Falls Forest Retreat
So, you think you want to give a yoga retreat?
Putting on a retreat is a matter of having all the right ingredients and then just following the recipe.
The first crucial stage is having a vision – the intention for what you want to accomplish. This can be as simple as wanting to get students together in a natural setting to deepen their experience of yoga.
My intention for holding the recent retreat at Falls Forest was to support Dr. Mary White in showcasing her stunning property at Johns River, New South Wales. […]
On the cusp of the Falls Forest 3-day yoga retreat which begins tomorrow, I can’t help but think of the many wonderful times over the years we enjoyed at Camp Berringa, in the lower Blue Mountains. Pleasurable times, but transformative, too.
Yogis who understand what yoga is all about will book into one or more retreats a year to experience the magical conjunction of our body/minds in Nature.
Being in a natural setting is restful in and of itself. The combination of yoga and a gentle environment renews that part of us that is bone-tired. […]
I’m sitting here thinking about what to write, and it’s not coming easily, after having taken the night off yesterday. I excused myself because of attending an out-of-town wedding. But I’m not going to let myself wiggle out of this tonight because this is one of my disciplines.
See, that’s how I’ve trained myself to be. Pick myself up and put myself down on my yoga mat or on my Fit Ball in front of the computer, day after day, and stay there until the job is done.
Well, that’s not enough, of course. […]
Eve’s technology landmarks:
•Encountering the internet in the USA in 1994 and thinking, gee, that’s cool, I wonder what it can do.
•Getting my first computer, a Mac, in 1996 so I could use the keyboard to write my book, Teach Yourself Yoga. (Email, a curiosity then, later became for me a sort of cyber umbilical back to my overseas sisters.)
•Being one of the first Aussie yoga school directors to launch a website, simply yoga.com.au, in the year 2000.
•Being among the first wave of iPhone owners.
•Blogging continuously since 2007.
•(Today) Using an iPad keyboard. […]
I’ve seen, over this year, the passing of many of my friends’ mothers, including my husband’s.
No matter what the relationship to one’s mother, her death seems to exert a powerful sorting process on the psyches of her progeny. Even my mother-in-law’s death in the USA this year seemed to have a gravitational pull back to Australia, dragging up an assortment of feelings related to my family.
Yesterday I heard of the recent death of the mother of a colleague. She was of a very advanced age and died peacefully, but I still felt sad. […]
In recent times, I’ve shifted my emphasis in practicing yoga from just focussing on the performance of physical postures to observing my attitude when I do asanas. Who I am and how I approach what I do is increasingly more important than performing a sequence of poses.
I still do my practice of poses, which I love, and what I try to bring to my yoga now is kindness, acceptance, and love. […]
Over the last few days I’ve seen a lot of extraordinarily big trees, from Vancouver Island to our current location in far north coast California.
We’ve driven through forests and walked under towering canopies – today absorbing the mighty presence of California redwoods (sequoia sempervivens), which are said to be the tallest living things on the planet at 300-350 feet tall and 16-18 feet across. Some specimens have been recorded at 360 feet.
These measurements don’t really tell the story; what’s more important is the feeling that the trees evoke, such as, awe. […]
There are some coastlines and beaches in the world that would give Australian seaside paradises a run for their money, and this spot that I’m looking out at as I write to you would be one. For sure.
Up until yesterday I’d never really heard of and definitely not seen the Central Coast of Oregon (USA). […]
I’ve noticed that the practice of yoga can become addictive for some, especially those personalities who have that little bit of a tendency to get obsessive about things.
That would be me.
When I discovered Iyengar yoga in 1979, I would sometimes attend a couple of classes a day, would attend classes every day, except Sunday, and did a teacher training course only five months after my first class.
I learned a lot. There’s a narrow line between passion and obsession. […]
An ex-pat Filipino friend who has lived in Chicago for many years took us to see his favourite thing:
A sculpture by Anish Kapoor, “Cloud Gate”, is made up of 168 highly polished steel plates with no visible seams. It weighs 110 tons; think gi-nor-mous. The sculpture is situated in Chicago’s beautiful Millenium Park.
More important than any of its vital statistics is the way the public is drawn to this shiny feature, like latter-day Narcissuses trying to discover themselves in warped reflections. […]
King Tut is getting around a lot these days via traveling exhibitions. I’m talking of course about Tutankhamen, the boy king of ancient Egypt.
I know a bit more about him from having seen his personal effects and mummified remains in an exhibition in Tucson the other day. The many artifacts on display were reproductions, including jewellry, chariots, weapons, oil lamps, and many statues representing icons and idols. Two of the statues portrayed scribes – individuals who plied a much respected profession in Tut’s time. […]
Soon, three weeks from today, I will be in the Sonoran desert. With the speed of air travel, and the fact we are traveling east, we will be landing in Tucson, Arizona, not very long after we leave Sydney.
How much am I looking forward to North American summer? A great deal. It’s been like pushing a big rock up a hill at times getting out into the unheated yoga shed in the early morning to do my practice. […]
Yoga teachers sometimes veer from the straight and narrow (if in fact they have been on it) and I admit to having missed a day of practice. This is especially sad as I have been on the road, between Sydney and Mitchells Island. I’ll pun and say that the road certainly takes its toll on one’s body.
On the other hand, by being stuck in the car for many kilometres, Daniel and I have been able to listen to a good deal of an audiobook called Life by Keith Richards. […]
I hold teaching to be a great pleasure and privilege. How I lucked into this profession has got to be by grace. I was a 35 year old, wondering what I would be when I grew up, and then I stumbled into a yoga teachers’ training.
Grace was there when I was able to apprentice with a very experienced teacher for several years. Afterwards, I flailed around for a while, attempting to find my own voice. […]
This weekend I’ve enjoyed the privilege and delight of practicing yoga with friends and students.
Visitors from Sydney, Carol, Martin and Peter joined Mitchells Island local, Maggie, Daniel and me for a yoga session on Sat. morning. There’s such a lovely feeling of conviviality and camaraderie when kindred spirits practice yoga together. We form a temporary community, “fill our boots” (as Judy says), and then go our ways, happier for the experience.
I also like the experience of practicing alone. […]
Mitchells Island, where I live, is tucked right into Nature’s lap. Because of the island being set down between the ocean, the Manning River and big old Scotts Creek, it’s both blessed and cursed. The floods two weeks ago wreaked havoc locally, not the least with the potholes left behind – big enough to drive your car into their jaws.
The lovely birds of our forests were enlivened and emboldened by sunny, warm days that followed the deluge, and on the hunt for food. […]
I learned something a couple of years ago that I’ve applied pretty well since then: you will never finish everything you need to do.
I put this sort of learning in the category of Really Important Stuff We Should Have Learned in School. Like how to change the oil in your car (well maybe you did learn this but probably not at school). Or, how not to get in arguments with your significant other about differences in driving styles while confined to your car. […]
“Home is where the heart is” is not a very good adage. Does it mean that you can’t leave home and still feel heartful?
I do know that my heart feels fuller when I’m here in our own little 4 acres on Mitchells Island. So, I was ecstatic to get home last night. Not the least to see my sweetheart.
The weather is inclement and probably will be for most of the week – rainy, chilly – but I don’t care.
I did two loads of laundry and a batch of handwash this morning. Such bliss. […]
