Health

Teach Yourself Yoga: Now is the Time

Teach Yourself Yoga: Now is the Time

It feels like it’s breathing down my neck, this pandemic. Thankfully, my immediate friends, family and I are all safe. I feel, though, for the world’s hotspots, especially my native U.S. And I’m aware that my protected status could change any time. The real danger of bushfires is that they can be transformed capriciously by a shift in the wind. This virus can attack us as a result of contact with a sick person, at any time or place.

So in this uncertain period, I depend more than ever on my yoga practice. I am blessed to have developed a dependable yoga practice over forty-nine years.

Self Yoga Retreat: My First Week

Self Yoga Retreat: My First Week

This was the first week of Corona Time when I was not teaching yoga. Not because of holidays or my being ill, but as a community service. I didn’t want to stop, but by talking it over with my dear husband, I arrived at, ‘this is the right thing to do.’

I wasn’t the first yoga studio to close, but I think I was a week ahead of most of the ones I know. I couldn’t quite stop, though. What’s the harm of a pop-up class on the beach? I did end up running a morning session on Sunday at Main Beach, Old Bar.

Happy 75th from Roads and Maritime Services

Happy 75th from Roads and Maritime Services

Bad News?  My first birthday greeting arrived this week, way too early. It was well in advance of my December 75th. It was a stark reminder that I am heading for my 'last quarter', as my housemate Michael calls it. What was this greeting? Roads and Maritime...

Breast Screening Check-ups: Yogis Do It Too

Breast Screening Check-ups: Yogis Do It Too

I told an eighty year old friend that I visited the BreastScreen van every two years. She said, ‘Why do that? After age 70, you don’t have to worry about breast cancer anymore.’ Not true.

This is the true story from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which is a fantastic on-line resource.

Cancer rates begin to increase after age 40 and are highest in women over age 70. (The median age of diagnosis of breast cancer for women in the U.S. is 62.)

Take Care: It’s Good Yoga Practice

Take Care: It’s Good Yoga Practice

Welcome to Take Care
From today Yoga Suits Her blog will feature daily posts relating to taking very good care of oneself. Being kind to oneself. Practising self-care.

Why do I want to emphasise self-care at this time? Because I’ve noticed recently that I haven’t been doing well in this department.

I have much room for improvement in the area of self-care. And maybe you do too. Little things, like resting when I’m tired, taking time to prepare meals carefully and eating mindfully. […]

Awash in Gratitude: Yoga, Choir and Pool Communities

Awash in Gratitude: Yoga, Choir and Pool Communities

Pool community
Do you ever feel overcome by feelings of gratitude for the communities to which you belong? I feel awash in gratitude each time I participate in the little pool community at Old Bar Beach. During the warm weather, I wake early, excited by the prospect of an aquarobics session at the pool. 
I should let you know that I was born in Chicago, far from the ocean. Then, as an adolescent I lived in the desert town of Tucson, Arizona. As a consequence, I lacked many of the things that Aussies take for granted. […]

Insomnia Busters for Any Age or Stage

Insomnia Busters for Any Age or Stage

 
Insomnia: The Night Prowler
There was a time when I slept the sleep of the innocent. That was in the dim distant past.
Menopause first threw a spanner in the machine, with its 3-4am wake-ups. Once I was wide awake, too bad, that was it for the night.
Man-o-pause sleep, I’ve heard, isn’t any better. No matter what our gender, eventually we all succumb. What is it? The influence of waning hormones?
Recently, my husband went to The Sleep Clinic to investigate the cause of his brand of insomnia. Its likely cause is sleep apnoea. […]

Women's Yoga: 5 Reasons to Stop Practicing Yoga Like a Man

Women's Yoga: 5 Reasons to Stop Practicing Yoga Like a Man

Some years ago I attended a yoga teacher–friend’s class and shared a cup of tea with one of his female students after class. When my friend’s student heard that I specialized in yoga for women she confided that she suffered debilitating menstrual pain every month. I asked her if she still attended my friend’s yoga class during her period. She replied that yes, of course she did, she just took a pain-killer as she didn’t want to miss her ‘yoga-fix’. “So how do you feel after you do the class?” I enquired, curious, because my friend’s classes were of the dynamic, yang, make-you-sweat type. “Oh, I feel worse!” she replied, resignedly.

