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Kino's Yogi Assignment Blog

5 Feb 2011

Ashtanga Yoga Bologna 8/31/12

ashtanga bologna italy kino macgregor workshop yoga

kinoyoga

Author, Yoga Teacher, YouTuber
🚀Next Workshops: Miami, Mallorca, Switzerland
🌟Online @omstarsofficial
📚 Accessible Ashtanga
🌴Shala @miamilifecenter

Try these drills to work on your middle splits. St

Try these drills to work on your middle splits. Straddle, called Samakonasana in Ashtanga, is one of the hardest flexibility based movements for me. This has not come easily and I still have a lot of work to do. What about you?

1. Use a chair to keep the leg elevated and then drop the chest down. Then sink the hips down and use a side stretch to work the inner thighs.

2. Build the strength by lifting the leg out to the side repeatedly. After a few repetitions, slide down and experience the flexibility.

3. Flex and extend the spine to mobilize strength and flexibility. Placed the hands on blocks and slide down to keep the chest elevated. This slight elevation allows gravity to help release the inner thighs.

4. From straddle itself, roll forward and backward to use activation and release to increase the range of motion. After a few rounds, settle and breathe in the asana.

My next Yoga Drills class on @omstarsofficial is at 1 pm EST on Wednesday!

Join me and @timfeldmannyoga @miamilifecenter for our Mysore season and one month course where we will teach in June 2025 and January 2026. You can also sign up only for our Assisting School in June for one week!

Next workshops:

NYC @souk.studio This Weekend!

Switzerland @yogaflamestudio

Amsterdam @yogacircle.amsterdam

Sweden @atmajyotiyoga

Barcelona @harayogabcn

🌸

Retreats

Mallorca @balearicretreats

London @mission.e1

Norway @nosenyoga

Turkey @easternageanyoga

Salento @yogainsalento

Bali @radiantlyaliveyoga

🌸

Yoga mat is our new design @kinenyoga

Video @yo.andyv
#ashtangayoga #kinoyoga #ashtanga #ashtangi #yogaworkshop #yogateacher #omstars #yoga #yogaretreat #yogaretreats #yogadrills #straddle #middlesplits #samakonasana #mysoreseason #mysorestyle #ashtangayoga
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The magic of Mysore in NYC is on fire 🔥 My fi

The magic of Mysore in NYC is on fire 🔥

My first Mysore Style Ashtanga Yoga class was in New Yoga City at the old Jivamukti on Lafayette street over 25 years ago. I would be on an airplane to India to meet my teachers less than a year later and my life would be forever changed.

Sharing the practice with so many inspired students here in NYc all these years later fill my heart with such joy and gratitude. I will always love NYC.

Join me and @timfeldmannyoga @miamilifecenter for our Mysore season and one month course where we will teach in June 2025 and January 2026. You can also sign up only for our Assisting School in June for one week!

My next Yoga Drills class on @omstarsofficial is at 1 pm EST on Wednesday!

Next workshops:

NYC @souk.studio This Weekend!

Switzerland @yogaflamestudio

Amsterdam @yogacircle.amsterdam

Sweden @atmajyotiyoga

Barcelona @harayogabcn

🌸

Retreats

Mallorca @balearicretreats

London @mission.e1

Norway @nosenyoga

Turkey @easternageanyoga

Salento @yogainsalento

Bali @radiantlyaliveyoga

Photo @carolwongpiano
#ashtangayoga #kinoyoga #ashtanga #ashtangi #yogaworkshop #yogateacher #omstars #yoga #yogaretreat #yogaretreats #nyyoga #nycyoga #yoganyc #mysoreseason #mysorestyle #ashtangayoga
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To truly practice yoga we must become connoisseurs

To truly practice yoga we must become connoisseurs of spiritual knowledge. If we channel all our brilliance into the wholehearted quest for wisdom then we will find the nectar that we seek.

We are, by nature, discriminating beings. We develop taste — for art, food, fashion, architecture. We learn to tell what is real from what is imitation, what is durable from what is fleeting. We become connoisseurs of culture, cuisine, aesthetics.

