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.
Chasing a Warmer Clime: A Travelling Yogi
This yogi travels to America
Everyone seems to understand this important bit of information except me: I am an American.
Yes, it is true. I was born in the USA seventy-two and a half years ago. But because I’ve lived in Australia for 41 years and have my Aussie citizenship, I sometimes forget that I’m American-born. Until my accent gives me away completely.
When Daniel and I were travelling around Australia last winter, we would get sprung every time. […]
Yoga and Exercising Your 'No' Muscle
What is exercising your ‘no’ muscle?
Your ‘no’ muscle is not tangible in the way that your biceps are. Your ‘no’ muscle is not really a muscle at all. Yet your ‘no’ muscle packs way more power than your rectus abdominis (abdominals). And it saves your energy, not dissipates it. How you exercise it is simply having the courage to say no when you need to.
I was reminded of value of this sometimes underused muscle the other day. My friend and colleague, Megan, is an enormously busy yoga teacher. […]
Yoga Poses Can Be Friends or Foes
In September this year, I will be presenting a workshop called ‘Befriending Backbends’ at the wonderful Ekam Festival. Backbends are the family of poses that people often feel passionate about in a kind of love-hate way. It makes sense to me to present a workshop that might reduce students’ fear, anxiety or dislike of backbends.
Okay, I’ll admit I’m biased in favour of these poses. […]
The Experience of Grief and Yoga
Recently, I taught a daylong workshop that I titled ‘Yoga Therapy in a Palliative Care Setting’. It was a beautiful day attended by 11 yoga therapy trainees, learning about end of life.
These participants were willing to be in touch with their feelings relating to grief. I counted the trainees as brave in their willingness to let sadness come up to the surface. Grief will be there for most of us at the end of life. But before then, we experience so many other griefs. Some of them are tiny and some major. […]
Singing and Yoga are for Everyone
I’ve discovered that when I’m carried along on the wings of my choir, I can sing. And, it’s pure joy to join with people to create harmony.
Yoga Therapy and Death and Dying
I wonder how many of you readers will want to open this post on the topic of death and dying. No one will blame you if you don’t. We do live in a death phobic culture. We are acculturated to not think about death and dying. So, you can be forgiven for not wanting to broach the subject.
However, lately I’ve been thinking about death and dying. Not about my own, but about the topic and about other people’s deaths. […]
Mindfulness Meditation = Head Space
I would like to say that I am an everyday meditator. That over the years I’ve been able to sit for longer and longer periods of time. And that, because of my meditating acumen, I am a better, nicer and more together person.
But no. I’m still totally human, with many frailties.
However, there is no doubt in my mind that there are rich rewards in meditation. I have experienced many of them.
For me, one of the greatest meditation benefits is the head space that sitting in meditation can provide. […]
Yoga and Being a Healing Presence
I don’t pretend to be enlightened in any shape or form. The fact that I am a yoga teacher doesn’t mean I am immune to frailties and suffering. In fact, I may be more sensitive to them. I end up paying attention to things somebody else might sweep under the carpet. Perhaps exposing my stumbling blocks is better than tripping over them.
I’m 72 years old and still doing personal development. To that end, a few years ago I did a course that had me journaling, reading and pondering. […]
Sensitivity of Touch: Yoga Adjustments
I’ve taught many different aspects of yoga, but I do have my favourite subjects. I was able to teach one of these yesterday–yoga adjustments–at Forster Yoga Studio. I presented theory and practice on the hands-on, physical way of instructing students in postures.
In an article in “Yoga Suits Her, I described three main styles of learning. One of them is kinaesthetic. I’m someone who learns this way–hands-on, experientially. I’ve discovered through my teaching over thirty-five years that a disproportionate number of yoga teachers learn kinaesthetically. […]
My Dance With the Inner Critic, Writing and Yoga
The Writer’s Inner Critic
I’ve been thinking about what to write on ‘Yoga Suits Her’ this week and come up blank. In fact, in the last month I’ve skipped my weekly posting twice. Another of the weeks, my friend Angelika did a lovely guest post on The Beauty of Yoga Practice for me.
My Inner Critic has been wagging her finger at me. ‘Slack,’ she says.
