Next to Godliness

Next to Godliness

Did you know there is a past tense of the word forego and it is forwent? Just so you don’t think I’m being showy when I say, I forwent my regular yoga practice this morning. I substituted 18 minutes on the stationary bike and two hours of cleaning the yoga studio.
Once you’ve seen the 72 squares space I practice in, you’ll wonder how someone could spend so much time tarting it up. Well, the usual dusting and vacuuming was de rigeur, as well as shifting spiders and skinks to the garden. […]

The Element of Earth

Do you feel like you’re too much in your head sometimes, perhaps even most of the time. I have a great remedy. Make compost.
Take several wheelbarrow loads of grass clippings, throw in a couple of buckets of kitchen scraps, and mix liberally with shovelfuls of horse poo. Deposit the mixture in the compost bed, cover with a tarp and let “cook” for some time. […]

I'm back!

As of today, I’m announcing to the world I’m back on deck teaching – in the Yoga Shed at Mitchells Island.
Yesterday was exactly 3 months since my surgery, and I’m fit and well. Certainly beach walks, fresh air, green vistas, and daily yoga practice have gone a long way towards my feeling reconstituted. Life is good. […]

Rather Than Wrestle with Stress, Do Restful Yoga

It’s not news to anyone that many of us suffer from a frenetic pace of life these days. Life gets fired at us point blank and we just have to deal with what comes up – often in a way that doesn’t let us take care of our bodies and minds. At the same time, we are fortunate that the popularity of restorative and therapeutic yoga has co-arisen with what seems like an increasingly complicated and stressful world. I live in the country and, as much as I love it, it is not a problem-free lifestyle. […]

Lettuce

Lettuce

I’ve never been properly appreciative of growers, being basically a city girl for most of my life. Produce was always something that you bought at the grocery store. These days you get designer or heritage or organic produce and it tastes like the real deal. […]

Something New Under the Sun

Something New Under the Sun

It’s not often that someone beats me to the yoga room, but Mike did today. So lovely to have his deep appreciation and experience in yoga beaming into the Shed. He did some thoughtful backbends, and I did my arm and shoulder weights routine, followed by an abbreviated yoga practice. Mike exited and Heather entered.
All of us Shedders ended up at the Waterbird Cafe for our regular Saturday morning breakfast, with the SMH quiz to tease our brains.
The beach walk is a daily ritual, you must know by now. […]

Heaven

Heaven

What makes for heaven on earth for you? Reading the SMH at your favourite cafe early in the morning before the brunch crowd arrives? Sleeping in on Sunday morning – I mean all morning – with your darling? Seeing a five star movie that really deserves all of its rating? Maybe your kid gets his first paid work doing something he/she really likes? […]

Home

What a treat! I was able to practice with the Simply Yoga teachers this morning. Sigh. I miss having that routine in my life.
Speaking of routine, I waived my regular yoga practice while staying at the Fallows. Good thing it was only a week long. No walks either, but plenty of drinking and dining at Sydney eating establishments. As a result I feel trendified and rather overfull. […]

What Have I Done?

Perhaps it has something to do with being in the big Sydney smoke these last several days. Away from the purified air of Mitchells Island and the happy routine of my yoga practice.
But I’ve done it now. […]

Finally, I Love Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)

Finally, I Love Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)

I don’t know exactly when the tide turned in favour of doing shoulderstand, but turn it did. Maybe it was 30 years after I started yoga. Was I a masochist for hanging in there for so long? Or merely stubborn? It helped when I discovered supported shoulderstand and halasana. These are the user-friendly approaches to the standard unproved way of doing the poses.

Happiness is a Headstand

Happiness is a Headstand

I know I’ve referred to Sirsasana (headstand) as a happy pose before. It is an individual thing, I realise. But I’m one of those individuals who loves being upside-down on my cranium. If you observed me in Sirsasana, you would hear me sighing profusely as the floor massages my scalp and the underlying plates of my skull. Such an overload of sunny sensations! Oh my!
I’ve heard that the eminent yoga teacher B.K.S. Iyengar doesn’t approve of sensual impressions being the goal of yoga, but sometimes they just come to you unbidden. A gift. […]

Easy-peasy

I participate in an on-line writing group called Scrivener’s: http://aussie-scriveners.blogspot.com/ My motive in joining was that the more writing I do the better writer I become. Each week we write a relatively short story, the theme for which is suggested by a “prompt” by one of the group’s members. […]