WHAT WE DO
We are a yoga studio. We are a martial arts Dojo. We teach meditation and philosophy. We are a place to improve your fitness. We are a garden, a private park, a place for contemplation. We offer all this to our community. And if you're ready we want to offer it to you too.
It was always my dream to open as space that could act at my Shala, my temple on top of the mountain. A place that I could be free to explore and teach the values of Martial arts, movement and Yoga that I value. Well there ain't no mountains on the outskirts of London but i think I did the next best thing.
We, a very select group of trainers and I, are here to guide you to become warriors of your own design.
We teach guided yoga and a mix of martial arts classes. We teach fitness, health and well being.
We offer a place for thought, conversation and learning.
Become a member of the Mana and Wak community and have access to these facilities as and when you need them.
YOGA
Yoga is not a thing that one does, it is more a more a frame of mind that one strives to achieve. This can be done in numerous ways. The series of stretches and movement that we in the west have come to know as yoga is just one version of a practice that can lead us towards achieving a yogic mind/body/reality. The physical practice of yoga is the path that presented it self to me and I have been practicing it for the last 17+ years. Its as good a path as any. But even having come to the physical, there are still numerous ways to practice.
What I have come to understand is that we are physical beings existing in a physical reality and we can honour that by pursuing our yogic existence by pushing our physicality with vigour, consistency and tenacity. I believe that if we are going to use a physical, Hatha/vinyasa practice then we should push to our absolute limits... to the very edge of our abilities. That is what my classes do. They find our edge, they keep your mind sharp and non-wandering. The Mana & Wak practice forces us to head towards "yoga" as it gives you nowhere else to go. You can't think about your job, your problems, your shopping list whilst tying to bend in half whilst upside down... its just to hard. But when even that becomes easy, we'll think of something else to sling shot you towards the Ekagratic unity of spiritual one-ness.
MARTIAL ARTS
The martial arts are yoga. This isn't a particularly popular view amongst main stream yoga practitioners... what with one of the core concepts of a lot of yoga being "ahimsa" or non-harm. I do not share this view. Aside from the fact that martial arts drive one to a very sharp, single point of focus (trust me, you've never been more focused that when you're about to be punched in the face or choked unconscious) they also provide a deep sense of inner calm and contentment. When I explain this to people they often think I'm referring to more traditionally meditative versions of martial arts like Tai-Chi. This is not the case. The martial arts I practice and teach are highly practical and always include an element of live sparring within their training. That is not to say that they are needlessly violent, quite the opposite in fact. The high intensity of these practices often breeds more control and thought in action than anything else Ive experienced.