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.
The Gallery Door Closes on Yoga
Yoga is an art. As art belongs in a gallery, so does Yoga!I wrote the above candid caption as part of a promotion for the exciting new yoga classes I’d been invited to teach at the Manning Regional Art Gallery in Taree. I love this special gallery, a community resource for countless people, and I adore yoga. What could be better than putting the two together? Over these last two years, the classes proved to be popular. […]
The Yoga Props Queen Gets a New Toy
To Prop or Not To PropCarrying the crown of Yoga Props Queen was heavy work when I began teaching in the 1980’s. There were various styles of yoga around but unless you were an Iyengar-trained teacher, you were likely to do your poses unpropped.Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga stood out as one of the styles which only required a willing body/mind and a non-skid mat. As this style became more popular and spin-offs were spawned, there was a period of time when yoga instructors looked down their noses at the use of props. […]
Yoga: Yes or No After Cataract Surgery?
The Eyes Have It!
A couple of years ago my optometrist discovered that cataracts were forming in both of my eyes. He predicted I would need cataract surgery someday. I was not looking forward to this ambiguous ‘someday’. […]
The Digital Yoga Curator
Like most people, I wear many hats. Hats relating to being a home manager, wife, yoga teacher, community volunteer, and so forth. Just today I became aware of a hat that I put on almost every day but have been overlooking. It’s time to lay claim to the title of yoga curator. You might well ask what I do as a yoga curator. Well, I spend part of my morning reading the news, perusing blog posts, googling yoga information, listening to podcasts, and communicating through Facebook. […]
Introspection and Yoga
The Gold in SilenceIn August I did a weeklong course called POL which was conducted partially in silence. I didn’t feel constrained by not talking. Rather, I felt relieved. It was restful.Lately I’ve been thinking about my naturally extroverted personality. Is it really natural? It’s only late in life that I’ve been drawn to the reflective practices of yoga: savasana, yoga nidra, pranayama and meditation. […]
What are Shedders and What do They Do?
For the seventh time this year, and over past years, too, I’ve been featured in the media.
Is this because I’m a celebrity yoga teacher? Not at all… Even though one of these media exposures was a full page interview of me in Focus Magazine to promote the upcoming Ekam Yoga Festival.
Most of my renown has happened because my housemates and I have become the darlings of how-to-do-retirement-better media coverage.
Alternatives to Inverted Poses
Finding the Right BalanceThere’s a problem I face when developing a new workshop: I don’t know exactly how much material to put in. Typically, I get excited and create too much. Fortunately I’m experienced enough to calibrate how much I can teach in a workshop as I go along.Still, I get attached to the sequence of poses I’ve created, to having it flow seamlessly and to being able to include interesting variations.I ran into this too-much-material problem when I was teaching a new workshop called ‘Yoga: A Lifelong Companion’ at The Yoga Shed in Richmond, NSW this last weekend. […]
I Keep Asking Myself: What is Yoga?
