Yoga for Fatigue: It Takes Courage to Rest

Yoga for Fatigue: It Takes Courage to Rest

Judith Lasater, author of Relax and Renew, says that it takes courage to rest and relax. It’s means you go oppose the protestant work ethic. But you are complying with the practical Buddhist idea:”When you are hungry, eat. When you are thirsty, drink, and when you are tired, sleep.”

Yoga and a Hysterectomy Recovery Program

Yoga and a Hysterectomy Recovery Program

Recovering from a hysterectomy can be a daunting process. There’s an emotional side to it: the loss of a major organ. A hysterectomy can also precipitate the sudden onset of menopause. On the physical side, the suggested healing time is six weeks, a long time to be dealing with discomfort and restricted activity. Mentally, it’s a time for taking it slow and easy, perhaps a difficult discipline if there are children to look after and home and work to juggle. Yoga was the perfect companion in my smooth recovery from a hysterectomy.

Permission to Rest

Permission to Rest

Generally speaking, I think people (including myself) don’t know how to be tired.
Think about it. Do you recognise when you are weary and stop and rest?
First of all, you have to be in touch with your body and mind to notice when fatigue symptoms are arising. But often, we are out of our bodies when we are driving ourselves to get a job done. […]

This Week: Begin Your Home Yoga Practice

 Hey it’s a brand new week. Maybe this is going to be the week when you are finally going to start doing home yoga practice. I know you’ve thought about it. All it’s going to take is getting yourself organised. Here’s a suggestion that’s worked for me and others. Spend a little time at the beginning of the week, say, Sunday evening or Monday morning, and think out what you want to do in your practice over the week. […]

The Self-Declared Yoga Prop Queen

The Self-Declared Yoga Prop Queen

If you know me as a teacher, you probably also know that I am the Prop Queen. It would be a rare class where I taught without the students using props. I find they are beneficial for beginners to advanced students for a variety of reasons, and they work great for me in my personal practice.
I wasn’t always like this. I learned hatha yoga originally like a lot of people do in a community hall with a hard wooden floor, well before the advent of non-skid mats. […]

A Sutra a Day: III-29 – Be Firm, Be Yielding

A Sutra a Day: III-29 – Be Firm, Be Yielding

I’ve been enjoying doing my yoga practice recently a la Vanda Scaravelli. She’s the Italian yoga teacher who created a style based on simple, natural principles of gravity and the breath.
Vanda wrote Awakening the Spine which is not so much an account of her particular form of yoga as a book of poetry and images.
Although Vanda died in 1999, Diane Long carries on with her work and message. I did a 5-day workshop with Diane and I must say I couldn’t figure out from the way she taught what she was on about. […]

Hard & Soft Yoga

Hard & Soft Yoga

 

Today I visited and participated in a Satyananda style class led by the director of Yoga Directions in Taree, Peppa.  The dreads-coifed Peppa is something of a local household word – that is, if the conversations in your home run to yoga.
The 15 or so attendees in this morning’s session were all females, ranging in age from upper 20’s to upper 60’s. […]