Sleeping my way to enlightenment

Physical practice this week has been a bit of a bust. I accompanied Hubby to a Hot Power class at the weekend, because he wanted company. But the teacher came and asked me if I was OK during the class and again after the class because I spent so much time lying down! It made... Continue Reading →

April 14, 2016 5

Books vs body

Prof Mark Williams -- the proponent of mindfulness meditation for depression and other chronic illnesses (a kind of British Jon Kabat-Zinn if I may) -- really spoke to me when he said that he once thought he could learn everything about Mindfulness by reading about it. And then he realised that it's a practice. And... Continue Reading →

March 23, 2016 2

Painful steps

When I wrote about my hamstring injury last year, I was totally self-absorbed. Of course! It was my first yoga injury and I had a lot to learn about all aspects of handling it. A voyage of discovery into working with a physio, starting to understand some anatomy (what are the hamstrings anyway?) and how muscles... Continue Reading →

March 8, 2016 2

Make mine a double

A few months ago my teacher made a half-joking suggestion that I could try taking two classes back to back. I didn't even know that was allowed! My first thought was "shouldn't I ration my class attendance so everyone gets a look in"? I'm so law-abiding! My quick-following second thought was all about whether I would... Continue Reading →

February 5, 2016 0

Reversing triangle

Reversing triangle? Don't I mean 'reverse triangle'? Or 'revolved triangle'? Alas not! I'm just talking about plain old Trikoṇāsana. A staple in most of the classes I attend. It’s a pose I've been doing for as long as I've been practicing yoga. But now it suddenly feels all wrong. It started some months ago with feeling... Continue Reading →

October 27, 2015 3

Beauty from within: finding grace in yoga and tango

A friend of mine took up tango recently and is clearly hooked by it, though I think she feels one step behind (pun intended) picking something up in her 40s. This reminds me of my yoga asana. She mentioned an article she'd been reading recently called "Why your dance does not look good despite all... Continue Reading →

October 24, 2015 2

Jelly-asana

I went to class last night feeling like a jelly. Muscles felt non-existent. I was weak, devoid of energy. How would it be to practice like that? I'm slowly, slowly learning to ask the question genuinely without fearing the answer. If I am well enough to get there, I go to class and let the... Continue Reading →

October 23, 2015 1

“You are not a patient”

I saw my GP last week. I wanted some advice about muscles aches -- not the regular over-asana'ed ones. The bone-pulling, dead-weight, so stiff you feel about to snap ME-style ones that make any travel further than the bathroom seem like an impossibility and holding arms up long enough to shampoo hair takes serious effort.... Continue Reading →

September 6, 2015 8

Well, hello aching muscles! You haven’t been around for a while!

I totally surprised Hubby the other day (and I mean surprised to the point of speechlessness) when I ventured that I don’t really think of myself as ‘sick’ anymore, more as someone pretty well, but just being careful. [If not you’re not a regular reader, I was diagnosed with ME (aka Chronic Fatigue Syndrome more... Continue Reading →

August 21, 2015 5

Comparing crows and seeking contentment

I came across some photos just recently that I took of myself about two years ago, near the start of my yoga journey. I wanted to record how particular poses looked so that I could understand what I needed to work on. It was a learning exercise. I didn't understand how to interpret the sensations in my body to have much of a... Continue Reading →