Balance and Sustainability: Yoga Helps

Balance and Sustainability: Yoga Helps

A human body cannot continually be pushed, with the pendulum swinging widely between extreme behaviours. Maintaining a sense of well-being for as long as possible is only really likely if we can opt as much as possible for the middle ground during our lives and seek balance in all things.

The Dreaded 'D' Word

The Dreaded 'D' Word

 Let’s not talk about the ‘D’ wordWhen I was growing up, it was the ‘C’ word that was unspeakable. Thankfully, we can now call cancer by its name. Those who are afflicted with cancer don’t have to be ashamed any more of having a disease that is often life-threatening. They can openly seek comfort and support from friends and family.This is not always the case with another serious condition – depression. Those who suffer with depression may feel the stigma of a mental disorder. […]

2015: The Beginning Sets the Tone

2015: The Beginning Sets the Tone

Beginnings and Another Birthday
This blog, ‘Yoga Suits Her’, has a birthday and it’s New Year’s Eve 2009. That makes her five years old.
I think you’ll agree that the expression ‘time flies’ is a truism. But as a septuagenarian, I have to say time gallops. With age, I feel slower, but the tempo of time beats faster. You’ll see!

One thousand eighty posts into ‘Yoga Suits Her’, I can still remember sitting down to write my first one. That old post seems so tentative, almost shy, compared to what I write now. […]

Yoga and Sciatica: Lessons Learned

Yoga and Sciatica: Lessons Learned

 
The other night at the cinema, riveted by a documentary called “Once My Mother”, I felt a sudden stab of pain in the back of my left leg. I felt like jumping up and running out of the theatre, the pain was so acute. I thought, oh no, sciatica!
My innate good manners had me sit relatively still, all the while praying that the agonising discomfort would go away as suddenly as it had arrived. I tried to do a surreptitious yoga stretch, the one called ‘through-the-hole pose’. […]

Old Age: What's the Big Deal?

Old Age: What's the Big Deal?

In the lead-up to my 70th birthday in December, I’ve been playing with the idea of declaring myself old. This is my way of getting used to the idea. After all, at some point I have to own my age, and ‘old’ is just a word, isn’t it?
I know there are many people of advanced years who don’t want to own up to their age. For the most part in our society, old has a pejorative connotation. Middle aged isn’t so bad. Being called a senior is still on the soft side. […]

Yoga is Perfect for Seniors

Yoga is Perfect for Seniors

via Pinterest
I admire older individuals who put aside their fears and considerations and come to yoga for the first time. These 50 to 80 year olds are what I call the ‘grey warriors’. By joining a class at this late stage, they are setting off on the adventure of a lifetime. […]

Meditation: All in good time

Meditation: All in good time

via pinterest – calmdownnow.com
There’s a reason meditation is recommended as a tool for training a busy mind to become quiet. Because, if you give meditation a go and stick with it, like yoga, it works.
I’ve had a patchy history of the sticking-with-it part of the equation, although I have tried doing meditation on and off over the years. […]

When You Fall Off the Yoga Wagon….

When You Fall Off the Yoga Wagon….

It’s hard. It’s very hard. It’s just plain hard, and that’s all there is to it.

When you fall off the yoga practice wagon and try to clambour back on, it’s difficult to find the muscles you need.

I’m talking about those events that upset your disciplined routine: going on extended holidays, being laid low with an illness, moving house, or suffering a big emotional upset.

I have an expectation that because I said I’m going to get back into my practice as soon as I’m on home ground that I will. No so. […]

Vive La Yoga Difference

Vive La Yoga Difference

In a world where yoga is practiced everywhere and at all times, global travelers who want to sample different schools and styles are fortunate to have countless classes at the tips of their fingers.
This last week I experienced an unimaginable contrast in the two yoga classes I attended, one in Boston, the other in New York City.
Jamaica Plain (Boston) is a lively neighborhood where ethnic assimilation is still going on. Eateries include African, Asian and European cuisines. […]

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