Forty Plus Years of Personal Yoga Practice

Forty Plus Years of Personal Yoga Practice

by | Jul 6, 2015 | Yoga practices, Yoga Teacher Training

 Fitting in Personal Yoga PracticeI had a stimulating conversation with my friend and student, Alexa Nehter last week. We discussed an age-old problem: how do yoga students and teachers fit in a regular yoga practice? We are all so busy! I’m semi-retired, and even though I don’t have a job to go to each morning, I’m too busy, too.Sadly, busy is a cliche. So is the expression, ‘Everyone has the same twenty-four hours in the day.’ While it is undoubtedly true, we have careers, kids, relationships, mortgages, and HOUSEWORK. […]

Yoga and Sciatica: Lessons Learned

Yoga and Sciatica: Lessons Learned

by | Nov 1, 2014 | Anatomy, Healing, Health, sciatica, XToolKit, Yoga Therapy

 
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’. […]

Losing Gracefully

Losing Gracefully

by | Sep 1, 2014 | Age, Inversions, XAging, Yoga practices

From the above title, you might think I’m going to be writing about a tennis match or a disagreement with my spouse.
But no, this is much more serious. I’m talking about losing memory, losing faculties, and losing muscle strength. I’m talking about The March of Time.
I came across an excellent blog post this week from Eve Johnson, another tribute to yoga guru, B.K.S. Iyengar. She got me thinking about the process of ageing. I know, I know, I’m getting obsessed with this topic.
I think I’m doing ageing reasonably well. […]

A Light's Gone Out, But the Fire Still Burns

A Light's Gone Out, But the Fire Still Burns

by | Aug 25, 2014 | Community, XCommunity, XTeaching, Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga teaching 

 

In 1978 I fell under the spell of a yoga teacher named Martyn Jackson. Martyn taught a kind of yoga that he’d learned in Pune, India from his teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar.He alleged that, in the sixties, he was one of few western students to study with Mr. Iyengar.
Martyn went to Pune from New Zealand to undertake one-to-one lessons with Mr. Iyengar. He had a story about arriving on Mr. […]

Yoga Outreach – Good for You and Me and All of Us

Yoga Outreach – Good for You and Me and All of Us

by | Sep 27, 2013 | Community, XCommunity, Yoga practices

via pinterest

The definition of yoga is union. Everyone knows that. Yoga is about cultivating a feeling, a being with, all that is – sentient beings, the planet and the universe. But, let’s face it, in our busy lives, we don’t always practice this aim of yoga.

Happily, at the same time yoga popularity has swept the globe, outreach programs are proliferating, too, as a way of practising connection with others. Witness Sean Corn’s extraordinary activism work with ‘Yoga Off the Mat Into the World’ and B.K.S. […]

Families of Yoga Poses: Seated Poses

Families of Yoga Poses: Seated Poses

by | Jul 25, 2013 | Anatomy, Families of Poses, Healing, Yoga practices

 

The laughing yogini pictured above (me, c. 1989) is demonstrating the seated pose called Samakonasana. Most people would be crying rather than feeling light-hearted in this position, as they struggled with the combination of external hip rotation and hamstring stretch. The technique that B.K.S. Iyengar describes in Light On Yoga for getting into this pose doesn’t make the pose one bit more user-friendly. […]

The Self-Declared Yoga Prop Queen

The Self-Declared Yoga Prop Queen

by | Jul 2, 2013 | Video, XTeaching, Yoga practices, Yoga teaching , Yoga Therapy

If you know me as a teacher, you probably also know that I am the Prop Queen. It would be a rare class where I taught without the students using props. I find they are beneficial for beginners to advanced students for a variety of reasons, and they work great for me in my personal practice.
I wasn’t always like this. I learned hatha yoga originally like a lot of people do in a community hall with a hard wooden floor, well before the advent of non-skid mats. […]

Yoga for All Seasons – Especially When You’re Under the Weather

Yoga for All Seasons – Especially When You’re Under the Weather

by | Jun 28, 2013 | Healing, Health, Yoga practices

It started early this week, a feeling of blocked sinuses accompanied by congestion at the back of my throat. A feeling of yuk that unfortunately had the affect of leaking testiness into my intimate relationships. Sadly, it took me fully a day to realise that physical symptoms of my cold and sore throat had blighted my spirit, too.
This is where forgiveness comes in handy. […]

Practice Makes Pleasure

Practice Makes Pleasure

by | Apr 8, 2013 | Philosophy, Pleasure, Yoga practices, Yoga Sequences, Yoga teaching 

Source: yoga.in via Allied on Pinterest

 
I can tell when students in my classes have taken up doing home practice. I’m such an old hand at figuring this out that I can even guess at how many practices a week they do.
What is it that gives them away? Well, these students are continuously improving in their poses. How quickly they evolve is in direct relationship to how much personal practice they do.
Another thing is the high level of attention these yoga practitioners have when they attend classes. […]