my yoga journey
When I first started Rolfing, my homework was about skipping and leaping, encouraging me to find a bit of joy in simple movements. I did my best, feeling a little foolish, needing to force the movements rather than finding them arising naturally. More recently my Rolfing homework has been about my effervescent ears. Same underlying... Continue Reading →
I was amused by the timing of this story about the development of a menstruation emoji. It's part of a movement to help women feel less ashamed of their monthly bleed. Of course the news coincided nicely with my own period. And I'm making my own innovations this cycle: I'm trying out reusable (washable) sanitary... Continue Reading →
Rolfing is an odd process. It takes me by surprise over and over: how I feel in my body, what I learn, what I talk about with my Rolfer, and how endlessly wise she seems so me -- yet how subtly she conveys her teaching, through her fingertips and quiet patience with me as much... Continue Reading →
I try not to be shy about asking my teacher when I don't understand something. I feel some increased imperative now, as I seek to clarify my own knowledge so that I can best support my own students. I take care not to give an alignment cue simply as he does, but to ensure I... Continue Reading →
On Friday I went to a family funeral. Difficult occasions always. And always such difficulty is compounded by various day to day circumstances. The inconsequentialities of recent snowy conditions disrupting travel plans, minor illnesses creating anxiety, and also the deeper current of entrenched family dynamics... Such are our human lives, even in the face of... Continue Reading →
I sit with the teacher a little before class. She talks about the weather and birdwatching, we talk about mundane weekend plans and what we're having for lunch. We also talk about the non-sense of 200 hour YTT programmes, how little they equip anyone for the reality of teaching. We consider the difficulty of assessing... Continue Reading →
I ran a workshop for my students recently to help them begin to establish their own home yoga practice. When helping them think about categorising the poses they knew so that they could define a simple sequence, I asked them to consider what their favourite pose was. Perhaps they could use that as the lynch-pin... Continue Reading →
I haven't written in an age. Did you notice, really? I haven't felt drawn to share much. A web of physical pain and some emotional (let's call them spiritual) entanglements and confusions, some quiet disillusionment about modern yoga -- all threatening stagnation in my practice but ultimately providing shitty fertilizer which has allowed for some... Continue Reading →
I'm learning the optative in Sanskrit. My textbook tells me "the optative is a verb form that indicates possibility. It can be translated as 'should', 'would', 'could', 'ought' or 'may'. I found sentence 3 in the first exercise ironically amusing: "The teacher ought to be content". After all, the last time I had met with... Continue Reading →
