Whiskey with ice

I had coffee with a dear friend this week. We talked a bit about her Stuff. She’s facing some pretty hefty demons right now, ones that she’s been living with for too long. She’s got a bit of separation anxiety at the thought of letting them go. But it’s time. She’s decided it’s time. Around... Continue Reading →

November 8, 2017 6

Teach, learn, teach, learn

A big, beautiful, affirming week in the yoga aspects of my life. Around the office job, I taught three times this week, which is more than usual, with a full range of activities — a mixed class of 15 or so at work, a semi-private with two pretty experienced girls, and a private with a... Continue Reading →

October 28, 2017 1

Coming home

It's funny being back at my home studio after holidays. It's a nice 'homecoming' to be with my regular teacher again, in a familiar space, and catching up with yogi friends. But the pause, the distance, changes everything. For a while at least. I'm seeing things afresh. I'm more aware of old habits as I... Continue Reading →

August 11, 2017 3

Subtle language

One of the funny things about being in Rome was not speaking the language. I'm not used to being in countries where I don't know the language at all (which says more about my limited travel than my vast linguistic abilities!). I flicked through a phrase book on the plane and then just went for... Continue Reading →

June 28, 2017 9

Open to learning

The guru mantra got me from the first time I encountered it. After all I love learning, exploring, and sometimes mastering new things; I've always enjoyed finding ways to teach myself and I've been blessed with some truly phenomenal teachers through my life. I'm married to a teacher too! So I guess the surface message about learning... Continue Reading →

May 27, 2017 4

Raw yoga

One of my reports at work has just been refused a place on a management training course, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. She's disappointed and she feels as though she's missing out on something. But really she's been doing just fine without this course for more than a year. "You don't need it," I told... Continue Reading →

May 19, 2017 0

Lineage of a sort

Recently I've been talking a lot on the phone with my original guru -- my high school classics teacher who was a fundamental influence on my intellectual development. He stopped me being a lazy and arrogant teenage sh*t, he set me on the straight and narrow and kept me there through some pretty tough discipline, and... Continue Reading →

June 26, 2016 2

Cruelty in Sanskrit class!

“Can I be cruel?” my Sanskrit teacher asked in class this week. Actually all he was proposing was that we read out loud the new vocabulary lists rather than listening to him introduce us to unfamiliar words. Not so terribly cruel after all, but the rules of engagement for adult learning are very different to... Continue Reading →

May 19, 2016 2

Feedback along the way

In Sanskrit class I'm noticing less feedback from my teacher. He used to be quick to correct mistakes or offer help. Now he gives me longer to figure it out myself, and he no longer offers any encouraging noises while I'm puzzling through the words in a sentence out loud. I'm to assume that silence is good.... Continue Reading →