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 Art of Ageing: Is There Really an Art to It?
Recently I’ve been thinking about healthy ageing yet again because I’ve been included as a photographic subject in the NSW Government’s ‘Art of Ageing’ exhibition. It was launched at Parliament House in Sydney this week and will be featured prominently there for a month. Then, the exhibition will go on the road for two years, showing in 46 locations across the State.
The stated aim of the exhibition is to improve respect for and social inclusion of older people and to recognise older people’s contributions to their communities.
Margaret Atwood: How Hot Do You Want It to Get?
Here in Australia, impossible to ignore, there has been the continuing cruelty of a nationwide drought. And the resultant drying up of rivers and loss of biodiversity.
Then along came the winter bushfires. Winter! Not the ‘normal’ season for fires to occur. Even less ‘normal’ for the rain forests to burn.
And now, there are massive rainfalls, flooding, storms and perilous tidal surges.
The Trees: Climate Crisis Refugees
Julie and I have been looking at the trees and vegetation of Saltwater National Park for green signs of rebirth. They’ve been hard to find: tufts of grasses, epiphyte-like growths, occasional new leaves. The enormous heat generated by this fire seems to have nuclear-blasted the paperbarks and grass trees. Some are burnt-out trunks with branches intact, still standing. Others resemble resinated black statues.
End of 2019: Committing to Loving Kindness
As the pace of our lives continues to accelerate, driven by a host of forces seemingly beyond our control, more and more of us are finding ourselves drawn to engage in meditation, in this radical act of being. We are moving in the direction of meditative awareness for many reasons, not the least of which may be to maintain our individual and collective sanity, or recover our perspective and sense of meaning, or simply to deal with the outrageous stress and insecurity of this age.
Unprecedented Tears for Our Burning Environment
Even now as write, I don’t know what words to describe my uneasy feelings about the climate. Maybe it’s because there’s just too much to say.
Earlier this year, the on-line Sydney Morning Herald would run one or two stories on climate change. Now, and especially since Australia’s monstrously extensive bushfires, there are a half dozen or more each day.
Take Yoga Home: Give Yourself a Gift
The holiday gift-giving season is just around the corner and perhaps you’ve been looking for a perfect yoga gift. Perfect because it supports your yoga practice.
Consider purchasing the YogaAnywhere cards which are designed to make yoga practice enjoyable and easy. They let you enjoy yoga in the comfort of your home…or anywhere.
Feel it: There’s Something in the Air
To a large extent, the local fires have abated…for the time being. Yet the BoM site still informs us of ‘smoke haze’. The air we breathe is badly polluted. But there’s something worse in the atmosphere.
We are restless, somewhat distracted and very much looking for the comfort of each other. Haven’t you felt it? Some of us have lost sheds, fences, homes, friends, pets. Wildlife populations and vegetation have been decimated. The worst is the loss of security, of safety. What will life be like from now on if the air we breathe is uncertainty?
Australian Bushfires and the Climate Crisis
It’s not often that I am at a loss for words. But over the last week, I’ve felt unable to ‘put pen to paper’.
In retrospect, this is as it should be. The Australian bushfire losses we’ve experienced are too big and one’s feelings still so raw.
Earth’s Prognosis: Is Time Running Out?
The climate crisis is no longer a future problem. We need to grapple with it now. In an increasingly accelerating way, life on our planet as we’ve experienced it is changing. That means we are being called on to change, too.
Time is running out. The patient is critically ailing. Every day matters.
Climate Yoga: Do Flop-Asanas!
We need to adapt to this warming climate. We can keep our practice to the cooler morning and evening part of the day. As the heat builds, we can do passive poses which have the effect of cooling the brain and pacify the body’s systems. Forward bends, supported inversions and yoga flop-asanas are the ‘go’.
Happy 75th from Roads and Maritime Services
Bad News? My first birthday greeting arrived this week, way too early. It was well in advance of my December 75th. It was a stark reminder that I am heading for my 'last quarter', as my housemate Michael calls it. What was this greeting? Roads and Maritime...
Yoga and Ageing: Meditation is the Key
It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon that holds all of our society’s negative ideas about the ageing process. It’s true that there’s loss of muscle strength, loss of balance and all those sense losses, too: hearing, vision, even taste and smell. But it’s not helpful to start looking for evidence of deterioration. And worse, to start lumping the losses together to create a depressed state of mind or resignation.
Our Intentional Community: Good for All
Ever heard of the Shedders? If you really knew me, you would know I’m a community junkie. I’ve created several yoga communities over the almost 40 years that I've been teaching yoga. I’m part of the Manning Valley singing community and perform with the Wingsong Choir....
Climate Yoga is Real and Launched!
Climate Yoga: Opportunity for Participation I did it! I stepped out! Even though I'm neither a scientist or activist, I facilitated a talk at the Ekam Festival recently on Climate Yoga. This post is a follow-up so for those of you who weren't at the festival....
The Climate Yogini Needs Perspective
Probably like you, I’ve been giving much thought to climate change. So much so that I put my hand up to facilitate a presentation at the Ekam Festival on Climate Yoga.
Sometimes I think there’s something wrong with me. I get anxious about what’s happening in the world.
I enjoy watching dystopian TV shows, such as, ‘The Handmaids Tale’. Many of my friends won’t go near this series, saying it’s too dark and violent. Too reminiscent of what’s happening in the increasingly right-wing world we live in.
I’ve always been like this.
Yoga for Perimenopause, Menopause and Beyond
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.
Yoga Practices Can Help With Grief, Dying and Death
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.
Accidental Good Health: Be Grateful When You Have It
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.
Swami Satyadharma Saraswati RIP
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.
Climate Yogini in Australia’s Coal Country
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.