Category Archives: Uncategorized

Eve’s “Legs-Up-the-Wall” Video

With some encouragement, I’ve dipped my toe in the water of yoga video production. Here’s the first of what will be a series of how-to-use-props for yoga poses, especially for a restorative effect.

Here at the Yoga Shed, I have the reputation for being the Prop Queen. I’ve introduced many of the locals to the wonders of being propped up in poses as diverse as shoulder stand (sarvangasana) and bridge pose (setu bandhasana).

I know the use of props can be an acquired taste so I’m hoping my videos will make these yoga tools more interesting and accessible to more people.

Let me know what you think. Video-ing is like yoga practice – a work in progress .  (I know that the sound isn’t great.  We’ll try to sort that out before we make make the next in the series.)

Skeptical, Open and Receptive, or Somewhere In Between?

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I caught myself eavesdropping on a compelling conversation at the hairdresser’s this afternoon. In short, a woman was talking about having held a séance at her home where a few supernatural events occurred. For one thing, the table at which the group sat moved across the room.

I think your ears would have perked up, too. These days, with the proximity of our phone cameras, skeptics can demand photo proof, and, in fact, this woman had taken a pic of the displaced table. However, a movie would have been more conclusive.

What followed the séance story was fascinating to me. Of the four people in the salon besides myself, three had had paranormal experiences, and one was my hairdresser. I felt a little like a wallflower when he turned to me and asked if I believed in such phenomenon as ghosts, poltergeists, and clairvoyance.

You don’t want to put the person who holds the key to your good looks offside, so I was as diplomatic as I could be. I said that I was skeptical because I’d never had a psychic experience, but nevertheless, I do try to be open-minded.

I admit, immersed as I was in these stories for an hour or so, I would periodically get goose bumps. Do you remember that wonderful fascination and horror you experienced when you were a girl or boy scout, camping out and telling ghost stories around the fire?

I love the tales of yoga figures like Paramahansa Yogananda who possessed extraordinary faculties called siddhis. And, I enjoy movies and t.v., like True Blood which feature “supes” of all kinds.

When I left the salon with my new cut and colour, I was in a kind of mystical mood that I was in no hurry to shake off.

Here’s an earlier post on yoga and supernatural powers.

Inconvenient Convenience

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I was talking on skype today to my sister who’s about 10 years older than I. There are any number of things in her life that she’s have trouble dealing with, one of them being bureaucracy. At her advanced age, she has to have more and more of these sorts of bureaucratic transactions, with health funds and inconvenient government departments.

I’m willing to listen to her complaints up to a certain point because I imagine myself in her place. She will soon be 79 years old, and while she is mentally competent, she is technologically way behind.

Presented with phone ‘menus’ where she might make the wrong choice about whom to talk to or end up in a queue for 15-30 minutes or worse lose the connection and have to start over, she becomes angry or defeated. She doesn’t have a computer, so there’s no internet banking or on-line shopping or email, transactions that are supposed to make our lives more convenient.

I’m not a techno whiz by any stretch of the imagination. My clever husband has held my hand and led me through the broadbands and bandwidths of the computer world until I’ve been ready to get off my training wheels.

One thing this machine has taught me is that it doesn’t work to get mad at it. Dare I say that I’ve learned that frustration and temper tantrums are symptomatic of deeper feelings of powerlessness.

I’m afraid sometimes that I won’t be able to keep up with technology, that I will end up on the top shelf, past my use-by date like my 5 year old computer.

On the other hand, I could end up with more time to walk on the beach, do some gardening, or pay you a visit.

 

 

 

Musings from the Blogosphere

Source: ciaomom.com via MiMi on Pinterest

 

I have an author/illustrator friend who is about to launch himself into the blogosphere. When that event happens, his blog is one that you will definitely want to visit, and I’m anticipating sharing his address with you.

I’ve read that blogs are passé. If I believed that, I would feel sad, so I choose not to acknowledge that theory. This daily writing I do is a total joy for me (most of the time); it must be because I’ve been blogging for seven years. That’s quite something in the blogosphere; most of these on-line diaries only last a few months.

Along the way, I’ve been rather loose in my attachment to giving you yoga information, content you would expect to get on a site called “Yoga Suits Her”. But, I’ve just followed my instinct, and each day I write mainly what’s in my heart, what’s in the moment. Because I’m so devoted to yoga, these posts are often yoga-related – but yoga as related to my everyday life and experience, as much as possible.

Today for some reason, the hits on this blog trebled. I check my stats a few times a day, and I feel good when my numbers are up and somewhat deflated when they are down. Why do I do that?

Just human.

Aussie Gums

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Yoga teacher as Beginners

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I’m sorry to say that last year I made myself miserable as I participated in a weeklong printmaking in Bellingen.

Of course I didn’t realise I was making myself unhappy. I believed it was circumstantial – meaning i thought it was the fault of someone or something else that my work wasn’t as good as others’.

