Ashtanga Love Notes Series - Allison Dearling, 'The Chai Sessions'
This episode is the fourth in my short series, Ashtanga Love Notes, where I talk with friends who like me still practise and teach Ashtanga. And still love it too!
I feel Ashtanga has fallen a bit out of fashion and gets a bit of a bad rep for being too difficult, rigid, and well, old fashioned. But we talk about what we love, what keeps us coming back and what challenges and highlights it has brought us along the way.
Imagine these love notes hand written and held close to my heart…
My guest on this episode is good friend and very favourite Australian Allison Dearling.
Allison’s the founder and principle of Live & Breath Yoga in Townsville, North Queensland. She opened her studio in 2010 after returning home to Australia from Scotland, via Goa if I’m remembering correctly, where we had an amazing two months together practising with the late Rolf Naujokat and his wife Marci but that’s another story for another day!
Allison’s been practising Ashtanga yoga since she was 21. A serious car accident in her teens left her with significant injury and pain and she credits her recovery to her ashtanga yoga practice.
We met on our teacher training programme here in Glasgow back in 2005. Since then we’ve done a lot of yoga together, drank a lot of tea, laughed loads and shared so many adventures that I can’t even begin to count.
In this conversation we talk about what brought Allison to Ashtanga yoga, the challenges as well as the rewards of practise, what keeps us coming back and how it all helps us navigate the world beyond our yoga mat. Allison says:
“But you know, it’s so interesting what we learn about ourselves in the process. How do we deal with that? And how do we modify, and how do we change? And then, when we can finally do that posture that we thought was impossible you're like, well, if I can do that, then maybe I can do this thing over here that I think is impossible too.”
I couldn't even think about doing a podcast series called Ashtanga Love Notes without talking to Allison. I honestly don’t think I’d be where I am today if we hadn’t met. I still miss having her here, so I’m really excited to share our friendship and this conversation with you!
Listen below or look for 'The Chai Sessions' on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. You can also watch our chat on Youtube.
I still can’t quite believe Allison got up at 3.15am to have this chat before she taught class but I’m SO glad she did.
I speak from experience when I say that there’s a super-warm welcome waiting for you at Allison’s studio if you ever find yourself in Townsville. A proper home away from home.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends. You can even follow, rate and review to help other people find these conversations too.
Until next time, thank you so much for listening.
Judi x
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‘The Chai Sessions’
Anyone who has been to Merchant City Yoga on a Sunday knows how much I love catching up with everyone over a cup of my freshly brewed spiced chai. These Sunday chai sessions really bring everyone together, a true celebration of friendship, community and connection.
I want to try and capture some of that magic and share it with you at home. So I've invited some familiar and new faces from our MCY family to chat with me over a cuppa. I'm affectionately calling them 'The Chai Sessions'.