Recently I’ve been through a painful situation involving close friends. It would seem that difficulties arose because of miscommunications, faulty memories, and judgments.
Although the unresolved situation has just resurfaced, it has been going on for decades, so long that it would take a private investigator working for months to unravel what was said and what was done.
I tried to avoid the bad feelings I had been experiencing over the years by stuffing them down, and just getting on with ‘the rest of my life’. […]
Reading this weekend’s SMH newspaper, I came across some pieces in the magazine section that related to longevity. Let me tell you, this subject becomes more and more interesting as I age.
Toward the end of this year, I will celebrate my 68th birthday. Like most sexagenarians, I have no idea how I accumulated that number of years. […]
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I’ve been going along with my blog theme A Sutra a Day now for five months. Picture me every night sitting down at my messy desk, thumbing through up to eight Patanjali Sutra texts by various translator/commentators.
After reading each interpretation, I think about what I’ve read and then overlay a map of my life to see if there are any points of intersection. Sometimes I’m lucky and, bingo, the fit is serendipitous. […]
I love the students who come to the Yoga Shed for classes. I feel they are open to my teaching them according to their ages and stages of life. It helps that we look out on a beautiful pastoral view and feel spacious in our Being because of it.
There’s no need to compete in the way I teach. […]
I have been honest so far. Even though, I’m making the effort to present and understand the writing of the old sage, Patanjali, I’m dog paddling here, treading water, trying to stay afloat. […]
It’s been a free-for-all in the Australian Parliament recently. Prime Minister Julia Gillard was reported in the newspapers today as excoriating the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott.
Goodness, excoriate! I think of the medical use of that word: damage or remove part of the surface of . […]
One of the reasons why I wanted to create a small community to live in was because of the opportunities living together might generate for sharing and caring.
We three couples who have created our communal home on Mitchells Island affectionately call ourselves The Shedders** because one of the couples lived in the old shed on the property as our house was being built.
Old friends for many years, we decided about 9 years ago that we would share our lives as we went into senior years and old age – for the enjoyment of each other’s company and for […]
I have such a long way to go in my yoga practice. I’m advanced in age and if I subscribed to the traditional Indian model of ashrama — stages of life, I should have by now evolved into more of a recluse, renunciate, or ascetic. But, no, I’m still a teacher of physical yoga postures. I love this way of practicing for myself, and I enjoy passing it on to students. So, to be honest (Ch. […]
Are you a lover of books? I am and I have been forever, since I was a wee sprout. There’s nothing better than a novel that you can sink your teeth in on holidays or at bedtimes for winding down before sleep.
I went for many years reading every Self-help Book I could get my hands on, and some of them I actually did find helpful: Women Who Love Too Much, Addiction to Perfection, The Road Less Traveled, Owning Your Own Shadow, and many more. […]
I’ve been watching an amazing television series called ‘Frozen Planet’, narrated by the incomparable David Attenborough. The series in the main presents stunning film of areas that are considered the last frontiers of our planet – the Arctic and Antarctica. Wildlife and marine life are shown in all the glory of their natural habitats; as inhospitable as these climes seem to us, they are where these creatures have survived for hundreds of years. […]
I wonder if you have read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. It was one of the books that excited me about yoga when I was just learning about the subject 40 years ago. […]
Have you ever been to the beach and taken the opportunity to ’empty out’? That’s what I call it – an exercise in Being, walking along without buying into all the comments that your mind creates, with none of the labelling you do of various phenomena you encounter.
It’s not as easy as it would seem to quiet our senses and mind.
At Mitchells Island Beach yesterday, the first internal conversation my mind came up with was, ‘Gee, I forgot it’s school holidays. Look at how many people are here. […]
In the past I was taught by my yoga teachers that the word pratyahara meant ‘withdrawal of the senses’. You might have gotten this message, too, each time your teacher leads you through the yoga relaxation and says something like, ‘Now still the mind and draw your five senses inwards so they don’t distract you.’ That’s a big ask. […]
I heard of a good reason why it’s hard for us to concentrate on breathing or to meditate. It’s because we don’t really have much experience with staying focussed on just one thing at a time.
For example, I went for a beach walk today and, at the same time, was listening through my head phones to an audiobook. As I drove to the beach, I was thinking about my shopping list. […]
At various junctures in my life, I’ve been ‘forced’ to do more reflective practices. Illness, medical conditions, surgery, even emotional upsets have done that to me – and I have no regrets. I seem to have to learn things the hard way.
During one of these periods in my life, I discovered the healing audio recordings of Richard C. Miller. […]
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Have you ever done a ten-day Vipassana course? I attended a couple of these meditation retreats, which are conducted completely in silence, in the 1980’s.
I didn’t think that the sitting/walking meditations would be challenging for me because I’d been doing yoga and therefore wouldn’t experience much bodily discomfort.
It’s true that I didn’t suffer as much as some people did from the hour-long sitting sessions. What I wasn’t expecting though was that, when the meditation room was quiet and my body was motionless, my mind would go into overdrive. […]
This morning the pull of sun worship was irresistible. I found a quiet, sunny spot and sat listening to the bird song all around for about 10 minutes. […]
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Part of how we’re wired up as humans is that we are meaning-making machines. And part of how we create meaning in life is identifying with religion, God or a Higher Power.
Me, I avoid using the word spiritual or divine to describe myself. I guess I subscribe to the idea that if someone speaks of him/herself in that way that they are big-noting** themselves. […]
When I began writing the “Yoga Suits Her” blog a few years ago, I chose the title because I liked the play on words, not because I intended studying Patanjali’s Sutra.
But, son of a gun, that’s where I’ve ended up. That wily Old Sage has reeled me in, and it’s been a good thing too. Patanjali recommends in Sutra II-44 self-study of the sacred texts, and here I am finally doing it – after 41 years involvement with yoga. […]
The sunsets of recent weeks have been characterised by fiery reds and dramatic oranges. The burning-off of excess fuel throughout over countryside has created atmospheric conditions that will make a safer fire season, but in the meantime we’re all sporting smokey lungs.
In yoga, we fire up our practices to burn off bodily impurities accumulated over the winter. […]
