Hi Mike and Felicity (and everyone else)

Yes, Eckhart Tolle has been such a HUGE influence on me since I started
listening to his audiobooks this year. I decided on audiobooks since I love
reading but was finding my book purchases from Amazon just stacking up in my
house as I didn't have time. So I bought an MP3 player, subscribed to Audible
and started downloading audiobooks to listen while I walked at lunchtime (back
when I "worked" for a living haha). I actually think if I had read ET's books I
wouldn't have gotten so much out of them, would have just liked them at an
intellectual level, but
having him actually talk to me seems to have a bigger effect.

As well as Eckhart, I am now starting to explore the work of Jon
Kabat-Zinn, author of "full Catastrophe Living"...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=sunflowerheal-21&keyword\
=Full+Catastrophe+Living&mode=blended

I had the pleasure of listening to him at an amazing "Mindfulness in Medicine"
conference held at Glasgow University the other week, and am reading his first
book now. He's done some wonderful work in getting some very simple but powerful
mindfulness practices recognised by mainstream medicine in the USA, and it
seems to be influencing the docs over here too in a big way (some are even
talking of it as the "Fifth Wave" in medical evolution). My yoga
teacher (from London) runs a Stress Reduction Course that is a mixture of our
yoga approach and these techniques, and she is coming up to Glasgow in September
to run her course as a six-day intensive (details on the website if anyone
fancies a trip up to Bonny Scotland). I've never participated but cajoled her
into coming after speaking with many of her students who experienced big changes
in their lives after doing her course - and these were people with chronic
anxiety and depression, eating disorders, MS, CFS/ME, chronic pain and so on. So
I'm very much looking forward both to experiencing the practices and
incorporating them into my own teaching.

My yoga background is varied, and I have practised with teachers of most of the
main approaches - Iyengar, Ashtanga, etc, as well as your bog-standard Hatha
classes. However I am now firmly committed to the Krishnamacharya tradition
(popularly known as Viniyoga) which is a very individualised approach to yoga
(bend the practice to suit the student, not the student to suit the practice). I
had a wonderful 5-week visit to the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram
(http://kym.org) last year and my mentor is Kausthub Desikachar, son of TKV
Desikachar and grandson of Krishnamacharya himself. I am studying yoga therapy
with them, and only recently gave up my job of 12 years as a police officer to
commit fully to this path.

Looking forward very much to joining in the conversation here, if I can help
anyone at all please let me know.

Cheers,

Scott

PS Actually posted this message 2 days ago, however my emails have been bouncing
back saying this group only accepts plain-text emails and taking a couple of
days to do so.

Michael Meredith wrote:

> Hi Scott
>
> Welcome to CHEAL!
>
> I have experienced the healing power of yoga myself, so it is great
> to welcome an additional yoga teacher (we have at least one other) to
> CHEAL. Is there a particular school of yoga that you teach, Scott?
>
> > My current focus in my personal practice is in the aspect of
> > mindfulness/awareness of the "now", and I'd love to hear from
> > anyone who has had experience with mindfulness based practices?
>
> I was first introduced to mindfulness-based practices via a Buddhist
> group - the FWBO - in the late 1980s and still find myself falling
> back on them whenever "life seems to be going all wrong" (as it has
> a habit of doing!.
>
> The classic manuals on the mindfulness of "Now" are of course
> the "Power of Now" books and audiotapes of Eckhart Tolle:
>
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=sunflowerheal-21&keyword\
=power+now+tolle&mode=blended
>
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=sunflowerheal-21&keywor\
d=power+now+tolle&mode=blended>
> I have also been greatly inspired (both meanings of that word!) by
> Tolle's treatise on "Stillness":
>
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=sunflowerheal-21&keyword\
=stillness+tolle&mode=blended
>
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=sunflowerheal-21&keywor\
d=stillness+tolle&mode=blended>
> which has awakened me to the field of pure creative consciousness
> that permeates the "Here and Now" - the field that "The Secret" (see
> recent postings) taps into.
>
> >I firmly believe the old Hawaiian (Huna) saying, "Think not that
> > all wisdom is in your school"
>
> Thanks for passing on this great peace (interesting mis-spelling I
> have done here!) of wisdom, Scott!
>
> Good luck with both your teaching work and your personal journey,
> and thanks again for joining us!
>
> Mike