An experienced yoga teacher asked me this question yesterday:
I have been following your blog for a while now. It seems to me that you are always missing the spiritual side of yoga in your comments and insight, that is the main very goal of this path. Why?
I was happy to get such a great question. […]
The Divine Feminine Conference November 26 & 27 was a source of joy to me and, I would say, to many of the women in attendance.
The first presentation on the first day was a slow simmer even though Diane Riley was speaking passionately about her area of expertise – Tantra. […]
What is it about yoga that attracts so many people to it?
When I moved to the country, I wasn’t sure if I would garner an audience for the kind of yoga I teach. Building up class numbers has taken time, but now students are coming from far distances to the humble Yoga Shed.
I don’t take all the credit. I think people want to learn yoga for a variety of reasons, some of which are:
1. Physical well-being. This is a biggie. Dynamic yoga can get you into a pretty buffed condition, with more-than-inner glow. […]
I’ve never read a biography about Mahatma Gandhi, nor any of his many published works, so I’m hoping that the above quote is really accredited to him. Wrongful attribution is a problem these days, as evidenced by this message we often see on bumper stickers and gift shop coffee mugs:
Be the change you want to see in the world.
That expression, usually associated with the great man, is probably a paraphrase of words paraphrased in an interview with Gandhi’s son years ago.*
I digress though. […]
I was so excited today by the output of our potato patch that I wanted to write something about it on this blog. However I couldn’t think of any relationship between growing potatoes and yoga.
So now, we’re going to make a leap and talk about couch potatoes.
Some people are attracted to yoga because they are not particularly athletic. They believe that yoga is an activity that will give them a soft landing when they finally get off the couch and onto the mat.
Don’t be fooled, though. […]
For many years in Sydney, I trained yoga teachers to teach. One of the trainees’ assignments would be to design a sequence for a particular problem, apply it to a student, and assess the results.
Daniel, my husband, was a good guinea pig for the trainees because he had periodic back pain. (Interestingly, after nearly 19 years of doing yoga, he seems to have transcended this particular condition.)
Here’s a “Daniel sequence” for groins and lower back that I came across in my archives. […]
One of the age-old question about doing yoga practice is whether you should have a program that you strictly follow or should you just wing it and follow where your intuition leads you.
I was thinking about this very thing in my early morning practice. The advantage of following along a set sequence is that you don’t have to think too long and deeply about what will ensue. […]
Sometimes Nature is right in your face.
This morning at seven o’clock, the forest, meadows and garden were all saturated wet earth.
Visually lush green growing before your very eyes. Viscerally the atmosphere heavy, thickened , where you can only breath in so much richness before getting overwhelmed. […]
It’s such a simple thing; […]
Have you ever torn a hamstring or suffered an inflamed tendon? Then you would know the feeling of limping along, having to do just half-speed yoga poses.
I feel like that today after having had a little mishap with my computer keyboard. A portion of my morning coffee, so much anticipated after my yoga practice, spilled over the board. […]
Years ago, I saw Robert Redford in a film playing the role of a middle-aged man. In real life he was much older, but somehow he was debonair and good-looking enough to look like a good match for his younger female lead. That is, until he moved; he was rather stiff in his body, but it really showed up when he couldn’t turn his neck.
Yogis often will look younger than their years because their posture is naturally upright and their movements are fluid. […]
If you read “Yoga Suits Her” for inspiration, I hope I’m not letting you down by saying there was no yoga practice happening for me today.
This is because yesterday Daniel and I headed off for Barrington Tops National Park and here I am – with miracle of WiFi in our lodging – still connected to you.
I’ve heard about this part of the world ever since I moved to Australia from the US 35 years ago, so it’s a thrill to be here for the first time. […]
It’s been two years this week since we moved to Mitchell’s Island from Sydney.
More than the typical sea/tree change, we three couples were realised a six-year plan of buying a property, building a house on it and living together.
It’s worked better than I could have ever imagined:
*We’ve been accepted into the local community.
*Living in Nature is all it’s cracked to be.
*We’re growing our own vegetables!
*I teach in the Yoga Shed on our property, and I just roll out bed in the morning to do my yoga practice there.
*My housemates are a delight to […]
Do you have a favourite beach? Enjoying the seaside assumes the proportions of a fanatical religion in Australia. We cling to the coast, human barnacles as we are, even when we know we’re going to get washed over by storm surges and buffeted by cyclones.
I discovered Saltwater Beach nestled in the National Park of the same name when we moved to the mid-north coast two years ago. […]
Well, I can’t say for sure that the above statement is true, but around our house, where we all do yoga, no one has seen a chiro for a very long time. Or osteopath, or even a masseuse.
However, tomorrow morning I have an appointment with a physiotherapist – the first time since early last year when I was rehabilitating from hip surgery.
I’ve been waking up in the morning with a very sore area around my right scapula (maybe a nerve impingement?). […]
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression: Don’t just do something, sit there! It’s an obvious way of exhorting us to meditate – meditation being one of the most highly recommended methods of de-stressing.
Maybe like me, you’re not so great at sitting yourself down to meditate. It does take an effort of will, but I’ve managed to cajole myself into it by meditating after my yoga practice and pranayama, when the body/mind is quietest.
Some people, though, prefer doing meditation first thing in the morning, as early as possible, before the mind is disturbed by activity. […]
When I started learning yoga in the early ’70’s, there were classes, books and television yoga, but very little else. There was no Lululemon for designer threads, no on-line teacher training and teleconferencing, no yoga expos, no kids’ yoga, no sticky mats, and yoga was definitely not a household word.
We hear so often these days it’s become ho-hum, that yoga is mainstream. […]
I was privileged today to read a eulogy that appeared in the NY Times, a sibling writing about her famous and influential brother, Steve Jobs.
The piece reminded me how precious life is, and death too. You know this very well if you have gently paced a relative in the process of dying. This is what we do with our elderly parents in aged care facilities, but also sometimes with someone younger, like Jobs was. […]
For me, the process of sitting down to write an almost-daily blog depends completely on my tuning in to the everyday experiences of life on Mitchells Island. This is partly why I do the writing, to share more or less ordinary stuff that goes on here that can be extrapolated, with any luck, into universal experience.
It’s why I do yoga too. […]
I admit to having felt stressed recently. A two-week bout of a cold. Chugging away at desk work. A new business in the wings. I promise you I’ve been at my yoga practice (almost) every day, but sometimes it’s not quite enough to thwart the doldrums.
What’s a person to do?
Well, here’s several ideas that are working for me:
• Read inspiring books. If we only read the newspapers and listen to the evening news, we might end up feeling jaundiced about what we see is the sorry state of the world. […]