So what happens when that same discriminating capacity is turned inward?

This is what yogic philosophy demands. It says: if you can be discerning with worldly things, how much more precious — how much more urgent — is it to become a connoisseur of consciousness?

Instead of savoring flavors, we savor states of mind.

Instead of curating experiences, we curate clarity.

Instead of acquiring possessions, we acquire purity — śuddhi.

And instead of merely enjoying the world, we seek to understand the enjoyer — the bhoktā — and realize its unity with the impeller, preritā.

The yogin becomes, in this light, not a renouncer of life, but its most discerning participant — one who recognizes the unity of all three and acts accordingly, with wisdom, love, and purpose.

Keep practicing 🙏

My next Yoga Drills class on @omstarsofficial is at 1 pm EST on Wednesday!

Join me and @timfeldmannyoga @miamilifecenter for our Mysore season and one month course where we will teach in June 2025 and January 2026. You can also sign up only for our Assisting School in June for one week!

Next workshops:

NYC @souk.studio This Weekend!

Switzerland @yogaflamestudio

Amsterdam @yogacircle.amsterdam

Sweden @atmajyotiyoga

Barcelona @harayogabcn

🌸

Retreats

Mallorca @balearicretreats

London @mission.e1

Norway @nosenyoga

Turkey @easternageanyoga

Salento @yogainsalento

Bali @radiantlyaliveyoga

Photo @carolwongpiano
#ashtangayoga #kinoyoga #ashtanga #ashtangi #yogaworkshop #yogateacher #omstars #yoga ##yogaretreat #yogaretreats #nyyoga #nycyoga #yoganyc #homepractice #ustrasana #brooklynbridge #hanumanasana #splits #birdofparadise
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If the body is stiff but the mind is flexible, we

If the body is stiff but the mind is flexible, we are much closer to the true state of yoga than if the situation were reversed. A rigid mind paired with a supple body often leads us further from the heart of the practice. Yoga is not defined by how far we can bend but by how deeply we can perceive, feel, and transform.

No matter what arises—no matter where we are or what we face—there is always the possibility to access an inner reservoir of peace and joy. This refuge is not dependent on external circumstances, but discovered through consistent practice. In fact, this is the very essence and purpose of yoga: to guide us through the storms of life with clarity, wisdom, and compassion.

Patañjali offers us a profound tool for inner transformation when he advises, “vitarka-bādhane pratipakṣa-bhāvanam”—“When disturbed by negative thoughts, cultivate their opposite” (Yoga Sūtra 2.33). This teaching doesn’t promise ease; replacing harmful patterns with beneficial ones requires effort and awareness. But it points to a deep truth: we hold within us the power to reshape our experience by changing how we think.

We cannot always control what happens around us, but we can learn to guide our inner response. Dwelling in worry, rehashing painful memories, or spiraling in self-criticism does not bring resolution—it only deepens suffering. By applying Patañjali’s wisdom, we begin to update the mind, replacing cycles of negativity with seeds of insight, compassion, and hope.

This is not denial. It is discipline. It is yoga.

Through breath, presence, and perseverance, we train ourselves to meet life not with resistance, but with resilience. In this way, the practice becomes more than postures—it becomes a path to freedom.

Keep practicing 🙏
Next workshops:

NYC @souk.studio This Weekend!

Miami @miamilifecenter

Mallorca @balearicretreats

London @mission.e1

Switzerland @yogaflamestudio

Amsterdam @yogacircle.amsterdam

Sweden @atmajyotiyoga

Barcelona @harayogabcn

🌸

Photos @urbanshots_
#ashtangayoga #kinoyoga #ashtanga #ashtangi #yogaworkshop #yogateacher #omstars #yoga #nycyoga #nyyoga #yoganyc #yoganewyork #yogadandasana #grasshopper
💕

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Kino Macgregor, Miami Yoga Garage
1940 NW Miami Ct
Miami, FL 33136
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