Silence in class

I'm sitting on my own in a library café idly listening to the conversations around me, since I have no-one to talk to. Most people are studying something together. There are some young adults doing university work, something sciency, and a couple nearest me are learning a language and I notice the intricate script (Chinese?)... Continue Reading →

October 16, 2019 2

Holidaying at home

I was talking with my teacher recently about how wonderful I felt when I was on holiday. I felt physically much freer, more flexible and more confident in my energy and strength. I loved the fact that I went off for a morning run by the sea before it got too hot -- and before... Continue Reading →

September 25, 2019 1

Holiday pleasures

Before I left for my holiday my yoga theme in practice and teaching was about examining preferences. I was mostly thinking about how to learn to let them go, following the philosophy that preferences are a cause of suffering, preventing one achieving the equanimity that the Bhagavad Gita teaches yoga to be. Now I'm on... Continue Reading →

August 16, 2019

Yoga everywhere

I recently got caught up in a discussion about 'Egyptian Yoga' and whether ancient representations of the human body in various shapes depict yoga asana. I know this is a fashionable idea in some circles as yogis seem to desperately seek some ancient validation of modern postural yoga. It's a nice idea, but intellectually dishonest,... Continue Reading →

July 17, 2019 3

Mini me

I spent time this weekend playing in my parents' garden with my little niece. She's four and a half, full of energy and apparently fearless. She loved rolling down the slope where my brother and I used to do the same thing several decades ago. She revelled in doing a run-up to perform multiple forward... Continue Reading →

June 16, 2019 2

Running shoes

I bought a new pair of running shoes recently, the full works of gait analysis, little videos of my running action and a pressure analysis of how my feet bear weight standing. It was really interesting. The after effects of a broken foot are still evident, but I was stupidly smug after years of yoga... Continue Reading →

April 27, 2019 1

Change is hard

My boss in the office often tells me that change is hard. My yoga teacher tells me the same. Change is the name of the game right now, in both worlds corporate and yoga. And they're right: it is hard! In yoga I am trying my practice a new way. Sure, it might not end... Continue Reading →

April 16, 2019 1

No feeling is final

“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 →

March 18, 2019 0

Jumping for joy

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 →

February 9, 2019 2

Playing favourites

I ran a workshop for my students recently to help them begin to establish their own home yoga practice. When helping them think about categorising the poses they knew so that they could define a simple sequence, I asked them to consider what their favourite pose was. Perhaps they could use that as the lynch-pin... Continue Reading →