Managing better

In my earlier yoga days I was a more prolific blogger than now. All the experiences were so vivid and so new, I struggled to make sense of them. Writing as a process of reflection seemed to help. Also the little blog community that included me in their circle was a wonderful support with a... Continue Reading →

July 1, 2023 2

Practice makes much less than perfect

"I don't want you to be good at this, I want you to practise being really bad at something." My teacher has given me a new chant to practise this week. She's going to give me a new chant to practise every week for six weeks. I'm not supposed to get good at them in... Continue Reading →

May 22, 2023 2

6 weeks later

I just completed my six weeks of beginner weights training! Oof, quite an experience. I was chatting over with a girlfriend recently. She's the best! Eagerly asking about it, keen to hear how I had found it, more interested in the mental/emotional difficulties she anticipated I would have with this degree of physical effort. She... Continue Reading →

March 10, 2023 0

Hero pose

In my early yoga years I looked up to everyone. The guys with a strength and stamina that intimidating me massively, the flexible girls who effortlessly folded in half or wiggled an ankle behind the neck, the energetic asana teachers who led a packed room through a sweaty sequence, the imperturbable meditation teachers who quietly... Continue Reading →

November 11, 2022 1

Days of rest

Two days before I went on vacation I taught a yoga class. It was restorative style. I joked with the students about how difficult I find holiday-time, how it takes me a few days to slide from habitual busyness towards rest and days that are not filled with obligations and self-imposed duties -- yes, they... Continue Reading →

July 9, 2022 3

Dropping in

I just took my first overseas trip since covid began. Not long planned, just a sudden realisation that I could join my husband for a few days of his work trip in Greece and use up a travel voucher that was about to expire. That gave me two nights only. Not long to orientate oneself... Continue Reading →

May 8, 2022 1

Asking for it

When I finished teacher training I asked the studio if I could teach for them. I didn't get a reply which I interpreted as you might expect. Fair enough. The last message I remember us getting as little trainees was that we were 'babies who knew nothing'. Not quite the graduation pep talk I was... Continue Reading →

April 15, 2022 4

Timelessness — as always

I told my teacher recently about a photo I saw of a girl in urdhva hastasana. Not a pose I've really thought about much, until recently. Now it's come up as part of a self-project of settling more deeply into my surya namaskar. I have the idea of elevating it beyond the physical exertion of... Continue Reading →

March 18, 2022 5

Decluttering

My husband wants to move. Our place is quite small, a two bedroom apartment -- or you could say it's a one bed apartment with a yoga room 🙂 After two years of working from home in a space small enough that we can hear every detail of each other's meetings and phone calls, he... Continue Reading →

March 7, 2022 2

Three, two, one… Go!

"OK, 10 burpees in 3, 2, 1... GO!" The trainer clicked his stopwatch and looked at me expectantly. He had the power-stance that trainers adopt, almost military-style with feet apart, one hand 'at ease' behind the back, stopwatch held in the other. I didn't move. "I don't know how to do that," I told him... Continue Reading →