Perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause are life transitions that for many women are considered dilemmas.
For example, I scrolled through Pinterest looking for an image. In the same way that it’s hard to find a positive 70-year old birthday card, it’s nearly impossible to find an optimistic spin on menopause.
Yet, isn’t menopause just a natural part of a woman biology? Albeit one that comes with some difficult symptoms.
Grief is likely to be present for us at the end of life. But before then, we experience so many other losses. Some of them are small, no more than transitions: moving house, changing schools, different working hours or conditions. Some are major, as in the death of a spouse or child, a divorce or a bankruptcy. No matter big or small, for the most part, we don’t fully experience these losses. Our lives are so busy and grief is potentially so painful.
I hope you escape any illnesses this year, but just in case you don’t, keep looking for the breaks in the cloud cover that let the sun in.
And, I’m sure you’ll appreciate your accidental good health so much more when the lurgy fog lifts.
I was privileged to meet Swami Satyadharma Saraswati while attending the Divine Feminine Conference. She spoke cogently and passionately on some aspects of yoga that might ordinarily be deemed esoteric. In her manner of explaining, abstract concepts became alive for me and accessible.
I didn’t realise it would be so hard being in Qld for the federal election. Daniel and I pre-voted in Winton, not knowing where we were going to be on the day. We’ve been traveling the Outback and most recently Central Queensland for the last two months.
Then, on the night, we were in Rubyvale Caravan Park (The Gemfields). Remarkably there was a tv room with a satellite connection. We shared the viewing space with a couple from the Blue Mountains who voted Lib, and a tough old Queenslander who did too.
Daniel and I were crestfallen as we watched the results come in, especially with what was happening in Qld. The results were bought, as we’ve heard, by Clive Palmer. His big election spend on advertising, he said, was designed to ‘polarise the electorate’. The opposition took risks, creating policies to support us into the future. And, taking strong actions in addressing the climate crisis.
Amanda Frost
Bolstering Our Immune Systems
Does anyone need to be told that we are well into the cold and flu season?
We are approaching the shortest day of the year. But we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t see that the Aussie winter is just beginning to settle in.
As smart yogis, we can bunker down, take care and look after our immune systems so as not to succumb to colds and flues.
For optimum health, all of us know to eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables, Vitamin D and lean protein. […]
I do wonder, looking back, why I did push myself in all these activities. Why did I do poses like Ekapada Raja Kapotasana (pigeon pose) or Astavakrasana (8 angle pose) or Ekapada Sirsasana (leg behind the head pose)?Was I testing myself! Showing off? Competing with other yoga teachers? Probably a mix of all three.Another way
I’ve started to realise how important it is, vital even, to get away and see the world. To shake off the cobwebs and get far away from the perfect flat white you order at your favourite cafe.There’s a great opportunity coming up this winter for all you yoga teachers and trainees to give yourself a complete break. You can retreat to the little hamlet of Stroud, NSW.
Don’t assume that what happens was not meant to happen. Don’t think that things were meant to turn out differently than they did. Suffering comes from the expectation of a different outcome and not accepting things are the way they are.I don’t think this view means I will end up being resigned to the sadness of the world, maybe only that I will have a little more perspective and contentment in myself.
It’s nearly autumn in Australia. Here on the East Coast we’ve experienced the hottest summer in many a year. Fortunately, the weather has become cooler recently, but still exceedingly humid.No matter what the weather is like this time of year, Australians are beginning to dream about setting off in their vans for northern coasts, inland lakes and The Outback.
Judith Lasater, author of Relax and Renew, says that it takes courage to rest and relax. It’s means you go oppose the protestant work ethic. But you are complying with the practical Buddhist idea:”When you are hungry, eat. When you are thirsty, drink, and when you are tired, sleep.”