Yoga with

Eve Grzybowski

I've been teaching yoga since 1980.  A lot of my identity is tied up with being a yoga teacher.  What does that mean?  What should that mean? On this site I explore my personal journey and provide commentary on the state of yoga in the twenty-first century. I invite you to have a look and see what may be here for you.

 
Photo by: Julie Slavin Photography, Old Bar

Eve Grzybowski - Home

Featured videos from my YouTube channel

I've been adding meditations, short instructional video and an ever-growing selection of complete yoga classes.  Click on any of these below videos to view them directly.  Or click on the button below to explore the entire channel.

Access all videos by clicking on any of these buttons. 

Current Post

Take Care: Self-Reflection and Constructive Feedback

Image of two birds looking at their reflections in the water.

The other night I asked my dear husband, Daniel, to cast his eyes over my draft 'Yoga with Eve Grzybowski' post. He gave me constructive feedback, but, sadly, I became upset when I heard it.

Daniel and I have been married nearly 25 years. That's plenty of time for marital niceties to have faded just a little. Or, maybe to see there was no need to soften any feedback, especially when he knows I want to keep improving my writing. What he said was honest and incisive, but it just didn't sit well with me. I didn't realise I was so sensitive at the time. I had to go sit with myself afterwards (read sulk) and do some self-reflection.

I can go along in life for a while thinking that I'm evolving into a better person. But then, I get thrown a curve ball. It may be in the form of a disagreement with a friend or relative, for example. It's often those people closest to me, and usually the ones I love the most, who will get to me. 

The time-out I took for self-reflection eventually reduced my irritability, and so did my opening up and talking to Daniel.

There's a yoga precept that is geared toward counteracting the kind of upset I experienced. In Sanskrit this precept is called svadhyaha - or self study. It's designed to help us develop self-awareness.

Self study is described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. One of my favourite commentators on this sutra, Australian Vyn Bailey, says that svadhyaya is not the study of oneself in a self-absorbed way. Rather, he says, it's the study that you yourself get involved in. You do your homework, so to speak, by looking into the way you are relating to people and things in your life. If you are annoyed or ill-tempered, you bring those feelings home. See what happens out of sitting with the feelings instead of projecting them outwards.

It may be that those people who seem to get to us are merely holding up a mirror. They are testing us on how strongly we can stand in our unreactive selves. It's the people who show up as irritants who may very well be our best teachers.

There's a huge benefit for us in 'doing our homework'. Ultimately this kind of careful reflection will throw light on the entire structure of one's personality. It can lead to one of the main goals of yoga--the understanding of the self and one's consciousness.

In the end, I took Daniel's feedback and wrote a better post.

read more

Take Care: Self-Reflection and Constructive Feedback

The other night I asked my dear husband, Daniel, to cast his eyes over my draft ‘Yoga Suits Her’ post. He gave me constructive feedback, but, sadly, I became upset when I heard it.
Daniel and I have been married nearly 25 years. That’s plenty of time for marital niceties to have faded just a little. Or, maybe to see there was no need to soften any feedback, especially when he knows I want to keep improving my writing. What he said was honest and incisive, but it just didn’t sit well with me. […]

read more
Eve Grzybowski - Home

It's been out of print for 15 or more years but now it's back.  It's available as a paperback as well as a range of digital formats for different devices.  The design of this edition is modelled as closely as possible on the original release from 1997.

Electronic versions:

Paperback version:

(Note: Book retailers set their own prices that are all different and constantly change.  It's worth shopping around for the best price.)

Any bookshop, whether online or bricks and mortar, can order copies of Teach Yourself Yoga.  Just ask and quote ISBN: 978-0-6487945-0-9.

Please send me feedback about the book.  I'd love to hear about any errors or problems with eBooks on various devices.  And please review the book wherever you get it.  Reviews will help more people discover the book.

Eve Grzybowski - Home

Classes and Workshops

I'm currently teaching two weekly classes on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales where I live. I also lead workshops here and in other parts of Australia.

Eve Grzybowski - Home

Visit the Vault!

I've been regularly contributing to this blog since 2009.  There are now over 1250 posts about a very wide range of topics. Click here to explore.

Eve Grzybowski - Home

Yoga Resources

Books, videos, teachers, websites, places to buy really hot yoga clothes (kidding), and generally anything I find that I think others might find useful.

Eve Grzybowski - Home

A Bit About Eve

I've been teaching since I was 35. I'm now 76. In that time there have been a few changes. Click here if you want to find out a bit about my life.

Eve Grzybowski - Home

Shop

No, I'm not selling yoga mats or clothing.  I don't even have a t-shirt... yet.  But from time to time I find myself with something that someone may want.  Have a look, I'm never sure what you'll find.