Do you, as a yoga student or teacher, ever wonder: how much of modern yoga, or the yoga I do, bear connection to the Yoga tradition or roots of the practice? There is I guess behind that, the question of whether it matters if what people are practising today and calling yoga bears connection to…
If there’s one question I really don’t like and never liked it’s: “Are you happy?” Podcasters and lifestyle experts have joined the legion of psychologists of our time to bring to the forefront of our attention the question, “am I happy?”. Combine this with the massive rise in talking about mental health, the question and…
I’m usually weary of articles headed “X number of steps to…”, and you certainly get enough of them, not just all over social media and adverts on websites, but in the yoga world too. If only it were that straightforward to lose weight/find your soul mate/increase your wealth/do a handstand/change your life. Either the “steps”…
How are things, are you still feeling summer vibes? We had a good run of sunshine here in the UK. I sense corona fatigue out there, or people busy and needing to get on with it and the adaptation to changes. We humans are incredible that way. Some of you may have had losses. I’m sorry, really…
One of the buzz phrases of our current time is ‘live in the now’. I think Eckhart Tolle, the gazillion dollar best selling author of the book The Power of Now, has a contribution to that. Plus the rise of the self-help industry and the social media life-take over has meant we are constantly bombarded…
I’ve seen more in protest against making new year resolutions than in promoting them this year. When the internet burst on the scene, making it easy as pie to tell the world what to do/think/be, come the cusp of a new year there was an even greater buzz around resolutions, people sharing their objectives and…
When you meet someone for the first time, how much of your view about them is based on who they are and how much of it is based on who you are? When you’ve known someone a while, how much of how you are in the relationship is based on what you expect a relationship…
There is popular article in this weekend’s Guardian newspaper, based on a report that says young people are shunning hedonism for… yoga and wellness. There’s been a huge growth in festivals embracing wellness, wellbeing events and celebrities turning their life around and then launching books and podcasts “telling us” how to be well and happy.…
I was recently invited to an afternoon for ‘Yogis of Colour’. Receiving the email with that header subject sent an arrow into my heart – but it wasn’t a harmful blow. More like a strange hello. The inviter’s intention, as she went on to explain, was a blunt one: she had decided she was sick…
One of the most rewarding aspects of my job as a teacher is witnessing a person pursuing the practice in defiance of whatever obstacles (mental or physical, usually both together) get in the way of that. Things like ‘I’m too stiff’, ‘I can’t make the time’, ‘I have too many responsibilities’, ‘my mind won’t keep…
It could be the March air, that time of year that is neither completely this (Winter) or that (Spring). It could be that with another year passing I’ve suddenly found myself at the threshold of middle age, or so society terms it. It could be that as my meditation practice deepens and widens, I am…
The more I do Yoga, the more I question what this yoga thing is about. When I learn and succeed at something I’ve learnt, I wonder who decided at what point that knowledge was ready to be applied and at what bar it is then deemed ‘a success’. Each time I’ve truly fallen in love,…