Every day of the week except Sundays I do a yoga practice in The Shed from 7:30-9 am. You can pretty well set your clock by me.Lately, and in anticipation of a workshop I’m leading this next weekend, I’ve been mixing up the usual practices I do of a morning.Instead of a strict physical practice which I love–standing poses, inversions, backbends, forward bends–I’ve been doing more meditation and pranayama. […]
The Ultimate Treat: A Yoga Retreat
The first time I went on a meditation retreat, I could not for the life of me imagine how I could find the time for it. Between teaching, running my yoga studio, and doing my own yoga practice, it was never going to happen. Then it dawned on me. I could just take out my diary (this was well before google calendars) and mark out the required days. So, I did. I drew a line through the ten days that the vipassana retreat was scheduled for and made a mental fence around those dates. Subsequently, everything fell into place. […]
An Old Yoga Dog Learns New Tricks
I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, visiting family in the U.S. When I came back to Australia, I went on retreat for 8 days.I want to share with you a few things I learned on this hiatus. These are insights that I might even categorise as spiritual practice.Gifts From My FamilySpending time with my family is sometimes the toughest test of my life commitment to be kind and non-reactive. However, in the company of my family, when I reacted in a non-loving way, this is when I got to practice forgiving myself. […]
On the Cusp of the Path of Love Course
Sitting at the airport in Los Angeles, my two and a half weeks in the USA is about to come to an end. It’s been intense. I’ve been to the Sonoran desert of Arizona, attended a heartfelt family wedding on Ohio’s Lake Erie, stayed in the Golden Gate Park neighbourhood of San Francisco, enjoyed Napa/Sonoma’s wine country, bathed in the mineral springs of Harbin, and spent a night in the severely bushfire-ravaged region of Lake County.When I began this trip, I was feeling sorely in need of a change, a shake-up of a low winter mood. […]
I'm Back! My First Sydney Yoga Workshop in 6 Years
It’s been a long time, nearly six years; but I’m thrilled to let you know that I will be teaching a yoga workshop in the greater Sydney area on Sunday September 20th.The topic of my day-long workshop is the power of yoga — particularly relating to the practices that support us through all of our lives. The poses and practices that we do in yoga support us now and prepare us for the yoga we do in the future.I’ll be leading two full sessions that include vinyasa flow, inversions, pranayama, meditation, and special needs sequences. […]
No Yoga Mat, Will Travel
I don’t have to tell you it’s winter in Australia. On the east coast we’ve experienced mild weather, then bitter cold, and even snowfall where there isn’t meant to be any. No matter what the winter weather is like, Australians have a habit of fleeing our island continent for tropical paradises as the chilly temperatures bite.In a short time, I’m leaving for a sojourn in the U.S. […]
Enliven Your Yoga: Practice Mindful Asanas
What are we doing when we practice mindful yoga asanas?The sun was shining this morning, the temperature chilly, but thankfully there was not a hint of a breeze. […]
How to Practice Yoga: Choosing Poses
Over the years, I’ve played with ways of creating practices. The ones I present here are cyclic, i.e., they are based on a week, a month, or the season of the year. They cover every possibility I could come up with. If you happen to think of others, I’d love to hear about them.
These cycles function well for teachers and students. As a teacher, you might use these as sort of ‘coat hangers’ to structure your group classes or one-to-one sessions.
Forty Plus Years of Personal Yoga Practice
Fitting in Personal Yoga PracticeI had a stimulating conversation with my friend and student, Alexa Nehter last week. We discussed an age-old problem: how do yoga students and teachers fit in a regular yoga practice? We are all so busy! I’m semi-retired, and even though I don’t have a job to go to each morning, I’m too busy, too.Sadly, busy is a cliche. So is the expression, ‘Everyone has the same twenty-four hours in the day.’ While it is undoubtedly true, we have careers, kids, relationships, mortgages, and HOUSEWORK. […]
The Dreaded 'D' Word
Let’s not talk about the ‘D’ wordWhen I was growing up, it was the ‘C’ word that was unspeakable. Thankfully, we can now call cancer by its name. Those who are afflicted with cancer don’t have to be ashamed any more of having a disease that is often life-threatening. They can openly seek comfort and support from friends and family.This is not always the case with another serious condition – depression. Those who suffer with depression may feel the stigma of a mental disorder. […]
Yoga Teachers Don't Get Sick….
… except when they do.Lurgy Time*I’ve been suffering from a nasty cold/cough for three weeks now. Finally and at last, I’m on antibiotics, and I’m quietly hopeful.I’ve been up and down. […]
Professional Development for Yogis
Professional Development for Yoga TeachersLast week I submitted details and documents to Yoga Australia (association) that support the professional development I’ve completed in the period July 1, 2014 till now. This is the method whereby I maintain my status as a senior yoga teacher in this organisation.You can’t get away from P.D. No matter what field you are in these days, you must keep up with your profession. […]
The Art of Yoga Practice: Guidelines and Props
Tools for Yoga PracticeFour years ago, Gretta Kool and I hatched the idea of producing an aid for yoga practitioners/teachers.We researched what was available in the way of tools to help practitioners do their yoga practice at home. It seemed that we could fill a missing link by supplying simple yoga sequences for beginners, as well as for ‘special needs’ students.Our YogaAnywhere practice cards were born – two different packets of 10 cards each – easy to use and portable. […]