Sometimes Nature is right in your face.
This morning at seven o’clock, the forest, meadows and garden were all saturated wet earth.
Visually lush green growing before your very eyes. Viscerally the atmosphere heavy, thickened , where you can only breath in so much richness before getting overwhelmed. […]
If you read “Yoga Suits Her” for inspiration, I hope I’m not letting you down by saying there was no yoga practice happening for me today.
This is because yesterday Daniel and I headed off for Barrington Tops National Park and here I am – with miracle of WiFi in our lodging – still connected to you.
I’ve heard about this part of the world ever since I moved to Australia from the US 35 years ago, so it’s a thrill to be here for the first time. […]
It’s been two years this week since we moved to Mitchell’s Island from Sydney.
More than the typical sea/tree change, we three couples were realised a six-year plan of buying a property, building a house on it and living together.
It’s worked better than I could have ever imagined:
*We’ve been accepted into the local community.
*Living in Nature is all it’s cracked to be.
*We’re growing our own vegetables!
*I teach in the Yoga Shed on our property, and I just roll out bed in the morning to do my yoga practice there.
*My housemates are a delight to […]
Do writing and gardening have anything in common?
I think they do. I’ve spent my spare moments today here at my keyboard hammering out the “About Us” page of a new website about to be launched. […]
Do you have a favourite beach? Enjoying the seaside assumes the proportions of a fanatical religion in Australia. We cling to the coast, human barnacles as we are, even when we know we’re going to get washed over by storm surges and buffeted by cyclones.
I discovered Saltwater Beach nestled in the National Park of the same name when we moved to the mid-north coast two years ago. […]
For me, the process of sitting down to write an almost-daily blog depends completely on my tuning in to the everyday experiences of life on Mitchells Island. This is partly why I do the writing, to share more or less ordinary stuff that goes on here that can be extrapolated, with any luck, into universal experience.
It’s why I do yoga too. […]
I may have just tipped the balance towards being a true country girl as I noticed this weekend on our trip to Sydney that I couldn’t get my heart into the city lifestyle at all.
Well-distracted by seeing the musical, “Jersey Boys”, taking in a excellently reviewed film, and dining on artisan breads and barista coffees, I still felt homesick for our forest and gardens. More so, for the simple life.
And, the surprises Nature dishes up here. […]
Be prepared!
In leading a retreat, a yoga teacher has duty of care for any number of people. Most retreats will proceed from beginning to end with no hiccoughs, but you still, as the leader, need to be mentally and physically prepared for different situations.
On one retreat I ran, a participant became gravely ill and I had to arrange for her to be driven home in the middle of the event. […]
Advertising and Promotion
Once you’ve gotten the basic information you need for advertising your yoga retreat, make up a flier. Here’s what pioneer advertising executive Leo Burnett says your promotional material should do:
“Say to people: ‘Here’s what we’ve got. Here’s what it will do for you. And, here’s how to get it.'”
Along with your text, you’ll want to include an enticing photo of your venue. Then, get your flier out to the relevant people in your data base, onto “Events” on your Facebook, and create a Twitter link. […]
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. […]
On my return from holidays, I was quite shocked to hear that our closest beach had lost about a half kilometer of it’s length as a result of recent flooding and storms. That’s a big chunk.
The area concerned is at the mouth of the Manning River, but the dunes all along in a southerly direction to Old Bar Beach are seriously eroded too.
A sad part of our loss is the potential encroachment of the sea on the little tern breeding ground. […]
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. […]
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’m on the opposite side of the continent from the battered U.S. Eastern seaboard, afflicted as it has been by Hurricane Irene. I’ve been sheltered for the last two days in the Olympic Wilderness area of Washington State.
My awareness has been opening to include the destruction, even death, on the East coast, even as I take in the awesome magnificence of where I am at the moment.
As a launching pad for appreciating the one-million acre Olympic National Park, I am lodged at rustic Kalaloch with it’s expansive sandy, log-jammed beach. There have been so many first sightings. […]
Have you got the habit of saying proper good-byes?
My sister passed away 13 years ago. I knew when I left her at her home in Ohio as I returned to Australia that I would never see her again. Everything I had to say I had said in words and embraces over the two terminal months I spent with her. I guess that’s what I call a proper farewell. Emptying out of all the things you want your loved one to receive from you because you may not have that next chance.
Humans are funny creatures, rather deluded really. […]
Yes.
Well, I think so.
I am in paradise here at my friend Joyce’s home which faces the wide calm sweep of the Strait of Georgia.
This morning, I stumbled out to enjoy a waterview yoga practice, and saw pods of dolphins out at sea. They cavorted, careered, and carried on for about 30 minutes, until a cetacean-seeking boat interrupted their antics. […]
I was reminded after class today of the importance of proper grieving by one of my yoga students. We were chatting about his dad’s immanent death and the bitter-sweet process that he and his whole family have been in of letting go.
Earlier this year, when Daniel went to his mother’s funeral in the U.S., I went through my own private grieving at home. Grief for my mother-in-law but also for losses within my own family.
Death unleashes the most powerful emotions, if we let it. […]
Like most people, we wanted real estate with a beautiful outlook. So, we had our home built on the top of a rise. We can see mountains to the west, wildlife in the forest, green pastures and distant water views.
What we also got as a result of being so elevated is full exposure to the blustery forty-five km/hr gusts of wind that have been drying out all of the flood plain (good), as well as the cute osteospermum we planted on Monday (bad).
I wouldn’t trade our bucolic outlook for the windless quiet of a sheltered dell. […]