Two year teaching anniversary

Facebook just alerted me to the fact that it's been two years now since I obtained my yoga teaching certificate. So I've been teaching that long! A 'time flies' moment if ever there was. How can I have learnt so much AND so little in this time? I remember one of the things that vexed... Continue Reading →

August 17, 2018 4

Sorrier namaskar

"Inhale hands to prayer. Make it real" My teacher knows I'm nervous, gives me a breath to settle myself here before I 'show him' my Surya Namaskar A. I know it's not, but it feels like a test. He's standing just on the edge of my field of vision, a safe distance away, an unnerving... Continue Reading →

July 5, 2018 2

Snow-ga

I once heard someone say you should never take up yoga if you like a good personal drama, if you're attached to making your life more exciting than it perhaps needs to be, if you actually enjoy getting a bit high on the everyday stresses. I think you'll know what I mean. I can fall... Continue Reading →

March 2, 2018 1

Complimentary yoga

“So pretty” is not a phrase I hear often when I’m in class. My teacher is very sparse with anything that might sound like a compliment. He’s big on no judgment, no expectation: everything is simply along a spectrum of experience, where we practise non-attachment to any particular outcome. It’s strong yoga medicine: ultimately good... Continue Reading →

November 2, 2017 3

Forceful yoga

I was listening to a senior teacher talking recently about her background in dance and music and performance and wondering how to relate to that. I am not an exhibitionist or a performer. I write an anonymous blog. I prefer to be a silent witness in the back corner. Barely seen, not heard. My social interactions... Continue Reading →

July 8, 2017 2

Enough already!

"Enough already!" It depends how you say it. It's either a slightly tetchy way of telling someone to stop doing something or it's a kind acknowledgement of the sufficiency in all things. I'm flip-flopping back and forth at the moment with both ways of talking to myself. I am having serious 'enough' issues, feeling never... Continue Reading →

April 28, 2017 2

On practising when tired

Teachers often caution against practising when tired: it's when the injuries happen. Your attention lapses or you're not well set up. It's sensible advice, but sometimes it really bothers me and I hear it too personally. My inner demons wickedly translate these words into "you're sick and you have no place here and this practice is... Continue Reading →

November 30, 2016 3

Continuing with Iyengar?

So I've completed my baby Iyengar course now (6 introductory sessions at the Iyengar Institute in London). I was sad to miss the final class with the usual teacher since I was (ahem) teaching a class myself. So I hauled myself down one evening after work to catch a session with another teacher. It was interesting to... Continue Reading →

October 29, 2016 10

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

Yoga practice as a band aid

I have been touched by some expressions of care from readers following some recent posts where I've been confronting the fact that practice isn't always an uplifting experience and can be downright troubling. Blogging about personal experiences -- like yoga itself -- is a bit of a leap of faith. But if I'm finding something... Continue Reading →