The art and benefits of Anusara Yoga® with Christine du Fresne, ECAT

The Art of Anusara Yoga ®

Christine has been teaching hatha yoga for 37 years, primarily in Australia. It was clear from her first yoga class that this practice would be an important part of her life, and within two years she was teacher training at an inner-city Iyengar studio.

Ten years later, having taught in the Iyengar tradition around Sydney, Christine was introduced to Anusara Yoga by her second teacher.  He had recently returned from the USA where he met John Friend, the founder of Anusara Yoga, in an ashram. This ‘heart-oriented’ style of hatha yoga was what she had been looking for, and she immediately embarked upon a second teacher training. This was to be a 4-year apprenticeship with her teacher.

What has kept the romance of yoga alive all this time?

There must be something special to stay connected, teaching and practicing for so long, but what Christine discovered when she started participating in Anusara Yoga is that yoga is much more than hatha yoga (the physical postures). The postures are part of a much bigger practice, which in the context of hatha yoga can seem quite mysterious.

What Christine has realised over the years is that the yoga practices offer us a progressive, evolving path that supports us to develop strength. Not just a physical strength, but importantly, an inner strength. That inner strength supports the way Christine sees the world, other people, her relationships with others and herself.

It is this wider practice of yoga that keeps Christine so committed. Yoga has become enormously popular in the western world in recent decades, but much of what is being taught as yoga is very much about physical exercise.

For Christine, it is the tantric yoga path, in particular the Kashmir Shaivism school of tantra, developed around 5^th century, that has given Christine a wealth of knowledge and practice.  As Christine’s teacher describes it, it is more akin to a psychology. We are working on ourselves.  And this is what can transform our lives.

What are some of the ways your life has positively transformed by practicing Yoga in this way?

Christine describes it as a cliched statement “I know myself better”, but it’s true – she does.  Again, a lot of what is happening she describes as quite mysterious, and it happens without even an understanding of what and why it is happening. Because it is a shift in awareness. The transformation is the shift in perspective and awareness. We gain a sense that our awareness can be expanded.

If someone is teaching the physical practice in a way that builds awareness in students, then they are expanding their potential. That’s what the Anusara practice offers.  It's the combination of what we refer to as the philosophy, together with the physical practice, that is transformational.

Expanded awareness

 As we expand our awareness, we are better able to take in our relationships, the natural world, our family dynamics, how we eat, and much more, as a natural result of the practice of yoga.

Expanded awareness is also the capacity to be able to let go of what doesn't serve us. We're so good at holding tight to our stuff. We hold so many stories about ourselves that keep us in a limited space.

Why teach yoga?

 Christine says: “I knew I was a good teacher, from being a high school art teacher, but another part of me knew that I felt so good, really good in my practice that I had this desire to give people the opportunity to feel good in themselves as well”.

 As a teacher of yoga we also have to move beyond being attached to our students feeling good after the practice. What we learn is that sometimes they will not, as that is just where they are in their journey, or where their practice touched them that day.

How has your Yoga practice evolved? 

One of the things that happens is that the practice can stay strong but get softer. When she was practicing Iyengar Yoga, Christine was physically strong but not necessarily quiet and soft inside; that is one of the things that has come with experience. The evolution has come in the study, not just learning the texts and theory but coming to understand how she can practice in a deeper way.

Now Christine is in her mid-70s she doesn’t ‘fling’ herself around anymore; there’s no need to, but she still has a strong practice that suits her stage of life. But her extensive, and intensive, study, has informed her practice and it is this that creates so much of the evolution, the transformation.

After 39 years of yoga practice Christine is still fascinated by it all; it’s a big part of her life and her ongoing evolution – still growing and evolving at the age of 75!

This is why we call it a journey. The journey is to evolve as human beings. There’s no age you reach that means it is time to stop evolving. This is the primary gift of yoga for Christine, the evolution of who she is, the coming to know herself better. What people don’t realise the first time they come to yoga is that potentially 50 years later you can still be practicing and teaching, running workshops and teacher trainings, and writing about yoga and still feel like there’s more to learn.

You can join Christine in March 2023 in her ‘Art of Anusara Yoga’ workshops in Christchurch NZ, or find her at www.unityyoga.com.au

Catch the replays here: The Art of Anusara Yoga, with Christine du Fresne, ECAT (yogatotransform.com)