my yoga journey
“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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
One of my teachers seems to me to be indomitable. I don't know her well personally, but from what she shares publicly I know she's been through a bunch of sh*t. Most recently she underwent pretty serious surgery and from a distance I followed her steps towards healing and mobility with a sense of awe.... Continue Reading →
It's definitely the end of summer in Greece. The temperature dropped nearly 10 degrees overnight. Yoga practice is always an interesting lens through which to see what's going on more generally as I observe how my practice differs with the weather. As the temperatures varied my practice went from a joyful and adventurous exploration of... Continue Reading →
I've been avoiding someone from my past life for a while now. They hurt me a lot, in ways I'm only just coming to recognise, let along come to terms with. For the past few months these memories, long suppressed, have come out in my yoga practice. That's my laboratory and place of experimentation. How... Continue Reading →
Life has been full of physical discomforts recently. Terrible toothache at times so bad I was maxing out on various types of painkiller, and for the final 45 minutes or so before the next dose reduced to whimpering, foetal position pain. It’s nerve-related and there’s no relief to be had from that. Just an extended... Continue Reading →
I always learn so much from a visit to the physio. It's fascinating observing similarities and differences between therapeutic exercises and manipulation and the practice of āsana and physical assists in class. I was back yesterday with ongoing shoulder issues which is turning into a longer story than I wanted. No boring details here, but... Continue Reading →
