Elephants and feet

I'm increasingly realising what it means to ground oneself, in āsana practice, in life. How standing tall is a deliberate and powerful act of engagement with the world, even if its power is subtle enough to have eluded me until maybe now-ish. I find myself instructing my students to stand 'as though they really mean... Continue Reading →

August 9, 2017 4

What if no-one sees?

I caught up with a work colleague the other day who was dabbling in Mindfulness practice last time we spoke some months ago. I asked her how it was going. She looked vaguely guilty and said she hadn’t kept it up because there was no motivation, no way of tracking her progress or knowing if... Continue Reading →

May 18, 2016 4

How does Yoga work?

I've just finished reading How Yoga Works. I'll say it's not a book I would have chosen to read and I did have to dig in a bit to see it through to the end, but it was loaned to me by my teacher and so I took the recommendation seriously and gratefully. I can't remember... Continue Reading →

May 11, 2016 2

Yoga at the British Museum

Last night I went to a panel discussion at the British Museum called "Yoga: austerity, passion and peace". I was encouraged to go by Jason Birch now at SOAS and working with James Mallinson and Mark Singleton on a fascinating research project documenting the history of Haṭha Yoga. I encountered Jason as the patient tutor of an... Continue Reading →

April 9, 2016 5

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

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 →

December 14, 2015 1

“God be in my understanding” — a yogi’s perspective

Just because I can't define it or describe it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I'm talking about spirituality and yoga. Or rather spirituality and my yoga. It's something I feel very uncomfortable about as a lifelong atheist. And yet my yoga practice was never a purely physical practice; it sprang from my meditation. But increasingly I... Continue Reading →

May 9, 2015 0

Silence is the language of God

“Silence is the language of God. All else is poor translation.” Rumi A while ago I wrote a first little something about the ineffable quality of the divine wondering what I might do with the notion of union with the divine in my own yoga practice. This is uncomfortable territory for me: I was brought up in a god-less... Continue Reading →

March 15, 2015 5

The state of the union

Eternal God (for whom who ever dare Seek new expressions, do the circle square, And thrust into strait corners of poor wit Thee, who art cornerless and infinite), I would but bless thy name, not name thee now; And thy gifts are as infinite as thou Upon the Translation of the Psalms by Sir Philip... Continue Reading →