No feeling is final

“Go to the limits of your longing... Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final” (Rilke) Practice at the moment is an experience of longing. I feel a deep yearning to be more fully with myself, to let go of the past, to feel the reality of the... Continue Reading →

March 18, 2019 0

Keeping score

My teacher very rarely offers any comment on the quality (or qualities) of my yoga practice. I am never sure how to read this, never really sure how to read him as a teacher. Is he paying me a massive implicit compliment not imposing his perspective on me, trusting that I'll figure it all out... Continue Reading →

March 13, 2019 0

A quiet revolution

I saw my physio again today for my rotator cuff injury. We've been working on this together for 5 months or so. I find these appointments really interesting. They become a ground for self-observation as much as āsana practice or meeting with my yoga teacher are. When I first needed physio appointments I was not... Continue Reading →

March 11, 2019 2

Movie night

How much do teachers share their own practice with their students? I find this a constant balancing act. How to root teaching in my own experiences and practice while generalizing it enough to be accessible to a group? I went to class recently where I was baffled by a lot of what was offered, not... Continue Reading →

February 24, 2019 0

Telling stories

Telling stories. Telling stories. RE-telling stories I was formally trained to study the past. I used to be an archaeologist. My academic training taught me that there's usually more than one interpretation of the evidence and if you follow the more radical post-modern theories the past is unknowable and all interpretations become equally valid... Death... Continue Reading →

February 22, 2019 0

Running wild

When I first started Rolfing, my homework was about skipping and leaping, encouraging me to find a bit of joy in simple movements. I did my best, feeling a little foolish, needing to force the movements rather than finding them arising naturally. More recently my Rolfing homework has been about my effervescent ears. Same underlying... Continue Reading →

February 16, 2019 2

Using less plastic. Period.

I was amused by the timing of this story about the development of a menstruation emoji. It's part of a movement to help women feel less ashamed of their monthly bleed. Of course the news coincided nicely with my own period. And I'm making my own innovations this cycle: I'm trying out reusable (washable) sanitary... Continue Reading →

February 11, 2019 8

Jumping for joy

Rolfing is an odd process. It takes me by surprise over and over: how I feel in my body, what I learn, what I talk about with my Rolfer, and how endlessly wise she seems so me -- yet how subtly she conveys her teaching, through her fingertips and quiet patience with me as much... Continue Reading →

February 9, 2019 2

Talking back

I try not to be shy about asking my teacher when I don't understand something. I feel some increased imperative now, as I seek to clarify my own knowledge so that I can best support my own students. I take care not to give an alignment cue simply as he does, but to ensure I... Continue Reading →

February 5, 2019 4

In good company

On Friday I went to a family funeral. Difficult occasions always. And always such difficulty is compounded by various day to day circumstances. The inconsequentialities of recent snowy conditions disrupting travel plans, minor illnesses creating anxiety, and also the deeper current of entrenched family dynamics... Such are our human lives, even in the face of... Continue Reading →