Anatomy at the hairdressers

There's nothing weird about studying anatomy at the hairdresser is there? Heaven knows I find the whole process so tedious I need some way of passing the time. Flicking through one magazine is usually my limit on that form of entertainment, so my Plan B in hairdresser survival is to bring my own reading matter. (Plan A,... Continue Reading →

March 17, 2016 0

The view from the front

The best thing about the front row in class -- there is no view! The studio I practice in has a very fashionable unadorned plain brick wall. Because I love walls (well, I did train in archaeology) this can be distracting enough as I become absorbed in the colours and textures and resist the temptation... Continue Reading →

March 15, 2016 5

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

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

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

Do your yoga pants vibrate?

I was always a bit of tech girl. I do like a cool gadget if it does the job well. My reaction to the prospect of having to buy a new iPad after mine took a bit of a hit recently? -- Squee!!! But yoga's changing me a bit. I'm actually starting to have second thoughts about... Continue Reading →

January 17, 2016 8

Bio-geometry? Is that a word?

My teacher often asks us to feel this kind of thing in āsana: "feel the connection between your heel and the crown of your head" and so on. Energetic connection that is, not pretzel shapes with your foot behind your head! I think the idea is to find some structural integrity, so that your whole being is united... Continue Reading →

November 13, 2015 2

Reversing triangle

Reversing triangle? Don't I mean 'reverse triangle'? Or 'revolved triangle'? Alas not! I'm just talking about plain old Trikoṇāsana. A staple in most of the classes I attend. It’s a pose I've been doing for as long as I've been practicing yoga. But now it suddenly feels all wrong. It started some months ago with feeling... Continue Reading →

October 27, 2015 3

Reading Kaminoff’s ‘Yoga Anatomy’

I've started reading Kaminoff's Yoga Anatomy again. I hope now that I understand a bit more overall about yoga I'll be able to get more benefit from it compared to a bewildering first perusal. I'm still in the front-matter and loving their notion of the body as laboratory for the exploration of what it means to be human and... Continue Reading →

August 9, 2015 7

Giving and receiving: some recent experiences of yoga adjustments

Ever since I started practising with a teacher who's very hands on in class I've wondered about the role of adjustments in yoga asana. I've deliberately not read much about the theory, though I get the impression adjustments are a highly contentious issue, given the potential for harm -- whether physical or psychological. For now I’m... Continue Reading →