Heart and hearth

Some time ago my yoga teacher suggested I meditate on the difficulties I'm having physically: on why my physio has identified limited thoracic spine mobility along with grumbling shoulders and neck. What is this really? It's been weeks since he dropped this idea on me and I have been avoiding it ever since! Bad yoga... Continue Reading →

November 24, 2017 1

Um, OM

Now that I’m teaching yoga in a gym setting, there are all sorts of questions I ask myself about my own practice, my teaching, and about what yoga is — or what I might reasonably assume a regular office worker wants it to be in their mid-week lunch break. Interesting questions, for which I don’t... Continue Reading →

October 19, 2017 3

Buddha and the badger

How hard is it to sit still? It's one of those things that seems easy until you try it! I took up yoga precisely to help me with sitting still. Ah, the irony that movement has become such a dominant part of my practice now...! But even so I like to think I'm a tiny bit better now... Continue Reading →

May 6, 2017 2

The silence of yoga

I was introduced to the concept of mauna this week. Silence, the silence that underlies everything, the real essence and heart of things. Not just an absence of noise, but something more profound. Something essentially beyond description. I wonder: is the practice of yoga just about learning to get comfortable with this quality of silence, the essential loneliness of existence? And perhaps... Continue Reading →

February 26, 2017 0

Finding my feet

The two colleague-friends I've been teaching a little recently have insisted on paying me now and we've firmed up the arrangement to every week, rather than as and when. Their various summer holidays and business trips are over and now they're ready to settle in. So all of a sudden I have a weekly commitment with... Continue Reading →

October 31, 2016 2

Stretching into space

My teacher seems to talk to me differently now that I've done TT with him. As just a regular student he was oh-so-careful not to bring any expectations to our conversations. I can appreciate why, even if sometimes it felt a little strained. So I was highly amused by his more genuine response to what... Continue Reading →

October 19, 2016 4

Sitting and standing

"Don't teach if you're tired or not feeling well" my teacher advised us during TT. I'm sure this is overall good advice, but a little hard to put into practice in the real world. Especially for me. I'd got a good early night, definitely not feeling well. Just low-level stuff. It could be a cold... Continue Reading →

October 13, 2016 9

Mala-asana

We were given mālā beads at our TT graduation. I'd been feeling weirdly guilty that I hadn't actually used them yet. If I don't use them, ought I give them back?! So after my usual sitting practice I used them this morning -- my first attempt at a formal 108 repetitions of a mantra! I chose something... Continue Reading →

October 6, 2016 4

Morning meditation

I have a slightly fragile morning meditation habit -- reignited thanks to daily TT routine which I've tried to continue with. This morning was threatened with derailment of a mundane kind -- Hubby being noisily up and about and an impending grocery delivery to the house to fit around... Not to mention me feeling tired and... Continue Reading →

September 20, 2016 6

Finding a re-union

What's that saying about if you think you're enlightened, try spending time with your family? Well, I can't ever imagine claiming enlightenment, but I don't see my family as much as I'd like so I can't often put it to the test anyway... 🙂 But this weekend was a family weekend. I find these times now... Continue Reading →