Laughing and listening

The cue I was given about tucking the lower ribs in Kapotāsana made no sense at all -- my brain didn't understand and said so. "Why would I want to do that?" I asked my teacher. "Why indeed?" was his rather Delphic response which made me giggle. And hey presto -- it turns out that the... Continue Reading →

March 14, 2016 2

Turning my practice upside-down

Class the other day was all about change -- making changes oneself and accepting changes that occur. Some amusing thoughts, as always, from my teacher on his experiences of yoga. I liked his consideration of how many friends you might lose through yoga because you become apparently boring -- finding more pleasure in the emerging spring flowers... Continue Reading →

March 13, 2016 3

Tee-shirts and labels

I wrote a while ago how imposter syndrome made me feel ridiculously self-conscious about labelling myself as a serious enough yogini to merit mat-storage room at my local studio. Yeah, yeah, I know....!! The problems we create for ourselves! But, seriously -- calming my imposter syndrome down is a very real work in progress. Part of the practice for... Continue Reading →

March 11, 2016 0

Painful steps

When I wrote about my hamstring injury last year, I was totally self-absorbed. Of course! It was my first yoga injury and I had a lot to learn about all aspects of handling it. A voyage of discovery into working with a physio, starting to understand some anatomy (what are the hamstrings anyway?) and how muscles... Continue Reading →

March 8, 2016 2

TT heebie jeebies

Someone was talking really loudly before class the other night. They were outside the studio door, but their voice carried clearly. I tried to ignore it. I'm breathing. I'm preparing. This is my time. Accept the sounds and then let them go -- that's what I was taught early on in meditation (in an absurdly... Continue Reading →

March 5, 2016 5

Practicing with a blank page

I wrote a bit earlier this week about how I'm finding practice really difficult at the moment. I currently have little patience or mental focus and attempts at home practice have been tough -- or totally abortive. Today I was booked onto an evening class and looking forward to it. Ah, a chance just to be told... Continue Reading →

March 3, 2016 2

Yoga + stress = practicing patience

GP appointments on the NHS are standardly 10 minutes. What can you do in 10 minutes? A lot as it turns out -- if you're experienced and have good rapport with your patient. I was back with my GP yesterday as a follow-up to my original appointment to talk about workplace stress (blogpost: does yoga... Continue Reading →

March 1, 2016 0

Good vibrations

Yoga expands the more I practice. It throws opens new horizons to me all the time. Yet the whole yoga thing still makes me feel uncomfortable and sometimes doesn't settle easily around who I thought I was (or who I used to be). So I find myself examining all new aspects of it to be sure I'm not just... Continue Reading →

February 28, 2016 7

Do I care to share?

I try not to be evangelical about yoga, despite how passionately I feel about it. It's too easy to assume you know best what might help other people -- or indeed that they want any kind of help or relief. Suffering of all sorts is complex. And there's some martyr tendency in all of us... Continue Reading →

February 27, 2016 2

Greeting the sun

Morning practice: a single slow sun salute. A breath in each āsana. That is all. So this will never turn me into an āsana champion, but it generated a spontaneous giggle from me and that's all I need. A giggle at how stiff and sore and tired my body is after just a couple of days... Continue Reading →