Wants and needs

I want to be in class right now, to be listening to what my teacher is sharing today, to be sweating along with my yoga crew, synchronising my breath and my movements with them in an expression of belonging and togetherness. But wants and needs aren't the same thing. And for more than one reason... Continue Reading →

May 31, 2016 2

Talking-to-the-plants-yoga

I've been trying to have a day or two without yoga. It's been a bit intense recently and I'm feeling a bit wary. Or do I mean chary? Either way, I thought consciously stepping back for a short time might be no bad thing. It's weirdly harder than you think! Yoga seems to have permeated my... Continue Reading →

May 29, 2016 4

Finding the right direction

I walked home from restorative yoga class this evening feeling ... well... restored. A little restored at least. A little more at peace with the world, a little more sure of my steps within it. I was amusing myself singing along to KD's Rama Bolo as I walked along. Everything felt OK. So when I encountered... Continue Reading →

May 27, 2016 3

Terrible yoga, amazing yoga

"That was a terrible, terrible, terrible class" I told my teacher as I sat in his office afterwards trying to stop the tears running down my face, waiting for my heart to stop thumping, and slowly allowing the tremors of emotion to ease and resolve into something of a smile. He took it well, concentrating on... Continue Reading →

May 25, 2016 6

Lost for words

My teacher's just come back after some time off sick. He'd lost his voice. I asked him if he'd meditated on the ill-health and learned anything from that! I was being ironic or teasing a little: he asked me to do just this after an injury many months ago, and it was simultaneously the most... Continue Reading →

May 23, 2016 4

The art of simplifying

Hubby overheard me the other weekend fielding my mum's questions about my yoga. I was frustrated that she just asked one new question after another without following up on anything I said. Did she actually hear? Was she listening? It felt as though she was just going through a questionnaire, where the act of asking was... Continue Reading →

May 22, 2016 8

Savouring the moments

I'm currently having an emotional wobble, trying to ride the sweet spot between the warm glow of nostalgia and the darkness of melancholy. I've been with old friends these past few days -- such sweet reunion and now such sad farewells. During this time we've had coffee, drunk wine, and shared lunch, dinner, and breakfast -- and done yoga! We've relived our youth... Continue Reading →

May 21, 2016 4

I can’t hear you

When we OM in class, my teacher often encourages shy types or newbies by saying when you OM no-one can hear you. Well, maybe not technically true... but I try to suspend my disbelief with things my teacher says that I don’t immediately get. What d’ya know – there’s always some wisdom in there, even if I... Continue Reading →

May 20, 2016 5

Cruelty in Sanskrit class!

“Can I be cruel?” my Sanskrit teacher asked in class this week. Actually all he was proposing was that we read out loud the new vocabulary lists rather than listening to him introduce us to unfamiliar words. Not so terribly cruel after all, but the rules of engagement for adult learning are very different to... Continue Reading →

May 19, 2016 2

What if no-one sees?

I caught up with a work colleague the other day who was dabbling in Mindfulness practice last time we spoke some months ago. I asked her how it was going. She looked vaguely guilty and said she hadn’t kept it up because there was no motivation, no way of tracking her progress or knowing if... Continue Reading →