The Yoga Suits Her 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.
Everyday Meditations
Are you the sort of yogi who dozes off in savasana? Who loses track of watching your breath during pranayama? Who ends up thinking about your to-do list in the midst of asana practice?
Well, then, you are probably a Normal Person. […]
You Never Know When the Penny Will Drop
Yoga teachers try and try by any means possible to get their students to do home practice.
It seems counterproductive, in a way to, to encourage students to practice outside of class attendance. After all, it’s by students paying for classes that the teacher earns his/her livelihood. […]
We Had A Dream…Fulfilled
Eight years or so ago, Daniel and I got together with two other couples – Rick & Heather, Mike & Judy – and gave birth to the dream of forming our own small community. We bought a four acre property with a shed on Mitchells Island, NSW, in 2004. […]
Mighty Words
If you are a yoga teacher – any teacher, really – be very careful what you say to your students because it may come back to haunt you. You are a sort of god/goddess in the classroom and your words go in and may just happen to stay there.
I know this happened to me with my teacher. I still have some of that programming although it was more than 30 years ago. […]
Global Community
In olden times, community gathered in little pockets separated by vast distances, secular ones in villages and hamlets, spiritual communities in monasteries, nunneries, ashrams, hermitages.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Internet has helped community leap its boundaries and lets us connect with people we might only know from their Facebook profile.
What’s great for yogis is that we have information on anything yogic at the click of a mouse: retreats anywhere in the world, yoga props and fashions, on-line courses in Sanskrit or anatomy, virtual classes, forums, blogs, videos, and podcasts.
One of the most interesting stories […]
Yoga in Paradise
Yesterday I paid a visit to Falls Forest Retreat to check it out as a possible venue for holding a yoga retreat in the Spring.
We made a party of it and stayed overnight – Daniel, Rick, and Heather and I – in one of the six two-bedroom townhouses that serve as accommodation. […]
On Writing, Take Two
Is it true that every person has a book in them? It does seem that writing a book is an endeavour many people think about and even have a go at. I’ve written two yoga books (one of them an e-book) and I confess to dreaming about penning an autobiography. […]
So You Want to Be a Writer
Back in 2008, when I was last working as a yoga teacher trainer, I taught a course called “The Professional Yoga Teacher.” The curriculum comprised professional ethics, how to run a yoga business, occupational and health safety, and information on yoga associations and continuing professional development. The main assignment was: write and present to the group a vision plan for the next five year period.
Since “The Professional Yoga Teacher” course was usually taken in the trainees’ last term of their training, they were looking towards what/where/how they wanted to express yoga in their lives. […]
Graceful Ageing
The Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum on Saturday ran a piece called “Beautiful At Every Age”. Basically, the article was making a case for doing exercise, especially for the senior population. […]
T.G.I.S.(Sunday)
Sometimes we are so busy and stressed that, even when we have down time, it’s impossible to switch off.
So, here’s a practice for your Sunday restorative or recovery yoga session. It’s an interpretation of a practice by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden.
Remember though, if you keep ending up depleted at the end of the week, it’s time to balance your lifestyle. […]
Sad/Happy
While I was practising with Heather in the Yoga Shed this morning, she told me this story which follows on my post yesterday about our choir’s concert at the Wingham nursing home.
Eve, your post reminded me of a time when my father first went into a nursing home, at age 87, in the final stages of Parkinsons disease. Parkinsons is especially nasty because it often gives people what’s called a mask or frozen face, resulting in the inability to show any expression or even to speak. […]
Overwhelmed
One of the communities I belong to is my choir. I attend the practices on Thursday nights, and always feel happier at the end of the 90 minutes. The same joyful experience as practising yoga in the Shed each morning.
A dearly beloved choir member, Leo, asked us to perform at his retirement home, which about 30 of us did tonight. There were about 35 or so in the audience in the dining room, including some staff.
I was surprised the acoustics were so good, and our choir sang so beautifully. […]
Home Again
Don’t get me wrong. I loved being in Melbourne. The Conference was terrific. I especially enjoyed socialising with old and new friends before the Conference started. I even saw a new release art house movie, something that is impossible to do on Mitchells Island.
But I was homesick almost before I left Sydney. I found the pace of the cities took me away from a quiet, peaceful, internal space I’ve come to cultivate here in the country. […]
Conference Take Two
It occurred to me that I could put my conference keynote address on this blog and that the section on community building techniques might be helpful for some yoga teachers.
Yoga Australia “Spirit of Union” Conference Keynote Address
Opening
About 25 years ago, I saw a movie that crystallised a deep longing I’d had for many years, perhaps all my life. […]
Australian Yoga Teachers Conference
I feel very proud to have participated as a delegate and as a presenter at Yoga Australia’s inaugural conference this last weekend in Melbourne.
Twenty-six panel members, workshop presenters, and keynote speakers provided an incredibly rich smorgasbord of knowledge, skills, experience and inspiration. […]
Be Here Now
In the same year I started yoga, a book was published called Be Here Now, written by Ram Dass. He became a famous author and inspiring speaker, traveling the world spreading the good words of his Indian guru.
The message of Be Here Now was very much that – about being in the moment – which what yoga is about. Why is it so hard to be present?
For some weeks, I’ve been practising a speech I’m presenting at Yoga Australia’s inaugural conference in Melbourne this weekend. […]
The Locals
Roll Call of Mitchells Island Birdlife:
The kookas are the first order of the day and wake me way earlier than I want, especially when one lands on our deck, right outside my window.
Still early in the morning, as I do my practice in the Yoga Shed, I can hear one lone owl in the pine forest.
Then, while I’m up-side down in headstand, I can see out the sliding glass doors to where a couple of families of king parrots are hanging right-side up around the bird feeder.
The maggies are out and about most of the day […]
A New Broom
Today while cleaning out the Yoga Shed, I thought of Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century writer/philosopher, a man for all seasons who wrote “Walden”.
Walden Pond was part of an idyllic forest setting where Thoreau experimented with living simply and frugally for some years.
What made me think of him was the way Heather and I copied how he would clean his little cabin in the woods. On a fine day, he would take all of his furniture and furnishings out to give a completely clean broom to the interior. Which is what we did. […]
A Rainy Afternoon in Forster
Today I attended a classical concert being held to raise funds for and spark interest in “LinC” – a not for profit association that helps the poor, the needy and the disadvantaged.
The bill of fare was quite an eclectic mixture of music with a standard of performing that was very uneven. Daniel was one of 8 in a chorus singing “churchy” music. There were also two Asian boy pianists, Eistedford winners, as they were introduced. An ensemble played Handel, Mozart and Beethoven, not always in tune or harmony, but bravely nevertheless. […]
Shed in Name Only
Ten months ago I took my maiden flight into teaching yoga in the Yoga Shed. My wings were somewhat under-used as a result of having had double hip replacement surgery in Feb. 2010, followed by three months’ rehabilitation.
I didn’t know what to expect as my Yoga Shed advertising was typically minimalist. So I was chuffed when some students came along (and are still coming).
The old Shed needed some rehabilitating too, and today you can see the results in these photos – our own version of “Grand Designs”. […]