What a treat! I was able to practice with the Simply Yoga teachers this morning. Sigh. I miss having that routine in my life.
Speaking of routine, I waived my regular yoga practice while staying at the Fallows. Good thing it was only a week long. No walks either, but plenty of drinking and dining at Sydney eating establishments. As a result I feel trendified and rather overfull. […]
Yoga practices
Finally, I Love Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)
I don’t know exactly when the tide turned in favour of doing shoulderstand, but turn it did. Maybe it was 30 years after I started yoga. Was I a masochist for hanging in there for so long? Or merely stubborn? It helped when I discovered supported shoulderstand and halasana. These are the user-friendly approaches to the standard unproved way of doing the poses.
Easy-peasy
I participate in an on-line writing group called Scrivener’s: http://aussie-scriveners.blogspot.com/ My motive in joining was that the more writing I do the better writer I become. Each week we write a relatively short story, the theme for which is suggested by a “prompt” by one of the group’s members. […]
Beginnings
It was October 1979 mid-week, I don’t know what day. I walked into the yoga premises on the first floor of a rather run-down building on Spring Street Bondi Junction. Really I was walking into the rest of my life.
I’d heard about this mad Yorkshire man teaching something called Iyengar yoga, but I never got around to seeking out a class until a year after the recommendation.
There was no internet then so I couldn’t check on class availability so I just rocked up. […]
Tired
So unsexy to be tired. It’s something to get over as quickly as possible but how?
A band-aid yoga pose is viparta karani (legs-up-the-wall), which can include Supta Upavistha Konasana (5 min.), Supta Baddha Konasana (5min.), Supta Sukhasana (3 min. each side) for a little more than 20 min. […]
Do-It-Yourself
Gradually I have been colonising more and more of the shed space for yoga practice. It’s a building which also serves as two-bedroom accommodation for guests. Most of our guests fortunately have been yoga practitioners. A couple of other guests who were yoga virgins gave it a go, recognising the superb ambience of our sanctum.
Lately I’ve been feeling a little like Kevin Costner in that film “Field of Dreams”. […]
Gardens
I don’t know a whole lot about gardening. I don’t even know if that expression “pottering around” in the garden would apply to what I do. What I do is more like “messing around”. I make mistakes and kill things off, and plant stuff that never makes it past the neonatal stage. However, recently (and with Heather watching) I planted winter tomatoes and lettuce, and they are happily thriving. It feels good to grow things.
The photo is of some of the garden beds that we have been building since Dec./Jan. […]
Paradise
A few recent posts have been rather on the whine-y side. […]
Oh Happy Day!
What is it about sirsasana that lines people on opposing sides – mainly love-hate. I’m on the love side and I haven’t been able to do headstand for more than eight weeks. […]
Inside Job
Attending classes are a tremendous way to be introduced to yoga and to enjoy the comraderie of others. I was completely hooked on classes when I learned Iyengar yoga in the early 80’s. I can’t believe it now, but I used to do more than one class a day. I think the cost of a class was $8 then, and the price went down to $5 if you were enrolled in the six-month teachers’ training course. Come to think of it, all the classes were two hours long! I don’t know if I was passionate or just obsessed. […]
Still working on it.
…it being the getting up from the floor.
Today in the yoga shed, I had Daniel demonstrate how he gets up from sitting on the floor. Everything he did was as expected: roll over on your side, use your hands to help you into a lunge-one-leg-forward position, push off the back foot and you’re up and at ’em.
Sigh.
The lunge is where my physiology gets short-circuited from my brain. I don’t feel frustrated or that I want to throw two year old tanties. Just incredibly challenged.
So many poses came easily to Miss Supple. […]
Reflection
The moon was exquisite tonight, shining over empty pastures, as we drove home from our community choir. More than half full, like a big bowl of cream, this moon was reflecting an unseen light source.
In my yoga practice this morning, my body – gradually awakening after weeks of dullness, grossness – began to shine a little, too. Intelligence applied conscientiously and continuously over time has the ability to clarify the body’s systems and make it luminous.
With a beginning yogi, at first, there are only intimations of the body reflecting this radiant intelligence. […]
Never Been Here Before
If you think about it philosophically, each moment presents us with a possible “never-been-here-before” view. This, of course, is the basis of meditation.
However, in our human condition, we don’t often have the experience of life being new, fresh. And, when we do have that experience, just because it is unusual, it can be disconcerting.
This morning as I entered the Yoga Shed to practice, I realised I had no idea what to do. […]
Best Practices No. 7
Everyone can benefit from giving your overworked liver a mini-holiday. I notice what a beating mine got because of major surgery and subsequent medications.
So, here goes:
Liver Balancing
Adho mukha svanasana, supported on ropes
Urdhva mukha svanasana
Supta baddha konasana
Supta virasana
Prasarita paddottanasana, 1 Min. concave back, 1 Min. Hands supporting under legs
Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, on chair, head supported on bolsters or blocks
Sarvangasana
Halasana, supported on chair
Viparita Karani
Ardha Jatara parvatanasana x 2
Supta Padangusthasna 1 & 2, 1 Min. […]
‘Advanced’ Restorative Yoga: Back on an Even Keel
Feeling depleted can range from tiredness to utter exhaustion. We humans want to be able to keep up with all the demands life makes on us. Career, studies, parenting, even socialising, eventually will take their toll. Supine poses quiet the sympathetic nervous system. And, gentle inversions invigorate your body’s systems.
Best Practices No. 4
You may have been overlooked one of the really beautiful practices that I’ve encountered if you don’t follow the Iyengar method. This sequence was buried in the last pages of B.K.S. Iyengar’s marvellous book, Light on Life. […]
"Best of…" No. 3
Post-Travel Sequence
Australians are inveterate travellers, so this sequence is a handy one to have tucked into your tool box for your return. Notice the interesting mixture of seated poses and backbends.
Supta Baddha Konasana (10-15 Min.)
Virasana (3 Min.)
Upavistha Konasana, hands behind (3 Min.)
Baddha Konasana, head supported on chair, then move chair to left, then right for a lateral forward bend (1 Min. each side)
Bharadavajasana 1, 3 x (1 Min. each side)
Paschimottanasana, head supported, feet apart 30 cm. (3 Min.)
Janu Sirsasana (3 Min. […]
Best Practices No. 2
Yoga Sequence for Boosting the Immune System
Yoga practitioners are human and subject to illness, despite following the most conscientious lifestyle. So when in recovery from any nasties, this practice based on one of B.K.S. Iyengar’s sequences is an invaluable practice. […]
Did you go to the beach today?
Before I moved to Mitchells Island a few months ago, I am very sorry to say that whole summers evaporated before my feet had caressed any sandy shores. Even in the December/January holidays, it was catch up time for the rest of the year. Tasks that had been put off over the year, people I promised to see, and even New Year’s Yoga Intensives to teach were more momentous than seashore outings.
And then, poof, the vacation break would be gone. […]
Let's Talk About Sex
All of a sudden sex is coming across my desk. Who am I to ignore it?
Actually it started a little while ago in the form of emails arriving from Human Awareness Australia announcing two workshops to be held in the latter part of March – “The Joy of Couples: Creating Depth in Relationship” and “Love is a Miracle”.
Daniel and I met in one of these sorts of workshops. I daresay we wouldn’t be together after 18 years if we hadn’t learned a thing or two in the various levels of these workshops. […]