Commitment, effort, time and patience – interview with Filipa Ribeiro (Yoga Shala Matosinhos)

When did you start practicing yoga? What brought you to it?

It was in 2006 that I attended some yoga classes at a gym and my immediately answer was a big ‘no’ to yoga. But in the same year I started studying and practicing meditation, to which I said ‘yes’. I started practicing yoga for real in 2009. Maybe those years practicing meditation prepared my mind to the asana practice that I would start only three years later? I was very fortunate with my first yoga teacher, Dario Garrido, who introduced me not only to asana practice, but also to pranayama and meditation. He was generous enough to share some of his practices with me at the time he usually practiced: at 5 am. That first immersion in yoga practice had a huge impact on me and allowed me to perceive yoga as more than a physical activity or a complement to other activities. In a nutshell, I would say that three things brought me to yoga: curiosity, self-inquiry and a tremendous need to know more about myself and life, and a deep, unexplainable love for yoga as a tool for a deeper understanding of the mindset and heartset. This could not be possible if I hadn’t the blessing of studying with very good teachers from the beginning.

And why ashtanga?

Because, for me, it is the best tool for emotional education and self-knowledge that I know. I have always practiced sports and other activities, and I had been practicing hatha yoga for some years when I found ashtanga. Again it is difficult to explain why you deeply love something, you just love it and do your best to honour that love. There were multiple aspects that hooked me into ashtanga, but the main one was and still is the fact that ashtanga yoga is so much more about what you bring to your life off the mat. The impact that this practice has on your health (both physical and mental), the fact that it encourages you to always have a beginners and explorer mind, the fact that each practice is always a new opportunity to unveil and expose deep things about yourself and your different layers, and the beauty of the breath always connected with movement. In sum, ashtanga is a learning tool that amazingly grounds me to what really is important in life. 

And one more thing, a good teacher is fundamental. And Peter Sanson was the teacher (and again I can’t be very precise on the ‘why’ here) that – in a very natural and simple way – made clear the importance of this practice. It was back in 2013 and he still is a very deep inspiration for me. Somehow he touched and moved something in me that no other teacher was able to, though I admire ALL the yoga teachers with whom I have practiced with so far. With absolutely no load of technique, ‘theory’, ‘philosophy’ or whatever he just shows in the mysore room what this simple thing called yoga is about.

You run your shala in Matosinhos (Porto). Could you tell me about its begginings?

This shala in Matosinhos started in my living room where I taught mostly hatha yoga and just a few classes of ashtanga. Some of my neighbours knew I was studying and practicing yoga and, in an informal way, they started to show up to practice with me. Eventually I opened the doors of my home to everyone who would show up. At the time I was replacing my teacher in his shala when he couldn’t teach or was travelling; he was very important in giving me the confidence to face a group of students. It took a long time until I could feel comfortable teaching as I am always daunted for what I still don’t know. But what really stroked me to share yoga with others was the experience of teaching yoga, as a volunteer, to prisoners in a jail. I started a project called ‘Yoga in chains’ trying that every jail in Portugal had a yoga teacher volunteering to teach there. I succeeded in some towns and I taught on a jail during 2 years. It had a very deep impact on me as I could witness the real power of yoga in transforming people’s lives, even people that you don’t often see in a yoga studio. More or less two years later, in the beginning of 2018, I moved from my living room to our shala and that was also when I started a daily mysore program for the first time in Porto. I must mention that Vera Simões, from Ashtanga Cascais, was very important for me to take the courage and dare to run a daily mysore program. When she first came to our shala to teach a workshop she told a story when someone told her more or less that it is not honest to teach other type of yoga when your daily practice is ashtanga. That resonated with me and since then the mysore daily classes are running with its natural ups and downs, even when I have to conciliate that with another job and other commitments. 

Is it difficult to run such a traditional yoga school?

Well, I think that the first years of any endeavour are always very hard for most people. It is true that running a shala has given me the opportunity to learn hard lessons about how people are and behave, which is enriching and provides me the opportunity to learn how to love more and better the others and myself, which is the ultimate goal.

It’s not being easy, especially while teaching ashtanga as there are many resistances to this practice when taught in the ‘traditional’ way. Ashtanga faces people with 4 things that they like to avoid: commitment, effort, time and patience. And if you’re not willing to work on these four aspects, your motivation to practice ashtanga will wein. 

I don’t know how it looks like in Portugal – in Poland people are often afraid of mysore classes, they are used to the fact that teacher tells them what to do.

Yes, here it is as in Poland. I still have to teach hatha yoga classes and most people still prefer that format. The same way as most people still practice yoga at gyms or just shift form studio to studio for the sake of diversity and all the other entertainments that the market of yoga offers nowadays. That’s just how it is. Each thing for each person comes in the right moment. But we have to bear in mind that yoga is a very simple thing. And I try to keep that simplicity and authenticity in the shala. Some time ago, I read a text by Yan Ong in which she said that running a mysore programme is a yoga practice by itself because there is “a slew of hidden sacrifices to put the teachings before their own personal ratifications such as their practice, social life, whom give without the need of being celebrated”. It’s true that in this age of social media, this type of teachers is quite rare. But there are a few things that I remind myself on a daily basis when I first enter in the shala and think of my purpose: 1) be myself; 2) deliver 10x what you receive; 3) honour your references; 4) be aware that you don’t know everything; 5) work diligently the challenge of (What I know) vs (What students need to know) vs (What I teach); 6) radiate positivity and honesty even when it’s hard, 7) do your best to leave people bigger than you find them, 8) learn to forgive when you are wrong. That is yoga. All the rest is just the set for you to work on those things. 

