Métro, boulot, dodo — just add yoga!

I love the French expression "métro, boulot, dodo". There's no good English equivalent. It means "work, work, work", or more literally "commuting, working, sleeping", summing up the treadmill where work seems to dominate your existence. Life feels a little like this at the moment, but (here's the silver lining) with little in the way of commuting... Continue Reading →

October 30, 2015 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

In which I bid farewell to the Sanskrit professor…

Regular readers will have copped a little of my frantic first week of UG level Sanskrit classes. Workload was heavy and the pace was frenetic. I had occasional joyous moments where I could keep up with what was happening, but mostly it was a lot of hard yards at home going back through classwork as well as preparing... Continue Reading →

October 20, 2015 4

A pearl fisher in camouflage

Spoonies are masters of disguise. I sure know that with years of diligent practice I've developed the art of camouflaging how I feel: I only go out on good days, and the bad days spent curled up at home are invisible to everyone but my nearest and dearest. I sometimes don't even offer my friends the... Continue Reading →

October 14, 2015 7

Teenage crush or the real thing?

I often hear people proclaiming how in love they are with yoga, obsessed even. They must tell me, they have to share. They have a light in their eye and they are full of enthusiasm and energy. Being in love is wonderful, right? So why does this make me feel uncomfortable? Surely it's not just because I'm... Continue Reading →

October 2, 2015 8

“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

What does two years of yoga look like?

Round about this time of year is my two year yoga anniversary. And I just found out it's four years since my yoga studio set up business (hence their lovely give-away of 4 free passes to bring friends and rellies to class). It feels like it should be a good time for a thoughtful and serious... Continue Reading →

August 28, 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 →

August 15, 2015 9

What am I really hearing?

I recently read the expression 'a teacher's teacher' and I've been wondering what this means. And who it's meant to appeal to. Teachers presumably. So that they feel they're somewhere on the yoga teacher hierarchy (even non-judgemental yogis presumably have a sense of hierarchy) and are getting some superior level of teaching? I can only... Continue Reading →

August 13, 2015 1

Goodbye Nutella — it was nice knowing you

It was a landmark moment a few weeks ago when I finally threw out the half-eaten jar of Nutella in the kitchen cupboard. I can't remember when I last ate it; I've long favoured this bizarre paste made with brazilnuts and cocoa. It tastes a bit earthy, like some long-lost, slightly grizzled distant relation to... Continue Reading →