Modern Communing

Modern Communing

If you’ve ever poked around on the “Yoga Suits Her” site, you’ve seen that I live in what I call a small community. We are three couples, all in our sixties, living under the same roof. Our situation is unusual. Mostly people are polite enough not to raise their eyebrows when they hear what we’re up to. But they are very curious. […]

Yoga and Garlic

Yoga and Garlic

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. […]

More on Off the Mat, Into the World

 
Have you done workshops, been on retreats, or attended “intensives” where you received a real boost for a short time…then lost the focus or inspiration you received? Soon, it’s business as usual, and you’re hanging out for the next gee-up, but maybe it’s not going to happen again for another six or 12 months.
I had this concern about the Off the Mat, Into the World weekend I did earlier this month. We 26 participants were very enthusiastic and connected with each other at the end of just 2 days. […]

Envisioning Your Life: How Yoga Helps

Trouble in Paradise

Anyone who regularly reads “Yoga Suits Her” will know that I speak glowingly about my life in the beautiful surroundings of Mitchells Island.You can also read the story of the small, intentional community we’ve set up here.) Usually I’m a pretty positive and happy person, I think, in the midst of our island paradise. But last night I sorely tested myself and the merits of all my wonderful yoga philosophy when I was at a cocktail party (yes, alcohol does pass my lips) and spoke my mind, revealing a provocative personal opinion. […]

Tall Poppies

Tall Poppies

 I will never be a tall anything. One hundred sixty centimetres short, I’m not going to beat around the bush: in a forest of generations of increasingly tall people, I am a shrub.
I actually used to think that I would be able to increase my height through yoga. At least at 66 yrs. old, I haven’t lost any height.
Okay, we’re just having a little fun here, at my expense. […]

So Many Things to Worry About

So Many Things to Worry About

Some of my friends don’t read newspapers or watch the news because it’s all bad. I wouldn’t go as far as avoidance but I do filter what I read. Hey, I used to hang out with  journalists, so I know what a beat-up is.
Gym memberships are likely to increase as a result of advice given in the Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum “Health and Well-Being” section. In a piece written on “sarcopenia” (muscle loss) resulting from ageing, we are told that a 60 year-old may have lost up to 40% of their muscle mass. […]

What Do Writing and Yoga Have in Common?

What Do Writing and Yoga Have in Common?

This week I’m stationed in beautiful, though at the moment sodden, Bellingen learning to be a better writer. Enrolled in a course called Life Stories with 15 other pupils, we’re part of the overall turn-out of 1,000 students of the 2011 Camp Creative.
I haven’t felt so moved and excited in a learning situation for a long time. I go into the course room, fully awake and alive to discovering some unexamined part of my life for me to dust off and bring back from the past into the now. […]

Enough

Enough

“Enough is enough.” That is contentment. – Ram Dass
Doing forward stretches in your yoga practice is a great way to test your ability to balance effort and repose. If you are pushy, your mind will be agitated. If you are slack, you will be left feeling dull. […]

You Never Know

You Never Know

Six years ago I and my communal accomplices began planning our retirement. At that time we had no idea exactly what it would look like, but we started talking it over, bouncing ideas, and found enough of a common vision to take some concrete steps….Steps that ultimately led to living on Mitchells Island, with some of us retired, some semi-retired, and some still working.
That’s how it goes. Create a vision, make a plan, and then it turns out more or less.
Friends of mine in the U.S. […]

Discomfort

Any teacher worth their salt – it doesn’t matter if the subject matter is yoga or biology – will be learning from their students as well as teaching them. That’s how teaching becomes an art, and it’s what makes teaching a great profession.
One of the things I had to learn about some students is that they either cannot, or have a great deal of trouble, distinguishing between discomfort and pain.
I believe most pain, especially when it is acute and extremely intense is to be avoided. […]

What's so Spiritual about Christmas?

What's so Spiritual about Christmas?

Loosely speaking, I do celebrate Christmas. But, to be honest with you, I don’t believe in Christ.
Notwithstanding, the birth of Christ is a great story – just the very idea that a child could be born unto a virgin, for one thing.
And then the image of this humble couple having to lodge in a stables where they are soon sought out by kings bearing rare and expensive gifts.
Even better, how about the power of an ancient messianic prophesy being fulfilled?
We saw the Mitchells Island school kids enact the nativity story recently. […]