A new post is like a blank Word document or a fresh sheet of paper – a tabla rasa. It’s a page that can be exciting for its clean spaciousness. […]
Insomnia Busters for Any Age or Stage
Insomnia: The Night Prowler
There was a time when I slept the sleep of the innocent. That was in the dim distant past.
Menopause first threw a spanner in the machine, with its 3-4am wake-ups. Once I was wide awake, too bad, that was it for the night.
Man-o-pause sleep, I’ve heard, isn’t any better. No matter what our gender, eventually we all succumb. What is it? The influence of waning hormones?
Recently, my husband went to The Sleep Clinic to investigate the cause of his brand of insomnia. Its likely cause is sleep apnoea. […]
The Beauty of Yoga Practice: Do It Now
You can start Yoga at any stage in your life. More importantly though, for your quality of life to improve and discipline become more natural, you can increase your commitment to this most beautiful practice anytime – especially today!
What Are the Principles and Foundations of Yoga?
Why bother with principles and foundations?
This week, I’m teaching a module on principles and foundations of yoga to trainee teachers. It sounds like a big topic, so where to start?
Of course, The Internet! I googled the above terms to see what was out there. Not so much, it would seem. Then, I wondered about the definitions of the terms.
Finally, I thought, why are we bothering anyway with these subjects in a teacher training? Thirty-seven years ago, it wasn’t part of my training.
Well, it should have been. […]
Extreme Weather: Can We Do Yoga?
Days of extreme weather might be the way of the future. Who knows? Most scientists say this is the way we are heading.
If so, we need to include reflective practices as part of our yoga routine. We need the tools that create mental and emotional space to deal with difficult situations. It’s not enough to keep up with a strong physical practice. Meditation, savasana, yoga nidra, and pranayama are necessary to weather all conditions. Not only extreme climactic fluctuations.
The Shedders and the Power of Vision Planning
Are you good at vision planning?
I think that I’m pretty good at planning for the future. Perhaps planning is an inherited trait. Either you are or you aren’t. There are those of us who plan from when we open our eyes in the morning to when we close them at night. (It’s possible that planning is going on even in our dreams.)
For me, the bad thing about planning is when I overdo it. It can squeeze the life out of any spontaneity and fun.
The good thing is that planning can lead to getting what you want. […]
Tennis Yogini: Sunday Morning Practice
One of the things I love about playing tennis is the way I so frequently catch myself in the act of negative talking or thinking. Each ‘I’m so stupid’, or ‘How could I have missed that shot?’, or ‘Another double fault, #$@&%*!’ is an opportunity for rebooting the network. An opportunity to wake-up to the present moment. Without static, without the interference of derogatory dialogue.
When the Temperature is Hot, Do Cool Yoga
Regarding yoga practice, when the temperature is hot in the extreme, do you go to ground? I’ve learned that you don’t necessarily need to skip your yoga practice. Just do cool yoga.
In Australia now, we are experiencing a summer where the atmosphere is heavy with humidity and heat. It’s not as humid here in NSW as it is in the buildup to ‘The Wet’ of our tropical north. […]
Yoga Teacher Training: It’s Decision Time!
Decision time: yes or no?
This is the exciting time of year when you might be considering learning something new. Cuban dancing, contract bridge, an on-line undergraduate course…. Or, you may have been thinking about deepening your understanding of a subject about which you are already knowledgeable.
If you are a keen yoga practitioner, you probably have thought about doing a yoga teacher training at one time or another. […]
2017: A Good Year for a New Story
The French word for sunflower is tournesol, meaning turning toward the sun. ~ Rosina Mihajlovic, Rudolf Steiner School teacher
More than a year ago, I did a weeklong workshop that turned ‘my story’ upside down. My story had been running me for over four decades.
It doesn’t really matter what my particular story was. Each one of us has his or her personal narrative.
In the safe and nurturing environment of the workshop, I told my story. More importantly, I felt into all the shame and pain associated with it. […]
Five Minute Poses: Supta Virasana
Supta Virasana: Your Stomach’s Friend
Supta Virasana, reclining Hero Pose, is just what I need today after experiencing the Big Xmas Lunch Indulgence. No doubt it will be followed by the Big Boxing Day Seafood Extravaganza. […]