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

Beloved savasana

My teacher sometimes refers to śavāsana as a 'little death' and I have to fight an immature giggle at what can only sound like a sexual metaphor to my ears. Funny in contrast that his referring to the breath as 'the beloved' simply sounds esoteric and rather pure! Because 'bhakti' isn't from my native language... Continue Reading →

February 21, 2016 0

Purring cats and the power of Om

My teacher's on a thing with Om at the moment. So that kind of means I am too. We've been beginning class chanting PYS 1.28: taj-japas tad-artha-bhāvanam By chanting Om one realizes the meaning of Om He's talked to us about the three sounds that make up Om (AUM) and how they relate to the body --... Continue Reading →

February 18, 2016 3

Yoga is embarrassing

It's about 5am right now in my corner of the world. I'm awake. I'm hungry and thirsty so I'm taking care of that. My mind is restless, so this blog is my way of trying to take care of that. I can't sleep. I'm full of awe and excitement and I'm happily sh*t scared of... Continue Reading →

February 14, 2016 9

Feel the burn

Hubby's been working his socks off recently, finishing a big submission for publication. 50,000 words no less! His students struggling currently with their 8,000 word dissertations couldn't believe this level of work or what it represented in understanding and knowledge. I'm super proud of him -- of what he does and how he does it.... Continue Reading →

February 3, 2016 8

The Colour Purple

I've just read Alice Walker's The Colour Purple for the first time. Yeah, I know: I'm so culturally impoverished and all that... But my excuse is that I was in the remedial class for English at school and we didn't actually read books (though we watched a few film adaptations), so I missed out on the... Continue Reading →

January 29, 2016 0

How do you know?

My bedtime reading right now is a novel about a little girl who went blind and had to learn afresh how to interpret her world, how to navigate it in a very practical way, as well as how to interpret it on the basis of the different sensory inputs she now has. On the other side... Continue Reading →

January 23, 2016 5

Elephants, god, and sex: lost in translation

I've been learning Sanskrit for a few slow months now. Progress is not as fast as I'd like. But then when is it? But actually I high-fived my rather staid class-mate yesterday -- we'd read a page together reasonably fluently during that lesson. OK, it's really simple stuff: stories my teacher has written with really basic grammatical constructions (strictly... Continue Reading →

January 20, 2016 5

Yoga by moonlight

I was chatting a friend over coffee today and conversation turned as often to yoga. We're both busy with relationships, work, family, keeping well/feeling ill... the usual flow of life stuff. And for myself I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by work right now (I'm covering the essentials of my boss's workload while he's on extended leave).... Continue Reading →

January 13, 2016 7

Discomfort in my yoga practice — and not how you might think

I've been reading recently about Conan Doyle (he of Sherlock Holmes fame) and his interest in Spiritualism (ectoplasm, fairies, and psychic phenomena). In the later part of his life Conan Doyle explored Spiritualism as a way of trying to resolve his religious upbringing and Jesuit education with his scientific training as a doctor: "Victorian science would... Continue Reading →