Yoga Babies

Yoga Babies

Tonight, as I taught Kirby who is six weeks away from her due date, I was reminded of one of the great privileges a yoga teacher has, that is, teaching a mother-to-be.
A yoga teacher creates special class time for a pregnant woman to be totally in her body and with her baby.
There are movements and tools given that help prepare for labour: breathing, of course; learning to modulate control and surrender; practising pelvic floor exercises; toning legs; releasing tension; […]

The Old Sage (Patanjali) Delivers Prosperity

I was inspired by a talk given by Michael de Manicor of the Yoga Institute at the Yoga Australia conference yesterday. Michael is very enthusiastic about Ph.D. research he is doing in the field of psychology and this came across in his speaking. He presented his topic- “Mental Health & Flourishing” – and compared what we modern yogis think yoga to be vs. the classical teachings of Patanjali. […]

Fill Your Boots

Fill Your Boots

What a rich day at Yoga Australia’s Unity in Diversity 2012 conference in Manly. Almost 200 delegates, and an amazing kickoff by Mary Keizer, Desikachar teacher of more than 30 years.
Mary spoke about the simple of unfolding of wisdom within each person that occurs when we are aware of the influence of mind and can bring it to stillness. […]

Fill Your Boots

Essential Shopping

I’ve never complained about it. Maybe it’s even a sort of restraint. But here is the thing: it’s no good trying to do retail therapy in Taree. 
Maybe I’m just a snob, but what’s on offer in our small burg is déclassé, outmoded, and el cheapo.
So, when I go to the big city, some craving emerges from deep down in me that I guess is related to being a shopaholic.
It starts out as simple window shopping but inevitably something catches my eye – a pretty lure seducing the trout to bite. […]

Fill Your Boots

Everyone's Gift

Here we are in Hobart in the cold, humid, grey of autumn mainly to see the extraordinary gift of a gallery that David Walsh has made to the Australian people, that is, MONA.
The Museum of Old and New Art is the largest privately funded museum in this country and displays antiquities, modern and contemporary art. […]

These Old Bones

Last night I slept on a thin futon on our friend’s floor. Their apartment is small; Daniel got the couch.
During the night, I started to experience my first hip pain since having the replacement more than two years ago. Not arthritic pain, just bony bits meeting too firm a surface. Ouch.
The ache in the hip went on for most of this morning till I could finally adopt a few yoga moves. […]

Tasmania on the way to Yoga Australia Conference

Tasmania on the way to Yoga Australia Conference

All right, it’s not on the way to Sydney…. It’s a lot further. Our little Aussie island state is on the way to Antarctica. I just had to have a holiday. I’m not a native born citizen, but I’m a naturalised citizen, and I’ve embraced many of the local customs. Especially the way Australians cherish weekends and holidays. This month, while kids and parents were enjoying school holidays, I worked away at my several projects: writing, YogaAnywhere cards, landscaping, and teaching. Now it’s our turn. […]

Fill Your Boots

Yoga Practice, Not a Performance

The sun was shining this morning, the temperature balmy, and not a skerrick of a breeze – a respite from the hard rain we’ve had over the last few days. In the Yoga Shed, I felt inspired to do surya namaskar and included all the standing poses I could think up. […]

Fill Your Boots

It is sad to grow old but nice to ripen*

There is an attitude these days of lionising elders especially when they have managed to avoid falling into decrepitude. This is especially true about women who “look good for their age”. What does that mean anyway? I saw a photo of B.K.S. Iyengar posted on Facebook praising him for looking pretty all right at 93. Aged yoga teachers are often singled out for kudos when they have achieved ripe old age in reasonably good health of body and mind. My octogenarian friend Collyn likes to say he is good for any age. […]

Yoga: On the Road

Yoga: On the Road

Have you ever packed your yoga mat for your travels and never unpacked it? I’ve schlepped mine around the U.S. for weeks at a time and barely used it.
These are terrible admissions for a yoga teacher, and I know I’m in bad company when I admit it.
On my last trip o/s, my body took a particularly large pounding during a long drive  from the Canadian border to San Francisco. […]

Fill Your Boots

Books Can Turn You Upside Down

My friend Rick is reading Martin Seligman’s Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, and he was telling us about it at the dinner table tonight. It sounds like a good read and possibly aligned with the aim of yoga – ” to raise the bar for the human condition.” Hearing about this book, prompted me to ask whether anyone had read a book that was life-changing. Rick said the works of author Ayn Rand had turned his life upside down and inside out, but in a totally beneficial way. […]

Fill Your Boots

Choice as Yoga Practice

I’ve had a hard time today getting my writing wheels turning. A few minutes ago I realised that I’d started the day having gotten up on “the wrong side of the bed”, and blamed it on lack of sleep.
Being rather rest deprived, I pulled in some more evidence that it was a Bad Day because it happened to be rainy. […]