by Eve Grzybowski | Aug 6, 2010 | Healing, Health
The above phrase could be interpreted as perfunctory, even careless, when applied to someone who has a chronic illness or terminal disease.
We could have the best intentions in saying it but when someone’s condition is so debilitating, “I wish you well” or some version of that could only be seen as empty, unfeeling communication.
I had a number of comments from readers regarding yesterday’s post about dealing with fatigue. They were from people who struggle with poor health every day. […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Aug 5, 2010 | Gardening, Healing, Health, Yoga practices, Yoga Therapy
Being tired is definitely not sexy. It’s not even a good look.
It’s the pits waking up in the morning, feeling fatigued, and then fretting that this is the best you’re going to feel all day.
That was me at 6 am. Even viewing the dawn’s pink cotton candy clouds couldn’t help. […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Aug 4, 2010 | Nature, Pleasure
Happier than a calf on the teat….
Happier than a white horse rolling around in the mud….
Happier than a sun-shiny day after weeks of rain and clouds….
Happier than teaching yoga to my new crop of students….
Happier than the anticipation of 7 weeks holiday….
Happier than harvesting my first crop of tomatoes….
Happier than sitting in the sun, sheltered from the sun and reading a good book….
Happier than a beach walk at high tide….
Happier than a roaring fire and hot bowl of soup on a winter night….
It’s been a good day! […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Aug 3, 2010 | Community, Pleasure, Wisdom, Yoga practices, Yoga teaching
One of the benefits of doing yoga is that it opens the door to beautiful friendships, ones that can last for decades. It’s easy to find like-minded people in classes, retreats and workshops, and yoga becomes the matrix that reinforces relationships.
I received a phone call from an old friend last week- we’re talking more than 30 years – who asked if he could come for a visit and an overnight stay.
Trevor Tangye and I did yoga teacher training with Martyn Jackson in the late seventies and early eighties. […]
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by Eve Grzybowski | Aug 1, 2010 | Community, Pleasure
Sydney yoga community gathered to celebrate Simon Borg-Olivier on the occasion of his 50th birthday last night.
There were gorgeous stilt walkers, singing, techno dancing, wholesome food, body painting, and everyone in costume.
For instance:
I met Simon when he was 24 and a grad student working on his masters at Sydney Uni. I was the director of Sydney Yoga Centre, one of the early schools. We had a wonderful program of 6 am two – hour classes and Simon was a lively, natural yogi, attending those sessions faithfully.
One of the funny stories re. […]
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by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 31, 2010 | Health, Wisdom, Yoga practices
After the busiest day yesterday that I’ve experienced in a while: yoga practice (good girl), gardening, house cleaning, baked a cake, attended book club, and then a four drive to Sydney – today’s yoga class with John Norris was a dream.
Basically, we alternated doing pranayama with “flopasanas” over bolsters and blankets for chest opening over 1.5hours.
At the end of the session, I felt like a cool, clear, and calm pool of vital energy had collected around my heart.
I’ve been practicing pranayama in much smaller doses than what I did today, at the end of my asana practice […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 29, 2010 | Healing, Nature, Pleasure
Oooh, it’s wet on NSW eastern seaboard. My Canberra friend wrote that even the dessicated capital city had had rain. Ninety-eight percent humidity has become normal and you could squeeze liquid out of the air, even when it doesn’t rain.
We are growing unanticipated things on the wetland portion of our land – the area that dried out completely in our several years’ drought.
I’m not complaining, no sir-ee, not in this wide brown country called Oz. […]
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by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 28, 2010 | Nature, Wisdom
Two all-time great distractions of the time wasting stakes are watching babies and watching baby animals. Sleeping or waking there is something other-worldly about them that fascinates us.
I confess to losing I don’t how much time today in observing Farmer Scott’s new calves out in the next-door pastures. Their mothers seemed rather indifferent to them and that’s when I started anthropomorphising.
My invented story about why they weren’t looking after their babies went like this: The cows had had rough labours. They needed to graze to get their strength back. Their milk hadn’t come in yet. […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 27, 2010 | Nature, Pleasure
Being as close to and surrounded by Nature as we are, it’s a treat to watch the gradual slide from one season to the next. I don’t mean summer, fall, winter, spring; I mean, for instance, the January/February black cockatoo season. You should see and hear the cacophonous feeding that goes in our pines followed by raucous and drunken swooping from tree to tree.
As the weather becomes colder and even frosty, the local livestock grow wooly coats, much like the way a man grows facial hair on a holiday weekend. […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 25, 2010 | Community, Health, Hip Surgery, Nature, XHip, Yoga practices
Today we were a sightseeing party of four, driving out to the very beautiful attraction ellenborough Falls, out past the hills villages of Bobin and Elands.
Never heard of those places? Neither had we till we became immigres to Mitchells Island. Which may be another area unfamiliar to you.
Located on the Bulga Plateau, about an hours drive north-west of Taree, Ellenborough Falls are a spectacular site. […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 24, 2010 | Community, Wisdom, Yoga practices
Defining Moments (Take Two)
We usually think of defining moments as peak experiences or monumental decisions that change our lives forever.
A less common but equally justifiable view is that we are defined by many tiny moments occurring over time. Like the way stalactites or stalagmites are formed – little droplets of water doing their thing over perhaps eons.
I think you know where I’m heading here. Ah, yes, the yoga mat, or, if you will, the meditation cushion. […]
by Eve Grzybowski | Jul 22, 2010 | Community, Wisdom, Yoga practices, Yoga teaching
I was enjoying listening to the Dixie Chicks this morning on my iPhone while working out with some free weights (yes, I do weights sometimes and yoga). If you haven’t heard of the Dixie Chicks, I’d be very surprised because, as of 2010, they were rated the top selling female group in the U.S.
They also had one heck of a defining moment in their music careers – one of those “S” bends that shows who you are and possibly spins you off in unforeseen directions.
In 2003, on the cusp of U.S. […]