Today a lot of teachers constantly travel around the world. Do you think it is important for a yoga teacher to have their place where they work regularily to create a community?

You know Eleanor Roosevelt once said that “comparison is the thief of joy”. So yes, a few times I found myself wishing I could just be travelling around the world teaching every now and then, but when that happens I know that I am just tired and need a good night of sleep and step onto the mat next morning ☺ I think travelling is quite important, but when you do it in silence, for yourself (and your dear ones if that’s the case), as a personal inquiry or to study with your teachers, I mean… it should not be to make a career posting every step of the way on Instagram! The way I am seeing it now, if you turn that into a lifestyle for teaching, I think, at least for most people, they just lose what there is to be learnt with travelling and teaching yoga. In teaching ashtanga yoga, partly for what I said in the previous question, it is very important to settle down and give yourself to others. I believe it is the best way to observe the patterns of your students (which is what actually makes you grow as an ashtanga teacher), their struggles, to show them that they can rely on you whenever they need, that you are there when there’s sun, storms, and rain, that you are there even when you wanted to stay longer in bed or you’d rather be travelling ☺ That you are there with your energy, your assertiveness, your compassion, your love even in those days when you feel wrecked. As Iyengar said, your purpose as a teacher is to help your students to be satvic. In order to achieve that, sometimes you have to be rajasic, satvic as well, but most of all you need to be present, you need to be there for them. To create a safe place where they can be with themselves, encourage them to be in silence with themselves, not imposing on them a way of thinking, a way of feeling, just letting them be. That’s what people need. They don’t need expensive retreats or fancy yoga gear; they need to learn in silence. Of course that is not as profitable for a teacher as running retreats here and there ☺ That said, it doesn´t mean that you can’t create communities elsewhere and go there on a regular basis; that is what allows me to study with all the teachers I practice with. 

But the sadhana of being in your shala day after day to give the Ashtanga experience to students with love, no matter of what you get back, consistently hold space and stand solid as others go through their mood changes, energy shifts, inconsistencies, ego struggles and behavioural swings is a spiritual practice that I am valuing more at the moment. How can you show people that yoga is there to support your life if you’re constantly moving away? In addition, there are students who inspire you so much, to watch them building their sadhana is a beautiful and inspiring thing to me. Even in a difficult place like Matosinhos (Porto), when you are still paving the way for ashtanga yoga as I learnt it from my teachers. Even in asana practice, if you want to grow as a teacher, you should know how and when to modify the practice for your student’s needs. And a mysore room is the perfect place to do that because everyone can go at their own pace. But, you know, as Nietzsche said every phase is necessary. 

You said about building community from the teacher’s perspecitve – how does it look like for students, can you see that they are building relationships with each other? Is it important for them that they meet each other every day (or almost every day) in the shala? I run my very small mysore program in Warsaw and it’s a big pleasure for me to observe my students and their relationships that often move beyond the shala.

I think that community building is most beautiful, though it can work many ways and giver many turns. I am that kind of person who values a lot small human details. So, yes, I love when students meet each other and build relationships among themselves. From the beggining, I have tried to create moments for all the students to meet. Those gatherings are also an opportunity for you to know other dimensions of your students. The depth of one's practice is related to how deep one can dive into him or herself, through practice. That is an incredible jorney, but sometimes we can feel weary, so it is importante to be around people who share the same interests, the same goals, the same hardships, but in a different perspective. The mysore program here in Matosinhos is also still very small, but yes,I think the web is being slowly built. And I intend to keep being the faciliattor to that: observing, promoting meetings and gatherings, encouraging. In big cities or dizzy towns like Matosinhos, I think those self-raised communities are very important as the majority of people is living very fragmented lives.

What is the most important thing you have learned thanks to yoga practice? What is the most crucial thing you want to share with your students?

The experience and the comprobation that I am not my body, that I am not my emotions. That, with patience, everything is possible. The most crucial thing I want to share is: first, love yourself and each other, second: know yourselves. Self-knowledge is still the greatest need of every human being, so I just wish to share some love and work that encourage my students to do that. To keep learning and the value of knowledge and of love above all. 

Filipa Ribeiro - she is passionate about yoga and a devoted student. she began her studies in meditation in 2006 and Yoga in 2009, and started practicing ashtanga yoga in 2012. In 2013, she studied 1 year with Elena Figarola in Barcelona, and since then she has been studying annually with Peter Sanson, Hamish Hendry, Petri Räisanen, Harmony Slater and Vera Simões. In 2015, she did a teacher training in ashtanga yoga with David Swenson. she have studied and still studies the method Iyengar Yoga with Profª. Leonor Castilho (Centro Iyengar Porto). she also studied and still studies the yogic scriptures under the guidance of qualified teachers. as she sais: “I am just someone who practices yoga as I was taught and I understand that being a teacher is just to be a student who teaches what she/he has learnt and found. Also teaching makes me a better student”.
Apart from yoga, she has a diverse background from science communication, educational sciences, sociology and biology. 

Photos 1, 2 & 6: Fabio Kerr, 3, 4, 5 & 7: Filipa’s archive