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. […]
Playing with yoga poses in the presence of the giant California redwoods could have us looking rather insignificant.
Are we really?
Some rather famous people seem to have thought so.
“The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the heavens”. Nicolaus Copernicus
“Everyone needs their memories. […]
What’s a yogini doing in the wine country of California?
Enjoying herself.
We were very privileged and honoured today to enjoy an impressive tasting of wines at the vineyards in Napa, California founded by Donald Hess. A Swiss entrepreneur, Hess’s sustainable wine producing practices subscribe to the idea, “Nurture the land; return what you take.”
We four were modest in just visiting one winery, and then rather sensible, I thought, in going out to eat in town.
One of my yoga practices that translates so well when traveling is the namaste salutation. […]
Yoga teachers have a hard time conveying what this age-old, enormous wisdom system is.
One way to explain it is to pass on esoteric philosophical concepts as they appeared in ancient spiritual texts – difficult to understand and not the real experience of yoga; another way is to take those yogic ideas and water them down or recast them in contemporary terms – and perhaps much of importance gets lost along the way.
In any case, yoga practice can be a subjective experience that is difficult to explain in words. […]
I don’t think I ever understood what those two little words, just 8 letters, meant until I moved to the country, and to “semi-retired” existence. […]
I heard someone say years ago (maybe it was in a personal development course) that people are meaning-creating machines. If I say something to you, you are going to want to make it mean something, perhaps more, or less, or even different than I meant. In any situation I’m in, I’ll assign it a meaning, give it a flavour, sum it up as enjoyable or tragic or irksome.
So, today my husband sent me a link to an article called, “The Least 5 Romantic Keys to a Happy Relationship.” This arrived in my email with no preamble. […]
Yoga practitioners and teachers are not always known for questioning dogma and beliefs. For instance, as a new yogi, you might take in unreservedly all that your teacher says in class, even though it may be somewhat esoteric to you. A commonly repeated phrase is “do your poses with effortless effort”. […]
Today while cleaning out the Yoga Shed, I thought of Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century writer/philosopher, a man for all seasons who wrote “Walden”.
Walden Pond was part of an idyllic forest setting where Thoreau experimented with living simply and frugally for some years.
What made me think of him was the way Heather and I copied how he would clean his little cabin in the woods. On a fine day, he would take all of his furniture and furnishings out to give a completely clean broom to the interior. Which is what we did. […]