You can learn yoga for a lifetime. We’ll tell you where to start

Quiksilver New Star Camp, the main snowboarding event of this spring, will take place very soon, where you can not only close the season in the company of crazy like-minded people, but also just relax in the mountains. In the program a lot of activities from Roxy are planned. Daily yoga training is a must. After all, a vacation without yoga is a waste of money, and mountains are not mountains if you do not meet the dawn on them in a great mood and with a charge of vigor for the coming day.

Every day yoga has more and more fans who want to know the mystery and depth of Indian teachings. What is so special about it and how will the application of spiritual practices really help you to become a better person? Let’s find out together with “Yoga_method” yoga instructor Mikhey Pavlov.

Full name: Mikhail Pavlov.
Also known as Micah
Hobbies: photography, rock climbing, motorcycle tourism
Alpine skiing and snowboarding instructor.
Practical experience: 11 years of personal practice,
4 years spent on pilgrimage, has been teaching yoga for 7 years.
Lives and works between India, Moscow, Egypt and Crimea.

– Mikhail, you came to yoga after an injury in the mountains. Why yoga and not any other teaching?
– At that time my wife was one of the first yoga therapists in Russia. She rehabilitated me, so I had no choice(smiles). It was only in the form of therapy and rehabilitation after an injury. Then yoga drew me in, and then it went on from there.

– What is the most attractive in yoga for you?
– The most attractive thing about yoga is its purpose and the transformation that happens to people. The positive effects on the body, on the mind. That’s what I think is the most important thing about yoga.

– What is yoga for you? Is it more of a sport or is it more of a spiritual enlightenment? Maybe it’s the perfect balance of controlling your body and mind?
– For me it is a spiritual path. I haven’t practiced yoga gymnastics myself for a few years, now I’ve gone to completely different practices. As for the perfect balance, I think you are partially right. It’s a fairly universal move that you can put a lot of things into. The balance will be there, of course, but yoga has slightly different goals.

– How did you come to teaching? What motivated you to teach yoga to other people?
– It was an external request. I started teaching 18 years ago. There weren’t many of us, the community was small, so I was just asked. It was interesting and there were no courses then, we learned from each other from books, from everything else. There was just a group of people who were interested in the subject.

– Is there anything unique about your teaching style?
– We have a balance between traditional yoga gymnastics, which has evolved over the last 100 years, and modern trends with fitness. It’s an attempt to explain in modern terms some things that have been around for centuries. We have a lot of peculiarities, but it is this practice that allows us to keep traditions and explain it in an accessible way for people.

After some time I want to move to India and stay there. I want to continue studying.

– Do you have to follow any kind of diet in this practice? If yes, what kind of diet? Diet, restrictions, prohibition of a certain type of food?
– There are two approaches: modern and classical. The modern approach says to choose what works for you, and it should be as effective as possible. The classical approach includes a commitment to a vegetarian diet, and that’s pretty unequivocal. There’s veganism, there’s raw foodism. There’s vegetarianism in general. It has to do with a certain philosophy of yoga. If we follow the classical approach, we choose vegetarianism, if we follow the modern approach, we choose the most effective so that our practice is the most effective. As a rule, many people come to vegetarianism, they start to give up meat, rough and toxic food. This is a natural question. No one insists on it, and I especially do not insist on it. Everyone decides for themselves.

– What is the most difficult thing for you? Have you faced any difficulties while mastering yoga?
– For me personally, the most difficult thing in yoga is to keep a balance between social life and yoga life, which makes up the philosophy. The only problems I had were injuries when I started practicing. I also had bad habits, so I had to fight with them too. I had to cleanse my body. But the first priority for me was to survive and walk on my own legs without crutches.

– Why do many yogis call mountains a place of strength? What does this concept mean to you? How do you identify your place of strength?
– Traditionally, these were places of hermitage. Where there were no people, where you could hide from the eyes of strangers. Because on the plains there was quite a lot of hectic life activity, and in the mountains you could be engaged in yourself, your body, transformation, spirit. There is also an element of hypoxia in the mountains at altitude, which yogis actively used in their practices. It was much easier to achieve results in the mountains. It was convenient in terms of practice. It is traditional to send a teacher to places of power. That is, the teacher tells you to pack your bags and go there. Well, you go there.

– You have traveled throughout southeast Asia. Knowledge and skills did you acquire there? What exactly did you learn?
– Yeah, I just traveled to different places where there are Indian practitioners with interesting traditions. But there were not only Indian yogis, there were also Nepalese, American, European yogis. I interacted with them and absorbed everything like a sponge. You’re interested in everything. When I had enough information, I started doing other things.

– Name a few of your favorite asanas. Why are they your favorite asanas?
– My favorite asanas are forward bends from any position. Standing, sitting, all variations. Also inverted asana, because it’s very beneficial to the body and to the mind. It’s called inversion.

Watch the video on the official Yoga Method YouTube channel.

– Do you plan to develop further in yoga? Do you have any visions for the future?
– Yes, absolutely. After some time I want to move to India and stay there to live. I want to keep learning. You can study yoga all your life. It is also important to be with a mentor. I want to have more such moments in my life.

Watch the video on the official Yoga Method YouTube channel.