This year I’m enrolled in the same course, same teacher, same place, but I decided I needed an attitude change. Since the problems I had last time were due to being overly competitive, I decided I’d try on loosening up and having fun.

I’d like to say the quality of my work has improved but I’m not sure that’s true. However in class today I got an unexpected gift: real learning. The insight i had regarding learning seems so obvious that I’m embarrassed to tell it.

Because I wasn’t competing with myself or anyone else, I could experiment with what I was creating – mess around a little more, make mistakes, make another print with a slightly technique, and just play around.

I also had a wander around the classroom viewing the other 14 students’ work without feeling judgmental or envious – just interested.

The really interesting thing is that I heard people who seemed like they were doing pretty good stuff or even great looking work say derogatory comments about it.

It was only day one for me but it was a brand new day, and tomorrow might be one, too.

South Island, N.Z., Here We Come

It might seem like piking out.

I’ve been diligently presenting Patanjali’s Sutra in these posts for many months. And, I still have more to go – three Sutra from Chapter III and all of Chapter IV to offer you.

But neighbouring New Zealand beckons to us for a well-deserved holiday, and so I’ll put a bookmark in my six or seven Patanjali commentaries. Then, you can count on me to resume my postings in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, you’ll probably be seeing a few photos like this one on ‘Yoga Suits Her’ so stay tuned!

A Sutra a Day: III-34 – Hearts and Minds

I’ve spoken in earlier blog posts about the workshops that I’ve been involved in for two decades that are produced by the Human Awareness Institute. This last weekend Daniel and I were at one of these HAI workshop in the Hunter Valley.

What are they? I could describe them in various ways. The levels of the workshops have different themes, the first one is called ‘Love is a Miracle’. Level 2 is ‘Loving Yourself’ and the next level is ‘Living at Choice’. I would say the common learning in all of the levels is about how to be a more loving and authentic person – how to be someone who is true to herself and lives in her heart.

The heart has several meanings. There’s the muscle which pumps blood through our bodies, and then there’s the emotional centre where we experience sentiments of joy or sadness, grief or happiness. This latter meaning is closer the yogic idea of the heart which links closely to conscious thinking.

It’s said that by carefully observing the region of the heart we can grasp the very origin of thoughts. B.K.S. Iyengar says in his commentary on Patanjali’s Sutra, that a yogi can then tap into the source of his being.

Developing great powers of concentration as we do in the practices of dharana and dhyana, delivers quiet and calm, like a still mountain lake. We can see to the bottom of such a lake because there is not a hint of turbulence.

Hrdaye cittasamvit

Samyama on the heart will definitely reveal the qualities of the mind.*

*Patanjali’s Yogasutras, translation and commentary by T.K.V. Desikachar.

 

Pausing to Recharge My Batteries

Setubandhasana

I have a sore throat. And a scratchy cough. And a voice that’s not very dependable, like a junior kookaburra practising his chortle.

I pulled down the big B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga the Path to Holistic Health and intuitively turned to the therapeutic practice for sinus congestion.

It is so good! I’m not cured but not snuffling and hacking.

The most powerful poses are upside downs:

Uttanasana

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Uttanasana

Sirsasana

Viparita Dandasana

Halasana

Sarvangasana

Setubandha Sarvangasana

Viparita Karani

Details about Iyengar’s wonderful book can be found on the ‘Bookshelf’ page of this site.

(Good for hay fever attacks where there is extreme sinus congestion.)

A Sutra a Day: III-33 – Spontaneous Understanding

Years ago, a woman who was doing yoga teacher training with me wanted to discuss whether it was right for teachers to use their practice time to prepare for classes. In other words, instead of putting oneself in a devotional frame of mind for practising asanas, pranayama and meditation, a teacher might want to use her practice to try out particular sequencing or unfamiliar postures, for the purpose of presenting a better class.

I’m not sure about right or wrong; I work both ways. At the beginning of the week, I pick a theme that I want to teach, and then I refine it in each of my practice sessions. By my last class of the week, my presentation is fairly seamless, as I’ve been giving myself feedback in each session.

Other times, I practice completely according to intuition: what is it that I feel I need in the moment? What branches of the tree of yoga do I pick from? What fits with the climate, or my mood, or my physical condition?

There is one other way that I choose what I practice. I have 7 Arch Binders that I use to store yoga practices saved over a 20 year period. They are filed under ‘Special Needs’ or ‘Philosophy’ or ‘Anatomy’, for instance. I also have 3 shelves of yoga books, many of them containing programs from experienced teachers: Eric Schiffman, Donna Fahri, Judith Lasater, Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden, B.K.S. Iyengar, and more. And, of course I have the YogaAnywhere practice cards.

The more experience a practitioner has the easier it is to choose direction. There’s less stop and start, less doubt, more clarity that comes from calmness. The goal is in sight. The citta vrtti are being soothed.

Pratibhadva sarvam

Anything can be understood. With each attempt fresh and spontaneous understanding arises.*

*Patanjali’s Yogasutras, translation and commentary by T.K.V. Desikachar.