Under examination

Remember my Sanskrit exams earlier this year? I wrote at the time about the small support network I gathered around myself as I put myself forward for these exams, feeling very much out of my depth but with a determination just to try and see what came from it. I tried to enjoy the accelerated... Continue Reading →

August 17, 2019 6

Let’s get physical!

I'm trying to get out of my head more in yoga asana and practise simply as a physical exercise for a while. I know this might be in reverse of the usual yoga journey trajectory, but I do like to do things my own way! It's part of an exploration of what my body is... Continue Reading →

November 12, 2017 2

Everyday beginnings

Periodically I have a bit of a yoga crisis. I wonder quite seriously whether I'm any good at it at all. Not in the impossibly bendy kind of way; I've never especially aspired to that (though obvs I'm not immune to craving certain poses). Rather I become so acutely aware of the critical voices in my... Continue Reading →

January 3, 2017 10

My whispering heart

I bumped into a friend today who asked me how my early steps in teaching were going. I told her about the practice class I'd just done with two teachers at my local studio, getting ready for teaching a charity class there later in the week. The mentor teacher had offered me some quite amazing... Continue Reading →

October 11, 2016 6

Finding the silence

When I first learned meditation it was in a community centre. We sat in the gym and tried to filter out the loud noises from the kitchen on the other side of the wall. People often laughed at the perceived impossibility, but it was actually a great way to learn focus and means now that... Continue Reading →

July 27, 2016 1

In the driving seat

I learned to drive in a manual car, and I remember when the synchronisation of changing gear, steering, and keeping track of what's going on around the car seemed like an impossible challenge. Did I have to become an octopus -- and one with eyes in the back of its head -- in order to do this?... Continue Reading →

May 7, 2016 7

Toe-curling and squirming in yoga

When I was taught Mindfulness techniques, one of the practices we did was with a partner. We would take take turns to talk and to listen, within strict time limits, on a particular theme or experience. During this alternation of speaking and listening, I always experienced the same thing — at some point during the... Continue Reading →

November 18, 2015 5

Lighter and deeper

A young friend of mine has just bought a house with her boyfriend. To her the financial commitment of joint property ownership comes easier than the emotional commitment of getting married. I thought this was strange. But now I wonder if it's not as topsy-turvy as it seemed. At my local yoga studio after an initial... Continue Reading →

October 19, 2015 5

Me and the tree. “Tim-ber!!!”

We have a beautiful mature ash tree in our garden. I love this tree so much! It's one of the reasons we bought our place, and it brings me such joy to see the birds, animals, and insects that live in and around it. Because of the pleasure it brings me, I feel very protective... Continue Reading →

October 12, 2015 2

Sweet vairagya — cake and yoga

My teacher started class last night with a personal story. It was about wanting something, having it taken away, finding a way of accepting that — and then having it offered to you after all. It happened trivially, rather sweetly, to be about wanting a cake-trip to a favourite café. But it could have been... Continue Reading →