Eight years or so ago, Daniel and I got together with two other couples – Rick & Heather, Mike & Judy – and gave birth to the dream of forming our own small community. We bought a four acre property with a shed on Mitchells Island, NSW, in 2004. […]
Community
Mighty Words
If you are a yoga teacher – any teacher, really – be very careful what you say to your students because it may come back to haunt you. You are a sort of god/goddess in the classroom and your words go in and may just happen to stay there.
I know this happened to me with my teacher. I still have some of that programming although it was more than 30 years ago. […]
Global Community
In olden times, community gathered in little pockets separated by vast distances, secular ones in villages and hamlets, spiritual communities in monasteries, nunneries, ashrams, hermitages.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Internet has helped community leap its boundaries and lets us connect with people we might only know from their Facebook profile.
What’s great for yogis is that we have information on anything yogic at the click of a mouse: retreats anywhere in the world, yoga props and fashions, on-line courses in Sanskrit or anatomy, virtual classes, forums, blogs, videos, and podcasts.
One of the most interesting stories […]
Yoga in Paradise
Yesterday I paid a visit to Falls Forest Retreat to check it out as a possible venue for holding a yoga retreat in the Spring.
We made a party of it and stayed overnight – Daniel, Rick, and Heather and I – in one of the six two-bedroom townhouses that serve as accommodation. […]
Sad/Happy
While I was practising with Heather in the Yoga Shed this morning, she told me this story which follows on my post yesterday about our choir’s concert at the Wingham nursing home.
Eve, your post reminded me of a time when my father first went into a nursing home, at age 87, in the final stages of Parkinsons disease. Parkinsons is especially nasty because it often gives people what’s called a mask or frozen face, resulting in the inability to show any expression or even to speak. […]
Overwhelmed
One of the communities I belong to is my choir. I attend the practices on Thursday nights, and always feel happier at the end of the 90 minutes. The same joyful experience as practising yoga in the Shed each morning.
A dearly beloved choir member, Leo, asked us to perform at his retirement home, which about 30 of us did tonight. There were about 35 or so in the audience in the dining room, including some staff.
I was surprised the acoustics were so good, and our choir sang so beautifully. […]
Conference Take Two
It occurred to me that I could put my conference keynote address on this blog and that the section on community building techniques might be helpful for some yoga teachers.
Yoga Australia “Spirit of Union” Conference Keynote Address
Opening
About 25 years ago, I saw a movie that crystallised a deep longing I’d had for many years, perhaps all my life. […]
Australian Yoga Teachers Conference
I feel very proud to have participated as a delegate and as a presenter at Yoga Australia’s inaugural conference this last weekend in Melbourne.
Twenty-six panel members, workshop presenters, and keynote speakers provided an incredibly rich smorgasbord of knowledge, skills, experience and inspiration. […]
Shed in Name Only
Ten months ago I took my maiden flight into teaching yoga in the Yoga Shed. My wings were somewhat under-used as a result of having had double hip replacement surgery in Feb. 2010, followed by three months’ rehabilitation.
I didn’t know what to expect as my Yoga Shed advertising was typically minimalist. So I was chuffed when some students came along (and are still coming).
The old Shed needed some rehabilitating too, and today you can see the results in these photos – our own version of “Grand Designs”. […]
Message from The Sponsor
There’s a knack to marketing oneself, a too-flabby muscle I’m sorry to say I don’t even try to develop.
The yoga students yesterday laughed when I prefaced showing them the article in which “Yoga Suits Her” was listed as one of 10 great yoga blogs, by saying, “In the spirit of self-aggrandisement….” See, I had to make a little joke of it.
So, here’s another attempt at letting you know what I’m up to out in the wide world. I will be a keynote speaker at the inaugural Yoga Australia Conference in Melbourne the weekend of April 2-3. […]
God-speed
Tonight, after class, I farewelled a couple of my students who have round-Australia trips planned. One, who is traveling with her partner, will be gone indefinitely. The other will be journeying with her partner and daughter for 3 months.
There were seven of us having drinks (soft) and nibblies (healthy) after class. […]
Komyuniti
I can’t shake the images from the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. I was having a glass of wine tonight, watching the SBS news, and thinking, “Here, I’m so secure and comfortable, how is it possible that this has happened over there?” Countless Japanese have no heating now in the cold climate, worse still, no homes. They have little food and clean water, have lost loved ones, and are under the threat of radiation poisoning.
The natural disaster may soon have passed but the tragedy remains. […]
Normal
This morning, perhaps like you, I’m still reeling from the disaster that has struck Japan – a horror that will go on for many people forever.
The above photo shows how peaceful and “normal” it is here on Mitchells Island, New South Wales, Australia at this very moment. […]
Not in My Backyard
We’ve had a lively conversation around the dinner table tonight that was prompted by our viewing of a movie called “Gasland”. It’s a documentary that was made by American Josh Fox about the mining for natural gas occurring right across the U.S in recent years. It’s a little budget movie that’s made a big impact on environmentally-aware people and also the people who ended up with drilling going on in their backyards.
Some of these people are very unhappy about the results of drilling and gas production on their land. […]
Comm-Unity
I’ve just come back from singing at our community choir this evening. Four of us drove out together and sang as we went.
I’ve been thinking, writing and talking a lot about the topic of community recently for several reasons. The main one is that I’m going to be speaking on the subject at the April Yoga Australia Conference – http://www.yogaaustraliaconference.org.au/index.php
As a result of all this cogitating, I’ve come to appreciate more and more this thing called community. […]
Tendrils
It was so beautiful coming home to Mitchells Island after 5 days away because of:
• The Yoga Shed – I did Richard Miller’s “Meditative Heart of Yoga” practice and fell back into myself (Essential Self).
• Strawberry cuttings that neighbour Mandy had so generously left for me to plant in our garden.
• Fresh cucumbers delivered from Jacqui’s garden to our dinner table.
• A heavenly lavender sunset framed by a balmy, breezy atmosphere.
• My four beautiful yoga students who came for their lesson this evening, and left with love shining on their faces.
This is perhaps […]
Honourable Guests
We’re enjoying the company of Collyn and Maarit Rivers at our Mitchells Island home over the next couple of days. […]
The Audacity of Becoming a Yoga Teacher
Most yogis who get interested in teaching do so because their teacher is going away on hols and asks them to cover for her classes. Thrown into the deep end, dog paddling to stay afloat, I remember watching the attendances of classes I was filling in for go from 20 to 2 in no time. Certainly I was audacious to have said yes in the first place. […]
Face Book
Do you ever worry about the amount of traffic on the Internet causing gridlock? Do you ever wonder if the colossal weight of our cyber communication will one day make our commuters implode?
These days I’m supposed to be worrying about “network neutrality supporters bringing down the Internet because there’s not enough backbone build-up”, but fortunately I can’t get my head around that one.
Such preoccupied thinking obviously points to someone who desperately needs yoga to still her mind.
Seriously, I wrote an article for Australian Yoga Life last year on the subject of community. […]
Australia Day '11
Australia has a hard, even at times cruel, climate, one that keeps complacency at bay. It seems one of the most extraordinary things to me that our farmers keep going back to husband the land after fires, floods and plagues. Tragic stories of lost properties and livestock abound accompanied by stories of communities pulling together for mutual support, as in the recent Queensland flooding.
We’ve been very blessed this season on Mitchells Island – spared, as we’ve been from the 40 degree temperatures of the Drought Years and saved from the northern floods of this year. […]