In my hands

I met with my philosophy teacher this evening. I don't meet with her often enough. She doesn't push it, she lets me find my own way. We're both finding our way. She's kind. She lets me talk. She hears my questions and my hesitancy. We talk about commitment and discipline, teachers and authority, prayer and... Continue Reading →

June 1, 2023 3

Practice makes much less than perfect

"I don't want you to be good at this, I want you to practise being really bad at something." My teacher has given me a new chant to practise this week. She's going to give me a new chant to practise every week for six weeks. I'm not supposed to get good at them in... Continue Reading →

May 22, 2023 2

Dabbling

I'm dabbling a little in Vedic chanting right now. I'm not fully committed, just dabbling. Like a duck or a duckling, just very unlike a baby crow 🙂 I am drawn to the simplicity of this form, just as my mother was in a previous life drawn to plainchant. These limited tones carry an infinity... Continue Reading →

March 24, 2023 1

Hero pose

In my early yoga years I looked up to everyone. The guys with a strength and stamina that intimidating me massively, the flexible girls who effortlessly folded in half or wiggled an ankle behind the neck, the energetic asana teachers who led a packed room through a sweaty sequence, the imperturbable meditation teachers who quietly... Continue Reading →

November 11, 2022 1

Mindful teaching

I'm part way through teaching a short course on mindfulness to a small group of students. It's my first time teaching a sustained course over two months and my first time teaching mindfulness. I was not at all sure it would work, that I could do it, or what the students would bring to it... Continue Reading →

May 28, 2022 2

Asking for it

When I finished teacher training I asked the studio if I could teach for them. I didn't get a reply which I interpreted as you might expect. Fair enough. The last message I remember us getting as little trainees was that we were 'babies who knew nothing'. Not quite the graduation pep talk I was... Continue Reading →

April 15, 2022 4

Timelessness — as always

I told my teacher recently about a photo I saw of a girl in urdhva hastasana. Not a pose I've really thought about much, until recently. Now it's come up as part of a self-project of settling more deeply into my surya namaskar. I have the idea of elevating it beyond the physical exertion of... Continue Reading →

March 18, 2022 5

Decluttering

My husband wants to move. Our place is quite small, a two bedroom apartment -- or you could say it's a one bed apartment with a yoga room 🙂 After two years of working from home in a space small enough that we can hear every detail of each other's meetings and phone calls, he... Continue Reading →

March 7, 2022 2

Three, two, one… Go!

"OK, 10 burpees in 3, 2, 1... GO!" The trainer clicked his stopwatch and looked at me expectantly. He had the power-stance that trainers adopt, almost military-style with feet apart, one hand 'at ease' behind the back, stopwatch held in the other. I didn't move. "I don't know how to do that," I told him... Continue Reading →

November 16, 2021 0

Measuring yoga

Covid-19 cases and deaths in UK remains high (higher than anyone cares to notice or talk about) but strangely life is returning to something vaguely akin to the 'old normal' for many as formal restrictions have been largely lifted. I've been going to in person yoga class again regularly for a while now. The studio... Continue Reading →