my yoga journey
I ventured out one day this week, walking right across town, west to east. All of three miles! It was the deepest into urban space that I have been in the past six months or so of lockdown. I have avoided concentrations of people and enclosed spaces; I simply had no need of them. I... Continue Reading →
I went to class with my regular teacher this week for the first time in a month, maybe more. It’s strange that in pre-corona life I used to spend pushing 5 hours with him each week and now it’s down to one at best. And that hour feels a little painful — or least tainted.... Continue Reading →
My mum and I are in the habit now of exchanging photos from our respective self-isolations. We share some details of what we’ve seen on our daily walks, our one form of outdoor entertainment. Today she sent me pictures of some sawn tree trunks. She had found them beautiful. She commented on the shapes and... Continue Reading →
I don’t like being told off. “Don’t shout at me” I often say to my husband. “I’m not shouting” he usually retorts and at some volume. He’s from a more adversarial family than I am, whereas when I was a child, we never raised our voices. Ever. Well, I did as a teenager.... But I... Continue Reading →
Sometimes in my everyday life I feel as though I'm a terrible yogi -- off the mat I mean. I feel as though my attention is fragmented, I struggle to fit into my days all the things I want to and I always feel as though I should be somewhere else, doing something else. It... Continue Reading →
I spent the afternoon with my ex-student-cum-yoga-artist today. She wanted to draw me in my practice, with time for her to really look at the shapes, learn to see the anatomy and capture the essence of the poses on paper. So I put myself in her hands and asked her to instruct me on what... Continue Reading →
I'm feeling a certain softness and tenderness towards myself these days. It's growing a little within me. My teachers are inspiring some honest self-care. Not the self-soothing warm baths and small indulgences type of nurturing that seems commonly advocated in popular media but which I suspect has little to do with yoga. Theirs is a... Continue Reading →
An artist comes into one of my classes each month to sketch the students in their asana practice. She’s a yogi herself and is learning to draw the human body in movement. We have some great conversations about how to read anatomy in the way we each need to. She told me that in life... Continue Reading →
Porridge that's not too hot, not too cold, but just right. A chair that's not too big, not too small, but just right. I reckon if Goldilocks practised yoga, it would be not too forced, not too relaxed -- just the right amount of effort for sthira sukham asanam. My own yoga fairy story is... Continue Reading →
I recently saw the film Walk With Me, about the Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. At first there was something slightly surreal about tucking into my chocolate ice cream, and Hubby with a glass of vino, settling back comfortably to be a voyeur on the simple Zen life. But life is a paradox, so I... Continue Reading →
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