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

Practice time

When people ask me how long I practise yoga each week, I'm usually pretty evasive, second-guessing the response I think I'll get. I usually down-play it, since most people look perturbed at the idea of daily practice. And even in the company of serious students/teachers I also hesitate to make my practice sound too heavy... Continue Reading →

June 12, 2017 1

Heart and ears

At work today I've been listening to a recording of a live kirtan hosted by a local Hindu group. I did this as a strange stress relief measure as I tackled an inbox burgeoning with technical queries that I must somehow understand and recommend solutions to. It pretty much worked -- though it didn't do wonders for... Continue Reading →

March 27, 2017 6

Country mouse yogini

I committed the ultimate London yoga studio faux pas -- I spoke to people in the changing room!! I had had a great class. ...Well apart from two name calls from the teacher during class which I found slightly embarrassing -- being asked to translate Sanskrit after the opening chanting (of course not a chant I... Continue Reading →

March 10, 2017 4

Mantra-asana

I boldly offered my teacher some unsolicited thoughts recently about how to chant the mantra we're working with in class at the moment. I should probably refrain from doing that, but it was interesting to receive a comment back about how the mantra changes with time, as he repeats the chant. I wonder how much chanting... Continue Reading →

February 28, 2017 4

In the way but moving in the right direction

Crazy, wonderful Tuesdays. Up early for some teaching practice before breakfast. Then a busy day at work including a full-on couple of hours with my boss working through something bogglingly technical together because it was a two-brain problem, my lunchtime spent writing a little story in Sanskrit for my homework, then finally running out of the office... Continue Reading →

January 17, 2017 5

The sweetness of nāda yoga

Recently I haven't felt much like moving. It's the time of year maybe. English winters are so terribly dreary; not cold enough, not dark enough, just endless grey days of mild drizzle or dampness. Everything stagnates. For a while I tried fighting through which resulted in some very messy classes where I just upset myself... Continue Reading →

December 15, 2016 0

Yoga poses in sync

I just realised that what I spell as 'synch' most of the rest of the world writes as 'sync'. Hubby things I'm being pretentious in my spelling, but honestly this is how I hear the word. "In Greek it would be spelt with a chi not a kappa," I plaintively assert! He knows this is true,... Continue Reading →

November 3, 2016 10

Perfect yoga leggings

I wear a Ganesha pendant on a chain that I originally thought was long enough for it to disappear under my clothing most of the time. But it doesn't. And people keep commenting on it. A lot just recently, for some reason, so I'm feeling hyper-sensitive. At work people simply ask what it is; at... Continue Reading →

October 25, 2016 4

Yoga imperative

We just started to learn the imperative in Sanskrit. Since our verbal paradigm is bhavati (to become) I felt on familiar ground with the forms bhavatu ('may he become')and bhavantu ('may they become') presented in the textbook. My teacher quoted to me from the Upanishads: Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah... And I thought of the mantra we use... Continue Reading →