In this episode Chasca and I spoke about the daily rituals of Ayurveda (Dinacharya) and how to get the most of your day and life using Ayurvedic rituals and routines. Chasca shares some tips for transforming your daily life from her book Ayurvedic Rituals.  We also spoke about the different kinds of pressures women face with respect to beauty standards and how we can learn to approach beauty beyond the framework of capitalism and through the lens of Ayurveda.Chasca also touched on some of her own struggles with self-acceptance and how she uses Ayurveda to thrive in her body.    

In this interview Rose Lamont chats with Chasca Summerville about her new book - Ayurvedic Daily Rituals and how she discovered Ayurveda.  Chasca goes on to share how we can all begin to utilise some of the fundamental principles of Ayurveda to support and nourish our daily life through the transformation of some of our usual habits around our sleep, food and use of energy. 

In this episode Ritual's founder Rose Lamont talks with Mark Whitwell, a world renowned teacher, author and direct student of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), a man revered around the world as the ‘teacher of the teachers’ and ‘the father of modern Yoga.’ Mark shares his profound and embodied wisdom on how we can stop seeking for answers outside of ourselves and how we can all begin to participate more deeply in our own yoga and existence. And as Mark so  eloquently and compassionately sates:  "life is not a dedication to working on oneself toward some future ideal" .. "you are the power the cosmos".  Key Conversation Points:  - Mark's journey to India in the 70's and his experience meeting his teachers.  - Yoga - 'a social dynamic of disempowerment' ?  - 'A teacher is no more or no less than a friend'  - Yoga - 'a struggle towards a future attainment' a creation of male orthodoxy  - The sickness of spiritual seeking and the cure to constant seeking.  - The origins, current state and trajectory of modern yoga in the west.  - What it means to have an authentic yoga practice. - Marks connection with U.G Krishnamurti, T.K.V Desikachar and T. Krishnamacharya - Mark's relationship with T.K.V Desikachar and the origins of his book - The Heart of Yoga  - The lineage and principles of T. Krishnamacharya  - How to stop seeking and start participating in your yoga and life.  - The seamless process of asana, pranayama and meditation  - Mark's illuminating conversation one of his teachers and subsequent student - the spiritual teacher Ram Dass About Mark:  Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over four decades throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, Australia, Fiji, and Aotearoa-New Zealand, and is the editor and contributor to TKV Desikachar's book The Heart of Yoga. First ‘dropping out’ of New Zealand society and travelling to India in his teens, this was the beginning of a lifelong love affair that took him into the orbits of many of the great masters of our time, known and unknown, including falling in love with Swami Muktananda in the early seventies and accompanying him around Australia. But it wasn’t until Mark met Krishnamacharya and Desikachar in Chennai (then Madras) in 1973 that he discovered a practice that could make his inspirational experiences stable and comprehensible: Yoga. Desikachar and his father were living as ordinary humble people, sharing their meals on the floor of their home, not posturing as superior beings or powertripping. Mark fell in love with this and with the Yoga he received.

In this episode Rituals founder Rose Lamont talks with Mark Whitwell, a world renowned teacher, author and direct student of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), a man revered around the world as the ‘teacher of the teachers’ and ‘the father of modern Yoga.’ Mark shares his profound and embodied wisdom on how we can stop seeking for answers outside of ourselves and how we can all begin to participate more deeply in our own lives and existence. And as Mark so  eloquently and compassionately sates:  "life is not a dedication to working on oneself toward some future ideal" .. "you are the power the cosmos".  Key Conversation Points:  - Mark's journey to India in the 70's and his experience meeting his teachers.  - Yoga -   'a social dynamic of disempowerment' ?  - 'A teacher is no more or no less than a friend'  - Yoga - 'a struggle towards a future attainment' a creation of male orthodoxy  - The sickness of spiritual seeking and the cure to constant seeking.  - The origins, current state and trajectory of modern yoga in the west.  - What it means to have an authentic yoga practice. - Marks connection with U.G Krishnamurti, T.K.V Desikachar and T. Krishnamacharya - Mark's relationship with T.K.V Desikachar and the origins of his book - The Heart of Yoga  - The lineage and principles of T. Krishnamacharya  - How to stop seeking and start participating in your yoga and life.  - The seamless process of asana, pranayama and meditation  - Mark's illuminating conversation one of his teachers and subsequent student - the spiritual teacher Ram Dass About Mark:  Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over four decades throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, Australia, Fiji, and Aotearoa-New Zealand, and is the editor and contributor to TKV Desikachar's book The Heart of Yoga. First ‘dropping out’ of New Zealand society and travelling to India in his teens, this was the beginning of a lifelong love affair that took him into the orbits of many of the great masters of our time, known and unknown, including falling in love with Swami Muktananda in the early seventies and accompanying him around Australia. But it wasn’t until Mark met Krishnamacharya and Desikachar in Chennai (then Madras) in 1973 that he discovered a practice that could make his inspirational experiences stable and comprehensible: Yoga. Desikachar and his father were living as ordinary humble people, sharing their meals on the floor of their home, not posturing as superior beings or powertripping. Mark fell in love with this and with the Yoga he received.

In this episode Rose chats with Abbie Galvin an author, teacher and passionate student of life about her personal story with yoga and how she has used Katonah yoga to transform her body, mind, relationships and entire way of interacting with the world.  "so much of it is fighting our first nature which his habit"  "From the subtle patterns like our sleep cycles and digestive cycles, to more obvious patterns like the seasons or aging, we are part of the natural world. Our job in yoga is to manipulate the patterns that don't serve us, and to cultivate and develop new ones that help us function better. And because the narrative of our lives is reflected in the body, changing physiology alters psychology. The third principle underlies the discipline of esoteric training: repetition of techniques.  By virtue of repetition , one potentially develops insight" Topics Covered:  - Abbie's personal story with developing her yoga and finding Katonah Yoga and Nevine Michaan.  - What hold's us back from developing an effective yoga practice - First nature, habit and why we find it so hard to change.  - Breaking our linear patterns of learning that we develop from childhood. - Can we change our bodies in old age ?  - How she uses the patterns and maps of Great Nature to navigate her body, mind and life.  - Self-inquiry and exploration to navigate conflict with ourselves and others.   - How our physicality effects and transforms our psychology.  - Abbie talks about how her 60's are her best years yet.