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…
Meditation Myth Busters Ok, let’s do this. Let’s bust the myths flying around out there about meditation. Myth Buster: We’re all meditating Technically, meditation is a word that refers to when you’re in the state of meditation. When we sit, or pause or lie down (yes that’s allowed) to meditate, what we are really doing…
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,…
If your eyes rolled at the title and you nearly didn’t get even this far into the article, I wouldn’t blame you. While mindfulness is as old as the human race, the very word mindfulness has spread in recent times, and quickly so, into modern day lexicon and become an industry spanning a whole genre…
Someone just sent me a link about ‘yoga rooms’ in airports, a well intentioned share from an acquaintance who thought I’d be cheered by this. No. Am not. The proliferation of yoga, everywhere and in any form, are like clouds covering the sun. This isn’t a judgemental view based on keeping yoga…
Let’s peel away the filters and ask… what is really happening in the world of wellness? What is wellbeing today in the society I see, work and operate in? And what is really happening within me? I am at once both witnessing and participating in the outer and inner craziness that is the… self-improvement age we…
Who I am today is not who I am yesterday Last week I suggested to some friends who like to meditate that we meet up in a local park and make the most of the current heatwave with a little outdoor meditation. A few of those who came hadn’t met the others before so…
Mindfulness is no longer a state of being. It’s a commodity, a movement, a tribe with different hats (from Zen Buddhist monk to ethical entrepreneur), a place to meet ‘conscious’ people, a concept to engage in, a prefix (mindful gardening), an adverb (walk your dog mindfully), an attractive attribute (a good thing to say you…
It’s human behaviour, it seems, to hang on, to push through, to endure something that is not working for us – right up until something, or ourselves, fall apart. Much has been written and shared on how it takes things to fall apart for us to wake up and deal with what’s really there. But…