To Squeeze and Tense, or Not to Squeeze and Tense?
Yoga Philosophy
What Does it Mean to Be Stoic?
Even though I tend to be a glass half full kind of person, I really detest the sentiment of pretence when it comes to positive thinking.
Particularly when it’s dressed up as spirituality.
Asteya: Yoga in Daily Life
We all know that it is wrong to steal “stuff” – to take things that do not belong to us, to commit fraud or to plagiarise etc but there are other forms of stealing that are more relevant to the average person when it comes to observing the yamas and niyamas. When the class is relaxed, peaceful and quiet, it can be frustrating when someone’s phone rings or buzzes. It can affect the equanimity of the whole room if one person begins to shuffle around, sighing with boredom while everyone else is lying still in relaxation. Then there are those folk who seem to explode into a yoga room, often late and usually loudly, “stealing” others’ rights to some (often) rare quiet time.
Read MoreWhat Do You Prefer In a Group Class?
Over the past 20 or so years of actually teaching and continuing to learn, what I teach now, has been pared back considerably, but, yet, I know it’s actually way more useful for the most amount of people. Many of us are managing injuries and conditions and so what we do is also practical and therapeutic and still challenging enough for the majority.
Read MoreYoga in the Time of Corona…(Covid 19)
Relinquish Control. Accept. Take Each Day as it Comes. Yogis, let’s not stick our heads in the sand. It is time to be sensible and, praise be, nip this thing in the bud. I hope you are on board and understand what a difference it will make to the health of our whole community /…
Read MoreWhat is the difference between Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga?
Above image taken by Oonagh Treble. I’m posing for a photo while in Pigeon Pose on a SUP at Shoal Bay . It was a beautiful morning; we laughed lots and had loads of fun, but at that moment, I was just posing on a paddleboard. Let’s not call it Yoga…! Somebody asked me a question the other…
Read MoreHow can what we practise on our mat, prepare us for what may happen in our life?
Here’s one of my favourite poses, Parvrtta Janu Sirsasana (Twisting Head to Knee Pose), an easier version of which we are doing in our sequence this term. It’s a beautiful side stretch which, among other things, tones and nourishes the kidneys. The way we come into it in class means there is the option of…
Read MoreWhy do Human Bodies Need To Move?
Why do humans need to exercise? It’s a shame if the first thing to pop into your mind was “to burn calories” as it sort of misses the point. Most of us in the modern, Western World eat far too much and just don’t move enough, so if we just stopped eating so much, we’d…
Read MoreWhy Yoga Teachers Should Adopt a “Best Practise” Model.
At the end of the 90s, I worked at Dorling Kindersley publishing and we were working on edits for the Australian market of the big, hard cover book by BKS Iyengar. I was asked for some input and added my yoga school at the back. The Australian Iyengees were very cross once the book came out because that school wasn’t specifically “Iyengar, so for future editions, it was changed. But was Iyengar that rigid? it’s probably fair to say that he just described his yoga as “yoga”.
Read MoreThoughts & Opinions are just a Reflection of our Own PERSONAL Experiences….
What have you seen, read or heard already this morning that caused you to conclude something about something or someone without question?
Read MoreTo Squeeze and Tense, or Not to Squeeze and Tense?
That is the question…🤔! I am talking about muscles of course, and this is my perspective, based on my own yoga practise, years of exercise, study and experience. I grew up in this modern world – a world where women (especially, but now it’s men too), have been informed they need to have a flat,…
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