Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

On the cusp of the Falls Forest 3-day yoga retreat which begins tomorrow, I can’t help but think of the many wonderful times over the years we enjoyed at Camp Berringa, in the lower Blue Mountains. Pleasurable times, but transformative, too.
Yogis who understand what yoga is all about will book into one or more retreats a year to experience the magical conjunction of our body/minds in Nature.
Being in a natural setting is restful in and of itself. The combination of yoga and a gentle environment renews that part of us that is bone-tired. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Great Kidney Poses

Two very important organs of your body nestle under the back ribs and serve as a vital filtration system for wastes. The kidney organs work to pass urine through the ureters to your bladder for storage and elimination.
If you get extremely run down, you may develop an ache in your lower back that is not muscular and arises when the adrenal glands, situated near the kidneys get overstimulated.
Traditionally, the family of poses that are meant to soothe the adrenals and tone the kidneys are forward stretches. […]

Hope for Yoga Teacher Trainees

Hope for Yoga Teacher Trainees

Brook McCarthy has written useful advice for yoga teachers in her recent e-newsletter. Basing her comments on the premise that are so many yoga teacher trainees being churned out of the many programs available, she suggests the market will be soon saturated and teachers will not be able to make a living out of just teaching. Her solution? Diversify. Take up writing and speaking. Become a teacher trainer or mentor. Or, “go hard and narrow”, as Brook describes it. […]

Squirming

Squirming

I’m sitting here thinking about what to write, and it’s not coming easily, after having taken the night off yesterday. I excused myself because of attending an out-of-town wedding. But I’m not going to let myself wiggle out of this tonight because this is one of my disciplines.
See, that’s how I’ve trained myself to be. Pick myself up and put myself down on my yoga mat or on my Fit Ball in front of the computer, day after day, and stay there until the job is done.
Well, that’s not enough, of course. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Trouble in Paradise

Anyone who regularly reads “Yoga Suits Her” will know that I speak glowingly about my life in the beautiful surroundings of Mitchells Island.You can also read the story of the small, intentional community we’ve set up here.) Usually I’m a pretty positive and happy person, I think, in the midst of our island paradise. But last night I sorely tested myself and the merits of all my wonderful yoga philosophy when I was at a cocktail party (yes, alcohol does pass my lips) and spoke my mind, revealing a provocative personal opinion. […]

Unplug

I thought it a good idea to modify my position on computer technology just slightly after yesterday’s enthusiastic rave about my new iPad keyboard.
Electronic gadgets can be addictive for certain kinds of obsessive personalities – like mine. Maybe yours too?
There was a cartoon that appeared in an Australian yoga calendar a few yeas back depicting a yogini “resting” in Viparita Karani (legs-up-the-wall), arms loosely overhead with a mobile phone in her hand. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Least Resistance

Eve’s technology landmarks:
•Encountering the internet in the USA in 1994 and thinking, gee, that’s cool, I wonder what it can do.
•Getting my first computer, a Mac, in 1996 so I could use the keyboard to write my book, Teach Yourself Yoga. (Email, a curiosity then, later became for me a sort of cyber umbilical back to my overseas sisters.)
•Being one of the first Aussie yoga school directors to launch a website, simply yoga.com.au, in the year 2000.
•Being among the first wave of iPhone owners.
•Blogging continuously since 2007.
•(Today) Using an iPad keyboard. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Our Incredible Shrinking Beach

On my return from holidays, I was quite shocked to hear that our closest beach had lost about a half kilometer of it’s length as a result of recent flooding and storms. That’s a big chunk.
The area concerned is at the mouth of the Manning River, but the dunes all along in a southerly direction to Old Bar Beach are seriously eroded too.
A sad part of our loss is the potential encroachment of the sea on the little tern breeding ground. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Happy Hips

“Lazy Dog Pose” is one for the yoga therapy tool box, especially for hip osteoarthritis sufferers who can use it to postpone their need for surgery..
Another pose that can create release in the afflicted hip is this elevated lunge position:

If you can work with a helper, the following pose can offer relief:

When I had double hip surgery about 1-1/2 years ago, my practice of yoga had managed to forestall the operation for many years. […]

The Year of the Mother

I’ve seen, over this year, the passing of many of my friends’ mothers, including my husband’s.
No matter what the relationship to one’s mother, her death seems to exert a powerful sorting process on the psyches of her progeny. Even my mother-in-law’s death in the USA this year seemed to have a gravitational pull back to Australia, dragging up an assortment of feelings related to my family.
Yesterday I heard of the recent death of the mother of a colleague. She was of a very advanced age and died peacefully, but I still felt sad. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Flying Home with Patanjali

Once the aircraft’s doors have been armed, and the plane has lifted off the tarmac, wing flaps up, I enter a no-time zone. This works better for me than trying to figure out time zone changes and strategise how to wrest the most sleep out of the worst sleeping conditions possible. We’re now about an hour out of Aukland, and it’s 2:15 am in Sydney. I’ve had about 2.5 hours sleep on a 10 hour flight, in fits and starts. Disturbed sleep seems like a perfect scenario for practicing pranayama and meditation. […]

Yoga Retreats, Now and Then

Selfless Service

The Hindu concept of “Seva” can be deemed an expression of yoga practice; it might be defined as spiritual action born out of compassion to serve others.
I’m keenly aware of the kind service and accommodation our various hosts have given to Daniel and me in our travels around the U.S. […]