Workplace Woes

Workplace Woes

My friend asked for some yoga help for what has been diagnosed as RSI – repetitive strain injury, affecting her radial nerve and fingers. She works in an executive position and is under much stress from deadlines, lots of traveling and long periods at her computer.
Can yoga be of assistance? I think so, but keep in mind, prevention is easier than treatment. A regular yoga practice that deals with restrictions in the upper back, neck and shoulders will most likely keep you out of the physiotherapist’s or osteopath’s rooms.
So will designing your work station ergonomically. […]

Restful and Therapeutic

Restful and Therapeutic

Have you had a hard week and need to recharge your batteries? Or, maybe you’re recovering from poor health? Or, just feeling weekend lazy? Here’s a simple sequence for when you’re feeling sooky.
Supta Badda Konasana Bound-angle pose  Equipment: blanket and a bolster.

Lie back on a bolster or several blankets folded lengthwise to support your back and head.Bend your knees out sideways and bring the soles of your feet together, with your heels as close to the pelvis as possible. Let your back settle and your chest open. […]

Comm-Unity

Comm-Unity

I’ve just come back from singing at our community choir this evening. Four of us drove out together and sang as we went.
I’ve been thinking, writing and talking a lot about the topic of community recently for several reasons. The main one is that I’m going to be speaking on the subject at the April Yoga Australia Conference – http://www.yogaaustraliaconference.org.au/index.php
As a result of all this cogitating, I’ve come to appreciate more and more this thing called community. […]

Between Two Breaths

Between Two Breaths

I’m a late bloomer when it comes to doing yoga breathing exercises (pranayama) and meditation. If you are a person who likes to be active, both mentally and physically, if might take you awhile – perhaps lifetimes – to settle down enough to savour the sweetness of these practices.
Until till then, you’ll be like an untrained puppy, bucking the leash. Probably more like me till more recently.
This morning, at the end of my physical yoga practice, in a lying down position, I played with lengthening my inhalations and exhalations. […]

Getting Older

Now there’s a title to send the reader running out the back door, or checking the bathroom mirror for chin hairs or eBay for exercise bikes.
It’s just a fact of life. Really. We all are getting on.
The Good Weekend Magazine is meeting the need to educate the public  on this topic with “The Getting of Wisdom: Lessons Learnt from Life” column. I read it avidly. Last week Colleen McCullough, author, age 75, featured in it.
If you missed it, here’s a couple of gems.
Getting Older – Old age is an ordeal, of flesh and mind. […]

Joy

Joy

I remember being surprised hearing from a friend who ran a bush regeneration business that we shouldn’t have to do big scale native planting to help bushland recover. We just needed to get rid of the nasties – opportunistic plants, trees, weeds. We had to get horses, sheep and cattle off the land to let it recover. The seeds and sprouts of beautiful natives that are being crowded out and trammelled simply need the right conditions to flourish again.
There’s a connection with yoga in the above view. […]

Sitting Thinking

As I have been staring at this blank page for some time, by now I should recognise that I have a head empty of wisdom and inspiration at this time. I should turn off my computer and head for bed.
But, no, I feel compelled. I want to say something. To connect. Even if I am temporarily rendered unwise and uninspired. […]

Non-Possessiveness

Non-Possessiveness

I caught myself today being at odds with one of the important yoga precepts, aparigraha, which is often translated as non-possessiveness.
A friend, traveling south in her motor home called in for an overnight visit. She wanted to fill up her big water tanks here before hitting the road again tomorrow morning.
When she asked, I felt it would be impolite to say ‘no’ and, at the same time, my first reaction was I didn’t want to share our water. […]

A Good Week, and It's Not Over

A Good Week, and It's Not Over

Many lovely things have happened to me this week. Just at this very moment, I can think of two:
1) Being given “The Irresistibly Brilliant Blog Award” by fellow blogster (terrible word) from “Composting A Life”, a great site for writers, philosophers and other humans – http://compostingalife.wordpress.com/
2) Being given a copy of The Radiance Sutras, a book comprising 112 meditations “for opening to the divine in everyday life”. […]

Up Your Sleeve

Up Your Sleeve

Two yoga practices that are very popular among yoga teachers are the sequence for “boosting the immune system” and the one for “fighting colds”. Too often, instead of taking time off to recover from an acute illness, teachers try to push through, even though they know better, and even though they tell their students to rest and recover. […]

Songlines

Songlines

It’s a very beautiful thing to be present in yoga practice – to do our postures connecting the mind to each part of the physical body. It’s the most subtle kind of touching, the intelligence awakening internal and external anatomy.
Since it’s impossible to simultaneously quicken all of one’s body, the best that we can do is rouse the parts sequentially, a miniscule hammer vibrating piano strings.
I like the image of indigenous songlines, unseen paths that cross land or sky, like invisible Chinese meridians or the Indian nadis of our bodies. […]

Tendrils

Tendrils

It was so beautiful coming home to Mitchells Island after 5 days away because of:
• The Yoga Shed – I did Richard Miller’s “Meditative Heart of Yoga” practice and fell back into myself (Essential Self).
• Strawberry cuttings that neighbour Mandy had so generously left for me to plant in our garden.
• Fresh cucumbers delivered from Jacqui’s garden to our dinner table.
• A heavenly lavender sunset framed by a balmy, breezy atmosphere.
• My four beautiful yoga students who came for their lesson this evening, and left with love shining on their faces.
This is perhaps […]