‘Be great, none of this humble stuff!’, said friend Heather to me as I trundled off to teach an out-of-town yoga workshop. I can see why she would advise me thus.
I probably come across as not overly ambitious when I teach. I don’t mean to be blasé. I do a lot of planning for any seminars I teach. If anything, I over-plan. When I do that, I end up more worried about my plan than being present to workshop participants. […]
Here’s a little look-in at our home and gardens and us.
In this film excerpt below we are being interviewed about our inspiring communal lifestyle by Australian comedian Judith Lucy. It’s part of a six-episode series called Judith Lucy is All Woman. You can view all of this episode or even the whole series on the ABC’s iView. […]
See the Shedders
We ‘Shedders’ were privileged to be filmed for the ABC series Judith Lucy is All Woman. The last episode which went to air tonight featured all six of us living our communal lifestyle on Mitchells Island.
Listen to the Best
As part of that final episode, Lucy organised a collaboration of some of Australia’s most recognisable female voices to sing a rendition of the Helen Reddy classic, “I Am Woman.”
The collaboration comprised Ella Hooper, Deborah Conway, Vika and Linda Bull, Bertie Blackman, Liz Stringer, Lisa Miller and more.
Listening to this might just make you […]
I’d like to invite you to two workshops with me on Sunday March 22nd from 10am to 3:30pm.
There are several places left in this full day devoted to a close look at what is needed to do inverted yoga poses with ease.
The first one is suitable for beginners, but yoga teachers might want to attend to learn a few new tricks. […]
I attended the Divine Feminine conference this last weekend, as a participant and a presenter. As a result, I feel filled up from the experience of hanging out with wonderful, powerful women (an oestrogen high?)
The Sunday program coincided with Internatiional Women’s Day. As I taught my yoga session, I pictured myself as part of a gigantic web of global solidarity with many the events happening around the planet in support and celebration of women.
What I think makes women special is sometimes what we are criticised for: our caring, emotive side. […]
My way or the highway
The way I learned yoga was according to strict rules. […]
I’m a yogini, without much expertise in dancing. Nevertheless, I love music and dancing. I identify with a colleague of mine who says the reason that he does yoga is so that he can be flexible and strong for dancing.
Yesterday I participated in a dance class, one of a series of six that are being held at the Mitchells Island Hall. I had a ball – pun totally intended. Our instructor told us he’d been dancing for 57 years. […]
The All-Clear
Five years ago today, I was a patient at Hunters Hill Private Hospital in rehabilitation after double hip replacement surgery.
I’ll give a little time to let that sink in. Yes, two hips at the same time. I had bi-lateral surgery, a 3.5 hour procedure, whereby I received titanium protheses. I had to learn to walk all over again, and I did. Then, within 3 months, I resumed yoga practice and teaching.
Last week my orthopaedic surgeon viewed my recent x-rays and gave my new hips a good report. […]
Headstand: Weddings, Anniversaries, Birthdays… Anything
The above drawing was done by Soo Balbi on the occasion of our wedding in 1994. I like the message that the card proclaims: this is a non-conformist marriage. It also says that yoga is an important part of Daniel and Eve’s lives, and it can also be done anywhere.
A few years ago I created the YogaAnywhere practice cards. My mission was to encourage people to do yoga wherever and whenever they wanted. ‘The more personal practice the better’, I thought. […]
Headstand preparation
Do you love doing headstand (sirsasana)? Or, does it strike fear into your heart? Maybe you like the idea of headstand, but only for other people?
Without meaning to ‘big note’ myself, I did a headstand in my first yoga class in 1971. How crazy is that? First of all, what was the teacher thinking in letting me go up into such an advanced pose?! She didn’t know me or my body, but I guess headstand was in her lesson plan. […]
I wish I had a gold coin for every time someone said, ‘I don’t have time to do yoga.’ Or, ‘I don’t have time for socialising.’ Or, ‘I don’t have time to read a book.’
I might add that I’m as likely to be dominated by time as the next person.
There are plenty of variations on the theme of not enough time, for instance:
Time gets eaten up by my work (… so I don’t have time to do stuff I love, like walking on the beach.)
I’m time poor. […]
What is a yoga intensive?
We teachers often call yoga courses which run over several days ‘intensives’, but what does that mean? Are they really intense? Is that a contradiction in terms?
Another word that’s used these days for this type of course is ‘immersion’. I think that’s a better expression. Intensive brings up the sense of extreme or severe effort. Immersion is more like plunging in and steeping yourself in the content.
We’ve just completed a week of early morning classes at the Yoga Shed for 15 students. […]