Christmas Yoga

One of the things I love about being away from home is that you have only limited possessions -- for a while at least. I'm not brave enough to do this at home in the context of my normal life even though I'd love to really pare stuff down, but when I'm travelling for a... Continue Reading →

December 26, 2016 3

Finding a re-union

What's that saying about if you think you're enlightened, try spending time with your family? Well, I can't ever imagine claiming enlightenment, but I don't see my family as much as I'd like so I can't often put it to the test anyway... 🙂 But this weekend was a family weekend. I find these times now... Continue Reading →

September 5, 2016 0

Re-framing the picture

I started today full of thoughts about myself. Wanting to go to work after two days resting in bed. Excited to be re-joining the world, but feeling that weird agoraphobia that follows time spent so quietly at home. Would the short walk to work actually be too much? Would I be able to concentrate on... Continue Reading →

August 26, 2016 3

Brexit yoga

Yoga teaches us wise choices and less instinctual reactions. Whatever the 'union' of yoga is, my pragmatic understanding is that it's about achieving a balance of opposites to find a place of greater stability and therefore greater ease. Āsana teaches us that on a basic level in the requirement for strength with flexibility, twisting with... Continue Reading →

June 25, 2016 9

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

More joy, less effort

A coincidence of reading a (highly controversial!) research paper about the personality type most often associated with ME/CFS and the associated habitual swinging pattern of activity levels (overdo it then need to rest, then get bored/frustrated so overdo it again...) plus advice from my teacher on handling my current emotional reactions to backbends (even out the... Continue Reading →

May 8, 2016 2

Feedback along the way

In Sanskrit class I'm noticing less feedback from my teacher. He used to be quick to correct mistakes or offer help. Now he gives me longer to figure it out myself, and he no longer offers any encouraging noises while I'm puzzling through the words in a sentence out loud. I'm to assume that silence is good.... Continue Reading →

May 6, 2016 3

Cheese melt down

We've just passed the anniversary of my last proper Greek moussaka — what used to be my fave food. The dish for my last meal request, perhaps. I loved eating it, I loved making it. Three hours in the kitchen — bechamel sauce, fried aubergines, meat sauce with a hint of cinnamon (since I was taught... Continue Reading →

May 2, 2016 2

Catharsis

A wound that was left untended for years festers out of sight, pus-filled and infected. One day you unwittingly prod at it and find you take some strange pleasure in the discomfort, in really feeling the hurt as you probe how deep it runs. It opens up, spills out a little -- and it's messy. But there's... Continue Reading →

April 21, 2016 2

Another year rolls round

What's another birthday between blogging friends? As always it's a time to reflect a little on another year past. But I'm choosing this year mostly to be in the now, rather than in the might-have-been past. Life feels good overall and I'm immensely grateful for that. So by way of a celebration of life, I... Continue Reading →