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.

Best Ways of Cultivating Concentration

Best Ways of Cultivating Concentration

Source: flickr.com via Jessica on Pinterest

 
Yesterday I wrote about how difficult I find it, at times, to pay attention. I’m finding the practice of mindfulness meditation gradually helping me improve my concentration.
Another aid for focussing the mind is the practice of pranayama – attention to the breath. Today I wanted to link back to Patanjali and his Sutra regarding pranayama. […]

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Tripping Over Myself

Tripping Over Myself

Source: fibromodem.com via FibroModem on Pinterest

 
Do you have any preferred ways that you use to escape from work or problems in your life?
One simple device I use is to take frequent breaks to have cups of tea or coffee or snacks. I try to eat and drink in wholesome way so I don’t really abuse the above strategy. […]

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Hips Are All the Rage

Hips Are All the Rage

Is there an epidemic of hip replacements going on? I know of three yoginis who will have the surgery done within a month time frame – mid-March to mid-April. To be fair, I also know women who haven’t done yoga who, for various reasons, had to have replacements.
If you’ve been following this blog, you know my story of bi-lateral surgery, performed more than 3 years ago. […]

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How Did I Get Here?

How Did I Get Here?

 
I had some time this morning – quite a lot of it, actually – to wander around Bondi Junction, my old stomping grounds. Here’s a photo of the entrance to the Australian School of Yoga on Oxford Street.
I was mentally winding back the clock  to 1979 when I had my first experience of Iyengar Yoga taught by this man:

 
It’s fair to say that Martyn Jackson, Iyengar Yoga and the time I spent at the Australian School of Yoga changed the course of my life. […]

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Medical Merry-Go-Round

Medical Merry-Go-Round

Oh my! My head is spinning!
I left paradisiac Mitchells Island at 9 am to drive south as I was scheduled for root canal therapy in Sydney in the early afternoon. The dental specialist that performed the procedure, an endondontist, did the 75 minute treatment while I was looking up at the ceiling watching Mr. Bean videos, hearing easy- listening tracks on the stereo, and, at the same time, trying to do mindfulness meditation. […]

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How Do You Say ‘Alert and Relaxed’ in Sanskrit?

How Do You Say ‘Alert and Relaxed’ in Sanskrit?

Source: palmstone.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

 
Do you shut down in yoga class when your teacher uses Sanskrit words and concepts? Or, are you the opposite? You relish the opportunity to extend your learning about yoga, even to the point of assimilating an unfamiliar language.
Probably you stand in the middle; you don’t mind a smattering of the Sanskrit but not so much it keeps you in your head. […]

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A Lover’s Quarrel with Myself

A Lover’s Quarrel with Myself

Source: hautefavesdeux.tumblr.com via sally ann on Pinterest

 
Do you get into internal dialogues where one part of you catches another aspect of yourself being foolish, judgmental, absent-minded, mean-spirited…. You get the idea. Insert any negative adjective you might think of into the description.
Round and round you go, trying to fight your way out of disempowering self-talk, but all you end up doing is digging in yourself into deeper hole.
Then, with any luck, some distraction comes along and the interruption is enough to wake you up to the moment. […]

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Musings from the Blogosphere

Musings from the Blogosphere

Source: ciaomom.com via MiMi on Pinterest

 
I have an author/illustrator friend who is about to launch himself into the blogosphere. When that event happens, his blog is one that you will definitely want to visit, and I’m anticipating sharing his address with you.
I’ve read that blogs are passé. If I believed that, I would feel sad, so I choose not to acknowledge that theory. […]

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The Mind: There Be Monsters

The Mind: There Be Monsters

Source: mrspicassosartroom.blogspot.com via Feios, Tortos & Maus! on Pinterest

 
Since I’ve been practising mindfulness meditation over the last few weeks, I’ve come to appreciate what an incessant thought machine my mind is. (Well, appreciate is probably the wrong word.)
At the best of times, I notice a certain entertainment value in the thoughts my mind spins out. […]

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Well-liked, Sought After and Good For You

Well-liked, Sought After and Good For You

Source: everydaytrifles.tumblr.com via Ana on Pinterest

 
Do you ever stop to think what makes yoga so popular? If you’re a teacher, it’s a great question to ask because you can then provide what students want.
Styles of yoga seem to hold appeal according to your age or stage of life. Hot, sweaty, music-fuelled yoga might suit a younger demographic… slower-paced, prop-supported for the older crowd, perhaps.
A friend of mine has a theory that yoga teachers attract students who are close to their age – specifically in a bracket of 10 years younger and 10 years older. […]

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Funks Come and Go

Funks Come and Go

Source: papiermier.be via DesignMadeMine on Pinterest

 
I got up on the wrong side of the bed today….
What does that mean anyway? I felt out of sorts, out of kilter, glum.
How did I know that was the case? The first comment out my mouth, Daniel took the wrong way. So naturally I thought he was the one ‘up on the wrong side’.
I did my morning mindfulness meditation anyway, and let myself be in the experience of feeling out of sorts. […]

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Living in the Bubble

Living in the Bubble

Source: Uploaded by user via Joanna on Pinterest

 
I have a relative living in the United States, and I’m afraid she is going to fall through the cracks in the economic system there.
What I mean is that she is 79, renting a small apartment, has six grown kids who either won’t or don’t feel able to support her, and in about a year, she will run out of her meagre savings.
She is working casually in a fast-food business, earning a bit over a hundred dollars a week, with tax taken out. […]

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Is Your Mind Too Full? Try Being Mindful

Is Your Mind Too Full? Try Being Mindful

In our household of six, there are three of us who have cottoned onto mindfulness meditation.
Michael started it through his involvement in a course of study he is doing where there is a big emphasis on the importance of mindfulness.
And then, Daniel learned about and practised meditation in a structured nine-week course offered in Taree last year.
Finally after umpteen years of trying to meditate, I down-loaded some of Russ Harris and John Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness recordings to my iPhone, and climbed aboard the meditation bandwagon.
Now Daniel and I meditate together. […]

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The Big Wet

The Big Wet

“If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.”
― Idries Shah, Reflections
Australia is a crazy place to reside climate-wise. We live between drought and flood, cyclone and dust storms, biting arctic winds in the extreme south and near-equatorial heat in the far north.
Our household on Mitchells Island has been under a heavy blanket of rain over the last few days. […]

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The Gift of Life

The Gift of Life

Source: christies.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

 
Do you consider life a gift? I know people for whom life is hard, and, regarding such a gift, they might say, ‘Aw, you shouldn’t have.’ I’ve felt like that at times, but fortunately I don’t now.
Still, what’s a life for? […]

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Life Time

Time is such a fascinating, elastic thing. We humans can think ourselves into the past, and project ourselves into the future, but have a devil of a time staying put in the present. Meditate for just ten minutes and watch the handsprings your mind does.
Ageing has made me more acutely aware of time. […]

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