I’m a tribal person. I like hanging out with people, and I love doing activities with them.
Stella, our neighbour who grows biodynamic garlic, dislocated and broke her wrist last week, just before the crucial planting time. She and her husband put out a call for help, and Heather and I signed on for the prepatory stage of separating the cloves from the bulbs.
The three hours of peeling that we did this afternoon went so fast. We just turned into machines, and got more efficient and quicker as we went along. […]
One of the things that you just have to surrender to when you move to the country is travelling huge distances. (Other things to let go of: seeing art house films near-by and having interesting eateries to choose among. The solution – subscribe to Netflix and eat at home!)
When I lived in Sydney, it took me 30 min. at peak hour to travel from Mosman to Crows Nest, a distance of 5.5 km. It takes me about 10 min. […]
An article on the news today pointed to a problem that is troubling so many people in society these days – osteoarthritis.It’s not just my imagination. Statistics say that two million Australians currently have the disease. However, within 10 years that number is expected to double to four million.We think that osteoarthritis is just what happens as we get older. We call it wear and tear, but in actual fact, osteoarthritis is not inevitable with ageing. […]
Recently I’ve become enamoured of a social media site called Pinterest. It does two things for me: 1) connects me with other lovers of images, and also (2) with lots of interesting, striking images. When I look at the Pinterest section devoted to yoga images, I see a majority of perfect bodies doing perfect poses. The practitioners’ postures are truly works of art. […]
Thursday night I attend my community choir. It makes me happy to go along and sing with a whole group of people who enjoy joining together in harmonies.
The dedicated choir director, Telly, lets me lead some yoga stretches at the beginning of the 1.5 hr. session, so the group follows along as I demonstrate and instruct.
I think about what will prepare us best for singing, so we do stretches that open up the lungs, loosen the rib cage and release tension from shoulders. […]
Almost as much as I love teaching yoga, I love inspiring students to do home practice.My spirit soars when I hear that someone is gotten turned on enough to buy a yoga mat, remember the postures they learn in class, and even begin to bend the practices so that they make a good fit for their individual lifestyle.The habit of practising yoga has such a huge momentum for me that it’s what gets me on the mat each morning (except Sundays!). […]
Tomorrow is a 2 year anniversary of my release from Hunters Hill Private Hospital where I did 12 days of rehabilitation after my double hip replacement surgery.
On my return home, my husband Daniel made a great video clip of my walking up the stairway without needing to use a stick. He put some backing music to it – Patsy Kline’s Walking After Midnight – and stuck it up on the Internet as a YouTube video.
I tell people now that if anyone is having qualms about the surgery, they needn’t. […]
The purpose of this particular sequence is to soothe and quiet, and the props that are used help keep one’s brain passive so you don’t overwork. The trick is to discover how to work from your “inner body” by tuning in, listening to your breath, and surrendering to each posture.
Tonight I really wanted to write about one of the most important poses in the asana lexicon, Adho Mukha Svanasana – Downward-facing Dog Pose. But I also wanted to acknowledge the excitement in the air with the near passing of 2011.
So, I think I can combine the two with a little story of a New Year’s Eve dinner I had with an old beau years ago in the Sydney Opera House district. We were dining early, dressed in party gear, enjoying the ambience of an elegant restaurant. […]
Symmetry in action, Urdhva Dhanurasana is a challenging pose for most yogis. If we could only get the backbend arc to be even from the top of the spine to the tip, then the experience would be pleasurable and gratifying. Anything less, we feel heavy, pinched and sometimes defeated. Like many adults, by the time I came to do yoga, it had been many years since I’d done backbends. The first ones I attempted in a yoga class made me feel exhilarated. My teacher was a hard task master. We students did 25 Urdhva Dhanurasanas, followed by 10 “easies”. […]
Supta Virasana is a terrific stomach stretcher. Just what I needed today after experiencing the Big Xmas Day Indulgence, followed by the Big Boxing Day Seafood Extravaganza. My stomach was a tight as a drum head in this morning’s practice, and I didn’t even know it until I did the pose.
Stomachs are special organs and need to be well-catered for. Think of all the great expressions that relate to this organ: butterflies in the stomach, gut feelings, armies marching on their stomachs. We who are health-oriented know that stomachs need to be well-exercised, too. […]
In 1976 I was shown a book by my then yoga teacher that had photos of a man doing such extreme poses that they almost turned me off taking up this method. Indeed, it took me three years to get myself along to a class taught by a senior Iyengar teacher, and then I got hooked for many years.
I’m a very slow learner, and it’s taken me years to get back to reading B.K.S. Iyengar’s ground-breaking tome, Light on Yoga. […]
Here’s a reprise of a popular restorative yoga practice. Have you had a hard week and need to recharge your batteries? Or, are you perhaps recovering from poor health? Or, just feeling weekend lazy? This is a simple sequence for when you’re feeling enervated.
Supta Badda Konasana Bound-angle pose Equipment: blanket and a bolster.
Supta Baddha Konasana
Lie back on a bolster or several blankets folded lengthwise to support your back and head. Bend your knees out sideways and bring the soles of your feet together, with your heels as close to the pelvis as possible. […]
For many years in Sydney, I trained yoga teachers to teach. One of the trainees’ assignments would be to design a sequence for a particular problem, apply it to a student, and assess the results.
Daniel, my husband, was a good guinea pig for the trainees because he had periodic back pain. (Interestingly, after nearly 19 years of doing yoga, he seems to have transcended this particular condition.)
Here’s a “Daniel sequence” for groins and lower back that I came across in my archives. […]
Have you ever torn a hamstring or suffered an inflamed tendon? Then you would know the feeling of limping along, having to do just half-speed yoga poses.
I feel like that today after having had a little mishap with my computer keyboard. A portion of my morning coffee, so much anticipated after my yoga practice, spilled over the board. […]
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. […]
Well, I can’t say for sure that the above statement is true, but around our house, where we all do yoga, no one has seen a chiro for a very long time. Or osteopath, or even a masseuse.
However, tomorrow morning I have an appointment with a physiotherapist – the first time since early last year when I was rehabilitating from hip surgery.
I’ve been waking up in the morning with a very sore area around my right scapula (maybe a nerve impingement?). […]
When I started learning yoga in the early ’70’s, there were classes, books and television yoga, but very little else. There was no Lululemon for designer threads, no on-line teacher training and teleconferencing, no yoga expos, no kids’ yoga, no sticky mats, and yoga was definitely not a household word.
We hear so often these days it’s become ho-hum, that yoga is mainstream. […]
