can easily take off before practice and put on after practice) - the entry room does not operate as a changing room in these times.
• Upon entry take all your belongings with you, perhaps have a larger shopping bag with you, so you can easily put all your clothes and shoes in there. You will exit the school through the shala door (other door than where you entered) after practice.
• When done with practice, if you left sweat on the floor, clean up the floor space with spraying some floor disinfectant on the floor and wiping it dry with your hand towel.  We will then clean your floor space again.
• When done with practice, gather your belongings, roll up your mat, put on your shoes at the door (there will be a chair), and leave through the shala door - all as quietly as you can :) 
• We are not allowed to serve you tea. No glasses are available. 
• Respect the closing times and organize yourself to be out the shala by 08.00h (first Mysore shift) and 9:30h (second Mysore shift) or accordingly for Saturday.

Practice:

• Only put your mat at the designated areas (there will be tape on the floor), the teacher may point you to a certain spot to minimize walking around. We will start laying down mats at the window-side first.
• For Mysore: Come to do your ashtanga / chandra krama practice and do any other exercises at home, arrive and start with your surya A (perhaps take a few moments to sit down on your mat and breath to arrive, but start with your surya A soon after).
• No forceful exhale pranayama & kriya practices at the school
• We will work with few hands-on adjustments where needed, if you don't feel comfortable with physical adjustments please let us know before your practice (we absolutely respect your choice). If you are ok with adjustments bring a second clean towel for adjustments (size of what we sell at the school). This towel is for adjustments only. Teacher will disinfect their hands after an adjustment.
• The window will be open frequently and the ventilation will be on. It’s the teacher’s decision to close the window. If you are sensitive to draft, dress accordingly.
• We will disinfect all doors between classes / shifts.

Props:

• No use of shala props during the Mysore class - bring your own props if needed. Bring your own blanket.
• For the Yin class you can use: bolster, block, strap and cushion. Bring your own blanket and eye pillow. If you use a bolster and cushion put your own large towel over the bolster / cushion.​

Thank you for reading through all, quite some info but necessary for us all to familiarize ourselves with, as we take practice and safety of everyone serious, and we trust that all who come to practice at the school will work with us herein.

We are sure that through these above mentioned measures safety and smooth operation will be ensured at the school. 

Looking much forward to seeing you soon at our school again!!

Every Friday morning after our Led class I give a short but sweet yoga philosophy talk on various aspects around practice. I used to e-mail all practitioners about what we talked about but will from now on put it here.

With posting this here I will not in great detail talk about these aspects (my talking and explaining happens during the actual talk on Friday), here I rather inform about what we talked about so that practitioners who attended the talk have a reference to what we talked about and those who could not attend also have a reference to potentially do their own reading / research on those aspects. Hope this is helpful to all of you at the shala!

TODAY:
I originally had mapped out to talk about one of the niyamas today. Yet, through obsevations of the last week's practice and also since we have some newcomers I found it useful to talk about why are we are practicing yoga (what is the purpose of yoga) and the essential aspects a practice should be rooted in to bring about that purpose  - as stated in the yoga sutras.

Herein I explained and discussed:

• the opening of the yoga sutras and what it means; yoga sutra 1.1 - atha yoganusasanam
• the purpose of yoga; yoga sutra 1.2 - yogas citta-vrtti-nirodhah
• (some of the) aspects of a practice that are essentail to be able to attain this purpose:
  • ​1.12 - abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodah
  • 1.14 - sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkarasevito drdha-bhumih
  • 2.46 sthira-sukham asanam

I also talked about the importance of the breath and not analyzing during practice, that yoga (when we step onto the mat for asana practice) is not thinking and analyzing in a pose, it's being in a pose. Don't judge it while you're doing it.
And I also talked about that the only constant in life is change, and how we bring about great suffering to ourselves resisting change.

Video from my evening walk yesterday. I love living in Groningen, some aspects are similar to being in India.  Love walking a bit at the edges of Groningen, or even further away. Being outsides, witnessing the plants and trees, makes you realize that everything changes all the time, nature never stays the same. The fall season is in full embrace.
​

Don't push
Don't analyze
Just deep breathing - 
very simple.

Behind the scenes!
​
Today after practice we had our monthly assistants workshop at the school and welcomed Daria, Thian and Peter into the assisting team, starting with the basics of practice: helping a student to access the sound breath and explaining its benefits, helping a student to access their lungs (and breath) more fully, the principles  of samasthitih and how those principles come back in all asanas, and teaching a beginner sun salutation A - a full program for their first workshop! Lovely to have you three supporting the school, you will see them in Mysore class with me once a week observing and starting to assist.

Here Thian is helping Daria to access her lungs more fully, and thus breathe more fully. 

Then when Elena and Klazina joined we discussed observations during class, how to teach bhujapidasana,  kurmasana, headstand and headstand preparations and what to watch out for, while also reviewing adjustments on different poses. Always love coming together with you all and sharing ♥️ while also building more and more depth and ground at our school with a stronger assitant team!