De-cluttering

De-cluttering

Believe it or not, I do try to weave in a yoga theme in each of my posts. Sometimes this is such a weak or oblique attempt that I seem to never get around to even mentioning the Y word. You might well wonder what de-cluttering and yoga have to do with each other. I would say, quite a lot. For one thing, clutter accumulating around us, tends to clutter up our minds. It adds to the citta vrtti. We look at our messy desks (which I just did. […]

Smarty-pants

Recently I’ve been in the throes of a new writing project. I was swept along in the early days by enthusiasm and euphoria. But today I noticed that I have a mountain of work ahead of me, and I started to procrastinate and figuratively shuffle papers.
A decade and a half ago, I wrote on the topic of developing the discipline to do regular yoga practice. I glibly said things like it’s not really that hard  to do; it’s just that your mind trips you up. […]

Teach Yourself Yoga

Teach Yourself Yoga

In 1997 Simon and Schuster published a book I wrote called, “Teach Yourself Yoga”. It took me 5 months to write it, in between teaching classes. I was really chuffed that I could pull this off, being a first time book writer and all. I remember getting a note from my editor after I sent her the first chapter of the book and she wrote back saying, “You’ve hit the exact market we’re aiming for. Keep on keeping on.” I delivered the completed manuscript on the day it was due. […]

Incineration

Last night I went to a celebration. A friend had just successfully completed a property settlement on the house she and her daughter live in, all part of the process of her husband becoming her “ex”.
She was staging a bonfire-lighting and had recommended to her guests that they bring along something that they would like to get rid of in the fire. Our neighbours just across Scotts Creek hauled over some old bamboo blinds that went up in flames pretty spectacularly. […]

Where Does the Time Go?

Where Does the Time Go?

I fear at times the answer to the sped-up-time question is “from not paying attention”, and after nearly 40 years of practising yoga, I certainly hope I can do better than that.
I bought a book for my husband a few years ago called, Why Does Time Speed Up With Age? I’m pretty sure he didn’t read it. Maybe he didn’t have time?
Still, it’s a question I ask myself regularly, as do others of my friends, who like me, are of a certain age. […]

A Lotus Springs From Muddy Water

A Lotus Springs From Muddy Water

Here’s a photo of me in Padmasana, Lotus Pose. It was taken when I could still do a pretty great one. If I do say so.
Today I surprised myself. First, I did Bharadavajasana II Twist, with one leg in Virasana and the other in half- lotus, not knowing if it was a direction that my prosthesis was willing to go. No worries. I did the other side. It was fine. So, I thought, what the heck, we’re going pretty good here…and voila, full lotus.
Really, I’m not goal-minded. […]

Biorhythms

Biorhythms

On a list of things that are good for recovery from jet lag, I reckon digging in your garden rates pretty high.
What doesn’t work well, I believe, is looking at a screen for hours on end, be it iPhone, iPad or Mac. Also leave out any inordinate amount of thinking, shopping or consumption of alcohol, even in what you deem modest amounts.
Walking on the beach is pretty good, especially smelling sea spray and hearing the ocean pounding. Sunshine in limited exposure will help reset your clock. […]

Lake Shasta

Our current port of call is our friends’ houseboat on this man-made lake in Northern California.
There’s hardly anyone about because this is the end of the season with cooler temperatures – maybe 10 degrees o’nite. But daytime in the mid-twenties.
So with a dearth of other boaters, it’s absolutely peaceful here and the houseboat’s flat roof is perfect for yoga practice and very conducive for meditating.
We’ve slept under the stars on the roof, bundled in our doona, and searching out northern hemisphere constellations, like the Big Dipper. […]

Not Perfect

Not Perfect

It’s been almost 7 months since I had bi-lateral hip replacements and I thought it was time to have a look at how my yoga poses were coming along. Through the eye of a camera.
Daniel was kind enough to take some photos of me posing 😉
Now, you probably know that I would have deleted the not-so-hot images. […]

I'd like to say I'm better but…

I'd like to say I'm better but…

…no. If anything my cold is worse (mucous, hard to write that without the “yuk”) and now something else is happening, a sort of southerly movement of scratchiness down into my chest. I found myself apologising to Daniel this morning for my libido suffering from this cold, too. Sigh. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot.
Nevertheless somethings are under control: my yoga practice, for one, and I even managed to teach a class tonight, for another.
Also, I have an unblunted appreciation for the signs of spring that appearing all around our garden and our neighbourhood…. […]

Hesitancy

I noticed I was avoiding writing this post as it makes very real that I am beginning the surgery process. I’ll check in to the hospital in just an hour for pre-admission, with my bilateral hip surgery scheduled for tomorrow  morning.
My intention is to keep you posted 🙂 about what this process is like, especially from a yogini’s point of view. […]

Slow Yoga

Slow Yoga

This afternoon things really hotted up at Scotts Road, Mitchells Island. 35 degrees, brains coddling and bodies steaming. A visit to the local beach is a often a reliably good solution, but we’d already done that earlier in the day. […]