Snakes alive!

So on the news there was a story about a lost boa constrictor that escaped from its owner's bath -- perhaps down the toilet. The general public are warned not to approach! I'm listening to the news on the radio as I spend recovery time in bed, feeling ill. But despite (or because of...) how ill... Continue Reading →

September 20, 2015 5

Doing nothing is doing everything

I think of energetic people as active, always on the move. Energy equates in my mind to restlessness. But paradoxically, the more energy I come to have, the more I discover greater depths of patience. More energy means I can move more, but it also gives me a greater capacity to be genuinely still. At... Continue Reading →

July 28, 2015 3

“God be in my understanding” — a yogi’s perspective

Just because I can't define it or describe it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I'm talking about spirituality and yoga. Or rather spirituality and my yoga. It's something I feel very uncomfortable about as a lifelong atheist. And yet my yoga practice was never a purely physical practice; it sprang from my meditation. But increasingly I... Continue Reading →

May 9, 2015 0

A lesson in simplicity — meditating with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Life can get very complicated. And I'm great at making even the simple stuff difficult. I have a PhD in it -- pretty much! So it was really refreshing last night to be reminded of how amazing the simple stuff really is. That we can hear sounds and voices and make sense of them, that we... Continue Reading →

May 3, 2015 0

Mindfulness in my workplace

Mindfulness in the workplace is a topic I feel a little ambivalent about -- sure, I feel strongly that such techniques can help our professional (corporate) lives as much they can support our personal lives, but I am concerned about why and how mindfulness is taught within a business. There's a lot of pressure for ROI (return on investment) and some... Continue Reading →

April 23, 2015 2

Why I love it when my muscles ache

Nearly 48 hours after my last class. I didn't think I'd been working my body too hard. I kept very firmly within my (new) limits - ahimsa to the hamstring! I'm loving being able to practice sun salutations now, though I suspect they are the least graceful ever executed and must be excruciating to behold -- but... Continue Reading →

April 16, 2015 2

Wise choice or ill thought out relativism? On being a ‘flexitarian’

I blogged recently about my food choices as a yogini, where I wondered if acting locally (looking after myself and those closest to me) was as valid a way of practicing ahimsa (non-violence) as acting globally (looking after the ecology of the planet). This blog post attracted quite a lot of attention (what does a 'like'... Continue Reading →

February 28, 2015 2

What’s the point? lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu

Around Christmas I spent some time reflecting on what the point of yoga is, or rather what is the point of my yoga. To be sure when I started asana practice I had very limited ambitions, and they were all about me. Nothing wrong with that. We all start somewhere. And something I'm realizing about... Continue Reading →

January 21, 2015 2

From parachutes to why I started yoga

"Weave your parachute every day, don't wait until you need to jump out of the plane" -- Jon Kabat-Zinn So I jumped out of the plane this week. My hamstring niggle combined with a temporarily-absent husband, some long-running emotional family stuff, a failing project at work, plus the usual hormone cycle to create the perfect storm. I... Continue Reading →

January 17, 2015 4

Privacy in a public place

I've been a Facebook devotee for a good few years now. I love keeping in touch with distant friends and being able to pick up naturally with them whenever we cross paths in the physical world. But I'm careful about what I post and who I'm friends with. In particular I'm careful not to vent... Continue Reading →

January 14, 2015 0