The Yoga with Eve Grzybowski Blog
I’ve been blogging for 15 years now. At first, I was quite nervous about publishing my thoughts. Because I was shy about writing, my old posts were almost exclusively photos of the view from our bedroom in our Tambourine Bay house.
Remarkably, my original Ville Blog still exists. Does anything on the internet ever go away? It ran from November 05, 2006 to January 12, 2010 and it’s still just where I left it. If you’d like to have a look, the address is http://thevilleblog.blogspot.com.au/.
These days, because there are way too many YSH posts to browse through-over 1200-I’ve put some major themes together in The Vault. I hope this makes it easier to find exactly what you want.
In Praise of Legs Up the Wall
What’s not to praise?Legs up the wall is a favourite with many people because it’s a pose that’s guaranteed to sort you out. With a minimum investment of energy, the pose will return you maximum benefits. It is restorative, regenerative and reviving.Even non-yogis seem to find their way to this pose. I’ve seen bushwalkers take a break, lie down and put their legs up a tree. […]
'Ultimate' Yoga is Coming
When ‘Ultimate’ is a nounIn the U.S. where I was born, there’s a word–snowbirds–to describe people who head for warmer climes when the first hint of winter chill infuses the air.For some of us, this is the ultimate lifestyle–never ever having to experience snow, wind and ice. Others might want to enjoy the snow-and-cold experience, but only in the ski fields when winter evenings feature warm fires and mulled wine.My smart housemates, Heather and Rick, just before they flip the calendar to June 1st, routinely head for the north American summer season. […]
Mother Love: Let Me Count the Ways
My Women’s GroupOn Mother’s Day, as I write this post, I’m full of happy memories from the reunion that I shared with my women’s group last week.Let me tell you a little about us.Everyone of our group is a mother and some are grandmothers. Everyone loves their progeny fiercely and has been through all the ups and downs that come with being a mother.We get together once a year and come from all over the place–Broome, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Mitchells Island and Adelaide. We value this time together that we carve out of our busy lives. […]
A Great Combination: Yoga and the Joy of Singing
The Joy There are lots of ways that people express courage. […]
Kindness is the Heart of Ahimsa: Do No Harm
Awareness and AhimsaOne of my first teachers wanted his yoga school to be called ‘Awareness Yoga’. His idea of yoga was all about training people to observe what they are up to on the mat. His style of teaching, like his teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar, conveyed minutiae of information regarding postures. The point was to get students to pay acute attention to physical alignment and to foster a rigorous approach to their practice. He was a good teacher, but had periods of moodiness. Oftentimes his teaching was delivered with an undertone of frustration with his students. […]
Yoga Props Can Be a Lifeline
An unexpected benefit that I’ve derived personally from using props is humility. They are truly supportive and remind me that I don’t have to it all myself. I can yield to a ‘helper’, and in this sort of surrender I’ve learned to let go physically. That has a knock-on effect for letting go emotionally and mentally, and releasing the tight grip of ego.
A New Sangha of Yoga Teachers
A bright ideaOne thing I thought of earlier this year was getting local yoga teachers together for a once-a-month practice. The idea I had was that we teachers would come together with one individual leading a yoga practice, and that that person would nominate the venue. Well, it’s happened. So far, we’ve met three times with an average of six of us at each practice. It’s been a great success, not the least seeing each others’ yoga studios. We meet early…7:30 am for an hour and a half practice and afterwards go out for breakfast. […]
Stuff Happens: My Tooth Fell Out!
I like to think that some wisdom has been born of age. I recognise that for most of the time, like you, I’m doing the best I can. Mistakes happen and they always will. Sometimes the more we do to have mistakes not happen just creates more painful experiences when they do.
Yoga for Exhaustion
Who hates being exhausted? Me!It’s not sexy to find oneself in a state of exhaustion. It could even be viewed as decidedly unattractive. Worse, exhaustion is often accompanied by low spirits, including a whole lot of resistance to feeling this way.My dictionary defines exhaustion as extreme tiredness, great fatigue, weariness, and burnout. So, we’re not just talking about feeling a little tired after housecleaning or gardening.Okay, I’m going to dob myself in. I’m not here only to write an exposition on exhaustion or to merely define it. I’m here to tell you that I am exhausted. […]
Balance and Sustainability: Yoga Helps
A human body cannot continually be pushed, with the pendulum swinging widely between extreme behaviours. Maintaining a sense of well-being for as long as possible is only really likely if we can opt as much as possible for the middle ground during our lives and seek balance in all things.
Is There a Fountain of Youth? Yoga and Longevity
When I was 27, I discovered yoga. I thought that this ancient system would help me defeat disease and old age. Of course, I now know this view was terribly naive and ultimately fallacious. But because both of my parents had died young from heart problems, I wanted to find a guaranteed way to live a long, healthy life.
Considering Yoga Teacher Training? Caveat Emptor!
Why would ‘caveat emptor’ apply to yoga teacher training? Probably because the trainings are now commodified, as yoga teaching has become an popular industry. Generally we can enjoy the fact that yoga is more mainstream, but for those considering teacher training, they have to do their do their due diligence. What is it that makes a great training course?
The Beauty of Yoga (and every other) Community
I believe and know from my yoga experience that connecting through community is the most health-promoting and fulfilling activity I can do. Just recently I joined a local pool community for aquarobics classes and am enjoying connecting with a whole new group of health-minded and lively people.
Yoga for Diabetics: Taking Charge
No-one is safe from illness. Anything can strike anyone at any age. When something happens we have to find a way to accept it and learn to live with what is. The good news is that yoga can help with diabetes.
Cover Girl or Restorative Yoga?
Yoga is all too often considered synonymous with body contortions. This view is re-inforced by book, magazine and calendar images. But is it really yoga?
Yoga and the Beautiful You Workshop
How is it that our own beauty and goodness seem hidden from us? In my healing journey, the way to seeing my beautiful self has necessitated shining a light onto my shadow side. Uncomfortable as that process is, I know that the tender exposure of my negativity is the path to the goodies, Beauty being one of them.
Meditation and the Beauty of Open Sky
“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”
The above quote from Pema Chodran appeals to me. I relate well to metaphors–word pictures. I know I am not really the sky, but to be able to feel into my mind, having it be as big as the open sky, well, it’s not hard.
Yet, most days I go around in a skyless world, one circumscribed by what is in front of my nose. […]
The Beauty of Yoga Practice
Recently I taught an ‘intensive’ week at the Yoga Shed. I based my teaching on the abstract concept of Beauty. I wove in poses that I considered appropriate to the theme and developed a sequence for each day. The first day we followed a sequence of standing poses. The aim was to experience the beauty of being grounded.
Clouds, Blue Sky, and a New Yoga Blog
I’m excited to present to you a new iteration of my popular blog ‘Yoga Suits Her’. Six years old now, she needed a makeover, and fortunately I found the perfect web designer to do it.
Time is Running Out–Not Necessarily a Bad Thing
How do we establish meaning in our lives, knowing that time is running out? We build strong relationships with friends and family, but first of all with ourselves.