What’s your story?

"What's your story?" is a question I seem to get asked a lot these days. I guess that's exciting -- it means I'm talking to new people who want or need to know more about me quickly. Asking an open question can be very revealing -- it's a tactic that I love to use in my professional... Continue Reading →

December 13, 2015 2

Eyes on me

I realised this week that I really, really don't like being in the spotlight. I'm not talking hostile interrogation, actually kindly attention -- and even attention that I've invited. But I find it almost unbearable. A private session recently with my yoga teacher, whom I should know well enough to feel comfortable with, induced a state... Continue Reading →

December 11, 2015 10

Final Sanskrit class of the term

I just had my final Sanskrit class of term. In truth I'm ready for a break. I've been packing all sorts of extras into my time during the last few months and it'll be nice to have less on my plate (festive obligations permitting, ha!). But what a joy Sanskrit has been so far! We raced... Continue Reading →

December 9, 2015 2

The advent of selfish behaviour

This is not a rant about Black Friday, though it could be. Nor about Cyber Monday, though it should be. It's not even about Giving Tuesday though this final one incensed me so much I unleashed a full-on rant to colleagues when one of them told me about it. Are we so collectively rubbish on 364 days of... Continue Reading →

December 6, 2015 4

Green-eyed yogini

I envied the practice of the girl next to me in class. I wasn't watching her, but I had a sense of her gracefulness -- lightness and control, movements that looked deliberate and yet natural. I could sense this more than I actually saw it. I was trying to do my own practice, after all!... Continue Reading →

December 4, 2015 0

What a difference a day makes

A friend of mine remarked recently that she would have been sceptical about the 'transformative power' of yoga if I wasn't a living example. She used to see me as super-stressed in the office, always bringing work home, unable to let it go at the end of the day, and offering self-recrimination that I wasn't always... Continue Reading →

December 3, 2015 5

Lamp Posts and Bus Stops

I gave a mini-English lesson this evening as I waited for the bus home. I always have interesting moments at this bus stop after yoga class. Is it the bus stop? Maybe it's like the lamppost in Narnia -- where meetings happen! No, it's probably more likely another curious side-effect of yoga. Maybe somehow I give... Continue Reading →

December 1, 2015 2

Knitting up the ravelled sleeve

My favourite cardigan has a huge hole in one elbow. I guess it's the arm I lean on the table when I'm thinking. Part of my habitual asymmetry. It's just the cardie that I wear at home, but it's soft and snuggly and perfect for private times. My family urge me to throw my beloved cardie... Continue Reading →