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During his visit in the UK, Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh, the invited teacher for the IYA (UK) 2012 convention,
was also be teaching in Sheffield on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd June 2012.

The event was a great success, with 120 people attending one or both days.
It was a privilege to welcome everyone in Sheffield.

Zubin made every minute count this weekend!
His enthusiasm was communicative and he gained respect from us all.
His teaching is excellent, inspiring and challenging,
and was beautifully complemented by Parizad‘s attentive and effective support to us all.
We have all learnt and ‘unlearnt’ quite a few things during these two days!

Thank you.

Teacher

Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh began yoga when very young, thanks to his father who suffers from ankylosing spondylitis and who was helped to get a glimpse of true health by Guruji. Zubin's father not only stayed with yoga, but urged his family, including Zubin, to take to yoga. This initial introduction helped to set him on the path of yoga. Today, after 19 years of teaching and having learnt and travelled with Guruji to participate in Conventions in Michigan (USA), Crystal Palace, (UK) and Paris (France), he is aware of the responsibility to help spread the ethos of yoga to friends, families, communities and society in general. His teaching commitments have taken him to Canada, US, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Belgium, China and Rishikesh. He taught the IYA(UK) convention in 2010 in Nottingham. Zubin and his wife, Parizad, teach and run their yoga centre, Iyengar Yogabhyasa, at Matunga in central Mumbai, which imparts a yogic education to more than 400 students.

Gallery

A few pictures... more to be added.

Comments

Don’t you love it when you have one of those wonderful and unexpected weekends.  I signed up to a general workshop  by Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh  who I learned was one of the most senior Indian teachers. I had no idea what to expect but the experience was terrific, very demanding and extremely thought provoking. 
Zubin started the first day’s session with a detailed study and enquiry into Tadasana and came back to this throughout both sessions. The recurring themes challenged the students to make the connections between the spine and the arms and legs. 
His approach at times was very physical and his demonstration of how the muscles should move was superbly demonstrated with his own body. His wife, Parizad complemented Zubins teaching with gentle adjustments and advice.
I particularly liked his challenge of using the intelligence in the body rather than the props and that we were not to practice Iyenga yoga but our own yoga exploring and entering within. I thought the weekend was best summed up by Parizad’s T-shirt “don’t just stretch your body expand your intelligence.” Two days later as I write this I am still basking in the stiffness of the weekend.
I feel very privileged to have been able to attend and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who made this weekend possible and for all the encouragement given.
Mike

The weekend was totally inspirational. Zubin told us that Iyengar yoga now has an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, as ‘yoga with props’. This led Zubin to reflect on how Iyengar yoga has come to be seen by the world and how this is missing the point. He observed that by habitually using props, it is the props that learn the intelligence – the belt learns to stretch not the body!
Over the weekend, Zubin showed us how to use props to work deeper in our practice and how to learn from what they are teaching us. We used a brick between our thighs in Ustrasana so we could work on maintaining Tadasana in our legs. The brick firmly reminds us of how our legs should be working and the resultant burning in my things and inability to easily reach my heels showed me just how much more work I need to do in my legs! My back felt great though!
Moving forward my homework is to ensure that the intelligence and wisdom achieved stays within me and not within the bricks and belts stacked up in the corner!
Bridget

I have only been studying Iyengar yoga for two and a half years and I was hoping that attending the workshop taught by a leading Indian teacher would inspire me to progress my yoga further and perhaps train to be a teacher myself. I was not disappointed. Zubin is very charasmatic. During his class he was able to convey the principles of yoga, not just provide guidance on the different asanas. He gave us insight for us to ‘catch’ which I feel I will be able to draw on in my personal practice. He talked of us all being learners, sometimes through watching and listening, but also by using our sense of touch and feeling. He made us focus less on the external body, and more on improving within, giving attention to the connections between different parts of the body. My eyes were opened as to how to focus my attention inside, ensuring that my root is solid and my muscles and energy move and flow in the correct direction, and so that we not do one thing in one part of the body at the expense of another.
Kate

We both really enjoyed the Saturday workshop. We learnt lots of new ideas and about ways to think about your whole body in a pose, and also how certain poses influence all the other poses, e.g. Tadasana. Zubin has quite a unique teaching style and I found it really interesting to be taught by a man, as well. Zubin covered so much information in a short space of time, with lots of energy – great!
Fenella and Richard

After a busy week of ‘doing’, I was not sure I wanted to ‘do’ a day of yoga, but this was a misperception. Yoga, said Zubin is not about ‘doing, doing, doing’, but about being.
And so, we were asked to ‘be’ in the asanas and observe and ask ourselves – can I touch the wall with the back of my thighs in Tadasana – can anyone?
I liked the comedy moments such as when he declared ‘if your things are burning, I‘m happy’, or when he quoted My Iyengar saying once ‘At least I know I am doing Iyengar yoga, God knows what the rest of you are doing!’.
We were reminded to be more in the back body in all the poses. When we did Adho Mukha Virasana after Ustrasana, the second pose felt so different to the pose often do at the start of class, because of the equal length in both the front and back body.
I am so glad that I was able to attend this day. I went away feeling so much lighter and more content to just ‘be’.
Grateful thanks to the SADIYA crew for organising a wonderful event.
Kim

Social Evening at Sheffield Yoga Centre

The annual Indian themed fund-raising social at Sheffield Yoga Centre (270, Burgoyne Rd, S6 5AR) on Saturday evening was agreat success and more than £800 were raised in aid of Calcutta Rescue (an Indian based charity).  
Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh and his wife, Parizad, were guests of honour for this evening, which also included a 'Black Cat Theatre Indian Puppet Show' with Diana Bayliss, which was amazing last year, Indian dance, music and food.

If you missed it but would like to contribute to this donation, it is not too late. Please email info@sheffieldyogacentre.co.uk or phone 0114 2346475 / 07944. 169238.