Mindful teaching

I'm part way through teaching a short course on mindfulness to a small group of students. It's my first time teaching a sustained course over two months and my first time teaching mindfulness. I was not at all sure it would work, that I could do it, or what the students would bring to it... Continue Reading →

May 28, 2022 0

Dropping in

I just took my first overseas trip since covid began. Not long planned, just a sudden realisation that I could join my husband for a few days of his work trip in Greece and use up a travel voucher that was about to expire. That gave me two nights only. Not long to orientate oneself... Continue Reading →

May 8, 2022 1

Asking for it

When I finished teacher training I asked the studio if I could teach for them. I didn't get a reply which I interpreted as you might expect. Fair enough. The last message I remember us getting as little trainees was that we were 'babies who knew nothing'. Not quite the graduation pep talk I was... Continue Reading →

April 15, 2022 4

Timelessness — as always

I told my teacher recently about a photo I saw of a girl in urdhva hastasana. Not a pose I've really thought about much, until recently. Now it's come up as part of a self-project of settling more deeply into my surya namaskar. I have the idea of elevating it beyond the physical exertion of... Continue Reading →

March 18, 2022 5

Decluttering

My husband wants to move. Our place is quite small, a two bedroom apartment -- or you could say it's a one bed apartment with a yoga room 🙂 After two years of working from home in a space small enough that we can hear every detail of each other's meetings and phone calls, he... Continue Reading →

March 7, 2022 2

Three, two, one… Go!

"OK, 10 burpees in 3, 2, 1... GO!" The trainer clicked his stopwatch and looked at me expectantly. He had the power-stance that trainers adopt, almost military-style with feet apart, one hand 'at ease' behind the back, stopwatch held in the other. I didn't move. "I don't know how to do that," I told him... Continue Reading →

November 16, 2021 0

Mountains of my mind

Early morning (well, early for me on a Sunday) and despite single-figure temperatures I'm out and running across the local fields in shorts and vest, hopping around the puddles, taking care in the muddy patches, enjoying the movement and being outside in nature. My cheeks burn (from blood pumping or the cold air?), my feet... Continue Reading →

November 10, 2021 2

Kind space

I made a small trade with a friend today: she offered me some glass storage jars which she'd just bought only to realise they were the wrong size for her needs. I gave her in return a rug we had stored away which matches her new curtains perfectly. Now I have freed up some space... Continue Reading →

October 24, 2021 3

Measuring yoga

Covid-19 cases and deaths in UK remains high (higher than anyone cares to notice or talk about) but strangely life is returning to something vaguely akin to the 'old normal' for many as formal restrictions have been largely lifted. I've been going to in person yoga class again regularly for a while now. The studio... Continue Reading →

October 9, 2021 3

Idling by the river

I sat a long while by the river today. The sun came and went, the sky was stacked with puffy white clouds. Birds appeared according to their individual habits. A kingfisher flew low and long over the water. A prehistoric-looking heron stalked its lunch. Half a dozen ducks came whirling in from somewhere and landed... Continue Reading →